The Bitcoin Standard

Ammous is an Austrian-school economist, and this book is the most rigorous argument you'll find for why Bitcoin matters: it's the hardest money humans have ever invented, with a fixed supply enforced by math instead of central bankers. Whether you buy the conclusion depends on how much you trust the Fed. The first half of the book is a history of money — seashells, rai stones, gold, fiat — that's genuinely fascinating regardless of how you feel about crypto. The second half is the bitcoin pitch. The tone is occasionally arrogant, but the economic reasoning is solid. Five worms. The single best book to give a no-coiner who keeps asking "but why does it have value?"