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 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 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 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 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 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 Projective Geometry written by Albrecht Beutelspacher and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-01-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Projective geometry is not only a jewel of mathematics, but has also many applications in modern information and communication science. This book presents the foundations of classical projective and affine geometry as well as its important applications in coding theory and cryptography. It also could serve as a first acquaintance with diagram geometry. Written in clear and contemporary language with an entertaining style and around 200 exercises, examples and hints, this book is ideally suited to be used as a textbook for study in the classroom or on its own.

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 A Brief History of Computing written by Gerard O'Regan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively and fascinating text traces the key developments in computation – from 3000 B.C. to the present day – in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. Topics and features: ideal for self-study, offering many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary; presents detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, Zuse and Von Neumann; reviews the history of software engineering and of programming languages, including syntax and semantics; discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics; examines the impact on society of the introduction of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, and the development of mobile phone technology; follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Apple.

Download or read book Cultural Techniques written by Bernhard Siegert and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a crucial shift within posthumanistic media studies, Bernhard Siegert dissolves the concept of media into a network of operations that reproduce, displace, process, and reflect the distinctions fundamental for a given culture. Cultural Techniques aims to forget our traditional understanding of media so as to redefine the concept through something more fundamental than the empiricist study of a medium’s individual or collective uses or of its cultural semantics or aesthetics. Rather, Siegert seeks to relocate media and culture on a level where the distinctions between object and performance, matter and form, human and nonhuman, sign and channel, the symbolic and the real are still in the process of becoming. The result is to turn ontology into a domain of all that is meant in German by the word Kultur. Cultural techniques comprise not only self-referential symbolic practices like reading, writing, counting, or image-making. The analysis of artifacts as cultural techniques emphasizes their ontological status as “in-betweens,” shifting from firstorder to second-order techniques, from the technical to the artistic, from object to sign, from the natural to the cultural, from the operational to the representational. Cultural Techniques ranges from seafaring, drafting, and eating to the production of the sign-signaldistinction in old and new media, to the reproduction of anthropological difference, to the study of trompe-l’oeils, grids, registers, and doors. Throughout, Siegert addresses fundamental questions of how ontological distinctions can be replaced by chains of operations that process those alleged ontological distinctions within the ontic. Grounding posthumanist theory both historically and technically, this book opens up a crucial dialogue between new German media theory and American postcybernetic discourses.

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 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 Programming Bitcoin written by Jimmy Song and published by O'Reilly Media. This book was released on 2019-02-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dive into Bitcoin technology with this hands-on guide from one of the leading teachers on Bitcoin and Bitcoin programming. Author Jimmy Song shows Python programmers and developers how to program a Bitcoin library from scratch. You’ll learn how to work with the basics, including the math, blocks, network, and transactions behind this popular cryptocurrency and its blockchain payment system. By the end of the book, you'll understand how this cryptocurrency works under the hood by coding all the components necessary for a Bitcoin library. Learn how to create transactions, get the data you need from peers, and send transactions over the network. Whether you’re exploring Bitcoin applications for your company or considering a new career path, this practical book will get you started. Parse, validate, and create bitcoin transactions Learn Script, the smart contract language behind Bitcoin Do exercises in each chapter to build a Bitcoin library from scratch Understand how proof-of-work secures the blockchain Program Bitcoin using Python 3 Understand how simplified payment verification and light wallets work Work with public-key cryptography and cryptographic primitives

Download or read book Results written by Bruce A. Pasternack and published by Crown Business. This book was released on 2005-10-18 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every company has a personality. Does yours help or hinder your results? Does it make you fit for growth? Find out by taking the quiz that’s helped 50,000 people better understand their organizations at OrgDNA.com and to learn more about Organizational DNA. Just as you can understand an individual’s personality, so too can you understand a company’s type—what makes it tick, what’s good and bad about it. Results explains why some organizations bob and weave and roll with the punches to consistently deliver on commitments and produce great results, while others can’t leave their corner of the ring without tripping on their own shoelaces. Gary Neilson and Bruce Pasternack help you identify which of the seven company types you work for—and how to keep what’s good and fix what’s wrong. You’ll feel the shock of recognition (“That’s me, that’s my company”) as you find out whether your organization is: • Passive-Aggressive (“everyone agrees, smiles, and nods, but nothing changes”): entrenched underground resistance makes getting anything done like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall • Fits-and-Starts (“let 1,000 flowers bloom”): filled with smart people pulling in different directions • Outgrown (“the good old days meet a brave new world”): reacts slowly to market developments, since it’s too hard to run new ideas up the flagpole • Overmanaged (“we’re from corporate and we’re here to help”): more reporting than working, as managers check on their subordinates’ work so they can in turn report to their bosses • Just-in-Time (“succeeding, but by the skin of our teeth”): can turn on a dime and create real breakthroughs but also tends to burn out its best and brightest • Military Precision (“flying in formation”): executes brilliant strategies but usually does not deal well with events not in the playbook • Resilient (“as good as it gets”): flexible, forward-looking, and fun; bounces back when it hits a bump in the road and never, ever rests on its laurels For anyone who’s ever said, “Wow, that’s a great idea, but it’ll never happen here” or “Whew, we pulled it off again, but I’m tired of all this sprinting,” Results provides robust, practical ideas for becoming and remaining a resilient business. Also available as an eBook From the Hardcover edition.

Download or read book Global Business Regulation written by John Braithwaite and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-02-13 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How has the regulation of business shifted from national to global institutions? What are the mechanisms of globalization? Who are the key actors? What of democratic sovereignty? In which cases has globalization been successfully resisted? These questions are confronted across an amazing sweep of the critical areas of business regulation--from contract, intellectual property and corporations law, to trade, telecommunications, labor standards, drugs, food, transport and environment. This book examines the role played by global institutions such as the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, the OECD, IMF, Moodys and the World Bank, as well as various NGOs and significant individuals. Incorporating both history and analysis, Global Business Regulation will become the standard reference for readers in business, law, politics, and international relations.

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: