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The story of the idealists, technologists, and opportunists fighting to bring cryptocurrency to the masses. In their short history, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone through booms, busts, and internecine wars, recently reaching a market valuation of more than $2 trillion. The central promise of crypto endures—vast fortunes made from decentralized networks not controlled by any single entity and not yet regulated by many governments. The recent growth of crypto would have been all but impossible if not for a brilliant young man named Vitalik Buterin and his creation: Ethereum. In this book, Laura Shin takes readers inside the founding of this novel cryptocurrency network, which enabled users to launch their own new coins, thus creating a new crypto fever. She introduces readers to larger-than-life characters like Buterin, the Web3 wunderkind; his short-lived CEO, Charles Hoskinson; and Joe Lubin, a former Goldman Sachs VP who became one of crypto’s most well-known billionaires. Sparks fly as these outsized personalities fight for their piece of a seemingly limitless new business opportunity. This fascinating book shows the crypto market for what it really is: a deeply personal struggle to influence the coming revolution in money, culture, and power.

BLACK & WHITE VERSION Peercoin (PPC) is a decentralised cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. It was the first cryptocurrency to introduce a new form of timestamping (proof of stake) that allows users of the wallet to receive a 1% rate of return on their holdings per year. This book is a detailed history of the first year of Peercoin up to the 19th of August 2013 (the time at which the blockchain had been usable for one year by the general public).

In July 2010, Wikileaks published Cablegate, one of the biggest leaks in the history of the US military, including evidence for war crimes and torture. In the aftermath Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks, found himself at the center of a media storm, accused of hacking and later sexual assault. He spent the next seven years in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fearful that he would be extradited to Sweden to face the accusations of assault and then sent to US. At this point, Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, started his investigation into how the US and UK governments were working together to ensure a conviction. His findings are explosive, revealing that Assange has faced grave and systematic due process violations, judicial bias, collusion and manipulated evidence. Melzer also gathered together consolidated medical evidence that proves that Assange has suffered prolonged psychological torture. Melzer's compelling investigation puts the UK and US state into the dock, showing how, through secrecy, impunity and, crucially, public indifference, unchecked power reveals a deeply undemocratic system. Furthermore, the Assange case sets a dangerous precedent: once telling the truth becomes a crime, censorship and tyranny will inevitably follow.

Un monde engagé dans le difficile passage de la féodalité à la Renaissance, de la théocratie à la science. Un monde ravagé par des guerres et par des ambitions. Mais qui n'est pas notre Terre. Cette planète connaît une autre histoire. Tout aussi barbare. Et sur ce monde étranger, éloigné dans le temps et dans l'espace, qui ne sait rien d'autres civilisations essaimées dans l'espace, deux étrangers se croisent, s'effleurent à peine. Un médecin, Vossll, qui est aussi une femme, et un guerrier, Dewar. Ils n'ont apparemment rien en commun, sauf de surprenants savoirs. Au jeu de la compassion et de la cruauté, ils vont échanger leurs rôles. Avant peut-être de retourner vers leur véritable univers. Inversions est le cinquième volet du cycle de la Culture. Les quatre précédents, Une forme de guerre, L'Homme des jeux, L'Usage des armes et Excession ont été publiés dans la même collection.

A bold and eye-opening exposé on how power and propaganda distort the news, now more relevant than ever • With an updated introduction “[A] compelling indictment of the news media’s role in covering up errors and deceptions in American foreign policy.”—The New York Times Book Review Renowned scholars Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky reveal how U.S. news media, far from being independent watchdogs, often function as tools of elite influence. With probing analysis, they present their Propaganda Model, a framework that explains how systemic bias shapes the stories we’re told, the voices we hear, and the truths that remain hidden. Through deeply researched case studies, from the Vietnam War to coverage of “worthy” vs. “unworthy” victims, Manufacturing Consent exposes the structural forces that drive news organizations to reinforce power rather than question it. It’s a sobering portrait of a media system more interested in maintaining order than informing the public. This edition includes an introduction updating key examples and expanding the Propaganda Model’s relevance to issues like the coverage of NAFTA, the media’s treatment of global protests, and environmental regulation. Manufacturing Consent is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way. Whether you’re a student, activist, or citizen looking to see beyond the headlines, this book will transform how you understand the media—and the world around you.

Early in the year 1789 the French nation found itself in deep financial embarrassment; and this was speedily followed by calls for an issue of paper money. By August 1, 1795, some six years later, the gold 25 francs coin was worth in paper, 920 francs; on September 1st, 1,200 francs; on November 1st, 2,600 francs; on December 1st, 3,050 francs. In February, 1796, it was worth 7,200 francs or one franc in gold was worth 288 francs in paper. Prices of all commodities went up nearly in proportion. This story, of how a first world nation turned to paper money and destroyed itself, its people and its economy in the process, even arguably setting in motion the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, is told in this book by Andrew Dickson White, academic, ambassador and author. As ever, history remains our best guide of what the future holds, and, considering our Fiat money system today, sounds a warning call that should be heeded.

