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 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 Summary of David Gerard s Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-04-16T22:59:00Z with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The developed world has mostly come to use banks to transfer money between accounts, using digital money. However, this isn’t a complete solution since a shop’s card reader could be down, your payment gateway might charge fees, and you may want to send money to someone not on the same banking network. #2 Bitcoins are a bit like money in a bank account with a debit card, except there is no safety net and no way to reverse a transaction. You can earn, spend, save, and invest them, but they aren’t actually yours. #3 Bitcoin is secured by math. The blockchain is a digital ledger that is tamper-evident. It contains every confirmed transaction since January 2009. #4 Bitcoin is a digital currency that requires competitive Proof of Work to write to the ledger. The competition gets viciously Darwinian very quickly, and the electricity is literally wasted for the sake of decentralisation.

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 Bitcoin Blockchain Ethereum Smart Contracts written by David Gerard and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency" -- "A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon" -- 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.

Download or read book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain written by David Gerard (Writer on bitcoin) and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 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.

Download or read book Blockchain Regulation and Governance in Europe written by Michèle Finck and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-20 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finck examines the emergence of blockchains (and other forms of distributed ledger technologies) and the implications for regulation and governance.

Download or read book The Politics of Bitcoin written by David Golumbia and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been widely promoted as a digital currency that will revolutionize everything from online commerce to the nation-state. Yet supporters of Bitcoin and its blockchain technology subscribe to a form of cyberlibertarianism that depends to a surprising extent on far-right political thought. The Politics of Bitcoin exposes how much of the economic and political thought on which this cryptocurrency is based emerges from ideas that travel the gamut, from Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises to Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

Download or read book Mastering Monero written by SerHack and published by Lernolibro LLC. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mastering Monero - The future of private transactions" is the newest resource to help you learn everything that you want to know about the cryptocurrency Monero. The book, available in electronic and physical form, provides the knowledge you need to participate in this exciting grassroots, open-source, decentralized, community-driven privacy project. Whether you are a novice or highly experienced, this book will teach you how to start using and contributing to Monero. The resource introduces readers to the cryptocurrency world and then explains how Monero works, what technologies it uses, and how you can get started in this fantastic world! For technical people, there are some chapters that provide in-depth understanding of the Monero ecosystem. The Monero cryptocurrency is designed to address and avoid practical troubles that arise from using coins that do not protect your sensitive financial information. Cryptocurrencies have revolutionized the financial landscape by allowing anybody with an internet connection to instantly access secure, robust, censorship-free systems for receiving, storing, and sending funds. This paradigm shift was enabled by blockchain technology, by which thousands of participants store matching copies of a “public ledger”. While this brilliant approach overcomes many economic hurdles, it also gives rise to a few severe downsides. Marketing corporations, snooping governments, and curious family members can analyze the public ledger to monitor your savings or study your activities. Monero mitigates these issues with a suite of advanced privacy technologies that allow you to have the best of all worlds! Instead of a public ledger, Monero has a shared private ledger that allows you to reap the benefits of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, while protecting your sensitive business from prying eyes. This book contains everything you need to know to start using Monero in your business or day-to-day life. What are you waiting for? Get your copy of Mastering Monero now!

Download or read book Neoreaction a Basilisk written by Elizabeth Sandifer and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A software engineer sets out to design a new political ideology, and ends up concluding that the Stewart Dynasty should be reinstated. A cult receives disturbing messages from the future, where the artificial intelligence they worship is displeased with them. A philosopher suffers a mental breakdown and retreats to China, where he finds the terrifying abyss at the heart of modern liberalism. Are these omens of the end times, or just nerds getting up to stupid hijinks? Por que no los dos! Neoreaction a Basilisk is a savage journey into the black heart of our present eschaton. We're all going to die, and probably horribly. But at least we can laugh at how completely ridiculous it is to be killed by a bunch of frog-worshiping manchildren. Featuring essays on: * Tentacled computer gods at the end of the universe * Deranged internet trolls who believe women playing video games will end western civilization * The black mass in which the President of the United States sacrificed his name * Fringe economists who believe it's immoral for the government to prevent an asteroid from hitting the Earth * The cabal of lizard people who run the world * How to become a monster that haunts the future * Why infusing the blood of teenagers for eternal youth is bad and stupid

