SOURCE · [001] · READING LIST
a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/crypto-readings-resources/ ↗
The a16z crypto reading list spanning foundations, history, governance, and investing.
Recommended by a16z
On this list
10 BOOKs-
Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption
Narrative context for crypto's Wild West investing era; recommended alongside foundational texts as accessible entry-point history.
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Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond
Investment-framework text directly linked from the Crypto Canon's Cryptoeconomics, Cryptoassets, and Investing section via Burniske's valuation work.
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Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
Narrative history recommended in the Crypto Canon's Foundations and History section; the essential readable account of Bitcoin's first decade.
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Kings of Crypto: One Startup's Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street
Company history of Coinbase, an a16z portfolio company; illustrates the Crypto Canon's regulatory and fundraising themes in a real-world institutional context.
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Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
Core technical primer in the Crypto Canon; the developer-facing counterpart to Antonopoulos's more narrative Internet of Money.
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Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist That Almost Destroyed It All
Deep-dive into the DAO hack and Ethereum governance crisis; pairs with the Canon's Governance section on on-chain versus off-chain decision-making.
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The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum
Narrative companion to Ethereum's technical documentation; situates the Buterin whitepaper and governance debates in human context.
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Read Write Own
a16z's own thesis book; the canonical statement of why the firm believes blockchain networks represent a third era of the internet distinct from both Web1 and Web2.
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The Bitcoin Standard
Foundational economic text for the Crypto Canon; provides the Austrian-economics grounding for Bitcoin as hard money that underlies a16z's asset-class framing.
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The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg
1997 precursor text to crypto's philosophical foundations; widely cited by Crypto Canon contributors as the prophetic background for why decentralized protocols matter.