An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News

An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News

Silicon Valley tries to disrupt the world — and the world says “no.” Facebook: the biggest social network in history. A stupendous, world-shaping success. But governments were giving Facebook trouble over personal data abuses, election rigging and fake news. Mark Zuckerberg wondered: what if Facebook could pivot to finance? Or, better: what if Facebook started its own private world currency? Facebook could have so much power that governments couldn’t stop them. It would be the Silicon Valley dream. Facebook launched Libra in June 2019. Libra would be an international currency and payment system. It would flow instantly around the world by phone. It could even “bank the unbanked.” Libra could apparently do all this just by using a “blockchain.” But Libra would also make Facebook too big to control— and to lead the way for Facebook’s Silicon Valley fellows to swing the power of their money as they pleased. Facebook and their friends could work around any single country’s rules. Libra could shake whole economies. And Facebook would become the “digital identity” provider to the world. If you wanted to use money at all, you’d have to go through Facebook. Governments looked at Libra — and they saw another 2008 financial crisis in the making. Facebook’s plan would have made the company even more entrenched — at the cost of broken economies worldwide. Starting with toppling the US dollar. Libra was as incompetent as it was arrogant — and the world stopped it in its tracks. But how did Facebook put forward such a bizarre and ill-considered plan, that left every regulator who saw it reeling in horror? And what happens when another company tries the same trick? Or when Facebook won’t take “no” for an answer, and releases the cut-down version that they’re already calling “Libra 2.0”? “Libra Shrugged” is the story of a bad idea. Also covered: * Bitcoin and cryptocurrency: the source of all the bad ideas in Libra. * Central Bank Digital Currencies: digital versions of official legal tender, suddenly fashionable again because of Libra. * Facebook’s early forays into payments, with Facebook Credits and Messenger Payments. Table of Contents Introduction: Taking over the money 7 Chapter 1: A user’s guide to Libra 9 Chapter 2: The genesis of Libra: Beller’s blockchain 15 Chapter 3: To launch a Libra: Let’s start a crypto 19 Chapter 4: Bitcoin: why Libra is like this 25 Chapter 5: The Libra White Papers 33 Chapter 6: Banking the unbanked 43 Chapter 7: The Libra Reserve plan and economic stability 49 Chapter 8: Libra, privacy and your digital identity 61 Chapter 9: The regulators recoil in horror 67 Chapter 10: David Marcus before the US House and Senate 77 Chapter 11: July to September 2019: Libra runs the gauntlet 95 Chapter 12: October 2019: Libra’s bad month 101 Chapter 13: Mark Zuckerberg before the US House 111 Chapter 14: November 2019: The comedown 123 Chapter 15: Central bank digital currencies 129 Epilogue: Libra 2.0: not dead yet 141 Appendix: 2010–2013: The rise and fall of Facebook Credits 149 Acknowledgements 155 About the author 157 Index 161 Notes 167

Since its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been widely promoted as a digital currency that will revolutionize everything from online commerce to the nation-state. Yet supporters of Bitcoin and its blockchain technology subscribe to a form of cyberlibertarianism that depends to a surprising extent on far-right political thought. The Politics of Bitcoin exposes how much of the economic and political thought on which this cryptocurrency is based emerges from ideas that travel the gamut, from Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises to Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

An authoritative introduction to the exciting new technologies of digital money Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies provides a comprehensive introduction to the revolutionary yet often misunderstood new technologies of digital currency. Whether you are a student, software developer, tech entrepreneur, or researcher in computer science, this authoritative and self-contained book tells you everything you need to know about the new global money for the Internet age. How do Bitcoin and its block chain actually work? How secure are your bitcoins? How anonymous are their users? Can cryptocurrencies be regulated? These are some of the many questions this book answers. It begins by tracing the history and development of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and then gives the conceptual and practical foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the Bitcoin network as well as to integrate ideas from Bitcoin into your own projects. Topics include decentralization, mining, the politics of Bitcoin, altcoins and the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the future of Bitcoin, and more. An essential introduction to the new technologies of digital currency Covers the history and mechanics of Bitcoin and the block chain, security, decentralization, anonymity, politics and regulation, altcoins, and much more Features an accompanying website that includes instructional videos for each chapter, homework problems, programming assignments, and lecture slides Also suitable for use with the authors' Coursera online course Electronic solutions manual (available only to professors)

Finck examines the emergence of blockchains (and other forms of distributed ledger technologies) and the implications for regulation and governance.

