January 1, 2024
Broken Money: Why our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Lyn Alden
With the arrival of a bitcoin ETF this month, we thought we would share some of our favorite books and sites on the topic. Some of us find it particularly fascinating, especially as the daily bitcoin production will decline from 900 bitcoins per day (well below the 7,200 bitcoins per day when the illusive Satoshi Nakamoto developed Bitcoin during the GFC) to just 450 bitcoins per day in April 2024; dramatically increasing bitcoin mining breakeven costs. Macroeconomic analyst and electrical engineer by training, Lyn Alden, provides the most comprehensive deep dive into the topic with her Broken Money book, but we suspect many investors are looking for easier reads. We enjoyed these quick, but technical, reads from a software developer and an engineer to provide a basic understanding of how the network works. Many hard money advocates and Austrian economists suggest the financial world struggled through the Bretton Woods era (reads like a Russian spy novel), completely lost its mooring when the economy lost its connection to gold in 1971, and dream of a Bitcoin Standard. Professors, financial advisors, and entrepreneurs have written interesting books on the topic, tried to model its value, and develop helpful sites for potential investors.