Digitizing the Dollar / Melville House (ePub)

The modern era of digital currency is here, but far from an oddity or bubble, digital money promises to revolutionize our monetary system-and presents a unique opportunity to change it for the better.

The modern era of digital currency began in 2008, with the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto's famous whitepaper on Bitcoin. But despite early hacker enthusiasm, today Wall Street and Silicon Valley have staked claims over the future of digital currency. Both industries share a vision of a commercial product, driving profits from data-mining and predictive analytics-and they are positioning themselves to lay the groundwork for the future of money as it inevitably digitizes.
Since the invention of coins, money has been an instrument of public governance and law, designed by democratic process. As the digital revolution threatens to change this premise, overcoming the combined interests of Wall Street and Silicon Valley will require a full-throated, unapologetic defense of the public nature of money.
Law professor and digital currency expert, Rohan Grey, explores the history and theory of money to explain how digital currency departs from coin, credit, and cash, and how it changes-and does not change-the nature of money. In Digitizing the Dollar, he presents a clear vision for the future of a public digital currency that incorporates political, economic, and legal concerns to make sure that money, in its next stage, remains a tool by and for the people.