Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps 1st ed. Edition

If you want a more thorough and granular understanding of the blockchain, this should be one of the top three books you read.Exactly what the title states, it delivers and in a quite detailed fashion. In terms of depth of information and complexity of concepts, it falls in the middle of a book like “The Internet of Money” (which, although a reasonably quality read is mainly a primer for overall concepts and relating the paradigm shift that cryptocurrency and the blockchain represent) and “Mastering Bitcoin” (a rather technical breakdown of how the blockchain works from a mathmatical and computer science basis).For the unindoctrinated, this book might have too much information and go into too much detail on how financial transactions work and why the blockchain is truly revolutionary. For the generally knowledgable investor, developer or interested outsider, this book goes into great detail on the major constructs and functionality of the blockchain. It does not possess the hype or opinion that so often permeates this topic but instead offers clear and concise chapters discussing main points quite thoroughly.Again, this is non-technical in the sense that it does not go into topics such as discussing the bitcoin API or go into mathmatecal detail on how a public key is calculated using elliptic curve multiplication, but technical to a point where it gives you a proper education on blockchain functionality and how it relates and what the parallels are to the current financial systems in place.

The headline of this review might seem to clash with the 5 stars I've given it, but if this were a 10 star rating I'd give it a 9.Let me begin by saying that this book is a must-read if one is new to the block-chain. In a non-technical way it explains hash functions, hash references and puzzles, public-private keys, peer-to-peer networks, and how they interact to form block chains.On the negative side, there are quite a few grammar errors, but they don't interfere with one's understanding. More negative is the fact that the book is somewhat pedantic; I think it could have been written in about half the length with perhaps a bit less confusion. It also fails to discuss the difference between miners and full nodes. Further, It fails to discuss proof of stake versus proof of work.Having said all of this, unless you're a techie, you should buy this book. It is basically a winner!

This book is a very fine basic read on blockchains and the importance of this software in the future of not only digital currency but a lot of other arenas as well. In fact, in the long run, digital currency may well be the least important of industries that the blockchain technology will disrupt and disrupt significantly. I had three issues with the book: first, there is a bit too much redundancy in the book. I'm sure the author felt it necessary given the technical nature of the blockchain, its algorithms, and hash puzzles, so this is a minor criticism. More serious to me was the high number of grammatical and typographical errors in the book. The author is a good writer; his copy editor was somewhat blind. There must be three dozen errors, the most irritating of which is the lack of subject/verb agreement. My final negative is the end of the book where the author talks about the future impact of blockchain on a variety of industries. This was dealt with too simplistically and it appeared that the author wanted to finish the book and not bother with some in-depth thinking about how blockchains can impact and disrupt many industries in the future. That said, if you are interested in blockchains, this is a very good way to start. And unless you are quite technical, albeit this is a book for beginners, you will find yourself wondering throughout the book how this all really works.

Great book for someone interested in beginning a journey into crypto and the blockchain. I loved the analogies used at the beginning of each segment to set a basis for the lesson.

Blockchain Basics provides an extremely detailed technical breakdown of the blockchain, spending 145 pages (of 249) total explaining everything from hashing to consensus to incentives to cryptography. It's an excellent read for anyone who wants to deeply understand the technical underpinnings of blockchain technology, albeit a little repetitive.It's worth calling out that this book is very light on its coverage of actual applications of blockchain technology. Blockchain Basics spends a single 12 page chapter analyzing applications; that chapter barely scratches the surface and honestly raises more questions than it provides answers. For instance, the book mentions that blockchain could be used for voting but provides absolutely no insight into how that might work and why a government would even want to do so. If your goal is to learn more about Bitcoin or Ethereum, this book is definitely not for you. It barely even mentions Bitcoin and omits Ethereum entirely.I recently read another book called Blockchain Bubble or Revolution which I strongly preferred to Blockchain Basics. I think Bubble or Revolution goes into the perfect amount of detail on how blockchain technology works (about one fourth of the book). The other three fourths of the book focuses on use cases for blockchains and cryptocurrencies in the form of case studies and research. Unlike Blockchain Basics, Bubble or Revolution offers frameworks for helping you understanding in what use cases the pros of blockchain technology outweights the cons; the book also covers how major countries (e.g. China) and major companies (e.g. Facebook and Microsoft) are using blockchain and why.To sum up, if you are looking for an extremely thorough explanation of how blockchain technology works and pretty much nothing else, definitely read Blockchain Basics! If you want an overview of how blockchain works AND why it matters and where the technology is headed from an unbiased perspective, I'd recommend checking out Bubble or Revolution.