The Bitcoin Standard, written by Saifedean Ammous, is still considered by most to be the definitive introductory book to bitcoin. It was first published in 2018 by Wiley. At first glance it might appear that since there has only been one formal edition of this book, other than the author’s special signed and leather bound editions, there is nothing interesting or unique about any particular copy that would make it noteworthy or collectable. However, the story isn’t as simple as that.

The book is still being released using the original ISBN number – ISBN-13: 978-1119473862 (ISBN-10: 1119473861. Note that the second set of numbers is the updated 13 digit modern bar code compatible coding. Wiley does sometimes include a number line in its books to delineate editions, but none was used for The Bitcoin Standard. We attempted to contact Wiley repeatedly to discover whether there was another way to distinguish an original first edition, but to date we have gotten no response. However, there are ways to distinguish early release copies from later printings. The most obvious method is to check who wrote the foreword. The book was originally released with a foreword by Nassim Taleb in April of 2018. Because of a public dispute between the author and Taleb in 2021, an “updated printing” was issued on March 24, 2021, removing the Taleb foreword and adding one by Michael Saylor. We consider this a second printing for identification purposes, although the author and publisher don’t label it as such. The 2021 printing also contains an “author’s preface”, which doesn’t address the Taleb dispute, but notes text corrections. The only notable change was correcting an original reference to Croesus as “a Greek King”, where he should have been more accurately described as the “Lydian king.” Many readers had noted this error in the original text.

It appears that the Croesus correction was only made in 2021. Ammous states that himself in the preface. We have not found evidence of an earlier correction, but it is still theoretically possible that Wiley had made the correction earlier. If so, that would be a way to distinguish print timelines on Taleb foreword copies.

Since 2021, the author has created special editions available only on his web site: https://thesaifhouse.com/. These included signed copies, and special limited edition leather bound copies.

Currently, satwize has new editions for sale, as well as some used copies of both the Taleb and Saylor versions. Check our website for updates.

Below is a chart summarizing the publishing history of The Bitcoin Standard: