blockchain

Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World

by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott  · 9 May 2016  · 515pp  · 126,820 words

explaining the current landscape while simultaneously illuminating a path forward toward a more equitable, efficient, and connected global financial system.” —Jim Breyer, CEO, Breyer Capital “Blockchain Revolution is the indispensable and definitive guide to this world-changing technology.” —Jerry Brito, Executive Director, Coin Center “Incredible. Really incredible. The Tapscotts’ examination

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of the blockchain as a model for inclusion in an increasingly centralized world is both nuanced and extraordinary.” —Steve Luczo, Chairman and CEO, Seagate Technology “Makes a powerful

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the most exciting new technology since the Internet. A work of exceptional clarity and astonishingly broad and deep insight.” —Andreas Antonopoulos, author of Mastering Bitcoin “Blockchain Revolution beautifully captures and illuminates the brave new world of decentralized, trustless money.” —Tyler Winklevoss, Cofounder, Gemini and Winklevoss Capital “A fascinating—and reassuring

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Want a Revolution CHAPTER 1: The Trust Protocol In Search of the Trust Protocol How This Worldwide Ledger Works A Rational Exuberance for the Blockchain Achieving Trust in the Digital Age Return of the Internet Your Personal Avatar and the Black Box of Identity A Plan for Prosperity Promise

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and Peril of the New Platform CHAPTER 2: Bootstrapping the Future: Seven Design Principles of the Blockchain Economy The Seven Design Principles 1. Networked Integrity 2. Distributed Power 3. Value as Incentive 4. Security 5. Privacy 6. Rights Preserved 7.

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Who Will Win in Retail Banking Google Translate for Business: New Frameworks for Accounting and Corporate Governance Reputation: You Are Your Credit Score The Blockchain IPO The Market for Prediction Markets Road Map for the Golden Eight CHAPTER 4: Re-architecting the Firm: The Core and the Edges Building

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ConsenSys Changing the Boundaries of the Firm Determining Corporate Boundaries CHAPTER 5: New Business Models: Making It Rain on the Blockchain bAirbnb Versus Airbnb Global Computing: The Rise of Distributed Applications The DApp Kings: Distributed Business Entities Autonomous Agents Distributed Autonomous Enterprises The Big Seven:

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Economic Inclusion and Entrepreneurship A Pig Is Not a Piggy Bank The New Prosperity Paradox Road Map to Prosperity Remittances: The Story of Analie Domingo Blockchain Humanitarian Aid Safe as Houses? The Road to Asset Ownership Implementation Challenges and Leadership Opportunities CHAPTER 8: Rebuilding Government and Democracy Something Is Rotten

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in the State High-Performance Government Services and Operations Empowering People to Serve Selves and Others The Second Era of Democracy Blockchain Voting Alternative Models of Politics and Justice Engaging Citizens to Solve Big Problems Wielding Tools of Twenty-first-Century Democracy CHAPTER 9: Freeing Culture

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on the Blockchain: Music to Our Ears Fair Trade Music: From Streaming Music to Metering Rights Artlery for Art Lovers: Connecting Artists and Patrons Privacy, Free Speech

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Patrick Byrne, CEO, Overstock Bruce Cahan, Visiting Scholar, Stanford Engineering; Stanford Sustainable Banking Initiative James Carlyle, Chief Engineer, MD, R3 CEV Nicolas Cary, Cofounder, Blockchain Ltd. Toni Lane Casserly, CEO, CoinTelegraph Christian Catalini, Assistant Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director, Privacy and Big Data Institute, Ryerson

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Brett Stapper, Founder and CEO, Falcon Global Capital LLC Elizabeth Stark, Visiting Fellow, Yale Law School Jutta Steiner, Ethereum/Provenance Melanie Swan, Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies Nick Szabo, GWU Law Ashley Taylor, Conensys Systems Simon Taylor, VP Entrepreneurial Partnerships, Barclays David Thomson, Founder, Artlery Michelle Tinsley, Director, Mobility and

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preceding block to be valid. The protocols also include a method for reclaiming disk space so that all nodes can efficiently store the full blockchain. Finally, the blockchain is public. Anyone can see transactions taking place. No one can hide a transaction, and that makes bitcoin more traceable than cash. Satoshi

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the moment of its coinage. For a bitcoin to be valid, it must reference its own history as well as the history of the blockchain. Therefore, the blockchain must be preserved in its entirety. So important are the processes of mining—assembling a block of transactions, spending some resource, solving the

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store those details in a central database. We can’t underscore how huge this is. There are no honeypots of personal data on the blockchain. The blockchain protocols allow us to choose the level of privacy we’re comfortable with in any given transaction or environment. It helps us to better

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account required, no proof of citizenship required, no birth certificate required, no home address required, no stable local currency required to use the blockchain technologies. The blockchain drastically lowers the cost of transmitting such funds as remittances. It significantly lowers the barrier to having a bank account, obtaining credit, and investing

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mortgages, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, government bonds, asset-backed securities, and other forms of credit Debt can be issued, traded, and settled on the blockchain; increases efficiency, reduces friction, improves systemic risk. Consumers can use reputation to access loans from peers; significant for the world’s unbanked and for entrepreneurs

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rating agencies, credit score software companies 5. Exchanging Value—speculating, hedging, and arbitraging. Matching orders, clearing trades, collateral management and valuation, settlement and custody Blockchain takes settlement times on all transactions from days and weeks to minutes and seconds. This speed and efficiency also creates opportunities for unbanked and underbanked

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real time, responsive, and transparent, will dramatically improve capacity of regulators to scrutinize financial actions within a corporation Audit, asset management, shareholder watchdogs, regulators blockchain would transform her business as the Internet transformed other industries: “I would take it about as seriously as you should have taken the concept of

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said that individuals will someday “deploy and manage their own identity, and form trusted connections with other peers and nodes,” thanks to blockchain technology.74 Because the blockchain records and stores all transactions in an immutable record, every transaction can count incrementally toward reputation and creditworthiness. Further, individuals can decide

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transaction histories, proven track records of individuals and enterprises, ranked perhaps by reputation score. Get the picture? Said Vitalik Buterin, founder of the Ethereum blockchain, “Blockchains will drop search costs, causing a kind of decomposition that allows you to have markets of entities that are horizontally segregated and vertically segregated. That

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, consultants, customers, external peer communities, and others will become harder to define. Perhaps as important, they will constantly change. Firms will still exist, blockchain notwithstanding, because the mechanisms for searching, contracting, coordinating, and establishing trust within corporate boundaries will be more cost-effective than those in the open market

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OF DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS Before we examine the other possible distributed business entities like bAirbnb, a word on how the underlying technology enables decentralization. Until the blockchain, centralized organizations have held concentrated computing power. In the first decades of enterprise computing, all software applications (apps) ran on the computers of

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social) workplace by adding in native payment systems, reputation systems, uncensorable content, trustless transactions, smart contracts, and autonomous agents—the key innovations of the blockchain revolution. 1. The Peer Producers Peer producers are the thousands of dispersed volunteers who brought you open source software and Wikipedia, innovative projects that outperform

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said, “People still have to want to do it, to take the risk of doing it.”31 So get ready for blockchain Airbnb, blockchain Uber, blockchain Lyft, blockchain Task Rabbit, and blockchain everything wherever there is an opportunity for real sharing and for value creation to work together in a cooperative way and receive

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all the while paying the vehicle (or its owners) in real time for the time and energy that they use—as metered on a blockchain. Because blockchain technology is transparent, the group of owners can track who is abiding by their commitments. Those who aren’t take a reputational hit and

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overall. By recording each transaction at every node and then sharing that record with every other node on the network (i.e., the blockchain), the blockchain ensures that we can verify the transaction quickly and seamlessly across the peer-to-peer network. We can conduct transactions of value—in this

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Keeping As we have explained, physical assets can become digital assets. All documentation relating to a particular “thing” can be digitized and carried on the blockchain including patents, ownership, warranties, inspection certification, provenance, insurance, replacement dates, approvals, et cetera, significantly increasing data availability and integrity, reducing paperwork handling, storage,

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by increased efficiency and reduced wastage, dynamic pricing, and feedback loops) Increased privacy protection (intermediary can’t override or ignore rules defined in the blockchain) Improved understanding of underlying patterns and processes and opportunities to improve them through the collection and analysis of “infinite data” Strengthened predictive capability of

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access to the world’s financial markets and therefore the universe of investment opportunities, from conventional investments to participation in mass collaborative ventures, microlending schemes, blockchain IPOs, and reputation-based microlending, will open access to capital. Already, crowdfunding is changing the face of finance. In 2012, nonblockchain crowdfunding campaigns raised

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government to lie to its citizens.”9 Estonia’s cybersecurity derives from its keyless signature infrastructure (KSI), which verifies any electronic activity mathematically on the blockchain without system administrators, cryptographic keys, or government staff. This capability ensures total transparency and accountability; stakeholders can see who has accessed which information, when

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or shared practices. Citizens rarely have one-stop shopping for government services. Every country has countless tales of politicians and bureaucrats squandering taxpayer dollars. Blockchain can improve client service, increase efficiency, and improve outcomes while enabling both integrity and transparency of government. The potential to improve all facets of

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land titles, voter ID, business registration, status of tax payments, employment number, school transcripts, etc.) that currently exist in multiple databases into a single blockchain, blockchain-enabled networks could deliver integrated services without going through any central processing. Not only could this model protect privacy, it could enhance it by allowing

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simply better asset management, reducing administrative costs to taxpayers while increasing revenues to governments.22 Particularly interesting are national and local opportunities to connect different blockchain networks for greater efficiency across jurisdictions. For example, departments of motor vehicles could connect drivers’ databases across state or provincial boundaries to create a

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infrastructure management, energy, waste and water management, environmental monitoring and emergency services, education, and the health sector. In addition to improving efficiency benefits, these blockchain-enabled applications could also improve public safety and health, ease traffic congestion, and reduce energy consumption and waste (e.g., through leaky pipes), to

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confirmation “could easily be part of the MOOC infrastructure.” Swan has been working on how to do MOOC accreditation and tackle student debt on the blockchain. The blockchain provides three elements toward this goal: (1) a trustable proof of truth mechanism, an oracle, to confirm that the students who signed up

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created through the IoT, will it drive further unemployment, especially in the relatively unskilled market for relatively routine tasks? In the developing world, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies could enable entrepreneurs to raise capital, protect assets and intellectual property, and create jobs even in the poorest communities. Hundreds of millions

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that industry complies with policies and effectively monitors and enforces compliance. Governments that abuse the public trust can also be scrutinized and held accountable. Blockchain Implications: The Blockchain Alliance is a partnership between law enforcement, NGOs, trade organizations, and the private sector and is the first true advocacy network to form

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world where smart contracts ensure their accountability to electorates. How do we manage the disruption after digital currencies upend the $500 billion remittances market? Blockchain technology can enable new Physical Infrastructures requiring new partnerships and understandings among stakeholders. What happens to the millions of Uber drivers when SUber wipes

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and peril of, 24–26 rational exuberance for, 8–10 seven design principles. See Design principles Blockchain Alliance, 303–4 Blockchain cooperatives, 134–35 Blockchain IPOs, 82–84, 127, 180, 181 Blockchain judiciary, 220–21 Blockchain makers, 138–39 Blockchain voting, 215–17 Blockcom, 90, 127 Blocking Web sites, 244–45 Blockstream, 28, 38,

Mastering Blockchain: Unlocking the Power of Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts

by Lorne Lantz and Daniel Cawrey  · 8 Dec 2020  · 434pp  · 77,974 words

Bitcoin Cash Fork Altcoins Litecoin More Altcoin Experiments “2.0” Chains NXT Counterparty Privacy-Focused Cryptocurrencies Dash Monero Zcash Ripple and Stellar Ripple Stellar Scaling Blockchains SegWit Lightning Other Altchain Solutions The Ethereum Classic Fork Summary 4. The Evolution to Ethereum Improving Bitcoin’s Limited Functionality Colored Coins and Tokens Mastercoin

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Whitepaper Exchange Hacks Mt. Gox Bitfinex Coincheck NiceHash Other Hacks Bloomberg TV BTC Stolen EtherDelta Redirection CryptoLocker and Ransomware SIM Swapping Summary 9. Other Blockchains What Are Blockchains Good For? Databases and Ledgers Decentralization Versus Centralization Participants Key Properties of Distributed Verifiable Ledgers Ethereum-Based Privacy Implementations Nightfall Quorum Enterprise Implementations Hyperledger

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Corda DAML Blockchain as a Service Banking The Royal Mint Banque de France China US Federal Reserve JPMorgan Permissioned Ledger Uses IT Banking Central Bank Digital Currencies Legal

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could occur if keys are not stored properly A web wallet is a website-based wallet accessed via a browser. Examples include Coinbase (custodial) and Blockchain.com (noncustodial). Pros Very easy to access from any computer May have buy/sell capability Cons User doesn’t usually have control of keys Must

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the code. ConsenSys Founded by Ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys is an organization that develops enterprise applications, invests in startups, builds developer tools, and offers blockchain education for the Ethereum network. The organization focuses on the development of dapps. Its offerings include the Truffle Suite, a framework that makes Ethereum development

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address is a smart contract. The data payload contains data. The earlier test message example created a transaction where the receiving address is the Mastering_Blockchain_Guestbook smart contract, and the data payload contains the following data: Function: setmessagefromreader(string_messagefromreader) MethodID: 0xe4cb814b [0]: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020 [1]: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020 [2]: 5468697320697320612074657374206d6573736167652c206279204c6f726e65 Gas and

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to realize that bitcoin transactions are not completely anonymous. At that time, the only visibility people had into bitcoin transactions was using a blockchain explorer such as Blockchain.info (now Blockchain.com), as shown in Figure 8-1. Figure 8-1. The first bitcoin transaction sent between two addresses, viewed in a public

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permissioned ledgers. In the permissioned world, providing infrastructure for payments and accounts is optional. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is enterprise terminology that describes a more blockchain-type ledger database. Database structures generally follow specific schemas that allow developers to read, write, and query them. DLT brings a new schema to database

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a C++ implementation called Iroha and Sawtooth, which is multilanguage. Hyperledger Fabric offers support for smart contracts, transactions, and consensus, similar to Ethereum. Many enterprise blockchain projects, including those by IBM and Oracle, are based on this framework. Corda Developed by the consortium R3, Corda focuses on institutions seeking privacy. The

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: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital Nonprofits: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking Borrowing from Existing Blockchains The Libra Association intends to create an entirely new payments system on the internet by using a proof-of-stake consensus Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithm

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, Deploying a smart contract stealth addresses on Monero, How Monero Works whitelisting, Counterparty Risk adjustable blocksize cap (Bitcoin), The Bitcoin Cash Fork adoption of blockchain, The Future of Blockchain airdrops, disbursement of cryptocurrencies via, Airdrops airgapped computers, Counterparty Risk altchains, Understanding Forks altcoins, Understanding Forks, Altcoins-Counterpartyearlier, sample of, Altcoins Litecoin, Litecoin

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REST versus WebSocket, REST Versus WebSocket testing in a sandbox, Testing in a Sandbox application binary interface (ABI), Interacting with a smart contract application-based blockchain transactions, Ether and Gas application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), Mining Is About IncentivesASIC-resistant Scrypt algorithm, Litecoin deterring use for mining, Altcoins X11 ASIC-resistant

