Blockchain 101: Essential Readings on the Future of the Internet

Quite often, people ask me where to learn about blockchain. Here, I share some resources I have found valuable for my education. It’s not a complete list, but I think it’s a good place to start learning about the future of the Internet.

Satoshi’s paper

“‘Classic’. A book which people praise and don’t read”. Mark Twain.

Everybody talks about Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of bitcoin, and the underlying blockchain technology. So, why not start by reading the famous white paper with which it all began? Of course, to fully understand it, one has to know cryptography. But the basics are accessible to anyone. 

The original paper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2008), is a must for anyone who wants to enter the blockchain world.

The basics

For absolute beginners, the book Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott is a good place to start. Not everyone likes it. But, in my view, it offers an overview of the potential of this technology, as well as a who is who in this world. Very good for non-technical readers. Before buying the book, you may want to watch Don Tapscott’s TED talk on blockchain.

If you’re looking for more advanced material and more technical detail, a good choice is the classic Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the space pioneers.

Another option, also with a higher level of technical complexity, is the famous Princeton cryptocurrencies book. It has been around for some time and is updated annually. Coursera’s Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies course is based on this book.

Ethereum

The bitcoin blockchain was the first, but it is not the only one. In 2014 a 20-year-old Canadian named Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum, a blockchain with a programming language more sophisticated than the bitcoin blockchain.

Ethereum allows for the execution of more advanced operations, such as smart contracts (self-executing smart contracts when some condition is met) and the creation of decentralized autonomous organizations.

On Ethereum, a project called The DAO was set up in 2016. It was a fully distributed investment fund where share holders could vote on the projects to support. It raised about $150 million from 18,000 investors. The DAO was hacked and money was returned to the investors. In spite of the failure of this experiment, it was a taste of the future of venture capital.

Decentralized Business Models

The DAO experience ushers the advent of new forms of entrepreneurial finance and also new decentralized business models. Today a founding team can raise large amounts of capital in an early stage of a project through a crowdsale.

This provides opportunities to raise large amounts of capital to companies outside of Silicon Valley ecosystem. Some companies have managed to raise millions before even having users.This excellent article by Demián Brener explains the basics of decentralized business models. 

This one lists some challenges of choosing this strategy and how to overcome them.On this topic, I also recommend this article by Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on decentralized business models. You can also watch this talk Ehrsam gave in October 2016 at a Silicon Valley meetup.

Blockchain and the future of governance

The decentralization capabilities of the blockchain helps us imagine new forms of government.Democracy Earth, founded by Santiago Siri, is a foundation developing electronic voting systems on the blockchain.

You should also take a look at Crowdjury, the project I have been working on since the end of 2014, to build a judicial system for the Internet. Crowdjury will work as a decentralized autonomous organization connecting disputes and juries in an efficient and transparent way.

Finally, Steemit, a project to build a social network like Reddit on the blockchain. Unlike centralized social networks, Steemit is owned by users, who are paid in cryptocurrency by the popularity of their posts. A new way to monetize the Internet.

Enough for now. For sure, this is an incomplete list, but at least it’s a good place to start.In a future post, I will dig deeper into each of these topics and, in particular, in explaining why the blockchain is the door to a new economic system and a radically different way to monetize the Internet.