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Blockchain for Dummies
Find out what Blockchain is, how it works, and what it can do for you Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin, the revolutionary 'virtual currency' that's changing the way people do business. While Bitcoin has enjoyed some well-deserved hype, Blockchain may be Bitcoin's most vital legacy. Blockchain For Dummies is the ideal starting place for business pros looking to gain a better understanding of what Blockchain is, how it can improve the integrity of their data, and how it can work to fundamentally change their business and enhance their data security. Blockchain For Dummies covers the essential things you need to know about this exciting technology's promise of revolutionizing financial transactions, data security, and information integrity. The book covers the technologies behind Blockchain, introduces a variety of existing Blockchain solutions, and even walks you through creating a small but working Blockchain-based application. Blockchain holds the promise to revolutionize a wide variety of businesses. Get in the know about Blockchain now with Blockchain For Dummies and be ready to make the changes to business that your colleagues and competitors will later wish they'd done. Discover ten ways Blockchain can change business Filled with vital information and tips on how this paradigm-changing technology can transform your business for the better, this book will not only show you Blockchain's full potential, but your own as well!
240 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2017
268 people are currently reading
489 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
March 9, 2021
As someone who came in with relatively zero experience in blockchain and blockchain technologies, I left with about that much after this book. This book started out surprisingly well and helped me gain a bit more of the fundamentals of blockchain technology, but after understanding the data type and the basics of how its computed, it kind of tapers off. I really wanted this book to help build a true fundamental understanding and slowly work up from there, but it ended up skipping over a lot of key sections, like why blockchain technologies need crypto, and vice versa. Plus halfway through the book it starts to seem like a self promotion for the author as she pioneered a blockchain startup. Overall, this book contained some useful information for someone starting off, but afterwards starts to blend together as a jumble of words and ideas you can't reasonably put together as a "dummy" trying to learn blockchain.
September 17, 2019
I read the first several chapters of this book that was loaned to me to get a basic understanding of the blockchain technology and I scanned the remaining chapters to get an appreciation of some of the applications in use now and planned for the future. It met my casual needs but the book is better suited to software professionals who want to get a good overview of the many forms of the technology, it’s benefits and pitfalls.
January 11, 2018
The book is really 3.5 stars, I do not like the 1-5 scale, it is not granular enough.
After reading this book you will definitely have a "beginner basics" of understanding many of the various blockchain environments and why they exist. The book has it ups and downs (more ups) ...... there are parts that more details or specific examples/diagrams would help significantly.......
conversely there are parts that hit the "nail on the head".
After reading this book you will definitely have a "beginner basics" of understanding many of the various blockchain environments and why they exist. The book has it ups and downs (more ups) ...... there are parts that more details or specific examples/diagrams would help significantly.......
conversely there are parts that hit the "nail on the head".
November 7, 2017
Blockchain and related technologies such as digital currencies are recently receiving significant media attention, being hailed as the “fifth evolution” of computing. However, it can be a little hard to get a grasp on exactly what these technologies are, how they work, how they can be used and what kinds of applications they might have. Blockchain for Dummies, authored by a co-founder of a blockchain company, therefore seems an ideal title to help the uninitiated to begin to understand these new and relevant concepts.
The book is structured into five sections. An introductory section aims to apprise the reader of what blockchain is and why it is of interest. The following two sections review currently available blockchain implementations and respectively introduce key players in the blockchain space, identifying differences and similarities between them, and consider blockchain platforms. Section four is more speculative, giving the author's view of the potential future impacts of blockchain technologies on various industries. The final section gives practical advice on learning about and using blockchain.
In principle then, the book covers the key topics that would enable readers to start to get to grips with blockchain and cognate technologies, and indeed the book does contain a great deal of interesting and relevant content.
However, I felt that the book was let down by three key factors. Firstly, as a ‘for Dummies’ title, the text should assume the reader has little or no prior knowledge of the subject matter. However, in some cases, topics are referred to before being introduced, or in the case of ‘oracles’ without ever being introduced. Secondly, while the author is evidently knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject matter, I found her almost stream-of-consciousness writing style somewhat irritating and distracting. Often the narrative is presented as terse sentences, which sometimes seem to lack direction and repeat content. Finally, there are numerous typographical errors throughout the book which should have been edited out.
