Blockchain Revolution

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

By: Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

The technology likely to have the greatest impact on the future of the world economy has arrived, and it's not self-driving cars, solar energy, or artificial intelligence.

It's called the blockchain. 

The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of information. The second generation - powered by blockchain technology - is bringing us the Internet of value: a new, distributed platform that can help us reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better. 

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 the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital currencies, the underlying framework has the potential to go far beyond these and record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certificates to insurance claims and even votes. 

Why should you care? Maybe you're a music lover who wants artists to make a living off their art. Or a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from. Perhaps you're an immigrant who's sick of paying big fees to send money home to loved ones. Or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business. 

And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg. This technology is public, encrypted, and readily available for anyone to use. It's already seeing widespread adoption in a number of areas. For example, forty-two (and counting) of the world's biggest financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Credit Suisse, have formed a consortium to investigate the blockchain for speedier and more secure transactions. 

As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, the blockchain will create winners and losers. And while opportunities abound, the risks of disruption and dislocation must not be ignored. 

Don Tapscott, the bestselling author of Wikinomics, and his son, blockchain expert Alex Tapscott, bring us a brilliantly researched, highly listenable, and utterly foundational book about the future of the modern economy. Blockchain Revolution is the business leaders' playbook for the next decade and beyond. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2016 Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Should Have Been Called "101 Uses for Blockchain"

Overall, a disappointing compendium of use cases for Blockchain technology but not a serious treatment of the technology itself. This technology will be a game changer but I don't think the book answered the question of "Why".

Excellent to start for non techies

When you new to the space.

If you did some reading already, you might feel as me that I hadn't too much new insights from what one could learn from podcasts like let's talk Bitcoin and alike.

What exactly are they writing about?

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Explaining the block chain in good detail (without getting technical) and then explaining the mechanics of those things that have already been implemented with the block chain.

What could Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I am only half way done the book and I feel like I am wasting my time listening to it. There is so much of what I would consider fluff in this book. Talking about telephone poles that could create a multi-node network has nothing to do with the blockchain. I feel like there are examples of many things given where the blockchain is not even necessary. If I am missing the bigger picture, I'll give them partial credit for doing a really bad job painting it.

Warning, rant follows:
It's as if he found out about the steering wheel and started talking about how this thing will enable cars. Cars that go fast, cars that carry things, cars that might have 4 seats or even 6 seats. Cars that could have computers on them, cars that ... you get the picture. the steering wheel is great, but by no means guarantees the real necessary components of a vehicle (power?, Transmission?). Furthermore, the steering wheel is not the only solution. You could still have a car steered by peddles, sticks, etc.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Cummings’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to other novels

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Sadness and disappointment. I feel like the book is too long and did not even hit on what I wanted.

Any additional comments?

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but the message was lost.

Going beyond BTC

Great book to get started with thinking through the application of the block chain tech to the world as a whole.
As most people, i became aware of the tech through BTC and other crypto currencies; the book helped me get familiar with potential broad applications of the tech.

One of the worst books on Blockchain and bitcoin

This is really an academic book on blockchain and too much hype and overselling of the technology without any . too much fluff and not much content with backed up material or hypothesis, wild projections are made without thorough investigation of the technology or how specific technical elements of the blockchain help resolve some of the problems in real world. In a nut shell a sales world tour of the book without much technical know how to back it up by the authors.

Lots of mistakes

One good example is naming Commonwealth Bank of Australia as a government department and another was the misunderstanding of game theory. often states opinion as fact.

This is a terrible book. Hand waives all details.

Sorry, but this is a terrible book. Hand waives all details after making wild assertions. Jams buzz words into everything. First book in a long long time I could not suffer through to the end. Couldn't take it anymore.

Johnny One-note, but the Note IS Interesting

If you know nothing of blockchain technology fear not, this book will be an approachable read. I was hoping for a more detailed look into how the technology works. The author did not deliver that. At least, not in this book. What the author does deliver is a thorough view of how this disruptive technology might approach various problems. And that is where the One-note comes in. The resulting repetition has more to do with the fact that our financial systems are so fundamentally flawed and inefficient than it has to do with the author's creativity or the applicability of blockchain to problems. The author has an undeniable point, the financial system is in desperate need of revolution. The technology is naturally Liberitarian. The author tends to avoid politics. I was thankful for that.

Too promotional

Hint: do not read any book with "Revolution" in its title.

Unless it's about Russia in 1917. Or France in the late 18th century.

Not worth it

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think this book nicely splits the difference between knowledgeable IT users and laymen. Very little for the knowledgeable, and too much magic for the laymen.

Would you ever listen to anything by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott again?

Probably not

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jeff Cummings?

Yes

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It was well organized.