It’s also hard not to read this book in the context of what’s going on with Bitcoin right now, which is basically a pure, digital expression of money as fungible, abstract scarcity, where interpersonal trust has been fully engineered out of the picture.

Bitcoin, invented by a mysterious figure, Satoshi Nakomoto, whose true identity is the subject of many a conspiracy theory, experienced even more of a rollercoaster ride than gold in 2011, soaring in value from less than $1 a bitcoin to almost $30, before plunging below $5. Many thought that this apparent bursting of a bitcoin bubble would put an e

... See more