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everything, Tokenize Everything illegal uses of, Catch Me If You Can information on the industry, Information oracles interacting with, Important Definitions origins of, Origins of Blockchain Technology-SummaryBitcoin experiment, The Bitcoin Experiment-Storing Data in a Chain of Blocks Bitcoin predecessors, Bitcoin Predecessors-Bit Gold bringing Bitcoin network to life, Bringing

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versus centralized versus decentralized, Distributed Versus Centralized Versus Decentralized-Bitcoin Predecessors electronic systems and trust, Electronic Systems and Trust otherbanking implementations, Banking-JPMorgan Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), Blockchain as a Service databases and ledgers, Databases and Ledgers decentralization versus centralization, Decentralization Versus Centralization enterprise implementations, Enterprise Implementations-DAML Ethereum-based privacy

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distributed verifiable ledgers, Key Properties of Distributed Verifiable Ledgers Libra, Libra-Summary permissioned ledger uses, Permissioned Ledger Uses-Payments use cases, What Are Blockchains Good For? scaling, Scaling Blockchains-Other Altchain Solutions tokens, questioning necessity for, Is a Token Necessary? 2.0 chains, “2.0” Chains blocksadjustable blocksize cap on Bitcoin SV

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, NXT, Colored Coins and Tokens Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), Wash Trading Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation conferences on blockchain industry, Information confidential assets, Liquid confirmations, Confirmations confirmed transactions, Transactionsconfirmed by miner, Transaction life cycle confirmed by network on Bitcoin, Transaction life cycle consensus, Consensus

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, Avalanche in Bitcoin network, Compelling Components-Generating transactions Corda, Corda consensus in decentralized systems, Distributed Versus Centralized Versus Decentralized Libra mechanism for, Borrowing from Existing Blockchains, How the Libra Protocol Works other concepts for, Other Concepts for Consensus proof-of-stake, Proof-of-Stake-Proof-of-Stake proof-of-work, Proof

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-of-Work-Confirmationsblock discovery, Block discovery confirmations by miners of block to include in blockchain, Confirmations mining process on Bitcoin, The mining process transaction life cycle, Transaction life cycle SCP protocol, Stellar XRP Consensus Protocol, Ripple ConsenSys, ConsenSysTruffle Suite tools

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attacks Corda, Corda-Corda languageconsensus, Corda consensus how it works, How Corda works ledger, Corda ledger network, The Corda network programming language, Corda language Counterparty blockchain, Counterparty counterparty risk, Counterparty Riskon centralized versus decentralized exchanges, Custody and counterparty risk reduced, on decentralized exchanges, Decentralized Exchange Contracts cross-shard communication complexity, Other

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)-Challenges in Developing Dappsbuilding decentralized web frameworks, Web 3.0 challenges in developing, Challenges in Developing Dapps Corda, Corda language running on top of a blockchain, Deploying and Executing Smart Contracts in Ethereum use cases, Use Cases decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations-Other Ethereum forks, Important DefinitionsThe DAO project

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signing and validating transactions with, Signing and Validating Transactions Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) secp256k1 function, Generating keys Enigma, Skirting the Laws, Privacy enterprise blockchains, Enterprise Implementations-DAMLCorda, Corda-Corda language DAML, DAML Hyperledger platform, Hyperledger zero-knowledge proofs used in, Zero-Knowledge Proof Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), The Enterprise

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Ethereum Alliance EOS, Blockchains to Watchorigins of, Tokenize Everything ERC-20 token standard, Tokens on the Ethereum Platform, ERC-20-ERC-20creating your own custom token, ERC-20 DeFi

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, Private Keys IDEX decentralized exchange, Decentralized Exchange Contracts illiquidity, signs of, Counterparty Risk infinite recursion, Forking Ethereum and the creation of Ethereum Classic information on blockchain industry, Information Infura, Interacting with Code initial coin offerings (ICOs), Mastercoin and Smart Contracts, Tokenize Everything, Initial Coin Offerings-Whitepaperas example of regulatory arbitrage, Initial

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wallets, Novi Lightning, Lightning, Lightningfunding transactions, Funding transactions nodes and wallets, Lightning nodes and wallets off-chain transactions, Off-chain transactions solving scalability issues on Blockchain, Lightning Liquid multisignature wallet, Liquid liquidity, Arbitrageor depth in a market, Hunting for Bart Litecoin, Litecoin longest chain rule, The mining process lottery-based consensus

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confirmed by network on Bitcoin, Transaction life cycle New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation NiceHash, NiceHash Nightfall blockchain, Nightfall nodes, Distributed Versus Centralized Versus Decentralizedin Avalance consensus mechanism, Avalanche Libra, validator and full nodes, How the Libra Protocol Works Lightning, Lightning nodes and

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wallets) nonfungible tokens, Fungible and Nonfungible TokensERC-721 standard for, ERC-721 Nothing-at-Stake problem, Proof-of-Stake Novi wallet, Novi NuBits, NuBits NXT blockchain, NXT O oligarchical model dominating the web, Web 3.0 Omni Core, Understanding Omni Layerlimitations of, Deploying and Executing Smart Contracts in Ethereum Omni Layer

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, Understanding Omni Layer Tether project built on, Tether opcodes, Gas and Pricing Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, The More Things Change operating system platform (EOS), Blockchains to Watch operators, ERC-777, ERC-1155 Optimistic Rollups, Other Altchain Solutions, Lightning nodes and wallets options, Derivatives OP_RETURN field, Adding custom logictranslation of

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metadata in, Adding custom logic Oracle, Blockchain Platform, Blockchain as a Service oracles, Important Definitionsmanipulation in Fulcrum attack, The Fulcrum Exploit order books, Order Booksthin, slippages and, Slippage over-the-counter (OTC) market

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prices (gas), Gas and Pricing Primecoin, Altcoins privacyand censorship resistance with dapps, Use Cases Ethereum-based privacy implementations, Ethereum-Based Privacy Implementations future developments in blockchains, Privacy information security in decentralizing finance and the web, Privacy-Ring Signaturesring signatures, Ring Signatures Zcash, Zcash zero-knowledge proof, Zero-Knowledge Proof zk-SNARKs

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, Brokerages Rollups, Zero Knowledge (ZK) and Optimistic, Other Altchain Solutions, Lightning nodes and wallets Royal Mint, The Royal Mint S Santander, blockchain-issued bonds, Banking SAP, Blockchain as a Service, Blockchain as a Service satoshi, Gas and Pricing Satoshi Nakamotobitcoin address related to, The Evolution of Crypto Laundering efforts to establish identity of

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and Exchange Commission (SEC), FinCEN Guidance and the Beginning of Regulation securityBitcoin transaction security, Bitcoin Transaction Security custody infrastructure for exchanges, Counterparty Risk detection of blockchain tampering with Merkle roots, The Merkle Root early vulnerability on Bitcoin, An Early Vulnerability exchanges taking care of private keys, Counterparty Risk flash loans exploiting

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on Ethereum, Infrastructure social media, campaigns to influence cryptocurrencies, Tools for fundamental analysis soft forks, Understanding Forks software development, changes from use of cryptcurrency and blockchain, Web 3.0 software forks, Understanding Forks software wallets, Wallets Solidcoin, Altcoins Solidity language, Authoring a smart contract South Korean exchanges, Regulatory Challenges speculation in

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ecosystem, Stakeholders-Informationanalytics services, Analytics brokerages, Brokerages custody solutions, Custody exchanges, Exchanges information services, Information STARKs, STARKs state channels, Other Altchain Solutions stealth addresses (Monero), Blockchains to Watch, How Monero Works Stellar, Other Concepts for Consensus, Stellar STOs (security token offerings), Different Token Types Synthetix DeFi platform for derivative assets, Derivatives

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, Decentralized Exchange Contracts Tether use case for tokenization, Tether token economics in ICOs, Token Economics tokenizing everything, Tokenize Everything use to create new cryptocurrencies on blockchain protocols, Understanding Omni Layer Torcoin, Alternative methods trading bots and exchange APIs, Exchange APIs and Trading Bots-Market Aggregators trading technology, open source, Open Source

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and Validating Transactions signing, ring signatures, Ring Signatures Tether transaction in Omniexplorer, Adding custom logic UTXO model, The UTXO Model-The UTXO Model view in blockchain explorer, Analytics transparencygreater, on decentralized exchanges, Decentralized Exchange Contracts ICOs and multisignature wallet code, Multisignature Contracts lack of, in 2008 financial crisis, The 2008 Financial

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transaction signatures, Signing and Validating Transactions virtual asset service providers (VASPs), requirement to provide user data on transactions, The FATF and the Travel Rule VmWare blockchain, Blockchain as a Service volatility of cryptocurrencies, Fungible and Nonfungible TokensMaker creating stable asset from volatile markets, DAI Voorhees, Erik, Skirting the Laws voting-based consensus

Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts

by David Gerard  · 23 Jul 2017  · 309pp  · 54,839 words

permission. Mining rig photograph of unknown origin; if this is yours, please get in touch. First edition, July 2017 Book site: www.davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain Contact the author: dgerard@gmail.com Cover art and design: Alli Kirkham www.punkpuns.com/author Contents A Bitcoin FAQ Introduction Chapter 1: What is

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a bitcoin? Why Bitcoin? What you have when you have “a bitcoin” The blockchain Secured by waste: Proof of Work Chapter 2: The Bitcoin ideology Libertarianism and cyberlibertarianism Pre-Bitcoin anonymous payment channels The prehistory of cryptocurrencies The conspiracy

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: Altcoins Litecoin Dogecoin Ethereum Buterin’s quantum quest ICOs: magic beans and bubble machines Chapter 10: Smart contracts, stupid humans Dr. Strangelove, but on the blockchain So who wants smart contracts, anyway? Legal code is not computer code The oracle problem: garbage in, garbage out Immutability: make your mistakes unfixable Immutability

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as they can get you to buy Bitcoin. After the first Bitcoin bubble popped, many of these claims were carried forward unaltered into contemporary business “Blockchain” hype. The Bitcoin Wiki answers many common objections on a “Myths” page.28 The answers are of varying persuasiveness. Decentralised! Secured by math! Bitcoiners hold

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bitcoins to spend there.115 Jeff Garzik, a Bitcoin core developer, explained to Gawker that Bitcoin wasn’t “anonymous” but pseudonymous at best, given the blockchain had every transaction ever conducted. “Attempting major illicit transactions with bitcoin, given existing statistical analysis techniques deployed in the field by law enforcement, is pretty

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200,000.197 The possible solutions are: Increase the block size, which will increase centralisation even further – big blocks take longer to propagate, and the blockchain becomes even more unwieldy. (Though that ship really sailed in 2013). Sidechains: bolt on a completely different non-Bitcoin cryptocurrency, and do all the real

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in late 2016.250 The quoted price of Bitcoin – typically a weighted average of exchange spot prices251 – has been observed going up even when the blockchain was getting hammered with transaction spam, when non-spam transactions were all but impossible; this was activity entirely inside the individual exchanges, without reference to

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cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, quickly sprang up – mostly slightly-tweaked versions of the Bitcoin code, many generated automatically at the now-defunct service coingen.io. Other blockchains might have different hashes, block sizes, block times or consensus models (how to choose who adds the next block). Short times mean you can verify

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with advertisements on the sides of London taxis.315 Here’s how the white paper describes it:316 The EOS.IO software introduces a new blockchain architecture designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications. This is achieved by creating an operating system-like construct upon which applications can

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. The software provides accounts, authentication, databases, asynchronous communication and the scheduling of applications across hundreds of CPU cores or clusters. The resulting technology is a blockchain architecture that scales to millions of transactions per second, eliminates user fees, and allows for quick and easy deployment of decentralized applications. No, that doesn

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There were some smart contract experiments on Bitcoin, but Ethereum was pretty much the first practical platform for writing and running computer programs on a blockchain. Humans are bad at tasks requiring perfection. But when programming errors have drastic consequences, the usual approach is to make it harder to shoot yourself

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why it blew up in your face. – brockchainbrockshize, /r/ethereum354 Not content with their existing sales of Internet fairy gold, some Ethereum developers at German blockchain startup Slock.it came up with an even more complicated scheme: The DAO – a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, with “The” as part of the name. This

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more famous, its dubious nature became increasingly obvious to mainstream observers. So the buzzword of choice shifted from “Bitcoin” to “the blockchain”, or just “Blockchain”. They really meant the Bitcoin blockchain, as the goal was to get interest up and the price with it. This particularly picked up around late 2014,364 when

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to “distributed ledger technology,” which would on the face of it include shared Excel spreadsheets. In the real world, nobody outside the cryptocurrency subculture uses blockchains proper, because they are ridiculously impractical and the most prominent one uses as much electricity as all of Ireland. This means their fantasy life is

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and practical technology. This includes claims made for “distributed ledger technology,” which also mostly originate in Bitcoin advocacy.365 IBM’s promotional e-book Making Blockchain Ready for Business366 is a good example. It sells vague and implied future potential – “discover what new business models could emerge if trust & manual processes

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releases barely edited, assuming there must be something to all of this. (IBM have put out a lot of these lately.) As one otherwise very blockchain-positive paper, TechUK’s “Industrialisation of Distributed Ledger Technology in Banking and Financial Services,” puts it:368 There is currently no commercially available proven technology

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effort at computerisation, there’s still too much paper and human effort. Settlements can still take days. Wall Street was very receptive to the blockchain pitch.370 The blockchain proponents’ business goal is to become the organisation controlling the new data standard, with a monopoly maintained by network effect. The barrier that

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industry’s players want to create a new central octopus. Examples include: Blem Information Management, an insurance software company, posit putting all documents on a blockchain so smart contracts can speed up payouts. The problem this claims to solve is insurers deliberately altering or losing documents: “There have always been suspicions

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no digital record will enforce land use for you. Supply chain provenance is a perennial proposal. Provenance, Inc. proposes putting tuna catches on the Ethereum blockchain. They claim to offer supply chain transparency to all participants, and this will reveal illegal overfishing or fishing that involves human rights abuses. The data

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software. The assumption seems to be that commercial operations engaging in illegal overfishing or human rights abuses will carefully document their illegal activities on the blockchain and not just lie, or bribe the “neutral” inspectors or adjudicators – as happens in current supply chain monitoring.373 The main byproduct is a

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take turns, because trustlessness in practice is hugely inefficient, and a bit of trust saves vast amounts of wasted effort. But even then, a “permissioned” blockchain is otherwise known as “the most inefficient possible centrally-administered database cluster.” All proposals I’ve seen in the course of researching this chapter, if

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-evident ledger, and we already have working examples which are useful for real things (e.g., Git) with no need for the sillier aspects of blockchain-style decentralisation. The examples remain instructive, particularly in comparison to Bitcoin or Ethereum: Accenture: Accenture offer the one thing customers who actually have money want

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be ultimately produced by the initiative.”391 If you click long enough, you’ll find a page where the participating companies have dumped their unfinished blockchain experiments.392 The main code contributor is Digital Asset Holdings; their joining announcement (on their own site, not hyperledger.org) gives as technical details

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and there seems no obvious solution. This is like catnip for snake-oil salesmen: desperate people with money to spend. Perhaps “blockchains” will fix it! Berklee Rethink and blockchain dreams The blockchain hype went public in July 2015 with “Fair Music: Transparency and Payment Flows in the Music Industry,”404 a report from