Download or read book The Voynich Manuscript written by M. E. D'Imperio and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spite of all the papers that others have written about the manuscript, there is no complete survey of all the approaches, ideas, background information and analytic studies that have accumulated over the nearly fifty-five years since the manuscript was discovered by Wilfrid M. Voynich in 1912. This report pulls together all the information the author could obtain from all the sources she has examined, and to present it in an orderly fashion. The resulting survey will provide a firm basis upon which other students may build their work, whether they seek to decipher the text or simply to learn more about the problem.

Download or read book Blockchain Capabilities Economic Viability and the Socio Technical Environment written by Nils Braun-Dubler and published by vdf Hochschulverlag AG. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blockchain is widely considered a new key technology. The Foundation for Technology Assessment (TA-SWISS) has proposed a comprehensive assessment of blockchain technologies. With this publication, TA-SWISS provides the much-needed social contextualisation of blockchain. The first, more technical part of the study takes an in-depth look at how blockchain functions and examines the economic potential of this technology. By analysing multiple real-world applications, the study sheds light on where the blockchain has advantages over traditional applications and where existing technologies continue to be the better solution. The second part of the study examines how blockchain became mainstream. It explores the origins of blockchain in the early history of information technology and computer networks. The study also reveals the impact blockchain has on industrial and public spaces. Finally, it discusses the social implications and challenges of blockchain against the background of a new socio-technical environment.

Download or read book Inadequate Equilibria Draft Version written by Eliezer Yudkowsky and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ask a Manager written by Alison Green and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

Download or read book Believer written by David Axelrod and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legendary strategist, the mastermind behind Barack Obama's historic election campaigns, shares a wealth of stories from his forty-year journey through the inner workings of American democracy.

Download or read book A Brief History of Neoliberalism written by David Harvey and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2007-01-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neoliberalism - the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action - has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Its spread has depended upon a reconstitution of state powers such that privatization, finance, and market processes are emphasized. State interventions in the economy are minimized, while the obligations of the state to provide for the welfare of its citizens are diminished. David Harvey, author of 'The New Imperialism' and 'The Condition of Postmodernity', here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. While Thatcher and Reagan are often cited as primary authors of this neoliberal turn, Harvey shows how a complex of forces, from Chile to China and from New York City to Mexico City, have also played their part. In addition he explores the continuities and contrasts between neoliberalism of the Clinton sort and the recent turn towards neoconservative imperialism of George W. Bush. Finally, through critical engagement with this history, Harvey constructs a framework not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.

Download or read book The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust written by Kevin Werbach and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the blockchain—a system built on foundations of mutual mistrust—can become trustworthy. The blockchain entered the world on January 3, 2009, introducing an innovative new trust architecture: an environment in which users trust a system—for example, a shared ledger of information—without necessarily trusting any of its components. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the most famous implementation of the blockchain, but hundreds of other companies have been founded and billions of dollars invested in similar applications since Bitcoin's launch. Some see the blockchain as offering more opportunities for criminal behavior than benefits to society. In this book, Kevin Werbach shows how a technology resting on foundations of mutual mistrust can become trustworthy. The blockchain, built on open software and decentralized foundations that allow anyone to participate, seems like a threat to any form of regulation. In fact, Werbach argues, law and the blockchain need each other. Blockchain systems that ignore law and governance are likely to fail, or to become outlaw technologies irrelevant to the mainstream economy. That, Werbach cautions, would be a tragic waste of potential. If, however, we recognize the blockchain as a kind of legal technology that shapes behavior in new ways, it can be harnessed to create tremendous business and social value.