Techdirt Reading List: The Blockchain Revolution

from the the-times,-they-are-a-changing dept

Thu, May 19th 2016 12:48pm — Mike Masnick

We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also helps support Techdirt.

Well, after doing four copyright books in a row, I figured it was finally time to change things up a bit, so this week, we're moving on to a technology that actually could change a lot of things -- including raising policy questions in a ton of areas: the blockchain. For the longest time, I've been meaning to write a post with the title "the Greatest Trick Bitcoin Ever Pulled Was Making People Think It Was About The Currency," but I never got around to it. Of course, in the last few months, there's been more and more understanding about the importance of the underlying blockchain technology as the truly revolutionary part of all of this. Of course, the blockchain and Bitcoin go hand in hand, and it's Bitcoin that helps make the blockchain actually work the way it needs to work, so attempts by some to separate the two entirely seem a bit extreme.

Either way, Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, who have been writing books about innovation and the culture of innovation for a very long time, have now released Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World. And it's a really well written and comprehensive overview of why the blockchain has the potential to be so revolutionary, but it's also about the challenges ahead. If you follow the space closely, I don't think there's anything that surprising about the book, but it does a really good job of pulling together a number of different threads and summarizing the potential of the blockchain very concretely.

And, if you don't understand all this blockchain/Bitcoin stuff at all, or why it matters, but want to understand it, then this is absolutely a book worth reading. Considering the possibility of the blockchain remaking a variety of different businesses, while opening up new areas for possible innovation, I highly recommend check out this book to help you think through the possibilities.

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Filed Under: blockchain, don tapscott, reading list, techdirt reading list

6 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2016 @ 4:56am

Blockchains outlawed in 3..2..1..
Governments aren't going to like blockchains.
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- ben (profile), 20 May 2016 @ 7:05am
  
  Re: Blockchains outlawed in 3..2..1..
  Yeah, if there's one thing the government hates, it's a publicly accessible register of all your activity that you have to cryptographically sign with your identity to write to it.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2016 @ 8:26pm
    
    Re: Re: Blockchains outlawed in 3..2..1..
    you have to cryptographically sign with your identity to write to it.
    
    Heh, you don't know much about about blockchains, do you? Anyone in possession of the proper key can sign it.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2016 @ 10:57pm

... blockchain remaking a variety of different businesses, while opening up new areas for possible innovation...
I would hope it opens up new ways to sue the hell outta those remade businesses and innovators, too. Ain't no fun without lawsuits.
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Adrian, 26 May 2016 @ 3:17pm

This book is not available for purchase
Amazon won't let me buy this book. Either the digital store is running short of electrons or its region blocked. Nice play Amazon, who needs money...
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Alex, 4 Oct 2017 @ 1:25pm

Leading Esports Platform Launches ICO Backed By Mark Cuban
Blockchain is killing it the game.

My current favorite is UnikoinGold, a utility token built on the ethereum blockchain. The token is meant to create smart contracts in the esports betting realm. Great idea and great investment.

Check them out: https://unikoingold.com/
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