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an iTunes purchase; Transactions that occur “nearly instantaneously” (“in less than one second”) and directly, from consumer to artist without intermediaries. Of course, the word “blockchain” caught all press attention, and not any of the real problems the rest of the paper described. Imogen Heap: “ Tiny Human”. Total sales: $133.20

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music copyright information, near-instant micropayments, transparency through the value chain and access to alternative sources of capital as the four key potential benefits of blockchain technology for the record industry, though even these are not without their challenges. That’s an understatement. (They also think Proof of Work is

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very useful academic survey that traces just where the Bitcoin cluster of crank political and economic ideas sprang from. Izabella Kaminska regularly discusses Bitcoin and blockchains (and “Blockchain”) in the Financial Times, both in the main paper and her blog at FT Alphaville. I’ve found her work a powerful and effective

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price up. The Willy and Markus bots, running on Mt. Gox in the days before the 2013 crash, were a notorious Bitcoin example. Permissioned blockchain: a private blockchain allowing only known participants. Allows the use of a simpler consensus model. PGP: “Pretty Good Privacy,” a program to sign or encrypt messages using

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40, 83 BitGo 84 Bitgold 19 Bitmain 57 Bitomat 43 BitPay 43, 74 BitShares 99 BitTorrent 130, 134 Blem Information Management 116 blockchain 13 blockchain (business) 111 Blockchain for Creative Industries 132 Blockchain or the Chaingang? 133 Bloomberg 117 Branwen, Gwern 60, 64, 72 Bretton Woods 20 Bridges, Shaun 53 brockchainbrockshize 108 BTC38 99

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127, 135 Digix 98 distributed ledger technology 111, 131 Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain 123 Doernberg, Ben 93 Dogecoin 92 Dogecoin Foundation 93 dot.blockchain 135 Dr. Strangelove 101 Dread Pirate Roberts 49 DRM 123, 124, 127, 135, 136 e-Gold 18, 62, 72 Early, Steve 78 economies of

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of Work 13, 91, 94, 118, 131 prosecution futures 52 provably fair gambling 39 Provenance, Inc. 116 pump-and-dump 30 quantum computer 96 R3 Blockchain Consortium 111, 123 R3 Corda 123 ransomware 69, 72 RationalWiki 141 Reason (magazine) 31 Rebit.ph 29 Recording Industry Association of America 45 Recovery Right

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2”. Data Center Knowledge. [135] “Bitcoin Mining Pools”. BitcoinChain.com, 16 March 2017. [136] Yuji Nakamura, Lulu Yilun Chen. “Bitcoin Miners Signal Revolt Amid Sluggish Blockchain”. Bloomberg, 13 March 2017. [137] Ittay Eyal, Emin Gün Sirer. “How A Mining Monopoly Can Attack Bitcoin”. Hacking Distributed (blog), 16 June 2014. [138] Cyrus

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‘creator’ sold to private investors”. Bloomberg, 24 April 2017. [184] “NCHAIN LIMITED Company number 09823112”. Companies House, 2 May 2017. (archive) [185] “Jon Matonis Joins Blockchain Pioneer nChain as Vice President of Corporate Strategy”. nChain (press release), 2 May 2017. (archive) [186] “Craig Wright at the 2017 Future of Bitcoin Conference

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issue I’ve yet to track down (and Steve doesn’t have). [238] sde1000. btcmerch. github.io. [239] Garrick Hileman. “State of Bitcoin and Blockchain 2016: Blockchain Hits Critical Mass”. CoinDesk, 28 January 2016. “Chinese yuan denominated trading represented 95% of total exchange volume.” [240] “How do I verify a US bank

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heuristic check actually applied the recommended best-practice of testing the callstack directly.” [348] Peter Vessenes. “Ethereum Contracts Are Going To Be Candy For Hackers”. Blockchain, Bitcoin and Business (blog), 18 May 2016. [349] Martin Holst Swende. “Ethereum contract security: An Ethereum Roulette”. 14 August 2015. [350] Ethererik. “GovernMental’s 1100

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a Temporary Moratorium on The DAO”. Hacking, Distributed (blog), 27 May 2016. [357] Peter Vessenes. “More Ethereum Attacks: Race-To-Empty is the Real Deal”. Blockchain, Bitcoin and Business (blog), 9 June 2016. [358] Stephen Tual. “No DAO funds at risk following the Ethereum smart contract ‘recursive call’ bug discovery”. blog

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2016. (archive) [387] Viraj Kamat. “Questions on the Next Consensus Architecture”. Hyperledger technical-discuss (mailing list), 1 September 2016. (archive) [388] Kadhim Shubber. “Banks find blockchain hard to put into practice”. Financial Times, 12 September 2016. [389] Richard Lumb, Accenture. “Downside of Bitcoin: A Ledger That Can’t Be Corrected”. Dealbook

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Corda™: A Distributed Ledger Designed for Financial Services”. R3 Blog, 5 April 2016. “Notice some of the key things: firstly, we are not building a blockchain.” (archive) [398] “Distributed ledger technology: Blackett review”. Government Office for Science, 19 January 2016. [399] GO-Science. “Block chain technology”. YouTube, 19 January 2016. [400

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”. Asymco, 12 May 2013. (archive) [418] Stuart Dredge. “Spotify now processes ‘nearly 1bn streams every day’”. Music Ally, 22 July 2015. [419] “Music on the Blockchain”. Blockchain for Creative Industries Research Cluster, Middlesex University, July 2016. [420] Petter Ericson, Peter Harris, Elizabeth Larcombe, Turo Pekari, Kelly Snook, Andrew Dubber. “#MTFLabs

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by Philomena Cunk. [423] John Lahr. “Berklee’s Open Music Initiative”. Music Business Journal, Berklee College of Music, September 2016. [424] Gideon Gottfried. “How ‘the Blockchain’ Could Actually Change the Music Industry”. Billboard, 5 August 2015. [425] Kevin Cruz. “PeerTracks: Paradigm Shift In Music World”. Bitcoin Magazine, 22 October 2014. (archive

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) [426] Benji Rogers. “How Blockchain Can Change the Music Industry (Part 2)”. Rethink Music, Berklee Institute for Creative Enterprise, 24 February 2016. [427] Rhian Jones. “Revelator gets $2.5m funding

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led by Exigent Capital”. Music Business Worldwide, 30 August 2016. [428] “TAO Network Partners With Boogie Shack Music Group to Offer Blockchain Solution”. TAO Network (press release), 22 August 2016. [429] Zach LeBeau. “Anatomy of SingularDTV’s CODE (Centrally Organized Distributed Entity)”. 9 August 2016. (archive) [430

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S-DTV CODE Smart Project Creation Conditions: Explanatory Note & Governance Terms”. SingularDTV, September 2016. (archive) [431] “The SingularDTV (S-DTV) CODE Summary Overview: For a Blockchain Film & Television Entertainment Studio & Distribution Portal, with a Smart Contract Rights Management Platform”. SingularDTV, 22 July 2016. (archive) [432] Zach LeBeau. “An Ethereum Journey to

The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology

by William Mougayar  · 25 Apr 2016  · 161pp  · 44,488 words

terms of capturing the imagination of people, a small number first, but then spreading rapidly. Welcome to the new world of the blockchain and blockchains. At its core, the blockchain is a technology that permanently records transactions in a way that cannot be later erased but can only be sequentially updated, in essence

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programming languages. Since the early 1990s, the Internet ushered in another lexicon: browsing, website, Java, blogging, TCP/IP, SMTP, HTTP, URLs, and HTML. Today, the blockchain brings with it yet another new repertoire: consensus algorithms, smart contracts, distributed ledgers, oracles, digital wallets, and transaction blocks. Block by block, we will accumulate

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-end database that maintains a distributed ledger, openly. BUSINESS Exchange network for moving value between peers. LEGAL A transaction validation mechanism, not requiring intermediary assistance. Blockchain Capabilities = Technical + Business + Legal. THE WEB, ALL OVER AGAIN The past is not an accurate compass to the future, but understanding where we came from

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of TCP/IP, the Internet network protocol. It is not another whole Internet either. In 2015, some proponents of a single Bitcoin blockchain lamented the existence of several blockchains. The blockchain was seen via a one-dimensional lens (Bitcoin maximalism2), by taking a similar view as the Internet. Yes, it’s good there

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Development Platform, a Transaction Platform, a Medium, and a Marketplace. (We didn’t see the Community / Social Network aspect then, as it surfaced later.) The blockchain takes that multiplicity of functions further. It exhibits simultaneously the following ten properties: Cryptocurrency Computing Infrastructure Transaction Platform Decentralized Database Distributed Accounting Ledger Development Platform

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cryptocurrency is treated like any currency, it can become part of a financial instrument, leading to the development of a variety of new financial products. Blockchains offer an incredible innovation environment for the next generation of financial services. As cryptocurrency volatilities subside, these will become popular. Derivatives, options, swaps, synthetic instruments

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revolution. Decentralized consensus breaks the old paradigm of centralized consensus, that is, when one central database used to rule transaction validity. A decentralized scheme (which blockchain protocols are based on), transfers authority and trust to a decentralized virtual network, and enables its nodes to continuously and sequentially record transactions on a

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central database intervention to enforce verifiability is a fundamental novelty. Embedding Trust Rules Inside Transactions & Interactions By inserting rules that represent trust inside transactions, the blockchain becomes a new way to validate these transactions via logic in the network, not via a database entry or central authority. Therefore, a new “trust

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factor” is created that is part of the transaction itself. Time-Stamping, Rights, & Ownership Proofs The blockchain allows the time-stamping of documents representing rights or ownerships, therefore providing irrefutable proofs that are cryptographically secure. This, in turn, can enable a variety

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, so it will get resisted. But increased transparency can also provide increased levels of trust. Resistance to Single Points of Failure or Censorship Because the blockchain consists of several decentralized computers and resources, there is no single point of failure; therefore, the network is more resilient than centrally controlled infrastructures. And

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identity ownerships for your customers Security and privacy need to be part of the initial design, and not as an afterthought. ANONYMITY & UNTRACEABLE COMMUNICATION The blockchain enables user anonymity by choice, and it is one of the most annoying features for regulators and financial reporting authorities, specifically in consumer applications. What

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. We are witnessing a delayering across various technology pieces: Applications Programming Interfaces (APIs) are now coming from a public infrastructure that is cryptographically secured (the blockchains). Blockchains are being used as a new form of database, for example as a place to permanently store immutable cryptographic keys (or hashes) in Distributed Hash

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humans. Trust can be achieved by increasing transparency requirements, namely by sharing identity and reputation information. Proving that something has happened will be served by blockchains. There will be millions of such cases, with access rivalling the way we google for information. Anonymity, identity, decentralized data, and security are evolving issues

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operations, and they open up the applications, possibilities. Developers will rush to create smart contract-based applications without worrying about learning the internal elements of blockchains. NOTES 1. “The Fortune Cookie Principle;,” Bernadette Jiwa, http://thestoryoftelling.com/fortune-cookie-principle/. 2. Smart Contracts, Nick Szabo, http://szabo.best.vwh.net/smart

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of mature applications Scarcity in developers Immature middleware and tools Scalability Legacy systems Tradeoffs with databases Privacy Security Lack of standards Moving assets to the blockchain Quality of project ideas Critical mass of users Quality of startups Venture capital Volatility of cryptocurrency Onboarding new users Few poster applications companies Not enough

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sufficient. MARKET/BUSINESS CHALLENGES Some of the market and business challenges are macro-related, while others are more organization-specific. Moving assets to the blockchain The blockchain is a super fast rail that moves digital assets. But, the first challenge relates to placing the train on the rails before it can start

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every new venture. Venture Capital The availability of venture capital is essential for funding the incubation, production, and acceleration of innovation around the application of blockchain technology. Professional venture capitalists are well versed in funding risk and supporting entrepreneurs to help them realize their goals. We should expect a gradual increase

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. Unclear Regulations As long as the position of regulators is not clarified, confusion and uncertainty will continue to exist for everyone involved in the blockchain space. The blockchain is a blockbuster technology that affects so many areas, and it is likely that different flavors of regulation will come at it from a

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they proceed accordingly. A most common form of hype typically comes from technology providers who are overzealous in their marketing approaches. Taxation and Reporting Early blockchain platforms were focused on transactions, and not reporting. However, these platforms will need better taxation and reporting capabilities so that their output can be fed

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one by one, while some of them went away on their own. There are technical, business/market, legal/regulatory, and behavioral/educational challenges to the blockchain’s evolution. Some of the most important challenges include scalability (technical), innovation (business), trusting a network (behavioral), and modern regulation (legal). Just as we continued

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%29. 4. IDC Study, http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers. 5. These are popular programming languages. 6. https://cryptoconsortium.org/ 4 BLOCKCHAIN IN FINANCIAL SERVICES “The worst place to develop a new business model is from within your existing business model.” –CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN FINANCIAL SERVICES INSTITUTIONS will

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/KYC (Anti-Money Laundering / Know Your Customer) attestations or collateral requirements. Then, the transaction terms are entered into a smart contract and published on the blockchain, while simultaneously storing the associated regulatory agreement (for example, an International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Master Agreement) on a decentralized peer-to-peer file

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Swaps Derivatives Commodities Unregistered/Registered securities Over-the-counter markets Collateral management Syndicated loans Warehouse receipts Repurchase market STRATEGIC QUESTIONS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES Theme 1: Blockchains Touch the Core of Banking, Can They React? In Chapter 2, we introduced the word ATOMIC as a way to remember the programmability aspect of

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institutions could only do intra-company transactional analysis, and had to share information via analog or documentary methods. Network-wide analytics that are possible with blockchains transcend industries and jurisdictional borders. There is now an opportunity to trade-off reduced KYC requirements (thus fomenting financial inclusion) for the increased behavioral transparency

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be value growth happening through internal capital appreciation, either in the form of cryptocurrency or cryptographically secure tokenization of some sort. Crypto-based Technology. The blockchain and crypto-currency-based protocols and platforms are just enablers for the consensus mechanism. Typically, these are open source decentralized consensus and decentralized trust protocols

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a percentage of a company is a DAC or operates like one. LIGHTHOUSE INDUSTRIES Governments and Governance Governments and governance-related applications are ripe for blockchain technology. We categorize them in three segments: Existing jurisdictions in national, state, provincial, county, city or municipality settings Virtual governance for nations or organizations Board

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expectations, because government services cannot fail, once launched. Smaller countries, counties or cities may have an advantage in trying early projects, as they avoid potential blockchain scalability limitations. With virtual governance, BitNation offers an example of what is possible. It is a DIY smorgasbord covering legal, insurance, social, security, and diplomacy

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/, March 2016. 13. “Bitcoin Could Help Cut Power Bills," BBC, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35604674. 14. Grid Singularity, http://gridsingularity.com/. 6 IMPLEMENTING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world.” –ALBERT

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: Solving Problems Creating Opportunities Applying Capabilities Solving Problems The “problems” category comes in a variety of flavors. It forces the thinking around understanding if the blockchain has immediate applications that could impact: Cost savings: Back-office? Middle-office? Customer service? Productivity: More throughput? Efficiency: Faster processing? Compliance/Reporting enablement? Time delays