In summary, I think this is a useful introductory book, but there is plenty of scope for improvement.
Review by Patrick Hill
Originally posted: http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/...
The book is structured into five sections. An introductory section aims to apprise the reader of what blockchain is and why it is of interest. The following two sections review currently available blockchain implementations and respectively introduce key players in the blockchain space, identifying differences and similarities between them, and consider blockchain platforms. Section four is more speculative, giving the author's view of the potential future impacts of blockchain technologies on various industries. The final section gives practical advice on learning about and using blockchain.
In principle then, the book covers the key topics that would enable readers to start to get to grips with blockchain and cognate technologies, and indeed the book does contain a great deal of interesting and relevant content.
However, I felt that the book was let down by three key factors. Firstly, as a ‘for Dummies’ title, the text should assume the reader has little or no prior knowledge of the subject matter. However, in some cases, topics are referred to before being introduced, or in the case of ‘oracles’ without ever being introduced. Secondly, while the author is evidently knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject matter, I found her almost stream-of-consciousness writing style somewhat irritating and distracting. Often the narrative is presented as terse sentences, which sometimes seem to lack direction and repeat content. Finally, there are numerous typographical errors throughout the book which should have been edited out.
In summary, I think this is a useful introductory book, but there is plenty of scope for improvement.
Review by Patrick Hill
Originally posted: http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/...
July 30, 2021
Do no read this book. It is riddled with typos and factual inaccuracies. Also, the author constantly promoting what seems like a Blockchain startup that's more or less been abandoned that she is/was associated with. I rage read this whole nonsense book as I am a completist and have weird compulsions so for me not finishing this crap book was not an option but you do have an option: don't read this nonsense. You're more likely to be more confused and leave with all sorts of bad information than gain any better perspective of Blockchain technologies from this book. The author most likely paid someone to write this nonsense for her to build her brand and I am surprised the publisher didn't edit this more thoroughly either. Regardless, do not read this book it is dreadfully bad and full of nonsense (and a weird plugs for stuff like - a half baked idiotic vaporware email service that John McAfee launched that's somehow based on the blockchain among other ill-advised idiocy).
December 11, 2023
If one is thinking about investing in Crypto Stock then this is a must-read. This book clarifies that Polkadot, Cardano,Solana are essentially projects that try out different concensus methods, validator selection methods, mining pay methods. Chances are in the long run after reading this book I expect one combination will win out.
The demise of 'The DAO' was fascinating. The rogue programmer discovered that the Etherneum error handling was inadequate and he exploited this by calling a routine that did not exist which threw an error and then executed code to transfer a token to his account from another user and then called routine again and again knowing that as long as it was still executing its error routine, the total transferred was not being decremented so it kept passing another and another token.
Also interesting how company R3 Corda is being used to create real statechains with decentralized disitributed ledger, utilizing XDC tokens, smart contracts, concensus method, permissioned network. It has most elements of a blockchain but differs in such a way that they have produced a viable product. Problem is that they have borrowed a lot of money and funding rounds have made them beholden to investors so they are not yet profitable.
Also , nice explanation of why if one is using TOR browser to hide audit trail and identity then it behooves the secretive user to VPN over TOR to better hide identity at entry points into Tor usage.
Excellent informative book.
The demise of 'The DAO' was fascinating. The rogue programmer discovered that the Etherneum error handling was inadequate and he exploited this by calling a routine that did not exist which threw an error and then executed code to transfer a token to his account from another user and then called routine again and again knowing that as long as it was still executing its error routine, the total transferred was not being decremented so it kept passing another and another token.
Also interesting how company R3 Corda is being used to create real statechains with decentralized disitributed ledger, utilizing XDC tokens, smart contracts, concensus method, permissioned network. It has most elements of a blockchain but differs in such a way that they have produced a viable product. Problem is that they have borrowed a lot of money and funding rounds have made them beholden to investors so they are not yet profitable.
Also , nice explanation of why if one is using TOR browser to hide audit trail and identity then it behooves the secretive user to VPN over TOR to better hide identity at entry points into Tor usage.
Excellent informative book.
