Digital gold

What Hacker News says

1. thisisitMay 2018
   Nice collection, OP. Though the page is hypothetical it does show some viability of the cost of 51% attack, something which many people deny as uneconomical without proof.

   But I am sure there will be people who will deny saying miners can refuse mined blocks and create a branch. And others who will deny this by talking up game theory mechanic of 51% attack - if someone does get 51% power then the rational thing to do is to not harm the coin. This obviously doesn't hold true for an irrational person.

   And given the concerns raised for PoW for small coins, I can only say this - "Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It." Here's one of my favorite stories from Nathaniel Popper's Digital Gold about a coin which was very small back in the day called - Bitcoin:

   Laszlo’s CPU had been winning, at most, one block of 50 Bitcoins each day, of the approximately 140 blocks that were released daily. Once Laszlo got his GPU card hooked in he began winning one or two blocks an hour, and occasionally more. On May 17 he won twenty-eight blocks; these wins gave him fourteen hundred new coins that day.

   Satoshi knew someone would eventually spot this opportunity as Bitcoin became more successful and was not surprised when Laszlo e-mailed him about his project. But in responding to Laszlo, Satoshi was clearly torn. If one person was taking all the coins, there would be less of an incentive for new people to join in.

   “I don’t mean to sound like a socialist,” Satoshi wrote back. “I don’t care if wealth is concentrated, but for now, we get more growth by giving that money to 100% of the people than giving it to 20%.”

   As a result, Satoshi asked Laszlo to go easy with the “high powered hashing,” the term coined to refer to the process of plugging an input into a hash function and seeing what it spit out.

   But Satoshi also recognized that having more computing power on the network made the network stronger as long as the people with the power, like Laszlo, wanted to see Bitcoin succeed.”

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2. pruthvishettyJan 2018
   The World Is Flat by Tom Friedman.

   Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper.

   Inner Engineering by Jaggi Vasudev.

   Sapiens by Yuval Harari.

   Zero to One by Peter Thiel.

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3. aws_lsDec 2017
   Yes, that's why it highly irritates me when people repeat the Tulip bulb analogy. Bitcoin may be in a bubble, and it scares me. But it amazes me how little people think, before that kind of pattern matching.

   I read the paper about 2 years back, after reading Nathaniel Popper's book 'Digital Gold...' which presents the history of cypherpunks, leading upto Satoshi's white paper. The book was enjoyable to read. And the paper's brilliance was stunning.

   That said, when I think of it deeply, it does seem to me similar to pyramid schemes. The early adopters have a unfair advantage.

   Also, its better that an alternative to proof-of-work is found. Although the argument is support of that, is that, it perhaps takes more energy to sustain the present financial system, the base of which Bitcoin intends to replace.

   So I find myself in a curious position of being in the Blockchain camp, and unwillingly though. Which is because people who typically are in that camp, say the tech is good, but Bitcoin is not. But I believe Bitcoin by itself is a fantastic and disruptive thing. Without that app there is no platform (blockchain) evolution.

   But of course Bitcoin has flaws, and we could be in a big bubble. But no half baked Tulip bulbs analogy please+.

   Another flaw which I find with Bitcoin is the ownership is very fragile, compared to real world ownership. In these days of phone cameras, all it takes is an accidental photo of my secret 12 words, for my satoshis to get compromised. Or there is no alternative, if I lose my private key. Real world banks have ample ways of addressing the identity and tend to offer more robust possession safety.

   + - I have not seen that analogy on HN, thankfully, but its there every where. Yesterday, I saw a respected VC making it on LinkedIn.

   Edit: minor

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4. arztDec 2017
   Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper is incredible context.
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5. tai_hnMay 2017
   I find these three books entertaining.

   [Blockchain Revolution by Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott](https://www.amazon.com/Blockchain-Revolution-Technology-Chan...) [The Business Blockchain by William Mougayar](https://www.amazon.com/Business-Blockchain-Practice-Applicat...) [Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper](https://www.amazon.co.jp/Digital-Gold-Bitcoin-Millionaires-R...)

   If you want to dig deeper, read [Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Bitcoin-Unlocking-Digital-C...).

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6. aws_lsDec 2015
   1) Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Rating 3/5 - Got an idea about the times in receding Muslim powers, at the end of the 15th Century, in Spain - The author is an historian so positive point is that fiction rooted in history. But some of the fictional narratives could have been better, as he was not a fiction writer when he started out.

   2) Zero to One - Rating 4/5 - Thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Insights into and anecdotal examples of Paypal mafia, among the numerous over there.

   3) Liar's Poker - Rating 4/5 - The first of several best seller's by Michael Lewis, gives insights into the working of Investment Finance business, and in a very interesting way (lots of humor)

   4) Devotion of Suspect X - Rating 4/5 - Work of fiction by the Japanese best seller author Keigo Higashino. Enjoyable read - contrasts a Physicist and a Mathematician trying to out think each other in a crime context (reference to Maths/Physics are just pop-level so don't expect too much)

   5) 'Digital Gold...' by Nathaniel Popper - Currently reading (very enjoyable at around 41%) - Captures the history of evolution of Bitcoin. Also made me sad for various people for different reasons, e.g. Hal Finney, who was the first adopter of Satoshi Nakamoto's idea. Reading this book made me appreciate why not knowing who is SN is important. I am no longer curious.

   6) Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - Rating 5/5 - A perspective changing book, if there can be one. Had picked it up from Gates notes' reading list couple years back. After reading this, my entire perspective on religions, politics, culture changed and I view everything from the reference point of when we started to do agriculture some 20,000 years ago, and of course geographical perspective.

   Some others in my to-read list (hope to pick one before the turn of the year):

   1) Emperor of all maladies - book on cancer research

   2) Ashley Vance's book on Elon Musk

   3) 100 years of solitude

   4) The selfish gene

   5) The hard thing about hard things

   6) Or, if I see any other book: either on this page, or on Gates Notes or on HN reading share the other day. Am a big fan of exchanging/sharing reading lists.

   Edit: Formatting. HN post editor needs two new lines ('\n') to display one

   Edit 2: Had wrongly named book #4 as Salvation of a saint (which is another book, I read earlier by the same author)

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