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Peer-to-peer communications THE CRYPTO ECONOMY What started as Bitcoin, the poster child cryptocurrency that captured our imagination, is leading to a multiplicity of blockchain-enabled businesses and implementations. Going forward, this is metamorphosing into something bigger: a cryptotech-driven economy with unparalleled global value creation opportunities, not unlike the

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. This gets us to the next nugget in this emerging puzzle: how do we create new value? You create value by running services on the blockchain. Blockchain services will succeed by creating a new ecosystem (just like the Web did), and it will get stronger on its own over time. There is

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and trusted commerce will happen between peers, without central intermediaries, and with little to no friction. Content distribution and attributions will be signed on the blockchain in irrefutable ways. Ownership authenticity will be easily verifiable for digital assets and physical products alike. Digital or hardware e-wallets will become mainstream, or

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agree to disclose it. Global remittances will be routinely performed from smartphones or computers, and as easily done as sending an email. Users will touch blockchain-based technology without being aware of its existence, just like using databases in the background. New decentralized financial clearing networks will challenge existing clearinghouses. Digital

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representations of any physical commodity or asset (as examples: gold, silver, diamonds) will be traded on blockchains, anywhere in the world. There will be dozens of commonly used, global virtual currencies that will be considered mainstream, and their total market value will

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across distributed teams. Remote voting will be trusted, even at national levels, in legally binding political elections. Trading exchanges (stocks, commodity, financial instruments) will adopt blockchain-based trust services for validating transactions, and streamlining their market-clearing activities. Most banks will support routine bi-directional cryptocurrency transactions (between regular currency and

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include Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Key-value store databases will be more commonly used. Special browsers will enable unique blockchain peering capabilities. Smart contract languages will proliferate. Writing decentralized applications will become as popular as writing Web apps today. Open source protocols will be used

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-landscape/. ———. “An Operational Framework for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.” Startup Management. 2015. http://startupmanagement.org/2015/02/04/an-operational-framework-for-decentralized-autonomous-organizations/. “Open Blockchain Whitepaper.” IBM. 2016. https://github.com/openblockchain/obc-docs/blob/master/whitepaper.md. Stanek, Dušan, Marián Vrabko, Markéta Selucká, Vladislav Mičátek, and Robert Siuciński. A

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A Airbnb algorithms anonymity API Apple ApplePay artificial intelligence assets audit B banks Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, President bitcoin BitNation BlockApps blockchain applications Blockchain Labs BoardRoom C Cambridge Blockchain capital markets Carlota Perez CFTC Chain clearing clearinghouse Clearmatics cloud consensus ConsenSys counterparty crypto 2.0 crypto 3.0 cryptocurrency Crypto Economy cryptography

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O Open Assets open source oracle smart oracle Otonomos over-the-counter ownership P PayPal Peer-to-Peer P2P policy makers post-trade privacy private blockchain productivity programming 10, proof in a service proof of – authority existence ownership provenance receipt stake work R R3 CEV reengineering regulation repurchase market reputation Ricardian

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V VISA Vitalik Buterin W wallets warehouse receipts web3 work World Wide Web ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Executive Presentations by William Mougayar, Explaining the Impact of the Blockchain and Decentralization As a trained professional consultant and analyst, William starts by understanding the context and unique requirements of each audience he addresses. He typically

The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything

by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey  · 27 Feb 2018  · 348pp  · 97,277 words

devices can securely talk and transact with each other without the friction of an intermediary, making possible big advances in transportation and decentralized energy grids; •  Blockchain-based supply chains, in which suppliers use a common data platform to share information about their business processes to greatly improve accountability, efficiency, and financing

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models while streamlining trillions of dollars in daily interbank securities transfers. The non-finance corporate world is also getting engaged. Hyperledger is a distributed ledger/blockchain-design consortium looking to develop standardized, open-source versions of the technology for businesses to use in areas such as supply-chain management. Coordinated by

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supplant the banks and other centralized ledger-keepers that Nakamoto identified as “trusted third parties.” The ledger they collectively produced would become known as the blockchain. With Bitcoin’s network of independent computers verifying everything collectively, transactions could now be instituted peer to peer, that is, from person to person.

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behalf. The key architectural feature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency systems that lets these peer-to-peer transactions happen is the distributed nature of the blockchain ledger. That decentralized structure is made possible because of a unique software program that uses strong cryptography and a groundbreaking incentive system to guide the

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smart manufacturing, 3D printing, and flexible, collaborative supply chains need a decentralized system for tracking each supplier’s work processes and inputs. In short, the blockchains may provide the architecture framework that makes possible the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution that brings “bits and atoms” together and thrives off massive amounts

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governance challenges, which we’ll address in coming chapters, there are numerous external barriers to adoption. There are also some thorny questions to resolve before blockchain technology or any other decentralized trust system can comprehensively underpin the world’s transactions and information exchanges. The challenges include those posed by regulators, who

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must, however, be aware of that trust component and establish acceptable standards for how data from such sources is gathered and entered into a blockchain-based system. Blockchain technology doesn’t remove the need for trust. In fact, if anything it’s an enabler of more trustful relations. What it does do

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aimed to avoid—to authorize which computers can participate in the validation process. This option makes sense for various industries that are looking to adopt blockchain technology but whose current industry structures just don’t allow a permissionless system. Until the law changes, banks would face insurmountable legal and regulatory opposition

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Here are just a few: digital “self-sovereign” identity; decentralized medical record sharing; automated, market-driven solar microgrids; decentralized commodity exchanges; crowdfunded, ownerless investment funds; blockchain-certified marriage certificates; provably secure online voting systems; decentralized supply-chain and logistics platforms; security for the Internet of Things. The list goes on and

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behind EOS, lets miners verify records and confirm transactions by reviewing messaging data, a significantly lighter task than reviewing the historical balances that other permissionless blockchains require. With easier computation demands, EOS has been tested to handle 50,000 transactions a second and should eventually be able to hit millions per

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improving rapidly while costs are steadily falling. This could eventually allow full energy independence. One can imagine an off-grid community that collectively owns a blockchain-managed decentralized solar generation plant, creating a system for storing, transporting—via self-driving electric cars—and exchanging batteries with other off-grid communities. This

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and other interested parties plugging into these networks to manage their own processes. The benefits of traceability and automation don’t just pertain to things; blockchains could also keep human beings in check along supply chains. Staff and supervisors from different vendors could be assigned special, cryptographic permissions, which, when placed

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into a blockchain environment, would appear as unique, traceable identifiers. (Here we would want to use the kind of strong encryption techniques being explored for digital identities, so

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concept. Alternatively, this technology could allow the dominant players within a supply chain to become de facto banks or insurers to their suppliers. Exploiting enhanced, blockchain-proven information about suppliers’ inventory, they can fine-tune payment terms—shifting from, say, ninety days to thirty days. That would help upstream providers unlock

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ownership depends not on possession of physical things but on control over a private cryptographic key associated with a digital record of those goods? Developing blockchain applications for supply chains that improve commercial opportunities for all, increase small businesses’ access to finance, reduce waste, and give consumers more insight into

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building systems, the computers adopted each updated version of the ledger once certain thresholds of acceptance were demonstrated across the network. These private, closed, permissioned blockchains didn’t attract the same enthusiasm among developers as all those wild Ethereum ideas to disintermediate the world or as the token issuers whose ICOs

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members as of the end of 2016, there were numerous Bitcoin-focused companies inserting their case for decentralized cryptocurrency systems. These included Blockstream, blockchain applications provider Bloq, and Blockchain.info, the bitcoin wallet and data-processing company. Still, the biggest players in this group were large incumbent companies. And that posed a

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problem lies in trying to solve identity in the first place, which he says is in breach of what Bitcoin’s open, permissionless architecture represents. Blockchain developers building these identity/reputation tools are promoting a “relic of traditional financial systems,” he argues. Outdated financial institutions such as banks need reputation to

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artists whose earnings from revenue-sharing arrangements on YouTube and other services are distributed under opaque, poorly defined terms. This too presents an opportunity for blockchain technology, where innovators are toying with new models of decentralized publishing to give content creators greater control over their output. A core idea is that

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world of an open, creativity-inspiring system of sharing envisaged by Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig and other leaders of the “free culture” movement. How might blockchain technology and related cryptographic systems of distributed information help address this imbalance? We’ve already discussed in chapter four how Brave’s Basic Attention token

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producers. How do we track everything? Undaunted, an unofficial alliance of technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, lawyers, and disruption-wary music executives is now exploring a blockchain-led approach to the entire enterprise of human expression. The essential idea is that by attaching metadata about the artist, the date of creation, the

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requirements for money transmitters handling cross-border remittances, for example. Solid privacy-protecting digital identity tools have been available for sometime that, when combined with blockchain analysis, could both make it easier for poor people to share money with each other and help regulators conduct financial surveillance of illicit fund flows

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Although their respective consensus mechanisms, incentive models, and protocol designs result in different computational efficiencies and inefficiencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and most other permissionless, public blockchains, inevitably chew up computing and energy resources as their networks grow. The good news, again, is that a great deal of thought and investment is

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Vujinovic, Kyle Burgess, Joe Colangelo, Yorke Rhodes, Balaji Srinivasan, Joel Telpner, and Don Tapscott. And a special thanks to the camaraderie and encouragement of my Blockchain Summit family, including but by no means limited to: Valery Vavilov, George Kikvadze, Bill Tai, Jamie Smith, Tomicah Tilleman, Dante Disparte, Vinny Lingham, Hernando

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When Buterin released his white paper in December 2013: Vitalik Buterin, “Ethereum White Paper: A Next Generation Smart Contract & Decentralized Application Platform,” http://www.the-blockchain.com/docs/Ethereum_white_paper-a_next_generation_smart_contract_and_decentralized_application_platform-vitalik-buterin.pdf. “You’re just as likely to find a

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http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ad-fraud-report-bot-traffic-2016-3. Perhaps inevitably, consumers are turning to ad-blocking software: “Basic Asset Token (BAT): Blockchain Based Digital Advertising,” May 29, 2017, p. 9, https://basicattentiontoken.org/BasicAttentionTokenWhitePaper-4.pdf. The idea is to create price signals: ibid. The Tragedy of

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and Risk,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 1, 2003. https://www.eff.org/wp/trusted-computing-promise-and-risk. The chip-making giant has developed a blockchain technology: See background information at: “Hyperledger Sawtooth documentation,” https://intelledger.github.io/. After the MIT group reported on its findings: Daniel Palmer, “Broken Hash

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Estate Transactions, Partners with US-Based ‘Rising Barn’ for Property Recording,” Ubitquity.io, October 17, 2016, https://www.ubitquity.io/blog/ubitquity_llc_partners_prioritytitle_blockchain_10_17_2016.html. Here, we are sobered by the experience of: Sierra Leone: Land Governance Assessment Framework, Draft Final Report, World Bank, September 2015

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/dam/sierraleone/docs/projectdocuments/environment/Land%20Policy%20SL%20151214%20FINAL.pdf. This problem was highlighted in a critical study: Victoria Louise Lemieux, “Trusting Records: Is Blockchain Technology the Answer?” Records Management Journal 26, no. 2 (2016): 110–139, doi: 10.1108/RMJ-12-2015-0042. In Cameroon and Senegal, Julius

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shared it”: “Imogen Heap—Future Music—PART 1/2, London Real,” YouTube channel, December 27, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkLrdRx0F6w. What the blockchain could do, argues Lance Koonce: Lance Koonce, “Copyright’s ‘Double Spend’ Problem: Digital First Sales,” Medium, April 27, 2016, https://medium.com/creativeblockchain/copyrights-

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sector; monetary and banking systems BanQu basic access token (BAT) Basic Attention token. See also Brave Software Inc. Beale, Inga Behlendorf, Brian Belt and Road Blockchain Consortium Benet, Juan Berners-Lee, Tim Bessemer Venture Partners Big Data Birch, David bitcoin, use of the term Bitcoin “civil war” consensus logic and cybersecurity

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scalability and security SHA-256 hashing algorithm and trust Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Bitcoin Core Bitfinex BitFury BitLand BitLicense regulation Bitmain BitPesa black-hat hackers blockchain agnostic blockchain and blockchain technologies censorship resistance and Cypherpunk community definition and use of the term distributed trust protocol and double-spending problem and energy sector and financial

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and supply chains talent pool tokens and trust as truth machine See also Bitcoin; distributed ledger technology; Ethereum; permissioned (private) blockchains; permissionless blockchains Blockchain Capital blockchain-distributed ledger. See also double-spending Blockchain Health Blockchain.info blockchain labs block.one Blockstream Bloq Blue Apron Bosch Brave New Brave Software Inc. Basic Attention token Breitman, Arthur Breitman, Kathleen

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and fair distribution and financial sector and Fourth Industrial Revolution hoarding investors and privacy and quantum computing and regulatory challenges See also Bitcoin cryptography and blockchain technology and data storage and financial sector hashes history of and identity and math Merkle Tree practical byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) and registers and

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and community DAO, The (The Decentralized Autonomous Organization) Dapps. See decentralized applications (Dapps) Dash data analytics data-stores de Soto, Hernando Debevoise Plimpton decentralization Bitcoin blockchain technology computing data storage energy sector financial sector governance identity innovation Internet and Web Internet of Things ledger-keeping media and content ride-sharing and

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“fake news” Fibonacci Filecoin financial crisis of 2008 financial inclusion financial sector and central bank fiat digital currency and Hyperledger and permissionless systems and private blockchains and reform See also monetary and banking systems Forde, Brian forks Fourth Industrial Revolution and energy sector and Internet of Things and supply chains and

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tokens See also Ethereum organized crime Pacioli, Luca Pantera Capital Parity Wallet peer-to-peer commerce and economy Pentland, Alex “Sandy” Perkins Coie permissioned (private) blockchains advantages of challenges of and cryptocurrency-less systems definition of and finance sector open-source development of scalability of and security and supply chains permissionless

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and scalability and trusted computing Pink Army Cooperative Plasma Polkadot Polychain Capital Poon, Joseph practical byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) pre-mining pre-selling private blockchains. See permissioned (private) blockchains Procivis proof-of-stake algorithm proof of work prosumers Protocol Labs Provenance public key infrastructure (PKI) Pureswaran, Veena R3 CEV consortium ransom attacks

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bookkeeping. See also ledger-keeping Trump, Donald trust, distributed trusted computing Trusted Computing Group Trusted IoT Alliance trusted third parties and Bitcoin and blockchain-inspired startups and blockchain property registries and cloud computing and energy sector and governance and identity and permissioned systems truth discovery truth machine Tual, Stephan Turing, Alan “

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complete” Uber “God’s View” knowledge Ubitquity UBS Ujo Ulbricht, Ross UNESCO Union Square Ventures United Kingdom Brexit Financial Conduct Authority Government Office for Science blockchain report and universal basic income United Nations UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) UNHCR identity program World Food Program (WFP) universal basic income (UBI)

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attacks Waze Web 3 Foundation Weber, Mark WeTrust Wilcox-O’Hearn, Zooko Wilson, Fred Wilson, Steve Wladawsky-Berger, Irving Wong, Pindar Wood, Gavin World Bank blockchain lab World Economic Forum World Food Program (WFP) Wosnak, Nathan Wu, Jihan Wuille, Peter Xanadu project Xapo Xi Jinping Yelp Yieira, Thingo Yunis, Muhammad Zaatari

Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

by Melanie Swan  · 22 Jan 2014  · 271pp  · 52,814 words

Bitnotar, and Chronobit Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection Digital Asset Proof as an Automated Feature Batched Notary Chains as a Class of Blockchain Infrastructure Personal Thinking Blockchains Blockchain Government Decentralized Governance Services PrecedentCoin: Blockchain Dispute Resolution Liquid Democracy and Random-Sample Elections Random-Sample Elections Futarchy: Two-Step Democracy with Voting + Prediction Markets Societal

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art industry offers services for privately registering the exact contents of any digital asset (any file, image, health record, software, etc.) to the blockchain. The blockchain could replace or supplement all existing IP management systems. How it works is that a standard algorithm is run over a file (any file) to

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and receive Bitcoins electronically for an optional transaction fee using wallet software on a personal computer, mobile device, or web application. What Is the Blockchain? The blockchain is the public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed. It is constantly growing as miners add new blocks to it

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longer-term, more complicated financial contracts. Any currency, financial contract, or hard or soft asset may be transacted with a system like a blockchain. Further, the blockchain may be used not just for transactions, but also as a registry and inventory system for the recording, tracking, monitoring, and transacting of all

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largest of the cryptocurrencies. Table 1-1 demonstrates a helpful way to distinguish the different uses. The first layer is the underlying technology, the blockchain. The blockchain is the decentralized transparent ledger with the transaction records—the database that is shared by all network nodes, updated by miners, monitored by everyone,

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character annotation field). File storage could either be centralized (like Dropbox or Google Drive) or could be in the same decentralized architecture as the blockchain. The blockchain transaction that registers the asset can include a pointer and access method and privileges for the off-chain stored file. Second, in the case

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itself based on a mission statement; operate; pay dividends or other remuneration back to crowdfunding investors; receive feedback (automated or orchestrated) through blockchain prediction markets and decentralized blockchain voting; and eventually dissolve or have periodic confirmation-of-instantiation votes (similar to business relationship contracts evergreening or calling for periodic reevaluations).

