In 2009, as the global financial system teetered on the edge of oblivion, a pseudonymous coder known as Satoshi Nakamoto released a piece of open-source software: the first Bitcoin. Buried within its blocks of code was a message referring to a contemporary front page: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. This was no accident. Here, after all, was a new means of payment and exchange, a new store of value, one free from failed central banks, incompetent governments and collapsing commercial lenders. The old model had been thoroughly discredited, and the principles behind Bitcoin were simple — and radically libertarian.

Most importantly,…