Download or read book Libra Shrugged written by David Gerard and published by David Gerard. This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silicon Valley tries to disrupt the world — and the world says “no.” Facebook: the biggest social network in history. A stupendous, world-shaping success. But governments were giving Facebook trouble over personal data abuses, election rigging and fake news. Mark Zuckerberg wondered: what if Facebook could pivot to finance? Or, better: what if Facebook started its own private world currency? Facebook could have so much power that governments couldn’t stop them. It would be the Silicon Valley dream. Facebook launched Libra in June 2019. Libra would be an international currency and payment system. It would flow instantly around the world by phone. It could even “bank the unbanked.” Libra could apparently do all this just by using a “blockchain.” But Libra would also make Facebook too big to control— and to lead the way for Facebook’s Silicon Valley fellows to swing the power of their money as they pleased. Facebook and their friends could work around any single country’s rules. Libra could shake whole economies. And Facebook would become the “digital identity” provider to the world. If you wanted to use money at all, you’d have to go through Facebook. Governments looked at Libra — and they saw another 2008 financial crisis in the making. Facebook’s plan would have made the company even more entrenched — at the cost of broken economies worldwide. Starting with toppling the US dollar. Libra was as incompetent as it was arrogant — and the world stopped it in its tracks. But how did Facebook put forward such a bizarre and ill-considered plan, that left every regulator who saw it reeling in horror? And what happens when another company tries the same trick? Or when Facebook won’t take “no” for an answer, and releases the cut-down version that they’re already calling “Libra 2.0”? “Libra Shrugged” is the story of a bad idea. Also covered: * Bitcoin and cryptocurrency: the source of all the bad ideas in Libra. * Central Bank Digital Currencies: digital versions of official legal tender, suddenly fashionable again because of Libra. * Facebook’s early forays into payments, with Facebook Credits and Messenger Payments. Table of Contents Introduction: Taking over the money 7 Chapter 1: A user’s guide to Libra 9 Chapter 2: The genesis of Libra: Beller’s blockchain 15 Chapter 3: To launch a Libra: Let’s start a crypto 19 Chapter 4: Bitcoin: why Libra is like this 25 Chapter 5: The Libra White Papers 33 Chapter 6: Banking the unbanked 43 Chapter 7: The Libra Reserve plan and economic stability 49 Chapter 8: Libra, privacy and your digital identity 61 Chapter 9: The regulators recoil in horror 67 Chapter 10: David Marcus before the US House and Senate 77 Chapter 11: July to September 2019: Libra runs the gauntlet 95 Chapter 12: October 2019: Libra’s bad month 101 Chapter 13: Mark Zuckerberg before the US House 111 Chapter 14: November 2019: The comedown 123 Chapter 15: Central bank digital currencies 129 Epilogue: Libra 2.0: not dead yet 141 Appendix: 2010–2013: The rise and fall of Facebook Credits 149 Acknowledgements 155 About the author 157 Index 161 Notes 167
Download or read book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain written by David Gerard and published by David Gerard. This book was released on 2017-07-24 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News
Download or read book The Auctorati written by Jarrod D. King and published by Jarrod D. King. This book was released on 2020-01-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Libra, disillusioned from his days as a police officer, has become the Auctorat — a masked vigilante set on bringing his city back to its glory days. With a corrupt government running the show, he comes across an informational book that could lead to enough power to reclaim the city from its leader, Talon. But, it isn’t the only book, and if Talon finds them all first, he could gain control of a fearsome dragon and do greater damage to the country at large. Libra forms a team to aid in his quest to stop Talon and regain control of the city. But, when his mother’s life is suddenly on the line, he’s forced to serve up exactly what Talon wants. Set six years before the events of Pangaea: Unsettled Land, this is a magical tale of one man’s stand against the powers that be and a testament to the strength of teamwork. Can he save the city or will a threat from inside his own group cause it to fall?
Download or read book Gemini written by Jasmine Kristensen and published by PublishAmerica. This book was released on 2015-06-03 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sin City: Home to both criminals and luxury seekers. 12 creatures are the cities protectors known as zodiacs. With Caspian, an ex-crime lord dead, after years of peace a mystery murderer appears. Killing prostitutes and low-level gangsters, even that wasn't enough to quench his bloodlust. He wants the zodiacs’ power. Brothers Beelzebub and Mephisto try to find this killer but when work and Aquarius' unwanted affections merge missions become difficult. Attractions crash, bonds become lose and Beelzebub is stuck with a decision: Succumbing to Aquarius’ lust and betraying his brother or falling into the murderer’s hands in protecting the city.
