Sometimes, in spite of the incredible speed with which we can use the tech at our fingertips to find the information we’re looking for — hail a taxi, book a vacation, and wire money across the world — it’s easy to forget how fast things are changing, and that every day entire industries are being disrupted by some new startup.

Brad Templeton,  the founder and architect of the first-ever entirely web-based business, ClariNet, points out that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are significant in that they take some aspects of finance that were formerly in the hands of professionals and unlock them for the public at large. Now anyone can be a banker. And in the future, the extent to which this is the case will expand exponentially. Back in 1990, with a four-track home recorder, an aspiring musician could make a few low-fi demo tracks. Today, you can produce an entire album on an iPad. The case of finance is analogous, with Bitcoin and crowdfunding platforms paving the way and even bigger changes to come.

Understanding these kinds of exponential changes in advance is a major advantage for individuals and businesses that want to stay a step (or 100 steps) ahead of their peers.

Nathaniel Popper’s important book, Digital Gold, is due out this week, and we will be reviewing it and parsing its implications all week.