Since Bitcoin's inception in 2009, a few seminal works have emerged that are required reading for anyone looking to understand the space.

• The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous explains foundational economic concepts like the history of money, the properties a good must have to be accepted as money, how time preference is influenced by the quality of money, stock-to-flow ratio as a measure of the scarcity of money, why Bitcoin possesses all of the properties of sound money as no other good has ever before, and what this means for the future of civilization.
• The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous dives deep into how the fiat government-backed money we use today truly works, the true causes of inflation and market boom and bust cycles, and how unsound money infiltrates and contaminates all aspects of our lives from education, to science, to food, to war, and beyond. This book sheds light on how many aspects of society began to decline after the gold standard was abandoned in 1971 and will lead to a sense of urgency for restoring civilization back to a sound money standard.
• The Bullish Case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati covers Bitcoin's beginnings, the origins of money, the attributes of a good store of value, the evolution of money from collectible -> store of value -> medium of exchange -> unit of account, common misconceptions, and risks.
• End the Fed: Hoard Bitcoins by Pierre Rochard compares the monetary properties of Bitcoin to precious metals and fiat currencies, explains Bitcoin's journey along the technology adoption lifecycle, and also visualizes the virtuous cycle that is set in motion when you choose to save in Bitcoin.
• The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier covers the divisize conflict and test of power dynamics that arose in the Bitcoin community between 2015 and 2017 between users, miners, developers, and venture capitalists over proposals to increase the throughput of the network by increasing the blocksize. The theory of Bitcoin as a decentralized, permissionless network hadn't been truly battle tested until this conflict. The ultimate conclusion of this defining moment in Bitcoin's history was that users running nodes ultimately control the network as the nodes control the consensus parameters of the network and can simply reject blocks from miners that don't obey the rules. This resolution cemented Bitcoin as a resilient monetary network run by the people and for the people.
• The Saylor Series by Robert Breedlove and Michael Saylor is a podcast series where MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor explains his views on Bitcoin and the impact it will have on civilization. As a thought leader and early adopter who pioneered the practice of companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet as their treasury reserve asset, Michael provides his unique institutional perspective and expands on the concepts that inspired him from The Bitcoin Standard.
• The Original Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto details how the Bitcoin network operates. While the less technically inclined may be overwhelmed by this document, what's fascinating about reading it today is how the operation of the network hasn't fundamentally changed since the first block was mined in 2009. This operational consistency without any central authority is primarily what qualifies Bitcoin as the only digital commodity. As Michael Saylor puts it, Bitcoin is an "asset without an issuer" with equal opportunity for all.

These works will solidify your understanding of Bitcoin, expand your mind with concepts spanning technology, economics, energy, government, politics, and other domains, and provide the baseline level of understanding necessary to adopt Bitcoin in your own life with conviction.

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