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Path to Artificial Intelligence We should think of smart contracts as applications that can themselves be decentralized, autonomous, and pseudonymously running on the blockchain. Thus, the blockchain could be one potential path to artificial intelligence (AI) in the sense that smart-contract platforms are being designed to run at graduated

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can be quantized (defined in discrete units or packages) can be denoted this way and encoded and transacted in an automated fashion on the blockchain. Blockchain venture capitalist David Johnston’s summary and prognostication of this dynamic is that anything that can be decentralized will be, showing his belief in the

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the secure timestamping function of when a specific attestation transaction occurred. Via the hash, the original file content has essentially been encoded into the blockchain. The blockchain can serve as a document registry. The key idea is using cryptographic hashes as a form of asset verification and attestation, the importance of

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would be a tremendous time-saver). This could be accomplished through off-chain indexed paper storage repositories linking the asset by key to the blockchain. The blockchain could become the universal standard for the publication of papers, and of the underlying raw data and metadata files, essentially creating a universal cataloging

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measuring nonmonetary currencies such as influence, reach, awareness, authenticity, engagement, action taking, impact, spread, connectedness, velocity, participation, shared values, and presence.176 Now, blockchain technology could make these nonmonetary social currencies more trackable, transmissible, transactable, and monetizable. Social networks could become social economic networks. For example, reputation as one

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local token would likely always be readily convertible out to more liquid cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. This is the multiplicity and abundance property of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology could enable currency multiplicity in the form of many currencies potentially existing side by side, conceived with more granularity than fiat currencies, each

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receiver’s wallet application, with an “unconfirmed” status. It then takes about 10 minutes for the transaction to confirm and be inscribed in the blockchain per blockchain miners. So, for large purchases such as a car or real estate, you would want to wait to see the transaction confirmed, but

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“Friendly” AI-Smart Contract Advocates on Behalf of Digital Intelligence artworks, Smart Property (see also digital art) Ascribe, Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection autocitation, Blockchain Academic Publishing: Journalcoin automated digital asset protection, Digital Asset Proof as an Automated Feature automatic markets, Automatic Markets and Tradenets autonomy, Smart Contracts B bandwidth

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, Technical Challenges banking industry (see financial services) betting, Bitcoin Prediction Markets, Smart Contracts big data, Blockchain Layer Could Facilitate Big Data’s Predictive Task Automation .bit domains, Namecoin: Decentralized Domain Name System "Bitbank", Financial Services Bitcoin colored coins, Smart Property concept

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Blockchains-Personal Thinking Blockchains Proof of Existence, Proof of Existence-Limitations Virtual Notary, Virtual Notary, Bitnotar, and Chronobit blockchain development platforms, Blockchain Development Platforms and APIs blockchain ecosystem, Blockchain Ecosystem: Decentralized Storage, Communication, and Computation-Blockchain Ecosystem: Decentralized Storage, Communication, and Computation blockchain government, Blockchain Government-Societal Maturity Impact of Blockchain Governance (see also governance) blockchain interoperability, Technical Challenges blockchain neutrality, Blockchain Neutrality blockchain

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technology, Blockchain Technology Is a New and Highly Effective Model

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for Organizing Activity-Blockchain Layer Could Facilitate Big Data

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of Bitcoin Coinffeine, Financial Services Coinify, Merchant Acceptance of Bitcoin Coinprism, Wallet Development Projects Coinspace, Crowdfunding CoinSpark, Wallet Development Projects colored coins, Smart Property, Blockchain 2.0 Protocol Projects community supercomputing, Community Supercomputing Communitycoin, Currency, Token, Tokenizing-Communitycoin: Hayek’s Private Currencies Vie for Attention complementary currency systems, Demurrage

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prediction markets, Bitcoin Prediction Markets smart property, Smart Property-Smart Property wallet development projects, Wallet Development Projects copyright protection, Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection Counterparty, Blockchain 2.0 Protocol Projects, Counterparty Re-creates Ethereum’s Smart Contract Platform Counterparty currency (XCP), Currency, Token, Tokenizing Counterwallet, Wallet Development Projects crowdfunding, Crowdfunding

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of, How a Cryptocurrency Works-Merchant Acceptance of Bitcoin merchant acceptance, Merchant Acceptance of Bitcoin cryptosecurity challenges, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity cryptowallet, Blockchain Neutrality currency, Technology Stack: Blockchain, Protocol, Currency-Regulatory Status, Currency, Token, Tokenizing-Extensibility of Demurrage Concept and Features Campuscoin, Campuscoin-Campuscoin coin drops, Coin Drops as

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nonmonetary, Currency Multiplicity: Monetary and Nonmonetary Currencies-Currency Multiplicity: Monetary and Nonmonetary Currencies new meanings, Currency: New Meanings technology stack, Technology Stack: Blockchain, Protocol, Currency-Technology Stack: Blockchain, Protocol, Currency currency mulitplicity, Currency Multiplicity: Monetary and Nonmonetary Currencies-Currency Multiplicity: Monetary and Nonmonetary Currencies D DAOs, DAOs and DACs-DAOs

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and DACs DAOs/DACs, DAOs and DACs-DAOs and DACs, Batched Notary Chains as a Class of Blockchain Infrastructure, Blockchain Government Dapps, Dapps-Dapps, Extensibility of Demurrage Concept and Features Dark Coin, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity dark pools, Technical Challenges Dark Wallet,

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Online Graphics Protection digital cryptography, Ethereum: Turing-Complete Virtual Machine, Public/Private-Key Cryptography 101 digital divide, defining, Digital Divide of Bitcoin digital identity verification, Blockchain 2.0: Contracts, Smart Property, Wallet Development Projects, Digital Identity Verification-Digital Divide of Bitcoin, Limitations, Decentralized Governance Services, Liquid Democracy and Random-Sample

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seed vault backup, Virus Bank, Seed Vault Backup Healthcoin, Healthcoin, Demurrage Currencies: Potentially Incitory and Redistributable I identity authentication, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity, Blockchain 2.0: Contracts, Smart Property, Smart Property, Wallet Development Projects, Digital Identity Verification-Digital Divide of Bitcoin, Limitations, Decentralized Governance Services, Liquid Democracy and

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Random-Sample Elections, Blockchain Learning: Bitcoin MOOCs and Smart Contract Literacy, Privacy Challenges for Personal Records Indiegogo, Crowdfunding, Dapps industry scandals, Scandals and Public Perception infrastructure needs and issues

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challenges, Technical Challenges-Technical Challenges Liquid Democracy system, Liquid Democracy and Random-Sample Elections-Liquid Democracy and Random-Sample Elections Litecoin, Technology Stack: Blockchain, Protocol, Currency, Technology Stack: Blockchain, Protocol, Currency, Freedom of Speech/Anti-Censorship Applications: Alexandria and Ostel, Currency Multiplicity: Monetary and Nonmonetary Currencies, Technical Challenges literacy (see

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Contract Literacy Moroz, Tatiana, Communitycoin: Hayek’s Private Currencies Vie for Attention multicurrency systems, Demurrage Currencies: Potentially Incitory and Redistributable N Nakamoto, Satoshi, Blockchain 2.0: Contracts, Blockchain 2.0: Contracts Namecoin, Namecoin: Decentralized Domain Name System-Decentralized DNS Functionality Beyond Free Speech: Digital Identity, Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection Nationcoin,

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Currency personal cryptosecurity, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity personal data rights, Blockchain Genomics personal mindfile blockchains, Personal Thinking Blockchains personal thinking chains, Personal Thinking Blockchains-Personal Thinking Blockchains physical asset keys, Blockchain 2.0: Contracts, Smart Property plagiarism detection/avoidance, Blockchain Academic Publishing: Journalcoin Precedent, PrecedentCoin: Blockchain Dispute Resolution, Terminology and Concepts prediction markets, Bitcoin Prediction Markets,

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, Futarchy: Two-Step Democracy with Voting + Prediction Markets-Futarchy: Two-Step Democracy with Voting + Prediction Markets Predictious, Bitcoin Prediction Markets predictive task automation, Blockchain Layer Could Facilitate Big Data’s Predictive Task Automation privacy challenges, Privacy Challenges for Personal Records private key, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity Proof of

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and Public Perception-Scandals and Public Perception public/private key cryptography, Public/Private-Key Cryptography 101-Public/Private-Key Cryptography 101 publishing, academic, Blockchain Academic Publishing: Journalcoin-Blockchain Academic Publishing: Journalcoin pull technology, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity push technology, eWallet Services and Personal Cryptosecurity R random-sample elections, Random-Sample

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organizations, DASs and Self-Bootstrapped Organizations self-directing assets, Automatic Markets and Tradenets self-enforced code, Smart Property self-sufficiency, Smart Contracts SETI@home, Blockchain Science: Gridcoin, Foldingcoin, Community Supercomputing size and bandwidth, Technical Challenges smart contracts, Smart Contracts-Smart Contracts, Smart Contract Advocates on Behalf of Digital Intelligence

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, Ethereum: Turing-Complete Virtual Machine increasingly autonomous, Dapps, DAOs, DACs, and DASs: Increasingly Autonomous Smart Contracts-Automatic Markets and Tradenets smart literacy contracts, Blockchain Learning: Bitcoin MOOCs and Smart Contract Literacy-Learning Contract Exchanges smart property, Smart Property-Smart Property, Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection smartwatch, Extensibility of Demurrage Concept

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for Contagious Disease Relief throughput, Technical Challenges timestamping, Hashing Plus Timestamping-Limitations titling, Decentralized Governance Services tradenets, Automatic Markets and Tradenets transaction fees, Summary: Blockchain 1.0 in Practical Use Tribecoin, Coin Drops as a Strategy for Public Adoption trustless lending, Smart Property Truthcoin, Futarchy: Two-Step Democracy with Voting

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+ Prediction Markets Turing completeness, Ethereum: Turing-Complete Virtual Machine Twister, Dapps Twitter, Monegraph: Online Graphics Protection U Uber, Government Regulation unbanked/underbanked markets, Blockchain Neutrality usability issues, Technical Challenges V value chain composition, How a Cryptocurrency Works versioning issues, Technical Challenges Virtual Notary, Virtual Notary, Bitnotar, and Chronobit voting

Mastering Blockchain, Second Edition

by Imran Bashir  · 28 Mar 2018

out of this book Download the example code files Download the color images Conventions used Get in touch Reviews Blockchain 101 The growth of blockchain technology Distributed systems The history of blockchain and Bitcoin Electronic cash Blockchain Blockchain defined Peer-to-peer Distributed ledger Cryptographically-secure Append-only Updateable via consensus Generic elements of a

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blockchain How blockchain works How blockchain accumulates blocks Benefits and limitations of blockchain Tiers of blockchain technology Features of a blockchain Types of blockchain Distributed ledgers Distributed Ledger Technology Public blockchains Private blockchains Semiprivate blockchains Sidechains Permissioned ledger Shared ledger Fully private and proprietary blockchains Tokenized blockchains Tokenless blockchains Consensus Consensus mechanism Types of consensus mechanisms

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Consensus in blockchain CAP theorem and blockchain Summary Decentralization

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Decentralization using blockchain Methods of decentralization

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transaction data structure Metadata Inputs Outputs Verification The script language Commonly used opcodes Types of transactions Coinbase transactions Contracts Transaction verification Transaction malleability Blockchain The structure of a block The structure of a block header The genesis block Mining Tasks of the miners Mining rewards Proof of Work (PoW

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of accounts Transactions and messages Contract creation transaction Message call transaction Messages Calls Transaction validation and execution The transaction substate State storage in the Ethereum blockchain The world state The account state Transaction receipts Ether cryptocurrency / tokens (ETC and ETH) The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Execution environment Machine state The

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goals of Hyperledger Fabric The modular approach Privacy and confidentiality Scalability Deterministic transactions Identity Auditability Interoperability Portability Rich data queries Fabric Hyperledger Fabric Membership services Blockchain services Consensus services Distributed ledger The peer to peer protocol Ledger storage Chaincode services Components of the fabric Peers Orderer nodes Clients Channels World state

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database Transactions Membership Service Provider (MSP) Smart contracts Crypto service provider Applications on blockchain Chaincode implementation The application model Consensus in Hyperledger Fabric The transaction life cycle in Hyperledger Fabric Sawtooth Lake PoET Transaction families Consensus in Sawtooth The

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Consensus Flows Components Nodes The permissioning service Network map service Notary service Oracle service Transactions Vaults CorDapp The development environment – Corda Summary Alternative Blockchains Blockchains Kadena Ripple Transactions Payments related Order related Account and security-related Interledger Application layer Transport layer Interledger layer Ledger layer Stellar Rootstock Sidechain Drivechain Quorum

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Other Challenges Scalability Network plane Consensus plane Storage plane View plane Block size increase Block interval reduction Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables Sharding State channels Private blockchain Proof of Stake Sidechains Subchains Tree chains (trees) Block propagation Bitcoin-NG Plasma Privacy Indistinguishability Obfuscation Homomorphic encryption Zero-Knowledge Proofs State channels Secure

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that is, consistency, availability, and partition tolerance. We will dive into the CAP theorem in more detail later in this chapter. The history of blockchain and Bitcoin Blockchain was introduced with the invention of Bitcoin in 2008. Its practical implementation then occurred in 2009. For the purposes of this chapter, it is

