Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World

by Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott, Jeff Cummings (Read by)

Overview

Blockchain technology is powering our future. As the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Facebook's Libra, open software platforms like Ethereum, and disruptive companies like Ripple, it’s too important to ignore.
 
In this revelatory book, Don Tapscott, the bestselling author of Wikinomics, and his son, blockchain expert Alex Tapscott, bring us a brilliantly researched, highly readable, and essential book about the technology driving the future of the economy. 
 
Blockchain is the ingeniously simple, revolution­ary protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value. Though it’s best known as the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital cur­rencies, it also has the potential to go far beyond currency, to record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certifi­cates to insurance claims, land titles, and even votes. 
 
Blockchain is also essential to understand if you’re an artist who wants to make a living off your art, a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from, an immigrant who’s tired of paying big fees to send money home to your loved ones, or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business. And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg.
 
As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, blockchain technology will create winners and losers. This book shines a light on where it can lead us in the next decade and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781511357692
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

DON TAPSCOTT is the CEO of the Tapscott Group and one of the most influential living theorists about business and society. In November 2013, Thinkers50 named Don as the 4th most important business thinker in the world. A June 2013 Forbes.com analysis of social media identified Don as the most influential management thinker in the world. He is the author or co-author of 15 widely read books about new technologies and new media in business and society, including Wikinomics and The Digital Economy.

 
ALEX TAPSCOTT is the CEO and founder of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm building blockchain companies. In 2014 he wrote the seminal report on governing digital curren­cies for the Global Solutions Network program at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Prior to founding Northwest Passage Ventures, he worked for seven years in investment banking in New York and Toronto.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xv

Part I Say Yon Want a Revolution

Chapter 1 The Trust Protocol 3

In Search of the Trust Protocol 4

How This Worldwide Ledger Works 6

A Rational Exuberance for the Blockchain 8

Achieving Trust in the Digital Age 10

Return of the Internet 12

Your Personal Avatar and the Black Box of Identity 14

A Plan for Prosperity 17

Promise and Peril of the New Platform 24

Chapter 2 Bootstrapping the Future: Seven Design Principles of the Blockchain Economy 27

The Seven Design Principles 29

1 Networked Integrity 30

2 Distributed Power 33

3 Value as Incentive 35

4 Security 39

5 Privacy 41

6 Rights Preserved 45

7 Inclusion 49

Designing the Future 51

Part II Transformations

Chapter 3 Reinventing Financial Services 55

A New Look for the World's Second-Oldest Profession 58

The Golden Eight: How the Financial Services Sector Will Change 61

From Stock Exchanges to Block Exchanges 63

Dr. Faust's Blockchain Bargain 66

The Bank App: Who Will Win in Retail Banking 71

Google Translate for Business: New Frameworks for Accounting and Corporate Governance 73

Reputation: You Are Your Credit Score 79

The Blockchain IPO 82

The Market for Prediction Markets 84

Road Map for the Golden Eight 86

Chapter 4 Re-architecting the Firm: The Core and the Edges 87

Building ConsenSys 87

Changing the Boundaries of the Firm 92

Determining Corporate Boundaries 109

Chapter 5 New Business Models: Making It Rain on the Blockchain 115

bAirbnb Versus Airbnb 115

Global Computing: The Rise of Distributed Applications 117

The DApp Kings: Distributed Business Entities 120

Autonomous Agents 122

Distributed Autonomous Enterprises 126

The Big Seven: Open Networked Enterprise Business Models 128

Hacking Your Future: Business Model Innovation 142

Chapter 6 The Ledger of Things: Animating the Physical World 145

Power to the People 146

The Evolution of Computing: From Mainframes to Smart Pills 150

The Internet of Things Needs a Ledger of Things 152

The Twelve Disruptions: Animating Things 156

The Economic Payoff 161

The Future: From Uber to SUber 164

Hacking Your Future for a World of Smart Things 168

Chapter 7 Solving the Prosperity Paradox: Economic Inclusion and Entrepreneurship 170

