The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
An accessible, persuasive case for bitcoin as money that reviewers find one sided in places.
The short version
- Readers new to bitcoin who want the economic case for it
- Anyone interested in the history of money and the gold standard
- Readers open to the Austrian school view of economics
- You want a balanced survey that weighs arguments for and against bitcoin
- You want a technical guide to how bitcoin works or how to buy and store it
- Political and cultural asides in nonfiction put you off
What owners like
- Explains a complex subject without assuming prior knowledge
- Thorough grounding in monetary theory and the history of money
- Readable and often entertaining for a book on economics
Common complaints
- Digressions that blame cultural problems, from food to pop music, on government money
- Dismisses serious objections, such as concerns about deflation under a fixed money supply, instead of answering them
- Economists dispute its account of how gold came to replace silver and of the gold standard era
- Heavy reliance on the stock to flow ratio, which one reviewer calls a red herring
- Its dismissal of nearly all non bitcoin blockchain projects strikes some as too sweeping
Based on A Reason magazine review, a review in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, the Wikipedia summary of critical reception (including Cato Journal and Central Bank of Barbados critiques), plus the Wiley and author pages for book details.
Research scores
Scored from the maker's specs and what owners report. Drew's own notes and photos will refine these.
Ownership
Drew's hands-on notes for this product are on the way. Long-term updates will be added to this timeline.
What it does
A 2018 nonfiction book that tells the history of money and argues, from an Austrian school economics view, that bitcoin can work as sound money outside central banking.
- Traces earlier forms of money, including gold, and why they gained or lost their monetary role
- Explains bitcoin's design as an attempt to improve on those older forms of money
- Argues from the Austrian school of economics in favor of hard, fixed supply money
- Written for general readers, with concepts explained rather than modeled with math
- Skeptical of most blockchain uses other than bitcoin itself
A good fit for readers who want an accessible, strongly argued case for bitcoin built on the history of money, with no economics background needed. The trade-off is balance: reviewers, including sympathetic ones, say it brushes past counterarguments, disputes parts of its gold standard history, and wanders into rants blaming cultural decline on government money.
How it compares
Specs
- Author
- Saifedean Ammous
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- March 2018 (e-book) and April 2018 (hardcover), per Wiley
- Pages
- 304
- ISBN
- 9781119473862 (hardcover)
- Formats
- Hardcover and e-book; the author's site also sells a leather bound edition
- Translations
- More than two dozen languages, per the author's site
- Genre
- Economics, money and banking, cryptocurrency
Questions
Is The Bitcoin Standard hard to read?
Reviewers say it needs no prior knowledge of economics and explains ideas in plain terms.
How long is The Bitcoin Standard?
Wiley lists it at 304 pages.
Is The Bitcoin Standard only about bitcoin?
No. A large part covers the history of money, gold and government currency before it turns to bitcoin.
What is the criticism of The Bitcoin Standard?
Reviewers fault its one sided treatment of counterarguments, a contested reading of monetary history, and off topic rants about culture.
Is there a sequel?
Ammous later wrote The Fiat Standard, which focuses on the current government money system.
Sources
- Wiley: The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
- Saifedean Ammous: The Bitcoin Standard
- Reason: Can Bitcoin Become the Global Monetary Standard?
- Mises Institute, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics: Review of The Bitcoin Standard
- Wikipedia: The Bitcoin Standard
Researched 2026-10-02. We bought this product; our page is built from the maker's details and what owners report across reviews and forums. We never copy Amazon customer reviews.