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nodes and use a distributed consensus mechanism to decide the eventual state of the ledger. Bitcoin and Ethereum are both considered public blockchains. Private blockchains As the name implies, private blockchains are just that—private. That is, they are open only to a consortium or group of individuals or organizations who have decided

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generate cryptocurrency as a result of a consensus process via mining or initial distribution. Bitcoin and Ethereum are prime examples of this type of blockchain. Tokenless blockchains These blockchains are designed in such a way that they do not have the basic unit for the transfer of value. However, they are still valuable

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opposed to a traditional filesystem. BigchainDB complements decentralized processing platforms and file systems such as Ethereum and IPFS. Communication The internet (the communication layer in blockchain) is considered to be decentralized. This belief is correct to some extent, as the original vision of the internet was to develop a decentralized

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topic, and systems such as BitAuth and OpenID provide authentication and identification services with varying degrees of decentralization and security assumptions: Decentralized ecosystem The blockchain is capable of providing solutions to various issues relating to decentralization. A concept relevant to identity known as Zooko's Triangle requires that the naming

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based on the logic programmed into them. Decentralized Autonomous Societies Decentralized Autonomous Societies (DASs) are a concept whereby an entire society can function on a blockchain with the help of multiple, complex smart contracts and a combination of DAOs and Decentralized Applications (DApps) running autonomously. This model does not necessarily

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complete solution, rather it serves as a crucial building block within a more extensive security system to address a security problem. For example, securing a blockchain ecosystem requires many different cryptographic primitives, such as hash functions, symmetric key cryptography, digital signatures, and public key cryptography. In addition to a confidentiality

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gradually build on the concepts with relevant practical exercises. In addition, we will also examine hash functions, which are another cryptographic primitive used extensively in blockchains. After this, we will introduce some new and advanced cryptography constructs. Asymmetric cryptography Asymmetric cryptography refers to a type of cryptography where the key

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confirmed. If the ID is changed before confirmation, it would seem that the transaction did not occur at all which can then allow these attacks. Blockchain Blockchain is a public ledger of a timestamped, ordered, and immutable list of all transactions on the Bitcoin network. Each block is identified by a hash

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available via many online service providers in the form of bitcoin APIs, and they provide a simple HTTP REST interface. Bitcoin APIs, such as Blockchain.info (https://blockchain.info/api) and BitPay (https://bitpay.com/api), Block.io (https://www.block.io), and many others, offer a myriad of options to

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Technologies. Other requirements for mining computational puzzles include adjustable difficulty and quick verification. Adjustable difficulty ensures that the difficulty target for mining on the blockchain is regulated in response to increased hashing power and the number of users. Quick verification is a property which means that mining computational puzzles should

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-running, various commands can be run to query different attributes of Zcash. Transactions can be viewed locally by using the CLI or via a blockchain explorer. A blockchain explorer for Zcash is available at: https://explorer.zcha.in/. Address generation New Z addresses can be generated using the following command: $ ./zcash-

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Finally, Irshad gets the Ether, and it is shown in her wallet software. This is shown here: The transaction received in Irshad's blockchain wallet On the blockchain, this transaction is identified by the following transaction hash: 0xc63dce6747e1640abd63ee63027c3352aed8cdb92b6a02ae25225666e171009e Details regarding this transaction can be visualized from the block explorer at https://etherscan

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.io/, as shown in the following screenshot: Etherscan Ethereum blockchain block explorer Note the transaction hash (TxHash) at the top, later in the next chapter, and we will use this hash to see that

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in Ethereum is shown here: Private key: b51928c22782e97cca95c490eb958b06fab7a70b9512c38c36974f47b954ffc4 Public key: 3aa5b8eefd12bdc2d26f1ae348e5f383480877bda6f9e1a47f6a4afb35cf998ab847f1e3948b1173622dafc6b4ac198c97b18fe1d79f90c9093ab2ff9ad99260 Address: 0x77b4b5699827c5c49f73bd16fd5ce3d828c36f32 Accounts Accounts are one of the main building blocks of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum, being a transaction driven state machine, the state is created or updated as a result of the interaction between accounts and transaction execution. Operations

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introduction to development tools, languages, and frameworks used for Ethereum smart contract development. We will examine different methods of developing smart contracts for the Ethereum blockchain. We will discuss various constructs of Solidity language in detail, which is currently the most popular development language for smart contract development on Ethereum.

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a reference architecture that can serve as a guideline to build permissioned distributed ledgers. The reference architecture consists of various components that form a business blockchain. These high-level components are shown in the reference architecture diagram shown here: Reference architecture - source: Hyperledger whitepaper Starting from the left we see

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applications are identified using certificate authority. Authentication service is provided by the certificate authority. MSPs can also interface with existing identity services like LDAP. Blockchain services Blockchain services are at the core of the Hyperledger Fabric. Components within this category are as follows. Consensus services A consensus service is responsible for providing

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because it does not contain blocks of bundled transactions, but it falls under the category of distributed ledgers. It provides all benefits that a blockchain can. Traditional blockchain solutions, as discussed before, have the concept of transactions that are bundled together in a block and each block is linked back cryptographically to

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Connectors are basically objects that implement the protocol for forwarding payments between different ledgers. It can support various protocols such as simple ledger protocol, various blockchain protocols, legacy protocols, and different proprietary protocols. Ripple connect consists of various Plug and Play modules that allow connectivity between ledgers by using the ILP

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in production, but it demonstrates how an IoT device can be connected, controlled, and responded to in response to certain events on an Ethereum blockchain. IoT blockchain experiment This example makes use of a Raspberry Pi device which is a Single Board Computer (SBC). The Raspberry Pi is a SBC developed as

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ecosystem of smart devices can be imagined where all these things can negotiate and manage their insurance policies controlled by smart contracts on the blockchain. Blockchain can reduce the overall cost and effort required to process claims. Claims can be automatically verified and paid via smart contracts and the associated identity

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and Bitcoin. These approaches are also characterized and discussed individually in the following section. Block size increase This is the most debated proposal for increasing blockchain performance (transaction processing throughput). Currently, Bitcoin can process only about three to seven transactions per second, which is a major inhibiting factor in adapting

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process is shown in the following diagram: State channels This technique has been used in the Bitcoin lightning network and Ethereum's Raiden. Private blockchain Private blockchains are inherently fast because no real decentralization is required and participants on the network do not need to mine; instead, they can only validate

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Scalability and Security of Bitcoin. This proposal is based on the idea of speeding up propagation time as the current information propagation mechanism results in blockchain forks. These techniques include minimization of verification, pipelining of block propagation, and connectivity increase. These changes do not require fundamental protocol-level changes; instead,

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, the interest has dramatically increased, and now major institutions and researchers around the world are exploring this technology. This growth in interest is primarily because blockchain technology can help to make businesses efficient, reduce costs, and make things transparent. Academic interest is around addressing hard problems in cryptography, consensus mechanisms,

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of Autonomous Agents (AAs). More examples and the aforementioned converging technologies would be discussed in detail in later sections in the chapter. Education of blockchain technology While blockchain technology has spurred a great interest among technologists, developers, and scientists throughout almost every industry around the world, there is a lack of formal

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challenges Apart from security and privacy, discussed in Chapter 18, Scalability and Other Challenges, several other hurdles should be addressed before the mainstream adoption of blockchains can be realized. These include regulation, government control, immature technology, integration with existing systems, and implementation costs. Regulation Regulation is considered one of the

Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps

by Daniel Drescher  · 16 Mar 2017  · 430pp  · 68,225 words

layer. 2.Boritz, J. Efrim. IS practitioners’ views on core concepts of information integrity. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems 6.4 (2005): 260–279. Blockchain Basics 7 Outlook This step provided an introduction to some general principles of software engineering. In particular, the concepts of integrity and functional vs. nonfunctional

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be discussed: • The definition of a peer-to-peer system • Architecture of peer-to-peer systems • The link between peer-to-peer systems and the blockchain Blockchain Basics 23 The Definition of a Peer-to-Peer System Peer-to-peer systems are distributed software systems that consist of nodes (individual computers), which

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, the higher the chance that this fact is indeed true. It turns out that this idea will be one of the core concepts of the blockchain. Blockchain Basics 41 Foundations of Ownership Taking the findings of the previous section to a more abstract level, one can state that proving ownership involves three

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be preserved in order to yield identical results when aggregating these data. • In order to maintain integrity, only those transaction data are added to the blockchain-data-structure that fulfill the following three criteria: • Formal correctness • Semantic correctness • Authorization S T E P 10 Hashing Data Identifying data from their

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W. Meier (eds.), Fast software encryption. FSE 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3017. International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, 2004. Blockchain Basics 73 Pseudorandom Being pseudorandom means that the hash value returned by a hash function changes unpredictably when the input data are changed. Even if

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often called proof of work, as their solution proves that someone has done the work necessary to solve it. Usage of Hashing in the Blockchain Within the blockchain, hashing is used in the following instances: • Storing transaction data in a change-sensitive manner • As a digital fingerprint of transaction data • As a

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can be decrypted by everyone who possesses the corresponding public key. This is the digital equivalent to a public notice board that proves authorship. • The blockchain uses asymmetric cryptography in order to achieve two goals: • Identifying accounts: User accounts are public cryptographic keys. • Authorizing transactions: The owner of the account

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13 Authorizing Transactions Utilizing the digital equivalent to handwritten signatures Step 12 provided a gentle introduction to asymmetric cryptography. It also pointed out that the blockchain uses public cryptographic keys as account numbers and utilizes the public-to-private approach of asymmetric cryptog- raphy for transferring ownership among accounts. However, that

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. Step 3: Create a new hash reference that points to the new block header, which is now the new head of the whole updated blockchain-data-structure Blockchain Basics 127 Detecting Changes The step depicted in Figure 15-4 serves as the initial situation for studying the impact of changing data that

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collective decision making: 1. All nodes operate in the identical environment consisting of the network, nodes that maintain their individual copies of the blockchain-data-structure, and the blockchain- algorithm that governs the behavior of the nodes. 2. The decision-making problem is to select one transaction history collectively. 1Hassanien, Aboul

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chain-criterion and the heaviest-chain-criterion yield the identical result. 174 Step 19 | Choosing a Transaction History Figure 19-6. Schematic illustration of a blockchain-data-structure with difficulty levels Consequences of Selecting One Chain Selecting one specific chain among conflicting versions and establishing it as the authoritative chain has

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the following consequences: • Orphan blocks • Reclaimed reward • Clarifying ownership • Reprocessing of transactions • A growing common trunk • Eventual consistency • Robustness against manipulations Orphan Blocks The blockchain-data-structure that is grown collectively looks like a tree whose branches represent different conflicting versions of the transaction history. Applying a selection criterion actually

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chain increases as time goes by and more blocks are added eventually is called eventually consistency. Robustness Against Manipulations That path of the tree-shaped blockchain-data-structure that represents the most computational effort is the authoritative version of the transaction history. Establishing and maintaining the authoritative path is just a

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Change-Sensitive Data Storing data in a way that makes Jackets that carry Structures any manipulation stand out cloakroom tickets in their immediately pockets (continued) Blockchain Basics 191 Table 21-2. (continued) Concept Purpose Metaphor Used Hash Puzzle Imposing a computationally Opening a number lock by expensive task trial and error

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of any form of central control are the fundamentals of its functioning but can also cause limitations for its adoption. • Major technical limitations of the blockchain are: • Lack of privacy • The security model • Limited scalability • High costs • Hidden centrality • Lack of flexibility • Critical size • The most important nontechnical limitations of

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security concepts for identification and authentication. Concrete applications of this use pattern are digital identity documents for people, animals, or goods. Governments could utilize such blockchains as part of their e-government strategy for managing personal documents, drivers’ licenses, or passports. Proof of Authorship This use pattern focuses on proving that

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a specific person or institution added certain data to the blockchain. The blockchain can serve that purpose because it not only stores data that can be identified by its cryptographic fingerprint but also offers basic security concepts such

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the application idea? • What is the business case? • How are peers compensated for contributing resources to the system? Are the Requirements for Using the Blockchain Fulfilled? The blockchain is a purely distributed peer-to-peer system that consists of an unknown number of peers of unknown reliability and trustworthiness. Hence, the first

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integrity, openness, and distributed nature of the system. Knowing and understanding how the peers are compensated for maintaining integrity is a crucial aspect in analyzing blockchain applications. Therefore, it is necessary to get satisfying answers to the following questions: • What are the rules for compensating peers? • Do the compensation rules

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payment is used to pay transaction fees? • What instrument of payment is used to compensate the peers for verifying and writing data in the blockchain? Some blockchain applications use a cryptographic currency such as Bitcoin as an instrument of payment for fees and compensating peers. The resulting dependence on Bitcoin or another

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of existence • Proof of nonexistence • Proof of time • Proof of order • Proof of identity • Proof of authorship • Proof of ownership • Specific application areas of the blockchain that have already received attention or may receive attention in the future are: • Payments • Cryptocurrencies • Micropayments • Digital assets • Digital identity • Notary services • Compliance and audit

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of improvement and further development should be noticed: • Minor technical improvements and variations • Improving scalability • Conceptual evolutions and alternatives Minor Technical Improvements and Variations The blockchain utilizes a wide range of concepts and principles of software engineering and computer science such as hash functions, hash references, data structures, data storages, cryptography

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that estimating long-term effects of technical innovations is hard. However, the following aspects are promising candidates for becoming the long-term accomplishments of the blockchain: • Disintermediation • Automation • Standardization • Streamlining processes • Increased processing speed • Cost reduction • Shift toward trust in protocols and technology • Making trust a commodity • Increased technology awareness Disintermediation

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The blockchain does not destroy the role of the middleman but instead it establishes itself as a digital and strictly rule-following middleman. Replacing one middleman with

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one system that orchestrates the direct interactions of peers in a secure way is indeed a huge achievement. Hence, disintermediation is an accomplishment of the blockchain whose impact could remain. 18Lewenberg, Yoad, Yonatan Sompolinsky, and Aviv Zohar. Inclusive block chain protocols. In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security

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, the more transactions and interactions between contracting parties will be standardized. So fostering standardization of peer interactions could be another long-term accomplishment of the blockchain. Streamlining Processes As a consequence of standardization and automation, business processes will become more transparent and streamlined. Many organizations reviewed and analyzed their business processes

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Increased Processing Speed Disintermediation, standardization, streamlined processes, and automation lead to a significant speed up of processes. Hence, one can expect that the more the blockchain is used, the more timely transactions and interactions between contracting parties will be executed. The speeding up of processes that once involved time-consuming manually

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performed tasks could be another long-term contribution of the blockchain. Cost Reduction The economic consequence of automation, disintermediation, and standardization is often a reduction of costs. History has shown that cost- reducing effects of

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a political statement or commitment to alternative software systems that absolves them from any kind of governmental or commercial control and coordination. Cryptocurrencies as alternative Blockchain Basics 247 money that is supposed to be independent of governmental regulation as well as independent reputation systems or systems for managing identity independently from

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, 97 clarifying ownership, 192 Block, 34, 160 transferring ownership, 192 hash, 120 nonfunctional aspects header, 139, 156 availability, 193 reference, 130–131 censorship proof, 193 Blockchain open, 193 -algorithm pseudoanonymous, 193 competition, 157–158 reliable, 193 identical working rhythm, 159 Asymmetric cryptography, 190 metaphor used, 191 authorize transactions, 100 peer control