A Pig Is Not a Piggy Bank 170

The New Prosperity Paradox 172

Road Map to Prosperity 178

Remittances: The Story of Analie Domingo 182

Blockchain Humanitarian Aid 188

Safe as Houses? The Road to Asset Ownership 193

Implementation Challenges and Leadership Opportunities 195

Chapter 8 Rebuilding Government and Democracy 197

Something Is Rotten in the State 199

High-Performance Government Services and Operations 203

Empowering People to Serve Selves and Others 207

The Second Era of Democracy 211

Blockchain Voting 215

Alternative Models of Politics and Justice 218

Engaging Citizens to Solve Big Problems 221

Wielding Tools of Twenty-first-Century Democracy 223

Chapter 9 Freeing Culture on the Blockchain: Music to Our Ears 226

Fair Trade Music: From Streaming Music to Metering Rights 227

Artlery for Art Lovers: Connecting Artists and Patrons 239

Privacy, Free Speech, and Free Press on the Blockchain 243

Getting the Word Out: The Critical Role of Education 246

Culture on the Blockchain and You 249

Part III Promise and Peril

Chapter 10 Overcoming Showstoppers: Ten Implementation Challenges 253

1 The Technology Is Not Ready for Prime Time 254

2 The Energy Consumed Is Unsustainable 259

3 Governments Will Stifle or Twist It 263

4 Powerful Incumbents of the Old Paradigm Will Usurp It 265

5 The Incentives Are Inadequate for Distributed Mass Collaboration 267

6 The Blockchain Is a Job Killer 270

7 Governing the Protocols Is Like Herding Cats 271

8 Distributed Autonomous Agents Will Form Skynet 273

9 Big Brother Is (Still) Watching You 274

10 Criminals Will Use It 275

Reasons Blockchain Will Fail or Implementation Challenges? 277

Chapter 11 Leadership for the Next Era 278

Who Will Lead a Revolution? 281

The Blockchain Ecosystem: You Can't Tell the Players Without a Roster 283

A Cautionary Tale of Blockchain Regulation 289

The Senator Who Would Change the World 292

Central Banks in a Decentralized Economy 293

Regulation Versus Governance 296

A New Framework for Blockchain Governance 298

A New Agenda for the Next Digital Age 307

The Trust Protocol and You 309

Notes 313

Index 337

Editorial Reviews

The blockchain is one of the most fundamental inventions in the history of computer science. Read Blockchain Revolution to understand its profound implications.”
—Marc Andreessen, cofounder, Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
 
“The Tapscotts have written the book, literally, on how to survive and thrive in this next wave of technology-driven disruption. Likely to become one of the iconic books of our time.”
—Clay Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma
 
“Everywhere thoughtful people are trying to understand this revolutionary technology and how it might change the world. Team Tapscott has stepped up and written the book we’ve been waiting for.”
—Dan Schulman, CEO, Paypal
 
“Occasionally a book comes along that changes the global discourse. This is likely to be one of those books. Blockchains are at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution and the Tapscotts lucidly explain why and how to capture the opportunity and avoid the dangers.”
—Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum
 
“A carefully researched and beautifully written book. Blockchain Revolution argues that the ‘Internet of value’ will transform our lives. A must-read book for our disruptive times.”
—Dominic Barton, global managing director, McKinsey & Company
 
“Don and Alex brilliantly illuminate the technology that could profoundly impact the way we manage issues of trust, security, and privacy for years to come.”
—Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO, PepsiCo
 
“The great missing element in the Internet has been a ‘trust protocol,” a way of knowing that a transaction is verified and authentic. Blockchain technology could provide a foun­dation for that. It’s a revolutionary idea, and this lucid book explains why.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
 
“What a spectacular book. Mind-blowing in its expansiveness and profundity. It makes me think we’re at one of those times in technological, economic, and social history where the sky is the limit.”
—Steve Wozniak, cofounder, Apple Computer and chief scientist, Prime Data

“The Tapscotts provide a thorough, balanced and enlightening guide to the next big thing.”
—Financial Times

“Father and son duo, Don and Alex Tapscott, have impeccable timing.”
– Forbes Magazine
 
“The Tapscotts’ make the bulls’ case in clear and compelling terms.” 
– Fortune Magazine
 
“Blockchain Revolution is a highly readable introduction to a bamboozling but increasingly important field.”
– The Guardian
 
“This is all very new and still unfolding but I recommend that you read Blockchain Revolution…it really is time to get with the global revolution.”
– The Huffington Post
 
“The Tapscotts have done a masterful job explaining why this is, truly, another revolution.”
– The National Post
 
“The Tapscotts present a mind-expanding perspective – and their enthusiasm makes you a believer in the revolution.” 
– Thomson Reuters
 
Editor’s Choice:  "The definitive, must-read book on a new revolution.”
– 800-CEO-READ
 
“This 368-page page-turner offers the first comprehensive look at the future of this emerging digital ecosystem.”
– Comstock’s Magazine
 
“Bitcoin is just the beginning. Imagine a personal-identity service that gives us control over selling our personal data.”
— The Wall Street Journal, Bookshelf
 
“In clear, engaging prose, they make blockchain intelligible to the rest of us…this richly sourced book overflows with entertaining examples of how blockchain could enhance our lives.”
– Oxford Economics

From the Publisher