May 20, 2022
This is a terrible read. I imagined this "For Dummies" series, even if old, might be useful to quickly survey the industry with a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of blockchain technologies. Quite the opposite. This is, instead, a five year old breathless accounting of all the wonderous possibilities of blockchains, from a co-founder of a blockchain company herself -- revealed on the back cover and in a slight disclaimer in one of the mentioned sections.
It veers wildly from "how to setup a wallet" (assuredly all out of date now) to potential industry "disruptions" to various implementations of blockchain technology — all while never taking a first principles approach to explaining the topic. Concepts will be used without introduction or explanation; no current concerns around the carbon footprint of blockchain use, identity, or security is taken seriously, and the overall pace and focus reads like a twitter thread. On top of this, it is riddled with typos and inaccuracies, and hypes the oddest of things — like John McAfee's blockchain email startup. Don't try to pull that website up, it's a pornsite now.
Not, at all, recommended.
It veers wildly from "how to setup a wallet" (assuredly all out of date now) to potential industry "disruptions" to various implementations of blockchain technology — all while never taking a first principles approach to explaining the topic. Concepts will be used without introduction or explanation; no current concerns around the carbon footprint of blockchain use, identity, or security is taken seriously, and the overall pace and focus reads like a twitter thread. On top of this, it is riddled with typos and inaccuracies, and hypes the oddest of things — like John McAfee's blockchain email startup. Don't try to pull that website up, it's a pornsite now.
Not, at all, recommended.
December 30, 2021
Half of this book is really interesting and helpful; unfortunately, it's the second half, so I'm not sure how many people will get there. The author offers an overview of the opportunities and risks associated with Blockchain, and some good information about the major players in the space as of the time of publication. However, there is not a single example of what a Blockchain "looks" like. I know this isn't easy to lay out, but even some kind of analogy would have helped. I found websites that gave a better explanation in two sentences than this did in several chapters.
The front half of the book shows you how to set up all the accounts you need to purchase and transfer different cryptocurrencies at a basic level, but it seems premature before what you learn in the second half.
The front half of the book shows you how to set up all the accounts you need to purchase and transfer different cryptocurrencies at a basic level, but it seems premature before what you learn in the second half.
July 21, 2022
Not sure what I expected from this book, maybe an introduction to blockchain and an in-depth story of how it emerged, including the basic fundamental features. I was not thoroughly disappointed, but I was not completely satisfied either. This book tries to do many things at once and does not succeed in most of those things. A section in the book talks in detail about setting up things using blockchain, basically tutorials you can find on the YouTube platform. I did not think they were the right choice to put in such a book, so I completely skipped them. However, the remaining book has some valuable insights I did not know about blockchain. So I would rate it 3 Stars out of 5.
July 19, 2019
Overall I liked this book. It gave me a great overview of the intricacies of blockchain, and explained the applicabilities of blockchain to future development inside and outside of the business world. The book also offered ways in which the reader can be introduced to various blockchain networks and offered helpful links for further information. My main critique of the work was the numerous grammatical errors. There were two on page 137 alone. While I could tell what the writer was trying to say, these errors made it hard to fully trust the authority of the author.
November 8, 2020
The French version is a very bad translation !! Very hard to read because of this. This book needs more easy-to-understand real life examples to make it more digest. A more technical explanation would have been welcome. Although this book is not aim at being technical, the topic invites to explain what a chain of block is. Pretty disappointed, but made me want to read another blockchain book ! Maybe that's positive after all.
February 25, 2024
Blockchain… and where exactly was that discussed? Oh. Much more than Blockchain and with the over SHADOWiNG GOVT Oppressive regulations, codes, taxes it’s enough to vomit!
On a more positive note buy Bitcoin an better yet read the white paper BEFORE buying so you understand the concept of decentralization, deregulation, over-site, individuality, agreement between 2 people that is no one else’s business at ALL.
On a more positive note buy Bitcoin an better yet read the white paper BEFORE buying so you understand the concept of decentralization, deregulation, over-site, individuality, agreement between 2 people that is no one else’s business at ALL.
September 10, 2022
On The Blockchain
This book was a great introduction to the blockchain and Web3.