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goal, 136 idea, 137 Handwritten signatures, 103 metaphor, 135–136 Hash Implementation layer, 4–5, 10 functions, 72 functional aspects puzzle, 142 consensus logic, 199 blockchain-data-structure, 140 ownership logic, 195 combination lock, 89 peer-to-peer architecture, 198 difficulty level, 91 storage logic, 197–198 elements, 89 transaction processing

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Identical working rhythm, 159 L Identification, 43–44 Large-scale commercial projects, 247 Immutability, 191 Ledgers, 41–42, 44–45 aristocratic family, 135 distribute, 60 blockchain-data-structure double spending problem, 51–52 all-or-nothing approach, 138 new transactions, 60–61 compulsory data, 139 transaction history, 61 computational costs, 138

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Smart contracts, 240–241 Private key, 98–100, 206–207 Software architecture, 10 Protecting ownership, 59 centralized systems, 11 Pseudorandom, 73 distributed systems, 11 Public blockchains, 215 Speed competition, 158 Public key, 98–99 Standardization, 243 Public-private-key cryptography. Stitches, 123 See Asymmetric cryptography Storage logic, 197–198 Q Storing

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Dependencies on Networks Higher Program Complexity Security Issues Distributed Peer-to-Peer Systems Mixing Centralized and Distributed Systems Identifying Distributed Systems The Purpose of the Blockchain Outlook Summary Step 3: Recognizing the Potential The Metaphor How a Peer-to-Peer System Changed a Whole Industry The Potential of Peer-to-Peer

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The Metaphor Ownership and Witnesses Foundations of Ownership A Short Detour to Security Identification Authentication Authorization Purposes and Properties of a Ledger Ownership and the Blockchain Outlook Summary Step 7: Spending Money Twice The Metaphor The Double Spending Problem The Term Double Spending as a Problem of Copying Digital Goods Double

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Cryptography Asymmetric Cryptography in the Real World Creating and Distributing the Keys Using the Keys Public to Private Private to Public Asymmetric Cryptography in the Blockchain Identifying Accounts Authorizing Transactions Outlook Summary Step 13: Authorizing Transactions The Metaphor The Goal The Challenge The Idea A Short Detour to Digital Signatures Creating

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a Transaction Why It Works Outlook Summary Step 14: Storing Transaction Data The Metaphor The Goal The Challenge The Idea Transforming a Book into a Blockchain-Data-Structure Starting Point: A Book Transformation 1: Making Page Dependency Explicit Transformation 2: Outsourcing the Content Transformation 3: Replacing Page Numbers Transformation 4:

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Creating Reference Numbers Transformation 5: Getting Rid of the Book Spine Goal Achieved: Appreciating the Result The Blockchain-Data-Structure The Mental Unit of a Page of the Ordering Catalog and Its Corresponding Content Page Ordering Catalog Content Pages Catalog Page Reference Numbers

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Content Reference Numbers Storing Transactions in the Blockchain-Data-Structure Outlook Summary Step 15: Using the Data Store The Metaphor Adding New Transactions Detecting Changes Changing the Content of Transaction Data Changing a

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Developments and Alternatives Minor Technical Improvements and Variations Improving Scalability Conceptual Evolutions Access Rights Privacy Consensus Transactions Inventory Data Data Structure Major Accomplishments of the Blockchain Disintermediation Automation Standardization Streamlining Processes Increased Processing Speed Cost Reduction Shift Toward Trust in Protocols and Technology Making Trust a Commodity Increased Technology Awareness Possible

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy

by George Gilder  · 16 Jul 2018  · 332pp  · 93,672 words

Asilomar had advance notice of the significance of Buterin’s work. Buterin succinctly described his company, Ethereum, launched in July 2015, as a “blockchain app platform.” The blockchain is an open, distributed, unhackable ledger devised in 2008 by the unknown person (or perhaps group) known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” to support his

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direction. They are actually in jeopardy, not from an all-powerful artificial intelligence, but from a distributed, peer-to-peer revolution supporting human intelligence—the blockchain and new crypto-efflorescence. Buterin and his allies are dedicated to restoring data to its originators and incorporating it horizontally and interoperatively across the cryptocosm

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the Internet and the global financial system. “That’s what Peter Thiel wanted, right?” As he recited a litany of ambitiously cockeyed schemes—“Turing-complete” blockchains, new software languages, currencies, computer platforms, smart contracts—Strachman and Gibson could see that he was a genius. But his grandiosity and apparent lack of

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.” I contemplated the tattoos and ponytails, the suits and ties, the electronic cigs and medicinal smokes, the credentials and the Cringelys of the worldwide “blockchain community.” They were mostly a peer-to-peer display. Marc Andreessen or Gavin Andresen, Naval Ravikant or Chamath Palihapitiya, Jed McCaleb or Nick Szabo could

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all the ranting, a potent theme emerged from Wright’s speech. The bitcoin movement was going astray through such dilutive divergences from the original bitcoin blockchain as “side chains” and “lightening” channels for small-fast-transactions, betraying the original Satoshi promise. With unlimited block sizes, Wright insisted, bitcoin can be

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, nearly half that of Bitcoin. In its effect on our business, technology, and economic life, Buterin’s contribution is paralleled only by Satoshi’s blockchain itself. The primary beneficiary of most of those revenues that Wright was claiming for bitcoin—from tokens, fees, insurance, and all those smart contracts—Ethereum

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unlimited range of smart contracts. To implement this plan, he devised a new programming language called Solidity, a new currency called ether, and a new blockchain, more flexible and capacious, called Ethereum. Each of these steps was fraught with inventions. The Solidity language would be Turing-complete, which meant it

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claims. Now competing with Ethereum are such highly touted and well-funded ventures as NEO in China, Dan Larimer’s EOS (derived from the social blockchain Steemit and the distributed exchange BitShares), and Cardano, crafted by the sophisticated BitShares and Ethereum veteran Charles Hoskinson. The amazing thing about Ethereum is

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model, and Ethereum is not immune to the problem. In 2017, it survived a possibly life-threatening crisis when one of the projects using its blockchain, the Distributed Autonomous Corporation, was hacked for some $150 million worth of ether. (Two breakdowns involving Ethereum-related “wallets” followed). Under Buterin’s sure

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transforming a number of industries. As Buterin puts it, “The Internet tended to displace workers doing routine work on the edge of the system; the blockchain tends to disintermediate executives in the center.” Smart contracts may disintermediate lawyers, accountants, and bankers who do not get aboard. As Buterin says, “The

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Internet displaced the jobs of taxi drivers; the blockchain may displace Uber.” Indeed, an Ethereum company called Swarm is attempting to enable cab-drivers to transact directly with their customers through a cooperative scheme

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$280 trillion. With the value crunch for bitcoin still decades away, moderate deflation seems attractive compared to runaway devaluations. This bitcoin path is portentous. The blockchain investment strategists Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar calculate that if bitcoin merely takes 10 percent of the market currently held by financial gold, the bitcoin

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were people like Casado, Rexford, Freedman, Horowitz, and hundreds of others across the industry. These network scientists introduced Ali and the other Blockstack inventors to blockchain engineering of these principles. They scrupulously separate the control plane on a higher level from the data plane on a lower level. This design assures

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model and restore a centrifugal Internet. They were proposing the breakdown of the system into just two key structures: monolith, the predictable carriers of the blockchain underneath, and metaverse, the inventive and surprising operations of its users above. They would provide the foundation for a creative cornucopia. Continuing to work on

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tall, blond-haired software engineer from Arizona who needed help in Manhattan on a storage project named Syndicate, an enterprise file-storage system based on blockchains. Using cryptographic mathematics—hashes across time—it provides safe pointers to computer storage locations and addresses. Syndicate could use storage facilities like Google Drive, Amazon

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its “state” of time-stamped records) while being organizationally decentralized (distributing control and replicating ledger accounts across all the nodes of the network). Satoshi’s blockchain is the first embodiment of these two apparently contradictory concepts, which evoke the medieval concept of the cadastre, a public record of all real property

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works, for example, combine contributions from composers, lyricists, performers, distributors, and other participants, all of whom have particular claims. As an OTOY white paper explains: “Blockchains can handle intricate property rights needed for complex digital assets that can be routinely copied and for which time-stamped proof of authorship is crucial

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. Tokens, on the other hand, enable immediate many-sided transactions executed from embedded contracts executed within the blockchain process.” The key promise of OTOY, as John Carmack, CTO of Facebook/Oculus, observes, is an entirely new platform and user interface for the

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the limit. Blockstack, Counterparty, and Rootstock are among the companies providing platforms for secure networking based on identity and data rooted in Satoshi’s bitcoin blockchain. Specialized to be secure for money, bitcoin provides only eighty-three bytes of text storage under its OP_RETURN instruction. That’s enough for

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framing and sending software instructions for smart contracts or conditional transactions. To pay for it all, it also supplies coins—ether. Embedded in the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts can carry out financial transactions or monetary deals. Buterin offers the analogy of a vending machine, but any similar stepwise tree algorithm applies

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organizes these resources with the resources of others into a virtual supercomputer. Golem rents cycles and software for this supercomputer in the sky. A distributed blockchain system that records all the contributions and payments among the computers, Golem sprang from a fertile crypto cohort in Warsaw, Poland. It promises to perform

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, to creators and consumers tapping into bursts of massive raytracing power to share holographic virtual worlds and experiences, a distributed GPU rendering system on the blockchain taps into massive simulation resources at a low cost. This system, says Urbach, will be “valuable for real world jobs that are prohibitively expensive

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J. P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Samsung. Established to build and extend Ethereum-based standards and architectures, this alliance attests to the broad interest in Ethereum blockchain technology at the highest levels of finance and industry. At the end of September of the same year, Toyota, the world’s largest automobile company

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technology across the board. Under threat today is the $300 billion wireless transformation under the new fifth-generation architecture of 5G and the now ascendant blockchains of life after Google. A sprucely bearded, good-spirited original thinker in his late forties, Berninger begins by seeking a more gregarious Web. Wouldn

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of the Internet. Enabling the Bell’s Law change in computer architecture—dispersing the clouds of data center condensation and opening the skies of centrifugal blockchain links—is the radical infrastructure upgrade called 5G. Adopted in principle by telecom companies around the globe, 5G is the fifth generation of wireless

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definition voice, 5G is the technological infrastructure for a coming revolution in networks. It enables new distributed security systems for the Internet of Things, the blockchain ledgers of the new crypto-economy of micropayments, and the augmented and virtual reality platforms of advanced Internet communications. It is especially important for Urs

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“trusted third party,” whether Visa or Amazon, or the Federal Trade Commission, or even Preet Bharara, and have mistakes corrected? Stinchcombe amply showed that blockchains and smart contracts do not obviate the need for trust, regulation, law enforcement, government, or trusted intermediaries. I cannot say that he is wrong in

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smart contracts and global currencies are something entirely new. He implies that the disintermediation of trusted third parties is a radical departure fostered by a blockchain apocalypse. But every advance for mechanization and industry, from the loom to the sewing machine, the linotype, the metal cutter, the telephone switch, and

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the human mind for more creative adventures and accomplishments. Expectations of human sacrifices to the Moloch of machinery are at odds with nature and truth. Blockchains, hashchains, blockstacks, smart contracts, token issues, and cryptocurrencies are new ways to address the evils of the Google Age: porous Internet security, unmoored money,

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satisfied. Then, where suboptimal performance satisfies the market, modularity—using standardized interfaces and components—will reduce costs and expand market share.2 In the bitcoin blockchain, companies accept cumbersome solutions constantly distributing a 120-gigabyte ledger across the network when most of the functions could be performed ten thousand times more

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profits—that has also coincided with the decline of GDP growth.4 Companies are abandoning hierarchy and pursuing heterarchy because, as the Tapscotts put it, “blockchain technology offers a credible and effective means not only of cutting out intermediaries, but also of radically lowering transaction costs, turning firms into networks, distributing

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confinement in the giant silos of Google, Amazon, and their rivals and distribute itself across the Net again, with digital rights management incorporated in the blockchain. Most important, the crypto movement led by bitcoin has reasserted the principle of scarcity, unveiling the fallacy of the prodigal free goods and free

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based on the same cryptography that Claude Shannon and Alan Turing developed during World War II. It now provides a new computer architecture founded on blockchains, mathematical hashes, and the array of associated inventions in the Great Unbundling. The new architecture provides alternatives to the five trillion a day of

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Even money itself is being disaggregated and reinvented. The clouds are dispersing into the skies—sky computing rendered on your laptop and smartphone, spread across blockchains, transparent and transformative. The final test is whether the new regime serves the human mind and consciousness. The measure of all artificial intelligence is the

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recompute and restate all the transactions since Genesis. Bitcoins are not coins, but metrics or measuring sticks for transactions that are permanently registered in the blockchain. Blockchain: A database, similar to a cadaster of real estate titles, extended to events, covenants, patents, licenses, or other permanent records. All are hashed together

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numbers. This invention, absorbed by von Neumann and Alan Turing, launched computer science and information theory and enabled the development of the Internet and the blockchain. Gold: The monetary element, atomic number 179, tested over centuries and found uniquely suitable as money. The five precious metals in the Periodic Table

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for distributed applications based on the “hashgraph” consensus algorithm. https://www.swirlds.com/. IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger that does not use a blockchain. Its quantum-proof protocol is known as the “Tangle.” https://blog.iota.org/the-tangle-an-illustrated-introduction-4d5eae6fe8d4. 5. Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard

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document), 159–187. His chapter “Accountability” (271–340) addresses micropayments, “hash cash,” reputation systems, double-spending, proof-of-work, and other issues familiar on the blockchain. Co-author with Freedman on both papers were Roger Dingledine, student of Ron Rivest, one of the eponymous inventors of RSA security and an enthusiast

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https://charlierose.com/videos/29038. Chapter 15: Taking Back the Net 1. Muneeb Ali, “Trust-to-Trust,” 31. 2. Jude Nelson et al, “Extending Existing Blockchains with Virtualchain,” Workshop on Distributed Cryptocurrencies and Consensus Ledgers, Chicago, IL, July 2016. Chapter 16: Brave Return of Brendan Eich 1. Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable

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and the Madness of Crowds (New York: Harmony Books, 1980), foreword by Andrew Tobias. Chapter 23: The Great Unbundling 1. Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World (New York: Penguin Random House, 2016), 92–93, 142. 2. Clayton

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, Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2018). Casey, Michael J. and Paul Vigna, The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (New York: Macmillan, 2018). Chaitin, Gregory J. Conversations with a Mathematician (London: Springer-Verlag, 2002). Chaitin, Gregory J. Proving

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2003). Sweigart, Al, Cracking Codes with Python, an Introduction to Building and Breaking Ciphers (San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2018). Tapscott, Don and Alex Tapscott. Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World (New York: Penguin Random House, 2016). Tegmark, Max. Life 3.0: Being

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, William James et al “Scaling the Power Wall: A Path to Exascale,” IEEE Micro, September/October 2011. Eich, Brendan. Brave Software, Basic Attention Token (BAT), Blockchain Based Digital Advertising, White Paper (March 13, 2018). Gilder, George. “The Information Factories,” Wired, October 1, 2006. Hajdarbegovic, Nermin. “Lingusitic Researchers Name Nick Szabo

