The emergence of money is a much more confusing, intriguing and bloody story, in which Santa Claus and the murders are involved. Finding out how money really came about is the best way to understand its nature. Is it possible to defeat inflation by printing trillions of new bills? Will cryptocurrencies be able to create a free market for money, the prototype of which once existed in the United States? What will become the currency of the future? This book is an action-packed chronicle of the most ingenious, scandalous and insane experiments in the history of money. You will go on a journey that has gone from barter and the first paper receipt to quasi-money and cryptocurrency. From British blacksmiths replacing the first bankers to Luddites who lost the war to machines. Jacob Goldstein offers to figure out how we became "hostages" of the existing financial system and what the future awaits us.