This book was published exactly ten years before the author's retirement.
For a researcher who had spent decades confined to the confines of English literature, writing the intellectual history of Bitcoin was not simply a new challenge and adventure.
It was also a moment when I constantly questioned my academic identity.
I myself have often used the metaphor of "mixed martial arts" to describe my research on Bitcoin.
Because it is impossible to confront the questions Satoshi posed to the world with a single academic tool.
While it may be possible to pinpoint a single individual as Satoshi Nakamoto, the depth and breadth of Satoshi's intellectual legacy makes it clear that it is embedded within a cumulative intellectual lineage.
It is self-evident that such intellectual richness cannot be handled by the individual abilities of an English literature scholar.
Nevertheless, the reason this book began was because I couldn't just pass up this fascinating intellectual phenomenon called Bitcoin.

In a broader sense, I sought to situate the intellectual history of Bitcoin contained in this book within the tradition of American studies.
The reason for this choice is, above all, the need to incorporate and control Bitcoin research within the author's experience and knowledge as a researcher of American literature.
Just because you've jumped into the world of mixed martial arts, it's impossible to hone both your ground skills and your standing striking skills.
I hope that through this monograph series, I will be able to communicate and interact with various researchers and grow on my own.
Ultimately, considering my intention to overlap Bitcoin research with the question, "What is America?", it is regrettable that I hesitated at the point where I should have delved deeper into that question.
It could be said that this is a limitation that places too much importance on taking the 'first step'.
The question of what balance to pursue between an overview and a full-fledged study was one that plagued the author throughout the writing process.


The significance of this book is defined as the urgency of describing the intellectual history of Bitcoin, the definition of the range of questions that must be addressed in such an approach, and the necessity of subsequent discussion.
For some readers, this book may be too unfriendly, while for others, it may feel too superficial.
Nevertheless, I hope that the readers of this book will understand the compromise I have chosen after much deliberation, as I was inevitably faced with confusion as I stepped into uncharted territory.
This first attempt to open the door to humanistic research on Bitcoin will be of considerable significance.
This book is the world's first attempt to describe the intellectual history of Bitcoin.
Extending that intellectual lineage to the 1960s and incorporating the concept of the "California ideology" into crypto studies are also attempts worthy of the title of "first."