Former Solicitor General and 1999 Philippine Bar first placer Florin T. Hilbay launched his book, “Bitcoin: An Introduction to the Peer-to-Peer, Open Source, Censorship-Resistant, Immutable, Permissionless, Decentralized, Global, Digital Monetary Network of the 21st Century” on March 9 at the Silliman Hall, Silliman University, Dumaguete City.
The book explains the evolution of money and why Bitcoin is, as described by Hilbay, the “latest and most appropriate iteration” of money.
“Understanding Bitcoin is both appropriate and necessary for the general reader considering its impact on everyday life and our material existence, and on history, politics and government, economics, banking and finance, law, philosophy, technology, to name a few subjects directly affected,” said Hilbay.
“This book is written for everyone, Filipino students most especially, because they are digital natives, and their generation is in the best position to immensely benefit in multiple ways from understanding this technology. Once understanding Bitcoin becomes part of their education, they will act and decide accordingly on their own, with their best interests in mind. This knowledge will connect them to what could possibly be the most important global event of their generation, if not of this century,” said Hilbay.
“This book is about money, not making money. It is about how money arises and how it is engineered. For the most part, it is a historical survey of the characteristics of money and why these have practical consequences for all of us,” said Hilbay about the book.
Hilbay said the fundamental thesis of the book is that “Bitcoin exhibits many of the traditional characteristics of sound money as well as the attributes of what sound money ought to be, considering the current state of our civilization and the problems humanity confronts.”
“Simply put, Bitcoin is the best form of money humans have ever had. This changes everything,” he added.
In the book, Hilbay introduces the idea exchange protocol and the value exchange protocol, which he described as “two important mechanisms to elaborate what is happening and what are about to happen in the information system that makes social exchange and human organization possible.”
“The idea exchange protocol involves mechanisms for the exchange of ideas expressed through language, while the [value exchange protocol] involves mechanisms for the exchange of value expressed through a monetary system,” said Hilbay.
Hilbay said these protocols are “part of the critical infrastructure that organizes human society” and that “any transformation involving these protocols will result in paradigmatic, structural disruptions to how we live and organize ourselves.”
“As both these protocols are currently undergoing structural transformation, so is our civilization today,” he added.
Hilbay holds a degree in economics from the University of Santo Tomas, and in law from the University of the Philippines (UP). He ranked first in the 1999 Bar examinations and obtained his master’s degree at Yale Law School. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar and has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and at the Asian Law Institute at the National University of Singapore.
He taught constitutional law and philosophy of law at UP and is the author of “Unplugging the Constitution” published in 2009. At 40, he was appointed Solicitor General (SolGen) of the Philippines. As SolGen, he represented the country in the arbitration over the West Philippine Sea in the Philippines vs. China.
He was appointed Dean of the Silliman University College of Law in November 2022 where he also teaches a course on Money and State. He shuttles between Dumaguete and Laguna where he tends his farm. Confessing to be semi-retired both in government service and private practice, Hilbay said he could not refuse his good friend, Atty. Myles Nicholas G. Bejar, his predecessor, when he was offered the deanship of the Silliman University College of Law.
The book launching turned a bit showbizy with the presence of Ms. Agot Isidro, Hilbay’s partner, as well as friends and relatives of the author.
For more information on the book, visit https://florin.hilbay.net/. – NWI
