An overview of the philosophy of Bitcoin

Bitcoin books have often focused on the price. Resistance Money asks us to step into the shoes of someone completely different and imagine. The three authors are philosophers, which shows in their analytical framework for looking through Bitcoin. They also merge John Rawls’s “Veil of Ignorance” and original position, a thought experiment based on reasoning about how a society should be, even if one does not know what position one will have in that society . This philosophical thought experiment is a constant thought worth chewing on as we progress – and the book mentions more and more people we might be along the way.

“Even in countries like the United States, financial censorship is common. If you could be any person in the world, would you prefer to live in a world without Bitcoin’s censorship resistance?” the authors remind us while talking about the geography of Bitcoin. There is an inherent paradox in watching a censorship-resistant network play out—sometimes rewarding Russian militias, but also providing essential value transfers for Ukraine. No matter your side, the other side might take advantage. Still, that’s exactly why something like Bitcoin needs to exist – because of the censorship-resistant properties that make it resistance money – and puts it in the same reckoning as the Internet and email spam (would you rather have a world without email have, but with no spam? Most probably won’t.) – as well as cash, a form of resistance money that already exists.

The book begins with a technical analysis of the Bitcoin network. Then it provides a background on what money is – and, more importantly, whether Bitcoin fits the definition of good money – a question we will be asked throughout the book. The fourth chapter opens with an explanation of the “possible worlds” analysis we’ve been doing since the beginning and wonders what you would think of Bitcoin if you were an Afghan entrepreneur trying to teach girls about technology – or Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident whose bank accounts were frozen by Putin.

We are then asked to analyze what it means to be someone where the rule of law is unstable and monetary control over inflation is shaky. After all, as the authors point out: “Sometimes central bankers get it right. […] But they often get it wrong. According to the United Nations, at least two billion people live under double-digit inflation across more than 69 economies.” Racial disparities exist in the United States, in part because of asset price changes, even if inflation in the United States is not entirely so. .bad Monetary regimes matter as they shape the world outside of us – money with rules like Bitcoin can help us escape poor judgement.

Privacy, the Lightning Network, CoinJoin and censorship resistance then follow. We are asked to “reconsider how the moral and legal status of some activities may coincide or diverge.” This requires a broader analysis of the merits of resistance to censorship and a deeper analysis of what is legal and moral and how the two sometimes do not overlap, cutting back to Thoreau and the Transcendentalists.

Towards the end of the book’s latter half, financial exclusion and Bitcoin’s ability to help the unbanked are covered before the authors launch into one of Bitcoin’s most controversial points: its energy use as proof. The authors make a compelling case for why Bitcoin needs proof of work and energy to stand apart while acknowledging that the cost of Bitcoin accounts for 0.13% of the world’s global emissions and 0.5% of the world’s energy consumption is.

The book itself is a calculation of “skin in the game.” – three university professors have staked their reputations on a new and emerging technology that is squarely in the crosshairs of most universities. They are self-aware of that position and offer their most powerful arguments for why Bitcoin will not stand in the penultimate chapter – this is not your typical tract about how Bitcoin’s success is inevitable and all Bitcoin’s detractors are stupid. Instead of talking about Bitcoin’s detractors, the book talks to them, sprinkling objections to Bitcoin’s rise along the way, culminating in a chapter devoted solely to the criticisms—of more specific concerns about the centralization of Lightning Network and miners to the politics that it currently is. associated with, as well as its distribution.

While an important point is made that other cryptocurrencies, notably Ethereum, had a “pre-mining” that favored insider elites (making it difficult to classify it as fair money compared to Bitcoin in both leadership and distribution of coins), Bitcoiners are called to be careful and use tools to get more people access to Bitcoin to ensure that this criticism does not land. These well-argued points highlight criticisms of Bitcoin while defending it against the excesses of those criticisms. The book’s greatest strength is that it can objectively assess many elements of Bitcoin – from its privacy to its energy use – without becoming dogmatic or overly preachy. The writing tone here is measured and aims to guide rather than beat someone over the head. This is a much needed perspective and approach when it comes to Bitcoin.

If there was one potential snag in the book, it would be in its ambitious scope of analysis. Almost every element of Bitcoin is covered, from the broadest possible to more niche technical topics (for example, how Lightning channels are built and why they are important for privacy). For someone more familiar with Bitcoin, you can get stuck in no man’s land – every element goes deep enough to the point where someone with a respectable Bitcoin study would probably pick up on everything – but not much deeper. It can also be overwhelming for someone using Resistance Money to start understanding Bitcoin – although the authors’ pointers when it comes to technical content will help a lot. The book will offer a lot of value to any reader, but will stand out to those who are aware of the basics of Bitcoin but want to dive deeper in a systematic way.

Overall, Resistance Money gives Bitcoin the serious, measured perspective it now deserves. Gone are the days of purely technical writing, or writing that preaches to the choir – Resistance Money brings a shift in how Bitcoin is treated in the same vein that other writers have applied to its history, from the Blocksize Wars to its cypherpunk roots to his monetary economy and his pursuit of deflation. Worth adding to the canon of books that go beyond just defining Bitcoin and applying new analysis and synthesis to it – and Resistance Money deserves a place on any bookshelf.