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Ask HN: Is there a Neutral Book on Blockchain Technology?

6 points by mjburgess ↗ HN
Hello,

I am engaged in some technical research on blockchain technology but I'd like a neutral (non-hype) textbook which covers all the technical details.

I've seen books such as "Blockchain And Distributed Ledgers by Alexander Lipton" but, reading from the end, I saw it advocated blockchains as solutions for eg., health records.

I think this automatically disqualifies the book from presenting a credible understanding of the technology, and likewise, the author seems to have material interests in hyping it.

Could anyone advise?

I'm looking to avoid books engaged in hype, by people with a material stake in the technology, where "applications" do not include insane proposals such as publishing private health data to a public blockchain.

16 comments

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mjburgess
For future reference, Imran Bashir's "Mastering Blockchain" seems serviceable. I'm persuaded by its comprehensiveness, as well as it listing actual downsides.
JoeMayoBot
I recently read the O'Reilly report "NFTs, the Metaverse, and Everything Web 3.0". Blockchains are a part of that discussion; though what I gained from it was a broad perspective of what Web 3.0 is and how it is different. It's around 65 pages and sounded credible to me.
keiferski
As someone else said, I highly recommend reading the original Bitcoin paper. It is straightforward and while obviously pro-blockchain, almost entirely devoid of marketing hype.
FeistySkink
Not a book, but Gary Gensler's Blockchain and Money MIT course is pretty good. Recordings are available on YouTube.
ezedv
Hi, there!

At Rather Labs, we have cutting-edge Blockchain projects, we help people and companies to launch their Web3 projects: https://www.ratherlabs.com/

And, we also have a Blockchain blog, it has an interesting read about Blockchain: https://www.ratherlabs.com/blog

Don't hesitate to ask me any questions!

rainytuesday
Blockchain is maybe casting too wide a net. Each implementation will have different technical details. In the ethereum space I think the highest level of technical analysis you will find is in the domain of MEV-bots.
ggwp99
Regarding the last part, I would encourage you to look into ZK Proofs in blockchain, Merkle Trees and sharing private data on the blockchain. That may possibly change your mind on the idea of publishing private health data to a public blockchain.
mjburgess
Private data should be held by a trusted third-party who is able to interpret it (eg., doctors subject to regulation) and who are accountable for its proper use. This data expires, and should be deleted entirely if inaccurate; and should never be usable "against me".

The absence of trust is not a selling point here, it's a severe issue. "Trustless" is a worsening of the "trust ecosystem", not an improvement.

ggwp99
The goal of "trustless" is for the patient to be able to hold his own data rather than third parties. Since although regulations does exist, corruption exists as well and the inherent trust you are building with a third party. You can hold your own medical data and share access or remove access for certain third parties when needed. This is the difference.
mjburgess
That isnt what blockchains do; nor is that what "private" data is for --

private data is "private" in the sense that it's about you in ways that shouldnt be public, but it's not data that you own

credit data is held by credit reference companies about you, but cannot be actually held by you; that defeats the point

likewise medical recourds are held by hospitals about you, because they need them to provide their service, but cannot be plausibly held by you

what if you're seriously ill and people need access to your medical records?

this doesnt make any sense. The people who create medical records, credit records, etc. are other people, and they create them about you

These people typically have a professionally duty to own that data.

ggwp99
I understand your point. But we may have different terms for "owning data". For example, you can own a house but everyone can look at it but you can decide who can enter it. Imagine in the future data storage that keeps track of insulin levels of a diabetic every 5 minutes. This data should be owned by you, the data could be shared with necessary third parties, but owning it and deciding what to do with it should be your choice.
smoldesu
> This data should be owned by you

Correct. In the status-quo, it can be.

> the data could be shared with necessary third parties

Correct, in the status-quo it already is.

> but owning it and deciding what to do with it should be your choice.

Remind me again why we need Blockchains to provide this?

I'm not going to rip into your example, but I think it's a perfect idea of how far I need to suspend disbelief to see a practical crypto implementation. People have lost the script entirely and just think crypto is a trustless database, and we need to pivot away from this currency thing to target a market that crypto will always be disadvantaged in. There is no practical reason to store my health data in a public blockchain. It is a security liability even if encrypted, merely because another copy of my personal info exists.

Even assuming you make it to market with an open-source blockchain with zero fees, maintainers from God himself and hourly airdrops, you'll just get poached by someone who can do this faster, easier and cheaper on a single database. Darwin eats socially-conscious startups for breakfast.