Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and financial technology that breaks many conventional ideas about money and its role in society. This book tells the incredible story of how the idea of such a system, initially interesting only to a small group of enthusiasts, gradually attracted the attention of the whole world. The most unexpected characters take part in this story: a Finnish student and an Argentine millionaire, a Chinese entrepreneur and a programmer-creator Netscape, a failed physicist who became an online drug lord, and the playboy twins who sued the head of Facebook, venture capital sharks and heads of the world's largest banks, prosecutors, special agents and US senators, and of course, the founding father of Bitcoin himself, known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto . And while many are baffled by the idea of a digital currency that does not have a powerful state or central bank behind it, Bitcoin enthusiasts around the world, from Beijing to Buenos Aires, believe in the potential of this financial system to become the globally recognized money of the digital age. The book is addressed to for those who are interested in modern financial systems, and in particular, cryptocurrency technologies.