There is a widespread idea that once you start learning about Bitcoin, you go deep down the rabbit hole. Today, I’d like to connect Stuart Hylton’s book “What the Railways Did for Us: the Making of Modern Britain” – specifically the chapter on literacy – with crypto. Here’s what the author says: 

“The train was a natural place to sit (or stand), and read, and it remains so: a railway carriage probably plays host each day to more people reading than the average small town library. (Harrington) The early railway years saw some significant advances in the nation’s literacy. One estimate has 75 per cent of the population of 1840 able to do some reading and 60 per cent some writing. Male literacy, by another estimate, rose from 67 to 80 per cent between 1841 and 1870, with the rate for women going from 51 to 73 per cent.”

Not all people who were considered literate would have been familiar with Shakespeare’s entire works, but how many of them were capable of doing much more than signing their names in a marriage register? Similarly, you don’t have to become a blockchain developer, but you do want to distinguish worthwhile projects and know how to set up your own wallet.

How did people find out about the world of cryptocurrencies?

“Before the railways, there was no such thing as a real national newspaper. By the time the London papers got out into the remoter parts of the…