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February 16, 2012. Lieber, Franz. “Appointment in Tomorrow,” Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1951. Nelson, Jude and Muneeb Ali, Ryan Shea, Michael J. Freedman. “Extending Existing Blockchains with Virtualchain,” Workshop on Distributed Cryptocurrencies and Consensus Ledgers, Chicago, IL, July 2016. O’Hagan, Andrew. “The Satoshi Affair,” London Review of Books, Vol. 38

The Blockchain Alternative: Rethinking Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Theory

by Kariappa Bheemaiah  · 26 Feb 2017  · 492pp  · 118,882 words

other hand, technological progress is defragmenting the financial sector, causing incumbents to be challenged by tech firms. While the current dialogue looks at the blockchain as an independent technology, this section of the book attempts to clarify its amalgamator function when juxtaposed with other technologies that are currently fragmenting the

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Payments Trade Finance Regulating Regulation Accounting Jiggery Pokery Policies for a cashless future Centralized Government Money Issuance and the Cashless Economy Fiat currency on a Blockchain Multiple currencies in a cashless environment One digital money to rule them all—Fiscal Policy instead of Monetary Policy?​ Helicopter Drops and Universal Basic

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Income Examples of UBI Alaska Mincome, Canada Otjivero, Namibia Funding the Deployment Making policies based on probabilities Notes CoCo bonds and the Blockchain Scalability Sarbanes-Oxley Act Multiple Currency Mechanisms Chapter 4:​ Complexity Economics:​ A New Way to Witness Capitalism Technology and Invention:​ A Combinatorial Process Economic Entropy

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spectrum of assets. Source: Bloomberg: http://​www.​bloomberg.​com/​news/​articles/​2014-10-31/​what-the-heck-is-japans-qqe2 © Kariappa Bheemaiah 2017 Kariappa BheemaiahThe Blockchain Alternative10.1007/978-1-4842-2674-2_2 2. Fragmentation of Finance Kariappa Bheemaiah1 (1)Paris, Paris, France Since the advent of the crisis,

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money with a mobile app. This is adversely affecting the business models of the incumbents. We will come back to payments and remittances when discussing Blockchain. Advantages: customized engagement, higher security, transparency, speed, and lower costs. Risks: unestablished standards, regulation, and data privacy 2. Lending Stance: Customer-facing, B2B Main

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at two echelons. While FinTech innovations are more concentrated on providing front end solutions that offer better benchmarks for speed, agility, and user- friendliness, Blockchain and Smart Contracts are bringing about change at the infrastructural level by providing better security, transparency, and automation of operations. This two-sided attack from

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reduce operational complexity, remove intermediaries, and improve the efficiency of the clearing processes. The unglamorous yet immense insurance industry is another financial sector where the Blockchain can have significant impact. As mentioned in Sidebar 2-2, fraudulent claims pose a significant risk in the insurance industry. While new P2P insurance models

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payment can then be made via the smart contract if all conditions are met. All in all, across the various financial services, the use of Blockchain and FinTech can lead to simplified operational procedures, lesser risk, lower liquidity requirements, fewer intermediaries, higher transparency, better regulatory oversight, and easier multi-stakeholder

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agreement. In spite of this potential, the large-scale deployment of the Blockchain has been hindered for two main reasons. First, as traditional analyses of macroeconomics have been based on methodologies that do not consider the actions of

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virtues of leveraging the existing decentralized morsels of identity. Table 2-2. Private companies that are providing identity and KYC/AML services via the Blockchain Company Service Solution 2WAY.​IO Identity 2WAY.IO transforms public nodes into private nodes by adding a permission layer and connects information silos and secure

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keys behind a biometric authentication gateway. Bitnation Identity Bitnation has worked out identification solutions, such as putting a passport and a marriage certificate on the blockchain. It aims to provide the same services that governments provide, but in a decentralized and voluntary manner, unbound by geography. Cryptid Identity Cryptid takes

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. By generating and storing each key in a different location they avoid any risk of single point of failure. kompany KYB By applying a hybrid blockchain to continuously monitor and note changes of official company information (e.g., address, managing directors, company registration number, company filings, changes in directors, etc.),

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sharing a lot of raw, private data with them.” (IBT, 2015) Polycoin KYC, AML Focused primarily on digital assets compliance management, Polycoin provides a blockchain-based accounting solution that balances compliance requirements but deals with the relative anonymity of transactions. Polycoin’s platform analyzes transactions to try and identify whom

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product sends compliance officers an alert to further investigate problems like AML breaches. Coinfirm KYC, AML Focused on the digital currency sector, Coinfirm uses the blockchain to provide KYC/AML reports on digital currency transactions and entities. The transactional data is analyzed to measure the client risk rating, transaction patterns,

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and to identity discrepancies. They also provide services to banks or financial institutions who want to adopt or assess the adoption of blockchain technology with respect to AML/KYC regulations and compliance. Using Coinfirm, institutions can accept clients utilizing digital currencies, depending on their AML/KYC procedures.

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there are a number of technical solutions being pursued by a variety of actors. One approach being explored is the sharding of Blockchains and replacing a single Blockchain with many independent blockchains, interoperating in a semi-trusted manner via cross-chain miners (James-Lubin, 2015). Another possibilty being explored involves techniques from

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to be more efficient and scaled to handle high transaction volume. Both Ethereum and Ripple are capable of verifying transactions much faster than the bitcoin Blockchain. However, as Ripple transaction validators are private enterprises, they have regular IT systems with various limits. One interesting workaround of this limitation has been

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existence. 33offers every world citizen an Estonian government-issued digital identity and the opportunity to run a trusted company online © Kariappa Bheemaiah 2017 Kariappa BheemaiahThe Blockchain Alternative10.1007/978-1-4842-2674-2_3 3. Innovating Capitalism Kariappa Bheemaiah1 (1)Paris, Paris, France As stated in the previous chapter, the

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breaking down communication barriers and creating technologies that reduce intermediaries to create smaller and more interconnected teams (Ravikanth, 2015). As technologies such as the Blockchain begin to remove central points of control, the evolving digital and decentralized structure of markets today are challenging the predefined theories on productivity, risk allocation

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lack of interoperability) means that there is always a dependence on intermediaries and repetition of processes. As stated by Lamar Wilson, CEO of Fluent, a Blockchain network for financial institutions and global enterprises, “Currently, bank-run trade finance programs require a tremendous amount of resource-intensive due diligence, document collection,

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underlying distributed ledger software which functions as a universal platform. It is important to state the distinction between the term “Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)” and Blockchain. Distributed ledgers and cryptocurrency systems are different in the way transactions are validated: While Bitcoin uses pseudonymous and anonymous nodes to validate transactions, distributed ledgers

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identities (permissioned nodes) to validate transactions (Swanson, 2015). Hence the jargon of DLT is related to its context. It is specifically designed with permissioned Blockchains in mind. The underlying principle of Corda is universality. Rather than have a set of disparate ledgers working independently and serving a subset of market

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Christopher Giancarlo, the present Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) at the recent Consensus conference (May 2016) and offers regulators some Blockchain food for thought: Sidebar 3-3: Personal Opinion Statements Made By J. Christopher Giancarlo, Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Source

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mandates and requirements and capital requirements on financial institutions, created enormous amounts of operational complexity of capital constraint and capital complexity. There, too, the Blockchain offers the promise of being able to transcend some of that regulatory and operational complexity that regulators have imposed.” “I think regulators have their own

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rates and respond to shocks in the economy. 4.Transaction cost reductions: The authors question whether official CBDC should be implemented via a central bank Blockchain or, as it is currently, through centralized registers held by the money issuers. They contend that a permissioned distributed architecture would provide improved efficiency

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case, the technology you are analyzing could not have existed had it not been for a government grant. This is true even of the Blockchain. While the Blockchain was first created by a single person/group (Satoshi Nakamoto), what it represents is decades’ worth of research and development in cryptography, encryption,

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, as they are attuned for these kinds of analyses. Notes The following sections provide additional information on some relatively technical concepts. CoCo bonds and the Blockchain Source: “The future of financial infrastructure,” Section 5.5 - Capital Raising: Contingent Convertible (“CoCo”) Bonds, World Economic Forum, 2016. Unlike traditional bonds, contingent convertible (

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strengthening banks’ capital levels and prevent taxpayer bailouts. Scalability Source: “Centrally Banked Cryptocurrencies,” George Danezis and Sarah Meiklejohn, Dec. 2015. Most critics of the Blockchain cite the scalability issue as an argument for why it cannot be deployed at a large scale. There is evidence to support this claim. The

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visible monetary supply. This makes monetary policy transparent, allows direct access to payments and value transfers, supports pseudonymity, and benefits from innovative uses of blockchains and digital money. The transaction validation responsibility can be given to trusted third parties. In this way, RSCoin works on the basis of permission and

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government spends revenue via the tax system by giving a deduction on taxable income. These expenditures normally benefit higher earners. © Kariappa Bheemaiah 2017 Kariappa BheemaiahThe Blockchain Alternative10.1007/978-1-4842-2674-2_4 4. Complexity Economics: A New Way to Witness Capitalism Kariappa Bheemaiah1 (1)Paris, Paris, France If

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. Birch, D. (2014). Identity is the New Money. London: London Publishing Partnership. Buterin, V. (2016). A Next Generation Smart Contract & Decentralized Application Platform. DC Blockchain Summit. Washington DC: Chamber of Digital Commerce. Cawrey, D. (2014, July 01). BitPay Seeks to Decentralize Digital Identification with BitAuth . Retrieved from Coindesk: http://www

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. Chapter 3 Accenture. (2016). Trade finance: The landscape is changing — are you? Andolfatto, D. (2016, May 01). MacroMania . Retrieved from Monetary policy implications of blockchain technology: http://andolfatto.blogspot.fr/2016/05/monetary-policy-implications-of.html Autor, D. (2014). Polanyi’s Paradox and the Shape of Employment Growth. Cambridge

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-194). ISCE Publishing. Sayama, H. (2015). Introduction to the Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems . Open SUNY Textbooks. Sinclair Davidson, P. D. (2016). Economics of Blockchain. Social Science Research Network. Sinha, S. (2012, August 11). Econophysics An Emerging Discipline. Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 47, Issue No. 32, pp. 44 - 65.

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Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) Atlantic model Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Autor-Levy-Murnane (ALM) B Bandits’ Club BankID system Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Bitnation Blockchain ARPANet break down points decentralized communication emails fiat currency functions Jiggery Pokery accounts malware protocols Satoshi skeleton keys smart contract TCP/IP protocol technological and

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ceteris paribus Chatbots Chicago Plan comparative charts fractional banking keywords technology UBI higher-skilled workers ICT technology industry categories Jiggery Pokery accounts advantages bias information Blockchain CFTC digital environment Enron scandal limitations private/self-regulation public function regulatory framework tech-led firms lending and payments CAMELS evaluation consumers and SMEs cryptographic

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of documents empirical approach Government digital identity programs identity identity and KYC/AML services Kabbage KYC-Chain manifestations merchant processor multidimensional attributes multiple sources Namecoin blockchain OpenID protocol procedural system regulatory institutions tokenized identity transactional systems value exchange platforms vast-ranging subject Zooko’s triangle kompany.com L Large hadron collider

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money cryptocurrencies differences free banking Gresham’s law legal definition legal status private and government fiat private money quantitative model sovereign cash volatility N Namecoin blockchain Namibia Natural Language Processing (NLP) NemID Neo-Keynesian models Neuroplasticity New Keynesian models (NK models) O Occupational Information Network (ONET) Office of Scientific Research

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general equilibrium models economic flexibility EMH and RET financial markets and monetary policy growth of financial products macroeconomic theories non-bank channels securitization trades Sharding Blockchain FinTech transformation global Fintech financing activity private sector ShoCard SIGEmodels SeeSticky Information General Equilibrium (SIGE) models Skill-biased technological change (SBTC) SkuChain Software as

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models SWIFT network Systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) System identification number (SIN) T Tax evasion Tech-led firms Technology and invention accelerating consilience of technology blockchain combinatorial evolution complexity EDVAC equilibrium and rational expectations Konratiev waves Moore’s law and Wright’s law Popperian scientific method punch cards socialization specialised operations

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history fragmentation Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial modernization act ideological kidnapping macroeconomic models McFadden Act PPI process of technological innovations Trade finance automation banks and clients Blockchain capitalistic markets financial institutions limitations R3 CORDA™ regulators and policy makers supply chain management SWIFT network Wilson, Lamar Traditional structural models Tradle Transactional cost

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Leadership by Algorithm: Who Leads and Who Follows in the AI Era?

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The AI-First Company

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MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, and How to Survive Them

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The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

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AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future

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The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

by Kevin Kelly  · 6 Jun 2016  · 371pp  · 108,317 words

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption

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Red Moon

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The Levelling: What’s Next After Globalization

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An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

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Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You

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Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

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Cryptoeconomics: Fundamental Principles of Bitcoin

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Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter

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Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies

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Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane

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The Future Is Asian

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Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul

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Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter

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Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy

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Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions in the New Age of Crisis

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Team Human

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The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created by So Many Working So Hard

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Hands-On RESTful API Design Patterns and Best Practices

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Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence

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New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--And How to Make It Work for You

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The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth

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Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From the Best in the World

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Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data

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Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World

by Clive Thompson  · 26 Mar 2019  · 499pp  · 144,278 words

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The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power

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The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider

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Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation

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What to Think About Machines That Think: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Age of Machine Intelligence

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Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector Is Challenging the World by Innovating Faster, Working Harder, and Going Global

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Practical Doomsday: A User's Guide to the End of the World

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The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets

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Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

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Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism

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Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles

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The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty

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The Autonomous Revolution: Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines

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Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery

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21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

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Infonomics: How to Monetize, Manage, and Measure Information as an Asset for Competitive Advantage

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Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

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Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner

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Money: 5,000 Years of Debt and Power

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The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power

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We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet's Culture Laboratory

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Notes From an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back

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Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

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Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI

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The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future

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Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

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Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again

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Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It

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Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High

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WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

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Open for Business Harnessing the Power of Platform Ecosystems

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The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats

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Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial Markets

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Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

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Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet

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The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data

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Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology

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Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero

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The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

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Arguing With Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future

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The Laundromat : Inside the Panama Papers, Illicit Money Networks, and the Global Elite

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Collaborative Society

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Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken in and What We Can Do About It

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Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking

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The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit

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Where We Are: The State of Britain Now

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The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future

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Bulletproof Problem Solving

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Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal

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Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work

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The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity

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American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

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Grave New World: The End of Globalization, the Return of History

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What's Yours Is Mine: Against the Sharing Economy

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Surviving AI: The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence

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On the Future: Prospects for Humanity

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Designing Web APIs: Building APIs That Developers Love

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Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists

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Facebook: The Inside Story

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The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy

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Greater: Britain After the Storm

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What We Need to Do Now: A Green Deal to Ensure a Habitable Earth

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Reset

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The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back

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The Rebel and the Kingdom: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime

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Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

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Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together

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Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

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A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back

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The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World

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Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away

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The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind

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Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis

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Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care About Inequality

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Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

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Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

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Upscale: What It Takes to Scale a Startup. By the People Who've Done It.

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Nomad Capitalist: How to Reclaim Your Freedom With Offshore Bank Accounts, Dual Citizenship, Foreign Companies, and Overseas Investments

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Bitcoin: The Future of Money?

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Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World

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Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies

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Exponential Organizations: Why New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (And What to Do About It)

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