A Fistful of Bitcoins: The Risks and Opportunities of Virtual Currencies

“Bitcoin poses the right question, but gives the wrong answer,” write Luca Fantacci and Massimo Amato in this lucid and highly original treatment of the cryptocurrency phenomenon. A Fistful of Bitcoins uncovers the paradoxes of the first “digital cash” to achieve global attention: a disruptive payment infrastructure married to a dangerous and deflationary monetary system. From the cryptographic protocols to the quasi-religious ideologies and the retrograde monetary theories supporting Bitcoin, the authors reflect on what Bitcoin gets right and disastrously wrong about our current monetary predicament. With implications for monetary theory and policy, the prospect of central bank-issued digital currencies, and the future of blockchain-based applications, this book will be of interest beyond economics, political science and management for a general public concerned about not just what money is but what money might – and should – become.

Massimo is Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi Univeristy and Researcher in Economic History. He Is a member of the steering committee for the newly-formed journal of philosophical studies, Laboratorio di Logica. He is also Professor of the specialisation course in philosophical and historical disciplines. He is Assistant Professor of Economic History. His research areas are History of monetary and financial systems and History of economic thought.