Side Note
I found it hilarious how much the latest Charlie's Angels movie completely got everything wrong when they referred to "the blockchain" throughout the movie. It was absolutely comical. Bad movie too.
Would highly recommend checking out this book to learn the future!
3.9/5
This book was a great introduction to the blockchain and Web3.
Side Note
I found it hilarious how much the latest Charlie's Angels movie completely got everything wrong when they referred to "the blockchain" throughout the movie. It was absolutely comical. Bad movie too.
Would highly recommend checking out this book to learn the future!
3.9/5
January 5, 2024
I read this book to learn about the basics of Blockchain, but the content was so difficult that I did not have time to read all the chapters.
I had no choice but to ask Google BARD AI about Blockchain basics.
So, in summary, a blockchain is a secure, transparent, and immutable way of storing data. It's like a big, shared spreadsheet that no one can tamper with.
I had no choice but to ask Google BARD AI about Blockchain basics.
So, in summary, a blockchain is a secure, transparent, and immutable way of storing data. It's like a big, shared spreadsheet that no one can tamper with.
July 19, 2025
”Man Who Lost Everything in Crypto Just Wishes Several Thousand More People Had Warned Him.” Headline from The Onion.
Nevertheless I am still fascinated by the technology and want to learn more. And this was the smallest book I could find on it.
Well, the first thing the book wants you to do to explore bit coin (page 26) is give it a credit card number.
I’m out.
1 star.
Nevertheless I am still fascinated by the technology and want to learn more. And this was the smallest book I could find on it.
Well, the first thing the book wants you to do to explore bit coin (page 26) is give it a credit card number.
I’m out.
1 star.
June 25, 2017
Must read!
In 5 hours - when you read this book from cover to cover you are guaranteed to have better understanding of the concept and its application along with a ready reckoned to where to go for further reference. Excellent.
In 5 hours - when you read this book from cover to cover you are guaranteed to have better understanding of the concept and its application along with a ready reckoned to where to go for further reference. Excellent.
October 7, 2018
One more feather in the cap of dummy series
This book anticipates series of queries a novice would have on blockchain technologist answers them efficiently. Also provides ample directions to further explore.
This book anticipates series of queries a novice would have on blockchain technologist answers them efficiently. Also provides ample directions to further explore.
January 3, 2019
Gives a brush across the Blockchain scape, looking at key technologies and endeavours. It also introduces to some of the key services using Blockchain. Really helpful to get an overall idea about how blockchain works and is being used.
August 25, 2020
I was very disappointed. Got through only the first 3 chapters. I realized i didn't know much more about what blockchain was and what it could do than I did before. It should have had more examples that I could relate to.
April 10, 2023
I just got done reading this on Audible for the first time.
19:04 Sunday the 10th of April 2023
I really liked it. They went in depth with a lot of blockchain related subjects. It was also cool that they had a female narrator.
19:04 Sunday the 10th of April 2023
I really liked it. They went in depth with a lot of blockchain related subjects. It was also cool that they had a female narrator.
July 4, 2023
The "For Dummies" format attracted me to learn about this topic; however, I'm scratching my head wondering whether to believe the author, and finding myself with more questions than answers. I suspect only time will tell.
December 25, 2023
Out of date, full of typos and the author flogs her own blockchain platform (now bought out) and she flogs John McAfee's pie in the sky email service which died not long after it went live. Easily the worst For Dummies book I've read.
January 30, 2025
Elon Musk has stated he will destroy the federal government system with blockchain. Where else would you start to understand? As good as this sounds, it ends with extensive cautions? With Musk in charge will this 20 days of disaster get any better? Not with this.
June 22, 2017
Good overview of the current state of blockchain tech (and a quick read)
July 4, 2017
Good primer on the current state of blockchain. The editing could've been tighter as there are quite a few typos in this book.
October 2, 2017
good book
Read
February 3, 2018A good introduction to a very technical subject.
September 23, 2018
An okay overview but the book doesn't have enough depth or substance. The number of basic English mistakes was surprising.
November 29, 2018
Coverage was scattered. The book attempts to get readers to a practical level of usage without introducing core principles.
April 30, 2020
Well explained and synthetised. Including use cases and deployment steps
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews