Blockchain Technology – I Told You So! spends much of it’s time telling of the potential of Blockchain, telling us how wonderful it is and how it will revolutionise the world. It tells of a decentralised database of transactions that is hard to trick and has no middle man to trust. But what it doesn’t really do is explain exactly what blockchain is and how it achieves any of it’s claims on a technical level.
It isn’t until half way through the book that it actually explains what blocks and block chain technically is – each block being a difficult calculation that is based on all the previous blocks. So once this calculation is done it is added to the chain, and the next calculation required uses this one, plus all the previous to calculate. Thus each new block contains a history of all the previous calculations. If you want to prove a transaction or an ownership it exists in the calculation and every subsequent calculation after yours. If you are trying to lie about a transaction you not only have change our calculation, but every single one after yours. An almost impossible task. In this way blockchain builds a record of transactions that is unimpeachable. Yet even when the book eventually explains blocks and block chains I don’t feel it actually explained this well or succinctly.
It talks about things ‘get pout on the blockchain’ without explaining what this means, and by the end it felt equivalent to someone saying ‘it’s on the cloud’ without understanding what that actually means in terms of technology. The author more than likely does, but separated from at least a bit of technical explanation it starts to feel buzz-wordy. It is also repetitive in it’s claims, as if trying to hammer home the benefits through saying them over and over.
Every time it get’s close to a technical explanation it backs away from it, returning to more salesman like polish of what it can do for you, and that you should trust it, without really explaining how.
The book does a great job of selling blockchains’ potential and future impacts, but I wish it spent a little more time on grounding that potential on a firm basis.
Narration by Andrew B. Wehrlen is good. The book doesn’t give him a lot of work with, being a short non fiction book without any characters or people involve, so he doesn’t get to show much variation in his narration. He is however clear and well paced, with a strong voice. Would happily listen to narration by him again.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.