The system that governs how money works, with its brokers and middlemen, has stayed roughly the same for centuries. Now there's an alternative, and it puts us on the cusp of a revolution that could reshape our world. At the heart of this lie cryptocurrencies, a technology with the transformative potential of the printing press or the internet. They bypass the elites and cut out the gatekeepers. Unlike traditional money they're peer-to-peer, they don't have a nationality, they're digital and democratic. They are also lawless. For the Afghani woman denied a bank account by a repressive society, or any of the world's 2.5 billion unbanked individuals, cryptocurrencies open new possibilities. What would a world without banks or credit cards or even national currencies look like for all of us? From Silicon Valley to the streets of Beijing, this is a book about a revolution in the making, a story of human invention, and a guide to the future.
