I can’t believe I never heard of Neptune’s Brood until last week. In my defense, I am not much of a sci fi reader, nor have I ever heard of it mentioned in any bitcoin podcast, conference, article or on any social media site.

The author, Charles Stross, is a fairly well known science fiction writer. The book, part of the Freyaverse series, was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2014. I discovered that Nobel Prize Winner and Widely Recognized Douchebag Paul Krugman really liked Stross’s treatment of “interstellar finance.” This fact alone almost caused me to dismiss “Neptune’s Brood”, but curiosity got the best of me.

So why is this book so obscure? Most people I know who are obsessed with bitcoin are also obsessed with science fiction. Even more incredibly, it has the distinction of being the first novel in history to mention bitcoin. That’s what my research tells me, and I stand by that assertion until I’m proven wrong. Start hunting.

Full disclosure – I have not read the book, so I am not calling this post a book review. However, I did read a lot about the book, and my copy is in the mail. From what I have learned, bitcoin is not just mentioned, but it is critical to the plot.

The novel opens with a quote from David Graeber’s book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. I did read that book, and while I enjoyed it and learned a lot, I didn’t generally buy his debt over barter theory thesis.

Regarding the plot, I have seen it described as a financial sci fi novel. Set in the future, bitcoin forms the basis for an interstellar financial system because it is theft-proof. Each coin is cryptographically signed by the mind of its owner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune's_Brood

Although I don’t know the details, money is broken up into three types:

Fast money is ordinary day-to-day cash, medium money covers investment instruments within a single planetary system, and slow money is reserved for interstellar investment that takes centuries or millennia to mature, with slow-money transactions relying on a three-way cryptoverification scheme that trades at one-third the speed of light.

Some reviewers say the writing is too dense, and the author uses too many obscure words. It is also criticized for spending too much time lecturing about the “slow money” financial system rather than focusing on plot or character development. As bitcoiners we may have a greater tolerance for financial discussion.

Members of Bitcointalk mentioned the book back in 2013. TraderTimm posted on July 9, 2013, saying:

in the novel's economy, essentially everyone is born into debt for the cost of the technology that constitutes them, large banks are linked by multi-light-year gigawatt laser beams, and there are cryptographic signing methods with bitcoin invoked as a nod to a system capable of underpinning entire civilizations.

He added that Stross, as a former programmer, would understand how [bitcoin] actually works.

Wladimir van der Laan, later bitcoin core’s lead maintainer, also recommended the book to programmers, along with Daniel Suarez’s Daemon" series.

Once I have my copy I will read it, and then maybe review it if someone doesn’t beat me to the punch.

satwize will also be stocking it soon.