“People were telling the libertarians to shut up,” says New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper, “but they were the only ones willing to put their money on the line and keep Bitcoin alive.” Popper’s new book, Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money, tells the story of how the “cryptocurrency” went from an idea sketched out by an anonymous programmer in a nine-page whitepaper in the summer of 2008 to a global phenomenon with multi-million-dollar investments staked on its potential. Some believe Bitcoin will be as transformative as the Internet itself while others—including many governments and traditional investors and analysts—see it as a threat or scam that should be shut down or heavily regulated. Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Popper to talk about the rise of Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology, which advocates say has virtually unlimited application. Shot by Joshua Swain and Alex Manning. Produced and edited by Jim Epstein. Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV’s YouTube Channel to get automatic updates when new material goes live. Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason.com and Reason TV and the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America, just out in paperback. Matt Welch | 09.06.2015