This is a necessary and delightful book with a style that is essential when one considers the emotional and technical confounding subject of digital currencies. The concept of alternatives to banks, credit cards, and even legal contracts is so counterintuitive that the most difficult problem to solve in any book about the subject is how to make it accessible. Accessibility is accomplished with Kelly's "Fast Money" style (he seems to be a celebrity on that CNBC show — and a refreshing voice of reason at that.). He mixes the corny humor so common in the business world with serious economics (albeit narrow) and personal humbleness. Additionally, the book indirectly (and probably accidentally) taps into the passion of the Information Technology world's focus upon everything from "Net Neutrality" to getting the corrupting lobby influence out of our politics that the activist/martyr Aaron Schwartz alerted us all to (see the documentary "The Internet's Own Boy").
Blockchains, miners, digital wallets, enormous computing power, and thousands of autonomous geeks around the world all play a role in creating a universal set of digital currencies that may replace money, banking, bureaucratic nightmares, and the necessary and understandable lack of trust associated with the financial sectors. First we learn about Bitcoin — the powerful emotion and skepticism surrounding it, the concept of currency, and money itself. Then the mysterious mathematics and their secret creator or creators that make it all possible for free — thanks to the open-source concept and the hard-fought rules of "creative commons" (Kelly correctly does not go into these but the IT folks will immediately see the connection).
All through the book we see that he recognizes that the inherent problem with digital currencies is one of universal acceptance by the average person. This caution exists because the technology, the math, the secrecy of the inventor, and the emotional attachment to paper money, etc. makes any rational person very skeptical. So Mr. Kelly, with refreshing humor, walks us through his own doubts and foibles on the path to his own acceptance and bursting enthusiasm.
Personally, I cannot quite get my emotional and cognitive arms around the concept of digital currencies yet. However, thanks to this book, I am aware, excited, and fully understand the revolutionary potential.
Probably the best compliment that a reviewer can give to a book that he or she likes is to find only marginally related things to complain about. So here it goes. If Kelly would just jump on the "big money out of politics" band wagon, he just might find the right tool to regulate digital currencies in a way that works — indeed in a way that would make Kelly's dream possible. That is, toward the end of the book, he makes a big point about his fears of getting the regulatory part wrong — and getting it wrong is virtually guaranteed if elected officials must keep secretly shifting their positions toward the lobby money, thus guaranteeing that there will be no politician in a position to guard against "regulatory capture", which is a legitimate concern originating out of the Chicago School of Economics. This area is something that I wish the book would have at least acknowledged, especially considering its frequent references to the economics of Friedrich Hayek, the Chicago School's hero.
The only other negative about the book, and it is minor, is that Mr. Kelly, like most finance folks, seems to focus too much on the role of the Federal Reserve (e.g., I for one, am on Warren Buffet's side with his gratitude that our government can indeed print money!). Without question, monetary policy is the weaker of the two economic pillars but Kelly and the rest of us are thankful that the Fed. did what it did to mitigate the dual catastrophes of the banking meltdown and the too-late and too-much of a supply side stimulus on the fiscal side. John Maynard Keynes had it right all along but we only see mention of Friedrich Hayek in the book, who Keynes would have persuaded except for his untimely death.
I am glad that I bought the book and I await for the stars to be formed after this digital "big bang". Thank you Mr. Kelly.
John V. Lesko, Ph.D.
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Opiniones destacadas de los Estados Unidos
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Calificado en Estados Unidos el 22 de febrero de 2015
Calificado en Estados Unidos el 28 de junio de 2017
Calificado en Estados Unidos el 6 de enero de 2018
Calificado en Estados Unidos el 26 de marzo de 2015
Calificado en Estados Unidos el 29 de noviembre de 2017
Calificado en Estados Unidos el 26 de octubre de 2016
Opiniones más destacadas de otros países
Dr. Peter Davies
What is a currency? What gives it worth?
Calificado en el Reino Unido el 26 de mayo de 2015Mr. T. Ralph
One point of view but not as balanced
Calificado en el Reino Unido el 23 de julio de 2016Dr David Mankin
Good read
Calificado en el Reino Unido el 6 de octubre de 2015
Charlotte
Not convinced by this "Bigging Up" of the Bitcoin
Calificado en el Reino Unido el 2 de marzo de 2015