This is the first genuine etymological dictionary of Old Chinese written in any language. As such, it constitutes a milestone in research on the evolution of the Sinitic language group. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the structure of the Chinese characters, this pathbreaking dictionary places primary emphasis on the sounds and meanings of Sinitic roots. Based on more than three decades of intensive investigation in primary and secondary sources, this completely new dictionary places Old Chinese squarely within the Sino-Tibetan language family (including close consideration of numerous Tiberto-Burman languages), while paying due regard to other language families such as Austroasiatic, Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien), and Kam-Tai. Designed for use by nonspecialists and specialists alike, the dictionary is highly accessible, being arranged in alphabetical order and possessed of numerous innovative lexicographical features. Each entry offers one or more possible etymologies as well as reconstructed pronunciations and other relevant data. Words that are morphologically related are grouped together into "word families" that attempt to make explicit the derivational or other etymological processes that relate them. The dictionary is preceded by a substantive and significant introduction that outlines the author’s views on the linguistic position of Chinese within Asia and details the phonological and morphological properties, to the degree they are known, of the earliest stages of the Chinese language and its ancestor. This introduction, because it both summarizes and synthesizes earlier work and makes several original contributions, functions as a useful reference work all on its own.

“Stasiland demonstrates that great, original reporting is still possible. . . . A heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic.” — Claire Tomalin, Guardian “Books of the Year” Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction: a powerfully moving account of people who heroically resisted the communist dictatorship of East Germany, and of people who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. Anna Funder delivers a prize-winning and powerfully rendered account of the resistance against East Germany’s communist dictatorship in these harrowing, personal tales of life behind the Iron Curtain—and, especially, of life under the iron fist of the Stasi, East Germany’s brutal state security force. In thetradition of Frederick Taylor’s The Berlin Wall and Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, Funder’s Stasiland is a masterpiece of investigative reporting, written with novelistic vividness and the compelling intensity of a universal, real-life story.

Do you think you know something about Bitcoin and Austrian Economics? If so you may be ready for Cryptoeconomics. This is not a work for the uninitiated. The content is dense – it does not repeat itself. It is not a contribution to the echo chamber, will not show you how to set up a wallet, the future price, or what to do. Cryptoeconomics applies rational economic principles to Bitcoin, demonstrating flaws and unnecessary complexities in them, and in common understandings of Bitcoin. It will improve your understanding of both. Bitcoin requires a new, rigorous, and comprehensive discipline. This is it. Bitcoin is something new. It seems to defy understanding. Has there ever been a fixed supply money? Is there another case of production cost varying directly with product price? Is there anything else with a competitive yet fixed rate of transactability? To see past the hype, understand the value proposition, security model, and economic behavior, this may be your only source. Bitcoin is economics, technology, and security. Without incorporating all of these aspects, errors will be made. Economists, technologists, security experts, and even numerologists have attempted to explain it. Each brings a limited perspective, failing to incorporate essential aspects. The author found himself uniquely qualified to integrate them. His work in Bitcoin began with a hardware wallet. He spent a year analyzing threats, working with electronics design, hardware exploitation, and state surveillance experts. He chose the Libbitcoin software library, as Satoshi’s prototype was not factored for development and was largely financed by the Bitcoin Foundation, a corporate consortium. He later dedicated himself to Libbitcoin, eventually writing or editing all of its ~500,000 lines of code. Few have comparable experience with such a comprehensive Bitcoin stack. As a combat-experienced fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy he experienced state threats. He became a highly-qualified Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor, in which his primary role was tactics analysis and threat presentation. He also advised for the Navy on the Strike Fighter Training System network, Joint Strike Fighter, early GPS weapons, and F/A-18 systems. His understanding of the physical nature of all security was enhanced by decades of training in Japanese martial arts, achieving black belt rankings in five disciplines. His degree and experience in computer science mixed with extensive business experience, founding several companies. He has worked at IBM and as a Principle Architect at Microsoft, two of the world’s largest companies. The latter purchased his first startup, and his second was acquired by Veritas Capital. He was awarded three related U.S. patents. Eventually he became an angel investor, sharing his experience with other entrepreneurs. As CTO of his first company he published three computer security advisories via Computer Emergency Response Team. Each was derived entirely from his reading of user documentation. Later he earned a seat on the DHS Open Vulnerability Assessment Language advisory board for his work on software patching. In recent years he uncovered material security flaws in each of the first three iterations of a popular “secure element” hardware wallet, again from review of user documentation. Thirty years of self-study in free market economics was reinforced by extensive global travel. In visiting over 80 countries he has interacted with people on five continents. Still often traveling on a motorcycle with only a shoulder bag, he obtains intimate understanding of global economic realities. From Zimbabwean black market currency traders, to Tanzanian coffee pickers, Venezuelan refugees, Mongolian shepherds, Okinawan jazz musicians, Lao monks, etc. – the world is not as often presented. The ability to integrate these diverse and relevant experiences led to Cryptoeconomics. This is your next stop.

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