The Truth Machine

Publisher's Summary

"Views differ on bitcoin, but few doubt the transformative potential of Blockchain technology. The Truth Machine is the best book so far on what has happened and what may come along. It demands the attention of anyone concerned with our economic future." (Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard, former Treasury Secretary)

From Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna, the authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency, comes the definitive audiobook on the Internet’s Next Big Thing: The Blockchain.   

Big banks have grown bigger and more entrenched. Privacy exists only until the next hack. Credit card fraud is a fact of life. Many of the “legacy systems” once designed to make our lives easier and our economy more efficient are no longer up to the task. Yet there is a way past all this - a new kind of operating system with the potential to revolutionize vast swaths of our economy: the blockchain. 

In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society’s faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping. Casey and Vigna expose the challenge of replacing trusted (and not-so-trusted) institutions on which we’ve relied for centuries with a radical model that bypasses them.  

The Truth Machine reveals the empowerment possible when self-interested middlemen give way to the transparency of the blockchain, while highlighting the job losses, assertion of special interests, and threat to social cohesion that will accompany this shift. With the same balanced perspective they brought to The Age of Cryptocurrency, Casey and Vigna show why listeners must care about the path that blockchain technology takes - moving humanity forward, not backward.  

©2018 Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Decent blockchain book

This a was a decent follow up book to the authors previous blockchain book. The authors are clearly Bitcoin Maximalists so they repeatedly point to Bitcoin Lightning Network as a solution for all. Unfortunately, the authors couldn’t stop bringing up politics and their anti-Trump leanings.

21 of 21 people found this review helpful

Blockchain in-theory... not in-practice

I bought this book because some of the reviews seemed to indicate it was a decent book for a description of how blockchain technology works. However, such is not the case. Do not purchase this book if you are looking for information on how blockchain technology actually works in-practice. Instead, buy this book if you are interested in learning about blockchain in-theory. That is, this book is an "okay" treatise on how blockchain technology might be used in various applications. If that subject is of interest to you then, by all means, purchase this book and happy reading. If you are looking for information on the actual workings of blockchain technology, look elsewhere.

17 of 18 people found this review helpful

6 Stars - Amazingly Informative

The authors of this fantastic book, Michael Casey and Paul Vigna, did a wonderful job researching how Blockchain technology is being implemented in the real world today and what might be in store in the not-so-distant future of our digital world. This book is a must read for all those interested in learning more about how Blockchain technology has the potential to change humanity in a ton of positive ways.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Very poor explanation of blockchain technology

Very opinionated book. No mathematical explanation of Blockchain. Nothing about previous historical attempts of implementation of blockchain, like as everything started several years ago with BitCoin.
The narration voice in the audiobook is very monotone. Author reads hash values, 64 characters per each one which takes a long time.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great first half, very informative.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend reading through the first half of the book. It's very detailed in blockchain applications and some brief history. The second half gets to be theoretical and bloated.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, the first half for sure. After that I began skipping parts.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A Hopeful and Brighter Future

This book gave me hope that the new developing technology specially artificial intelligence may be in the control of human beings. I like the idea that we can have more distributed and decentralized power rather than controlled by a central powerful agencies, companies or individual.
I dream of a future where we can search in a few seconds the reliability and integrity of any individual or company so we will have transparency as well as privacy. I think this will make us better humans.
I can see how block chain technology can do all these as well as the great economic equalizer among all human beings all over the world specially in the under developed countries.
I commend the very insightful research of Michael Casey and Paul Vigna.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not Bad

this is one of the best descriptions of the blockchain that I have ever listen to particularly in the first 9 chapters. The only parts you may want to avoid is the political commentary that the authors feed into some of the issues which adds no value to the overall theme of the book. So while the authors hold out blockchain as being the Holy Grail of freedom and decentralised associations they cannot help but to add in their own biases and denigrate various political leaders around the world. save this rhetoric for a book on your own politics and stick to the title of the book in the future.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

No denying the future

Okay so I firmly believe we are headed in a direction at a lot fast pace now than ever in human history and the blockchain is the vessel to guide us there. With or without this book there is no denying this fact after wrapping your mind around it. Some amazing some dark, that comes with every invention. But this can be of great honest use between us and machine.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

terrible arguments

this book provides a good explanation of blockchain but the arguments and reasoning are so bad, it was tough to finish.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Full of political biases unrelated to topic

Honestly if the author would have stayed on topic it would have been an enjoyable read. As with so many other forms of entertainment though it seems we can’t even escape politics when listening to an audiobook these days. The author takes every opportunity to take jabs at the President no matter how much of a stretch or leap in most cases he has to take to make it relatable. Most of the time it is not, and his political biases just basically ruined the book. By the end I just wanted it to be over!