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When the cryptocurrency bubble burst in early 2018, many commentators became dubious about the merits of cryptocurrencies. Understandably, they asked the question:
Do cryptocurrencies herald a revolution, or not?
This is not a simple question. It provokes other questions, which in turn lead to more: Can cryptocurrencies become real currencies, like the dollar or the euro? In fact, what exactly is a currency? Exactly what’s new about blockchain technology–what can it do? Which businesses can exploit it? Can cryptocurrencies undermine the big Internet ad giants like Facebook and Google? Can individuals own their data? How could that work? What exactly is personal data? What should an individual’s data rights be? How would a business manage a cryptocurrency? There is no shortage of questions like these.
In exploring such questions, Robin Bloor investigates the curious parallel between the historical revolution provoked by Gutenberg’s printing press and the revolutionary decentralization of computer power that gave birth to the blockchain. This serves as a backdrop, as Bloor switches between multiple interconnected fields of study: the nature of personal data, blockchain technology, the history of IT, the history of money, the characteristics of currencies, the limitations of cryptocurrency, and more.
The Common Sense of Cryptocurrency is remarkable in its clarity, its breadth and its depth. Among other things, it defines what money is and how currencies should be viewed and understood, It advises on how crypto businesses should manage their cryptocurrencies and it even proposes what the individual’s data rights should be.
If you need to understand cryptocurrency, and you probably do, you need to read this book.
