Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain

paperback, 182 pages

Published July 24, 2017 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

ISBN:: 978-1-9740-0006-7

“Ross Ulbricht had been doing all his Silk Road work from his main daily laptop. One afternoon in September 2013, he was sitting in a library, using their wifi to administer the site, and talking to a friend in the site’s online chat. Two apparently-homeless people started arguing loudly behind him; he turned to look, and the slight young woman using the desk opposite snatched his laptop. She was a government agent. So were the homeless people. So was the friend he was chatting to.”

From libertarian economics to the maelstrom of get-rich-quick dreams, right-wing anarchists, magical thinking, blatant con-men and the madness of crowds that is Bitcoin – and the story repeating in 2017 with the Ethereum and ICO bubble. And the push to sell these ideas to business as Blockchain and Smart Contracts. Plus: a case study on Blockchain in the music industry.

Remember: if it …

“Ross Ulbricht had been doing all his Silk Road work from his main daily laptop. One afternoon in September 2013, he was sitting in a library, using their wifi to administer the site, and talking to a friend in the site’s online chat. Two apparently-homeless people started arguing loudly behind him; he turned to look, and the slight young woman using the desk opposite snatched his laptop. She was a government agent. So were the homeless people. So was the friend he was chatting to.”

From libertarian economics to the maelstrom of get-rich-quick dreams, right-wing anarchists, magical thinking, blatant con-men and the madness of crowds that is Bitcoin – and the story repeating in 2017 with the Ethereum and ICO bubble. And the push to sell these ideas to business as Blockchain and Smart Contracts. Plus: a case study on Blockchain in the music industry.

Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

2 editions

colin reviewed Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard

Good Criticism of Blockchain

3 stars

This was a decent, quick read, and a pretty good criticism of blockchain, but probably could've used another round of editing or two. I was excited to read some criticism of the music industry and blockchain, but unfortunately that was one of the lighter sections of the book.