The Truth Machine, Paul Vigna
The Truth Machine, Paul Vigna
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The Truth Machine
The Blockchain and the Future of Everything

Author: Paul Vigna, Michael J. Casey

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/27/2018

Synopsis

"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.

About Paul Vigna

Paul Vigna is an author, journalist, editor and speaker, with a particular focus on capital markets and cryptocurrencies. He is the author of Guts: The Anatomy of The Walking Dead and coauthor of The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Truth Machine. For 25 years, he was a reporter and editor for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal, pioneering coverage of the cryptocurrency sector. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and PBS.

About Michael J. Casey

MICHAEL J. CASEY writes for The Wall Street Journal, covering global finance in his "Horizons" column. He is a frequent contributor to the Journal's MoneyBeat blog and co-authors the daily "BitBeat" with Paul Vigna. He is the host of the book-themed video series "WSJ Afterword" and a frequent guest on and host of "The News Hub" and "MoneyBeat." Casey has written for such publications as Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, and The Financial Times. He is the author of Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image (Vintage, 2009), one of Michiko Kakutani's "best books of 2009," and The Unfair Trade: How Our Broken Financial System Destroys the Middle Class (Crown, 2012).

About Sean Runnette

Sean Runnette, a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has produced several Audie Award–winning audiobooks and has also narrated works by John Steinbeck and Richard P. Feynman. Of his performance of The Courage to be Free, AudioFile Magazine wrote "Runnette’s tender approach to every sentence and paragraph helps the author’s wisdom glow. Along with the understated power of the author’s writing, Runnette’s performance makes this one of the most arresting and thought-provoking audiobooks available today". He is a member of the American Repertory Theater company and has toured internationally with Mabou Mines, an avant-garde theater company. Sean's television and film appearances include Two If by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, Third Watch.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan

This could have been good, but they got enough details wrong (not due to facts changing, but just sloppiness and bad editing), plus a huge amount of filler (half of the book?) that it wouldn’t be worthwhile for most people. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of other better books about cryptocurrency beyo......more

Goodreads review by Gary

This book is a primer on blockchain technology written by two experienced financial journalists with a ringside seat. They previously wrote a book about Bitcoin, the first, but far from only, application of blockchain technology, also known as distributed ledger technology. It’s the basic technology......more

Goodreads review by Vikas

50% speculation and fluff; 20% talking their book. I feel dumber for having read it.......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza

Essentially a sequel to the authors excellent primer on blockchain technologies, "The Age of Cryptocurrency." The book goes over the basics of how the blockchain ledger is managed and then enters into speculative ideas over how a permissionless system of trust might reshape society. They are very mu......more

Goodreads review by Maciej

So many times I complained because I couldn’t understand the phenomenon of Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. I didn’t understand how they are created, and why their value is so volatile. From my point of view, fueled by banks and other authorities, it was clear speculation, an investment bubble c......more

Quotes

“With thoughtful and well researched analysis, The Truth Machine leads you through a history of cryptocurrencies and blockchains that reveals the path forward towards a decentralized economy, one in which opportunity and access are widely spread.” —Andreas M Antonopoulos, author of Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money series

“The Truth Machine is a brilliant, beautifully written guide to the blockchain revolution that is redefining “trust” for our increasingly globalized world.” —Hernando de Soto, President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, author of The Mystery of Capital

“Casey and Vigna are among the blockchain and digital-currency sector's most important visionaries. They are shaping a new understanding of how we can gain greater personal control over our data, assets, identities and creations to forge a more inclusive, collaborative and innovative society.” —Imogen Heap, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and founder of Mycelia

“Casey and Vigna have done it again! It turns out that digital currencies may only be the spark for the next major revolution in business and society. The implications of trust being the blockchain’s real killer app cannot be ignored by any serious investor.” —“Downtown” Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, star of CNBC’s The Halftime Report

“This unparalleled examination of the blockchain landscape will open people's eyes to how a decentralized information system can level the playing field for humanity.” —Mariana Dahan, founder and CEO, World Identity Network, first coordinator of The World Bank's Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative

“In The Truth Machine, Casey and Vigna describe, in vivid detail, both the theory and practice of the coming block-chain revolution, giving us a powerful technological roadmap to a more participatory future in the digital age.” —Jeremy Rifkin, author of The Zero Marginal Cost Society

“[The] world…is at a digital and legal turning point. The ‘truth,’ Casey and Vigna show us, is that to move forward we must rethink how information, markets, and value work. A wonderful read—heartily recommended.” —Brett King, bestselling author of Augmented, host of the Breaking Banks Radio Show

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