"Mastering Monero - The future of private transactions" is the newest resource to help you learn everything that you want to know about the cryptocurrency Monero. The book, available in electronic and physical form, provides the knowledge you need to participate in this exciting grassroots, open-source, decentralized, community-driven privacy project. Whether you are a novice or highly experienced, this book will teach you how to start using and contributing to Monero. The resource introduces readers to the cryptocurrency world and then explains how Monero works, what technologies it uses, and how you can get started in this fantastic world! For technical people, there are some chapters that provide in-depth understanding of the Monero ecosystem. The Monero cryptocurrency is designed to address and avoid practical troubles that arise from using coins that do not protect your sensitive financial information. Cryptocurrencies have revolutionized the financial landscape by allowing anybody with an internet connection to instantly access secure, robust, censorship-free systems for receiving, storing, and sending funds. This paradigm shift was enabled by blockchain technology, by which thousands of participants store matching copies of a “public ledger”. While this brilliant approach overcomes many economic hurdles, it also gives rise to a few severe downsides. Marketing corporations, snooping governments, and curious family members can analyze the public ledger to monitor your savings or study your activities. Monero mitigates these issues with a suite of advanced privacy technologies that allow you to have the best of all worlds! Instead of a public ledger, Monero has a shared private ledger that allows you to reap the benefits of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, while protecting your sensitive business from prying eyes. This book contains everything you need to know to start using Monero in your business or day-to-day life. What are you waiting for? Get your copy of Mastering Monero now!

Develop a greater intuition for the proper use of cryptography. This book teaches the basics of writing cryptographic algorithms in Python, demystifies cryptographic internals, and demonstrates common ways cryptography is used incorrectly. Cryptography is the lifeblood of the digital world’s security infrastructure. From governments around the world to the average consumer, most communications are protected in some form or another by cryptography. These days, even Google searches are encrypted. Despite its ubiquity, cryptography is easy to misconfigure, misuse, and misunderstand. Developers building cryptographic operations into their applications are not typically experts in the subject, and may not fully grasp the implication of different algorithms, modes, and other parameters. The concepts in this book are largely taught by example, including incorrect uses of cryptography and how "bad" cryptography can be broken. By digging into the guts of cryptography, you can experience what works, what doesn't, and why. What You’ll Learn Understand where cryptography is used, why, and how it gets misused Know what secure hashing is used for and its basic propertiesGet up to speed on algorithms and modes for block ciphers such as AES, and see how bad configurations breakUse message integrity and/or digital signatures to protect messagesUtilize modern symmetric ciphers such as AES-GCM and CHACHAPractice the basics of public key cryptography, including ECDSA signaturesDiscover how RSA encryption can be broken if insecure padding is usedEmploy TLS connections for secure communicationsFind out how certificates work and modern improvements such as certificate pinning and certificate transparency (CT) logs Who This Book Is For IT administrators and software developers familiar with Python. Although readers may have some knowledge of cryptography, the book assumes that the reader is starting from scratch.

Ethereum represents the gateway to a worldwide, decentralized computing paradigm. This platform enables you to run decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts that have no central points of failure or control, integrate with a payment network, and operate on an open blockchain. With this practical guide, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood provide everything you need to know about building smart contracts and DApps on Ethereum and other virtual-machine blockchains. Discover why IBM, Microsoft, NASDAQ, and hundreds of other organizations are experimenting with Ethereum. This essential guide shows you how to develop the skills necessary to be an innovator in this growing and exciting new industry. Run an Ethereum client, create and transmit basic transactions, and program smart contracts Learn the essentials of public key cryptography, hashes, and digital signatures Understand how "wallets" hold digital keys that control funds and smart contracts Interact with Ethereum clients programmatically using JavaScript libraries and Remote Procedure Call interfaces Learn security best practices, design patterns, and anti-patterns with real-world examples Create tokens that represent assets, shares, votes, or access control rights Build decentralized applications using multiple peer-to-peer (P2P) components

Recent innovations have created significant developments in data storage and management. These new technologies now allow for greater security in databases and other applications. Decentralized Computing Using Blockchain Technologies and Smart Contracts: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a concise and informative source of academic research on the latest developments in block chain innovation and their application in contractual agreements. Highlighting pivotal discussions on topics such as cryptography, programming techniques, and decentralized computing, this book is an ideal publication for researchers, academics, professionals, students, and practitioners seeking content on utilizing block chains with smart contracts.