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Bitcoin Age
In 1971, the average American could buy a home with just two and a half years of income. Today, it takes more than five. Despite decades of innovation, productivity gains, and an increasingly digital world, real wealth seems harder to attain. If technology is making us more efficient, why are basic necessities becoming less affordable?
In Bitcoin Age, best-selling author of Layered Money and USC Marshall School of Business professor Nik Bhatia explores humanity’s attempt at creating the perfect form of money—one that holds its value, resists manipulation, and empowers individuals rather than institutions.
Bhatia takes the reader on an enthralling journey through time, traversing the rise of the US dollar, the development of global banking, and the unchecked money creation that has led to rising prices, inequality, and financial crises, ultimately breaking down how today’s economic landscape is designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many.
Enter Bitcoin—a decentralized, digital store of value designed to bypass the systemic flaws of finance as we know it. While traditional money loses value over time, bitcoin’s purchasing power has soared, giving individuals a new way to save, transact, and opt out of the credit-money system.
With deep historical analysis and forward-thinking insights, this book bridges the past and the future, showing why Bitcoin isn’t just an asset—it’s the foundation of a new monetary era.
Bitcoin Age reveals why we are witnessing the biggest transformation in money since the invention of banking—and why those who understand it today will shape the economy of tomorrow.
In Bitcoin Age, best-selling author of Layered Money and USC Marshall School of Business professor Nik Bhatia explores humanity’s attempt at creating the perfect form of money—one that holds its value, resists manipulation, and empowers individuals rather than institutions.
Bhatia takes the reader on an enthralling journey through time, traversing the rise of the US dollar, the development of global banking, and the unchecked money creation that has led to rising prices, inequality, and financial crises, ultimately breaking down how today’s economic landscape is designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many.
Enter Bitcoin—a decentralized, digital store of value designed to bypass the systemic flaws of finance as we know it. While traditional money loses value over time, bitcoin’s purchasing power has soared, giving individuals a new way to save, transact, and opt out of the credit-money system.
With deep historical analysis and forward-thinking insights, this book bridges the past and the future, showing why Bitcoin isn’t just an asset—it’s the foundation of a new monetary era.
Bitcoin Age reveals why we are witnessing the biggest transformation in money since the invention of banking—and why those who understand it today will shape the economy of tomorrow.
- GenresNonfictionFinanceMoney
198 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 9, 2025
48 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 15, 2025
Professor Nik Bhatia excellently summarizes the history of Bitcoin. His approach involves explaining how the credit system expanded across different eras—from early banking communications to the Internet Age—allowing a "junta" of central banks to print excessive amounts of money-credit, thereby diluting people’s purchasing power. He concludes that Bitcoin is the result of 40 years of cryptographic development and offers an alternative to this irrational system.
Although I disagree with him on the idea that Bitcoin’s value comes from the value people grant to it—rather than from the enormous amount of energy required to mine and transact it—I believe this energy expenditure is what makes Bitcoin the perfect common equivalent among other goods and assets.
This might be the best starting point for anyone interested in Bitcoin, as it is easy to read and understand. Next steps: The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous and Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos.
Although I disagree with him on the idea that Bitcoin’s value comes from the value people grant to it—rather than from the enormous amount of energy required to mine and transact it—I believe this energy expenditure is what makes Bitcoin the perfect common equivalent among other goods and assets.
This might be the best starting point for anyone interested in Bitcoin, as it is easy to read and understand. Next steps: The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous and Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos.
February 9, 2026
this book does not cover groundbreaking territory. but the structure - kind of a high level summary of the history of credit money + wirdum's genesis book - coupled with an outlook on bitcoin's most likely pathway over the next decade, makes it a very good read. it's probably the most comprehensive book on bitcoin i've read. as it even covers its technical features, such as pow, hashing algs and the difficulty adjustment. i think this is the book i was hoping to find that i can hand someone and say "read this if you want to find out about bitcoin and its place in our world". and all that i just summarized happens on only 160 something pages.
April 17, 2025
Great overview of bitcoin
This book is highly recommended. It provides concise and easy-to-understand information, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced participants in the Bitcoin journey.
This book is highly recommended. It provides concise and easy-to-understand information, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced participants in the Bitcoin journey.
May 9, 2025
Excellent book to introduce someone to Bitcoin. It does a great job of building up the context through the sequence of events that created the fiat problem and the technological advances that were necessary for the emergence of Bitcoin as a solution. Highly recommend.