Download or read book Facebook written by Steven Levy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the Best Technology Books of 2020—Financial Times “Levy’s all-access Facebook reflects the reputational swan dive of its subject. . . . The result is evenhanded and devastating.”—San Francisco Chronicle “[Levy’s] evenhanded conclusions are still damning.”—Reason “[He] doesn’t shy from asking the tough questions.”—The Washington Post “Reminds you the HBO show Silicon Valley did not have to reach far for its satire.”—NPR.org The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America’s most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing “fake news” accounts, the handling of its users’ personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO—who has enormous power over what the world sees and says—never has a company been more central to the national conversation. Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers. Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Levy’s sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Download or read book Bask in Blood written by Ashley Potter and published by Writers Republic LLC. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An orphan unwanted by her father, left by her mother, and was an only child. Bravery and strength is all she knows. She strips herself from emotion, time and time again, so nobody can hurt her. But the angels know that she is only dooming her destiny into place. A war is raging, invisible to the citizens of Acym. They cannot see the war--that will be up for Zenaida to decide. She alone will choose whether humanity deserves to live or perish beneath her hidden fire. But the veil is lifting, and time is running out. Her powers are growing stronger. She must choose which side of herself to be.
Download or read book Tokens written by Rachel O'Dwyer and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year** --- Platform capitalism is coming for the money in your pocket Wherever you look, money is being re- placed by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new kinds of money-like things: phone credit, shares, gift vouchers, game tokens, customer data-the list goes on. But what does it mean when online platforms become the new banks? What new types of control and discrimination emerge when money is tied to specific apps or actions, politics or identities? Tokens opens up this new and expanding world. Exploring the history of extra- monetary economies, Rachel O'Dwyer shows that private and grassroots tokens have always haunted the real economy. But as the large tech platforms issue new money-like instruments, tokens are suddenly everywhere. Amazon's Turk workers are getting paid in gift cards. Online streamers trade in wishlists. Foreign remittances are sent via phone credit. Bitcoin, gift cards, NFTs, customer data, and game tokens are the new money in an evolving economy. It is a development challenging the balance of power between online empires and the state. Tokens may offer a flexible even subversive route to compensation. But for the platforms them- selves they can be a means of amassing frightening new powers. An essential read for anyone concerned with digital money, inequality, and the future of the economy.
Download or read book All I Want for Christmas written by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb and published by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb. This book was released on 2018-07-22 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes the best family is the one you make for yourself. Libra wanted Saul from the moment they first met and he didn’t hesitate to let her know the feeling was mutual. After a shocking discovery, scars from her tragic past compelled her to push him away. Then came the Christmas she would never forget—the night he announced his engagement…to her sister. The wedding is fast approaching and torn between guilt and regret Libra is determined to keep her secrets and support her sister. Confused and hurt by Libra’s rejection Saul decided to finally yield to family pressure and get married. It didn’t hurt that his fiancée’s ambitions meshed perfectly with his own. Though his intended bride is an excellent business partner, sweet Libra still has his heart. When the wedding day finally arrives both are caught up in a whirlwind not of their making and in the end the question remains; which sister will be his bride?
Download or read book The New Knowledge written by Blayne Haggart and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the global geopolitical arena to the smart city, control over knowledge—particularly over data and intellectual property—has become a key battleground for the exercise of economic and political power. For companies and governments alike, control over knowledge—what scholar Susan Strange calls the knowledge structure—has become a goal unto itself. The rising dominance of the knowledge structure is leading to a massive redistribution of power, including from individuals to companies and states. Strong intellectual property rights have concentrated economic benefits in a smaller number of hands, while the “internet of things” is reshaping basic notions of property, ownership, and control. In the scramble to create and control data and intellectual property, governments and companies alike are engaging in ever-more surveillance. The New Knowledge is a guide to and analysis of these changes, and of the emerging phenomenon of the knowledge-driven society. It highlights how the pursuit of the control over knowledge has become its own ideology, with its own set of experts drawn from those with the ability to collect and manipulate digital data. Haggart and Tusikov propose a workable path forward—knowledge decommodification—to ensure that our new knowledge is not treated simply as a commodity to be bought and sold, but as a way to meet the needs of the individuals and communities that create this knowledge in the first place.
Download or read book Eat the Document written by Dana Spiotta and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Pangaea written by Jarrod D. King and published by JDK Publishing Co. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a young noble hears of an ancient mythical sword that’s said to have brought magic to world, he teams up with a handsome warrior and his best friend to explore its secrets, landing them all squarely within a dangerous queen’s sights.
Download or read book The Luminaries written by Eleanor Catton and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The winner of the Man Booker Prize, this "expertly written, perfectly constructed" bestseller (The Guardian) is now a Starz miniseries. It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous cache of gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky. Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bust, The Luminaries is at once a fiendishly clever ghost story, a gripping page-turner, and a thrilling novelistic achievement. It richly confirms that Eleanor Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international literary firmament.
