Resistance Money

A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin

Bitcoin is resistance money, empowering its users to resist authoritarians, inflation, surveillance, censorship, and financial exclusion.
Resistance Money examines bitcoin’s monetary policy, censorship-resistance, privacy, inclusion, and energy use to develop a comprehensive and measured case that bitcoin is a net benefit to the world, despite its imperfections. Bitcoin isn’t just for criminals, speculators, or wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs – despite what the headlines say. It is, instead, a tool for anyone on the margins. The book is rigorous but accessible; Resistance Money is intended for all, from the clueless to the specialist, from the proponent to the die-hard skeptic, and everyone in between.

Resistance Money is a piece of world-class scholarship that illuminates bitcoin as a way of resisting oppression. The book is accessible to all, including those with no previous knowledge of bitcoin. It will leave them packed with insights about the rise of Satoshi's new monetary technology and where it might take us tomorrow.

-Alex Gladstein, Human Rights Foundation

Resistance Money is a well-researched and thoughtful literary achievement, reminding us that Bitcoin is the best money for everyone because it is brilliantly engineered to serve as money for anyone.

–Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy

Resistance Money is a strong foundation for anyone who wants to better understand bitcoin, regardless of ideology. As a policymaker in the U.S. Senate, I pride myself on our core American values of freedom, privacy, and self-reliance. Resistance Money explains how bitcoin embodies these qualities at a global level, and I am excited to share it with my Congressional colleagues from across the political spectrum.

-Cynthia Lummis, US Senator (Wyoming)

Balanced, exhaustively researched, and fully engaging the cultists, critics, and engineers alike, Resistance Money informs without inflaming and teaches without preaching. It’s at the very top of my suggested reading list for anyone curious and open-minded about bitcoin.

-Troy Cross, Reed College

Resistance Money may be the best bitcoin book you’ll ever read. It is a non-extremist defense of bitcoin. The authors don’t claim bitcoin will replace the U.S. dollar. They don’t claim bitcoin will put banks out of business. They don’t claim non-bitcoin financial assets are inherently fraudulent or fragile. In place of the bold and unsupported claims found in other bitcoin books, the authors offer a remarkably reasonable view: the world is better off with bitcoin than without it.

–William J. Luther, Florida Atlantic University

Resistance Money is a deep dive on bitcoin and its implications by three philosophy professors. The technology gets the professional treatment that it deserves, and in a very concise form relative to its depth.

-Lyn Alden, Lyn Alden Investment Strategy and author of Broken Money

Resistance Money presents a refreshing perspective. Rather than fixating on Number Go Up, this thoughtful book introduces an alternative yardstick for assessing bitcoin's true impact: its potential for fostering prosocial change. Resistance Money explores the myriad plausible benefits that bitcoin could offer, challenging both critics and advocates to look beyond surface-level metrics and evaluate whether bitcoin has the capacity to fulfill its promises of empowerment and societal transformation.

-Micah Warren, University of Oregon and author of Bitcoin: A Game-Theoretic Analysis

For those curious about why bitcoiners believe in bitcoin's transformative power, this book serves as a critical guide. It breaks down complex concepts into understandable insights and doesn't shy away from the tough questions, making it a valuable read for skeptics and believers alike. If you're on the fence about bitcoin, this might just be the book that opens your eyes to its possibilities.

-Jerry Brito, Coin Center

Resistance Money is the most accessible and engaging bitcoin book to date. It will serve the wider crypto world, and anyone hoping to learn why the bitcoin community is so passionately committed to it alone. 

—Paul J. Dylan-Ennis, University College Dublin and author of Absolute Essentials of Ethereum

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About The Authors

Andrew M. Bailey

Andrew M. Bailey

‍Andrew M. Bailey is an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar whose work spans philosophy, politics, and economics. He is a Professor of Humanities at Yale-NUS College (Singapore).
Bradley Rettler

Bradley Rettler

Bradley Rettler has published peer-reviewed academic articles on metaphysics, philosophy of religion, epistemology, and cryptocurrency. He is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wyoming.
Craig Warmke

Craig Warmke

Craig Warmke researches money at the intersection of philosophy, economics, and computer science. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University.