June 8, 2025
Cool History on the events leading up to the release of bitcoin white paper. The fiat background particularly the details leading up to brettan woods in the US were a fresh take on the “normal” summary of events that usually go from gold to fiat right away
June 1, 2025
Best book I read about bitcoin (I read a few over the past 5 years)
August 30, 2025
Nik Bhatia has written one of my favorite books on the evolution of monetary systems: Layered Money took readers all the way from gold to CBDCs. So, when I heard that Bhatia came out with a new Bitcoin book, I simply had to give it a read. And once more Bhatia takes us on a gripping journey through the history of money. He sketches the dollar's ascent to become the world's reserve currency and how it served as a basic building block to today's global banking system. He also looks at the ills that have befallen today's monetary world, in particular inflationary money creation.
Yet while Bhatia puts his finger on issues truly of concern to the future of finance, I disagree with what he presents as the antidote. As in his previous book, Bitcoin is seen as the tool to end all of those shortcomings. Our monetary system is indeed ripe for disruption, full of inefficiencies that cause costs and long waiting times. And digital currencies indeed hold the potential to solve those. But to suggest that an asset is the answer to problems such as inequality or inflation is a stretch.
If you want to rein in inflation, then simply slash government spending. If you want to fight inequality, reform the tax code and upskill your workforce. And yes, I do agree with Bhatia that the invention of Bitcoin will eventually change the financial system like only a handful of other inventions in monetary history. Yet Bitcoin will always stay an asset, not a currency. It is truly digital gold. So just like physical gold, it will not be the prime means of money transfer, but a store of value. And Bhatia himself rightly praises Bitcoin for appreciating value rather than sheding it. But this makes Bitcoin a deflationary asset, which people will prefer to keep rather than spend. Ergo, payments and transactions will have to flow based on another asset.
The birth of Bitcoin did give the world a groundbreaking technology called blockchain. It has already given rise to countless more advanced applications when it comes to the movement of value. Stablecoins, CBDCs, deposit tokens, smart-contract ready blockchains - the list is long. It is a pity that "Bitcoin Age" does not cover those. Instead, the focus on Bitcoin makes the argumentation too simplistic. I understand that a deeper and broader discussion would have come at the expense of the welcomed brevity of the book, but sometimes brevity comes at the expense of precise analysis. And precise analysis is what futurists and investors alike should be basing their decisions on.
Still, Bhatia is a skillful writer, highly knowledgeable in monetary history, and he manages to convey new lessons and perspectives even to those familiar with Bitcoin. Plus, the book is pleasantly short. While it is not the same caliber as Layered Money it definitively does a great job explaining why the Bitcoin-wave has washed across the world of finance with such a heft and why Bitcoin despite its shortcomings is still the unchallenged number of crypto-asset.
This review is originally published within the Money Book Cirlcle in my newsletter. Sign up here for regular reviews of the hottest books on money and technology: https://igorpejic.substack.com/
Yet while Bhatia puts his finger on issues truly of concern to the future of finance, I disagree with what he presents as the antidote. As in his previous book, Bitcoin is seen as the tool to end all of those shortcomings. Our monetary system is indeed ripe for disruption, full of inefficiencies that cause costs and long waiting times. And digital currencies indeed hold the potential to solve those. But to suggest that an asset is the answer to problems such as inequality or inflation is a stretch.
If you want to rein in inflation, then simply slash government spending. If you want to fight inequality, reform the tax code and upskill your workforce. And yes, I do agree with Bhatia that the invention of Bitcoin will eventually change the financial system like only a handful of other inventions in monetary history. Yet Bitcoin will always stay an asset, not a currency. It is truly digital gold. So just like physical gold, it will not be the prime means of money transfer, but a store of value. And Bhatia himself rightly praises Bitcoin for appreciating value rather than sheding it. But this makes Bitcoin a deflationary asset, which people will prefer to keep rather than spend. Ergo, payments and transactions will have to flow based on another asset.
The birth of Bitcoin did give the world a groundbreaking technology called blockchain. It has already given rise to countless more advanced applications when it comes to the movement of value. Stablecoins, CBDCs, deposit tokens, smart-contract ready blockchains - the list is long. It is a pity that "Bitcoin Age" does not cover those. Instead, the focus on Bitcoin makes the argumentation too simplistic. I understand that a deeper and broader discussion would have come at the expense of the welcomed brevity of the book, but sometimes brevity comes at the expense of precise analysis. And precise analysis is what futurists and investors alike should be basing their decisions on.
Still, Bhatia is a skillful writer, highly knowledgeable in monetary history, and he manages to convey new lessons and perspectives even to those familiar with Bitcoin. Plus, the book is pleasantly short. While it is not the same caliber as Layered Money it definitively does a great job explaining why the Bitcoin-wave has washed across the world of finance with such a heft and why Bitcoin despite its shortcomings is still the unchallenged number of crypto-asset.
This review is originally published within the Money Book Cirlcle in my newsletter. Sign up here for regular reviews of the hottest books on money and technology: https://igorpejic.substack.com/
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews