Slowly informing myself, that was helpful. Is that book you recommended understandable to someone who knows close to nothing about how cryptocurrency and the internet work behind the scenes?

I'm trying to learn everything slowly, piece by piece as I am exposed to it directly. Is the main source of value that these cryptocurrencies have that people trust in them the same way they trust in physical money?

EDIT: I also want to say that I loved reading your description of the first and second wave. I was starting to trip out, it felt like I was reading the premise of a science fiction novel that I happen to be living in.