Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

A New York Times technology and business reporter charts the dramatic rise of Bitcoin and the fascinating personalities who are striving to create a new global money for the Internet age.

Digital Gold is New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper's brilliant and engrossing history of Bitcoin, the landmark digital money and financial technology that has spawned a global social movement.

The notion of a new currency, maintained by the computers of users around the world, has been the butt of many jokes, but that has not stopped it from growing into a technology worth billions of dollars, supported by the hordes of followers who have come to view it as the most important new idea since the creation of the Internet. Believers from Beijing to Buenos Aires see the potential for a financial system free from banks and governments. More than just a tech industry fad, Bitcoin has threatened to decentralize some of society's most basic institutions.

An unusual tale of group invention, Digital Gold charts the rise of the Bitcoin technology through the eyes of the movement's colorful central characters, including an Argentinian millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Bitcoin's elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Already, Bitcoin has led to untold riches for some, and prison terms for others.

Bitcoin is not just a currency. It is a pioneering technology worth billions; a new way of understanding finance; a social movement. This is the dramatic story of digital money, the people behind it, the booms and busts it created, and how it will change the future.

About the Author
Nathaniel Popper is a reporter at The New York Times. Before joining The Times, he worked at the Los Angeles Times and The Forward. Nathaniel grew up in Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Harvard College. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Reviews
Lively and thorough... a vivid guide to the characters who met online and built bitcoin -- John Gapper * Financial Times *
An amazing story... crucial reading for anyone who wants to understand the future -- Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators
An elegant, thrilling tour-de-force, the fast-paced action never stops in the ongoing quest to create something the world has never seen before -- William D. Cohan, author of House of Cards
A highly readable and informative account of the early years of a technology-cryptocurrency-that may one day turn out to be almost as significant as the internet itself... a tech thriller -- John Naughton * Observer *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241180990
Author Nathaniel Popper
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 315g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 24mm