The 10 Best Cryptocurrency Books
Special Honors
The Bitcoin Whitepaper Though not technically a book, no compilation of the best reading material about cryptocurrencies would be complete without including the original Bitcoin Whitepaper. Written by the anonymous creator of the preeminent digital asset, it gives a basic breakdown of how the technology works, why we need a payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, what makes the network secure, and more. bitcoin.org
Editor's Notes
May 13, 2020:
The amount of people interested in cryptocurrency grows daily. This may be equally due to its disruptive tech as it is to the unrivaled price increase of Bitcoin, the most widely known digital asset. If you are an experienced or beginner programmer who wants to learn more about coding tokens and digital coins, you should definitely spend some time reading Mastering Bitcoin and Programming Bitcoin: Learn How to Program Bitcoin from Scratch. The former is a better starting point, while the latter is a good continuation of the skills you learn in the former, so we recommend picking up both of them if you are serious about getting into the industry.
If you are here for the tech, as is often claimed by Twitter personas, then it is important to have a thorough understanding of what it is, why we need it, how it works, and its potential and limitations. Books like Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, The Internet of Money, Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps, and The Book Of Satoshi cover that material and more. They are all suitable for those with no previous knowledge of the technology or the space in general, so they won't feel too intimidating to newbies. It is worth noting that The Internet of Money and The Book Of Satoshi are both compendiums of publicly available material, but put together in an easily digestible format, so we feel they are worth the relatively small price to have the information organized and presented in a logical manner, rather than having to waste countless hours seeking it out online. We also feel the need to mention that Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps actually has very little emphasis on cryptocurrencies themselves, but rather an almost exclusive focus on the underlying technology. Since anyone truly interested in understanding how and why cryptocurrencies work needs to understand blockchain as well, we though it worth including.
If your interest in cryptocurrency is a purely financial, then Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide is probably the best choice. Unlike the others on our list, this one has more of a focus on trading digital assets, with very minimal time spent explaining the tech side of things. Not only does much of the information carry over into stocks and other equities, but it is also written in a manner that should appeal to people coming from traditional markets.
Since we are quite confident that after reading any of these, you will probably buy some cryptocurrencies, if you don't already own them, and you will no doubt also learn the importance of the saying "not your keys, not your crypto", we recommend you also check out our list of the best Bitcoin wallets, many of which store other digital coins and tokens too, so you keep your investment safe and secure.