Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by Gerard, David -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

A Bitcoin FAQ Introduction Chapter 1: What is 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 theory economics of Bitcoin Austrian economics

Chapter 3: The incredible promises of Bitcoin!

Decentralised! Secured by math! Anonymous! Instant! No fees! No chargebacks! Be your own bank! Better than Visa, PayPal or Western Union! Remittances! Bank the unbanked! Economic equality! The supply is limited! The price can only go up! But Bitcoin saved Venezuela! When the economy collapses, Bitcoin will save you! You can use Bitcoin to buy drugs on the Internet!

Chapter 4: Early Bitcoin: the rise to the first bubble

The tulip bulb era The art of the steal Pirateat40: Bitcoin Savings & Trust Bitcoin exchanges: keep your money in a sock under someone else’s bed The rise and fall of Mt. Gox Drugs and the Darknet: The Silk Road

Chapter 5: How Bitcoin mining centralised

The firetrap era Abusing your hashpower for fun and profit

Chapter 6: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Searching for Satoshi Dorian Nakamoto Professor Dr Dr Craig Wright: Nakamoto Dundee. That’s not a signature.

Chapter 7: Spending bitcoins in 2017

Bitcoin is full: the transaction clog Bitcoin for drugs: welcome to the darknet Ransomware Non-illegal goods and services Case study: Individual Pubs

Chapter 8: Trading bitcoins in 2017: the second crypto bubble

How to get bitcoins From the first bubble to the second Bitfinex: the hack, the bank block and the second bubble

Chapter 9: 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: the enemy of good software engineering Ethereum smart contracts in practice The DAO: the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code

Chapter 11: Business bafflegab, but on the Blockchain

What can Blockchain do for me? But all these companies are using Blockchain now! Blockchains won’t clean up your data for you Six questions to ask your blockchain salesman Security threat models Permissioned blockchains Beneficiaries of business Blockchain Non-beneficiaries of business Blockchain “Blockchain” products you can buy! UK Government Office for Science: “Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain”

Chapter 12: Case study: Why you can’t put the music industry on a blockchain

The rights management quagmire Getting paid for your song The record industry’s loss of control and the streaming apocalypse Berklee Rethink and blockchain dreams Imogen Heap: “Tiny Human”. Total sales: $133.20. Why blockchains are a bad fit for music Attempts to make sense of the hype Other musical blockchain initiatives SingularDTV Summary

Conclusion Further reading Glossary Acknowledgements About the author Index