Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain
By day, David Gerard works as a Unix system administrator. His responsibilities include keeping track of intriguing new technology and advising against harmful ones. He was previously an award-winning music writer and has been blogging about music since 2001 at Rocknerd.co.uk. He is a Wikipedia volunteer spokesman and a member of the RationalMedia Foundation, which hosts the skeptical wiki RationalWiki.org.
People make terrifying firetrap PCs full with video cards, emitting so much heat that one operator is hospitalized with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student launches a revolutionary new marketplace that is impervious to State compulsion; he ends up ordering assassinations on those who might jeopardize his grand experiment, and is imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole.
Fully automated contractual systems are offered to improve the efficiency of business and the law; the contracts that people actually draft are uncontrolled penny stock offerings with fine language stating that you are buying nothing of any worth.
The largest crowdfunding campaign in history raises $150 million on the promise of embodying "the unwavering iron will of unstoppable code"; when it is released, it is instantly hacked, and $50 million is taken.
How did we end up here? In Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain David Gerard discusses the origins and history of Bitcoin, including Ethereum, as well as the ICO mania and the 2017 crypto bubble, as well as attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. A case study on blockchains in the music industry is also included.
Bitcoin and blockchains are a psychological story, not a technological one.
Author: David Gerard
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1974000060/
Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 402 reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #110,659 in Books
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