I read this book when I took CS251 last fall. It is an accessible, mostly nontechnical overview of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. For those interested in reading the book and learning more about cryptocurrencies, I recommend going through the CS251 reading list which includes this book.
Despite being a little outdated and justifiably overly focused on the computer-science aspects, this is a huge improvement in bringing academia up to speed on cryptoeconomics.
I found the book(& course notes) to be interesting but non-technical & little verbose. For those wanting to read technical subject matter I'd recommend the bitcoin developer reference & bitcoin developer guide at bitcoin.org
While I think the notion of intellectual property is a mistake, when someone offers us a half-full glass of lemonade, to respond with a complaint that the glass is half empty is extremely poor form.
Yes, but that isn't free imho. Can I host a copy on my own website? Can I include the book as part of a course taught at my school? Can I integrate chapters of the book into another book that I may be writing? Making a copy available for reading isn't the same as making it free.
That's not really free though, is it? Because I can't really just start hosting it, claiming to be its author, and have people believe me. (White-labelling). For that to happen, the original authors have to stay anonymous, it has to have much less branding included.
So it's not really all that free in my opinion, even with your additions. /s
http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-a...
(he has other articles I would recommend taking a look at, too --- check them out if you're interested! )