Download or read book Curse of the Night Witch written by Alex Aster and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From #BookTok phenomenon and New York Times bestselling author of the YA fantasy novel, Lightlark, this fast-paced middle grade series starter is steeped in Colombian mythology and full of adventure. Perfect for fans of Percy Jackson, Curse of the Night Witch is filled with fantasy, action, adventure, and an unforgettable trio of friends. A Seventeen.com Most Anticipated Book of Summer! A Zibby Owens Summer Reading Pick on Good Morning America! On Emblem Island all are born knowing their fate. Their lifelines show the course of their life and an emblem dictates how they will spend it. Tor Luna was born with a leadership emblem, just like his mother. But he hates his mark and is determined to choose a different path for himself. So, on the annual New Year's Eve celebration, where Emblemites throw their wishes into a bonfire in the hopes of having them granted, Tor wishes for a different power. The next morning Tor wakes up to discover a new marking on his skin...the symbol of a curse that has shortened his lifeline, giving him only a week before an untimely death. There is only one way to break the curse, and it requires a trip to the notorious Night Witch. With only his village's terrifying, ancient stories as a guide, and his two friends Engle and Melda by his side, Tor must travel across unpredictable Emblem Island, filled with wicked creatures he only knows through myths, in a race against his dwindling lifeline. You'll love Curse of the Night Witch if you're looking for: Multicultural books for children (especially Latinx books) Stories based on fascinating mythology Your next favorite fantasy series "Debut author Aster takes inspiration from Colombian folklore to craft a rousing series opener that's both fast-paced and thrilling. As her protagonists face off against a host of horrors, they learn the value of friendship and explore the possibility of changing one's fate in a world where destiny is predetermined."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review "Worthy of every magical ounce."—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
Download or read book Ignition written by John Drury Clark and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-23 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This newly reissued debut book in the Rutgers University Press Classics Imprint is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise which eventually took men to the moon, missiles to the planets, and satellites to outer space. A classic work in the history of science, and described as “a good book on rocket stuff…that’s a really fun one” by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, readers will want to get their hands on this influential classic, available for the first time in decades.
Download or read book Satellite written by Nick Lake and published by Ember. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A teenage boy born in space makes his first trip to Earth in this engrossing sci-fi adventure for fans of The Martian from award-winning author Nick Lake. He’s going to a place he’s never been before: home. Moon 2 is a space station that orbits approximately 250 miles above Earth. It travels 17,500 miles an hour, making one full orbit every ninety minutes. It’s also the only home that fifteen-year-old Leo and two other teens have ever known. Born and raised on Moon 2, Leo and the twins, Orion and Libra, are finally old enough and strong enough to endure the dangerous trip to Earth. They’ve been “parented” by teams of astronauts since birth and have run countless drills to ready themselves for every conceivable difficulty they might face on the flight. But has anything really prepared them for life on terra firma? Because while the planet may be home to billions of people, living there is more treacherous than Leo and his friends could ever have imagined, and their very survival will mean defying impossible odds.
Download or read book Bloody Friendship written by Anlhpermy and published by SuperNovel(HK)Co.,Limited. This book was released on 2022-07-21 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when a supernatural being escape from the hell prison into the mortal world? Will our main protagonist be able to capture it again? Will he be able to do it? After 500 years... "Remember, Kairi. You're my brother. Although we're not blood-related, I have every right to protect you." - Rafiz "WE WELCOME OUR MASTER OF STELLAR!" - Pegasus Spirit. "I thought I have killed all the Knight Seeyer but... I left one more..." - Dark Ries. "We have to take him to Syarantonia." - Agi "Searched for that boy. Do not let him live!"" - Dark Revier "I think... I might have fallen in love with him. But, he is not an ordinary man."- Aries
Download or read book The Shadow of Heavenly Things written by John V. Coniglio and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2011-06-13 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SON OF MAN, the first book in THE GODSPEAK CHRONICLES trilogy, tells the extraordinary origin of Cog, a Peacekeeper war machine that awakens to sentience in the year 2454, and how his life mysteriously begins to parallel that of Christ when He walked the Earth. THE SHADOW OF HEAVENLY THINGS, the second in the series, traces the development of Cogs unexpected ministry, and the furtherance of his remarkable powers and healing abilities. In WAR OF THE THIRD HEAVEN, the epic comes to a stunning climax as Cog struggles to determine his ultimate destiny amid the cataclysmic events at the end of the Age of Man. A deeply human drama told through the life of the solar systems first autonomic humanoid machine. ----- Stephanie Ramirez, Freelance Reviewer, Editor, Houston, Texas The Godspeak Chronicles will cause you to re-imagine your place in the universe. ---- Dr. Frank Forcier, San Francisco Reviewer, Editor The Godspeak Chronicles is suffused with world-shaking characters, events and Biblical truths of momentous consequence to men and angels alike! ---- Jason D. McFaul, Reviewer, Editor, Professor of Literature, Author of Are You Mad The Star Wars of Christian science fiction! ---- Jason D. McFaul, Reviewer, Editor, Professor of Literature, Author of Are You Mad A reverent, intelligent, and powerful futuristic epic! ----- Dr. Frank Forcier, San Francisco Reviewer, Editor
