The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking (Hardcover)

Saifedean Ammous

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商品描述

When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications.

While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse.

With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for final settlement of large payments—a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure.

Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders.

The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knock-offs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘blockchain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

當一位匿名的程式設計師在2008年向一個小型線上郵件列表介紹「一個全面點對點、無需信任第三方的新電子現金系統」時,很少有人關注。十年後,這個新興的自治去中心化軟體不可阻擋地提供了一個全球可存取的硬幣替代方案,挑戰現代中央銀行。《比特幣標準》分析了比特幣崛起的歷史背景、使其快速成長的經濟特性,以及其可能的經濟、政治和社會影響。

雖然比特幣是數位時代的新發明,但它所聲稱要解決的問題卻與人類社會自古以來一樣古老:跨越時間和空間傳遞價值。阿莫斯(Ammous)帶領讀者踏上一段引人入勝的旅程,探索從原始的石灰岩和海貝貝交易系統,到金屬、硬幣、金本位和現代政府債務的貨幣功能技術的歷史。探索這些技術如何獲得其貨幣角色,以及大多數技術如何失去這種角色,讓讀者對什麼是健全貨幣有了一個良好的理解,並為經濟討論奠定了基礎,探討其對個人和社會未來導向、資本積累、貿易、和平、文化和藝術的影響。引人入勝的是,阿莫斯顯示出人類最偉大的成就往往出現在享受健全貨幣制度好處的社會,貨幣崩潰通常伴隨著文明崩潰,這並非巧合。

在這個背景下,本書以功能性和直觀的方式解釋了比特幣的運作方式。比特幣是一個分散式、分佈式的軟體,將電力和處理能力轉換為無可爭議的準確記錄,使其使用者能夠利用互聯網執行傳統貨幣功能,而無需依賴或信任任何實體世界的權威或基礎設施。因此,最好將比特幣理解為第一個成功實施的數位現金和數位硬幣形式。憑藉自動化和完全可預測的貨幣政策,以及在幾分鐘內執行全球大額結算的能力,比特幣的真正競爭優勢可能就是作為價值儲存和大額支付結算網絡的數位黃金形式。

阿莫斯對技術可能性和貨幣演進的歷史現實的深入理解,為對自願自由市場貨幣的影響提供了引人入勝的探索。當比特幣挑戰政府最神聖的壟斷權力時,將主權的擺錘從政府轉向個人,為我們提供了一個令人心動的可能性:一個完全從政治中解脫並不受邊界限制的貨幣世界。

本書的最後一章探討了關於比特幣最常見的問題:比特幣挖礦是否浪費能源?比特幣是否為犯罪分子所用?誰控制比特幣,他們是否可以隨意更改?比特幣如何被摧毀?以及如何看待成千上萬的比特幣仿冒品和比特幣「區塊鏈技術」的許多應用?《比特幣標準》是對互聯網去中心化、非政治、自由市場替代國家中央銀行的清晰理解的重要資源。