Blockchain: The Next Everything

by Stephen P. Williams

Overview

An experienced tech writer fully explains blockchain technology and how it will radically transform the world as we know it in this accessible, reader-friendly, illuminating guide.

What is blockchain? Why does everyone from tech experts to business moguls to philanthropists believe it is a paradigm-shifting technology, bound to revolutionize society as significantly as the internet? Indeed, why is blockchain touted as The Next Everything?

In this deft, fascinating, and easy-to-digest introduction to one of the most important innovations of recent times, Stephen P. Williams answers these questions, revealing how cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are just one example among dozens of transformative applications that this relatively new technology makes possible. He interprets the complexity into digestible anecdotes, metaphors, and straightforward descriptions for readers who don’t know tech, and explains all of blockchain’s most important aspects: why this so-called digital ledger is unhackable and unchangeable; how its distributed nature may transfer power from central entities like banks, government, and corporations to ordinary citizens around the world; and what its widespread use will mean for society as a whole.

Taking us on a dazzlingly vivid tour through the systems predicted to soon underpin economics, politics, global trade, science, art, and numerous other aspects of our everyday lives, Blockchain: The Next Everything is a truly extraordinary journey into our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982116828
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,084,526
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Stephen P. Williams is a journalist and author and coauthor of numerous works of nonfiction, including Blockchain: The Next Everything. He has written business and health columns for The New York Times and Newsweek and has contributed regularly to GQ, The Smithsonian, Martha Stewart Living, and other publications. He heads a sustainable fashion startup called Wm. Williams, which uses blockchain technology to manage distributed manufacturing. He lives in New York and has an MBA in Sustainability from Bard College and an MA in Communications from Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I Experiencing Blockchain

What Is Blockchain? 7

What Blockchain Does 11

Ships Not Seen 27

Embracing Distributed Systems 41

II How It Works

The Chains 59

The Trust OS 77

III Money And Creation

The Person Behind Blockchain 95

The Meaning of Money 101

IV The Thrill Of The New

Stacks of Apps Called Dapps 121

Hunting Unicorns 139

Self-Sovereign 153

The New, New World 161

Next 181

Acknowledgments 191

Further Reading 193

Editorial Reviews

03/18/2019

Journalist Williams (How to Be a Hollywood Star) declares that blockchain possesses unlimited potential in this passionate, erratic love letter to the innovative technology. Presenting an almost stream-of-conscious series of short vignettes, Williams begins by defining blockchain—a digital ledger originally created for recording transactions involving the cryptocurrency Bitcoin—and explaining how it works, then expounds upon its other uses, which include tracking commodities from their origin to their sale, which could, he writes, stem trafficking in blood diamonds and other morally tainted goods; providing people without drivers’ licenses or passports a form of government ID, a valuable benefit for the estimated 1.1 billion people without ID in the world today; and enabling the secure copyrighting of online photos and other files. In the future, Williams sees blockchain bringing about a newly decentralized and transparent internet. Woven throughout are anecdotes about attending academic panels—one intriguingly titled “AI, Blockchain, and the New Matriarchy”—and witnessing a psychedelic-laced shamanic ritual in the Amazon, during which Williams witnesses a “radiant green light... radiant with periodic dots” he compares to the nodes and system connecting the blockchain. This short introduction to a cutting-edge technology is appealingly informative and hopeful, but its inconsistent, flighty structure will largely restrict its readership to those already interested in the topic. Agent: Susanna Lea, Susanna Lea Associates. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Shakespeare famously advised readers to be on watch for tides in human history. Now we have blockchain. If you are curious about it, read this book. Stephen P. Williams has created a remarkable and remarkably accessible piece of work on one of the most important topics of our time.

Rye Barcott

Finally: a book that engagingly and entertainingly tells you what blockchain is and how it works. It makes clear why it’s so important for our future, showing how this technology can help with everything from voting rights to economic inequality to corporate transparency to climate change. Stephen P. Williams’ Blockchain: The Next Everything is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand where the world is headed.

Hunter Lovins

"Stephen P. Williams has created a small miracle – a book about blockchain that helps the rest of us understand what it is, how it works and what the implications are for the future of our world. From the first page to the last, just when you think you know what this book is, it surprises you. By turns poetic, philosophical, explanatory and provocative, Blockchain: The Next Everything is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what all the hype is about, and why they should care."

Ty Montague

An astonishing, illuminating tour of a mind-bending new economic model—written with the verve and page-turning appeal of a novel. A book for the nerd but especially for the rest of us scratching our tech-terrified heads. And—how did he do this?—it's inspiring and fun.

Patricia Hampl