Ethereum: Blockchains, Digital Assets, Smart Contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations Paperback – September 8, 2016

Unlike Bitcoin, which is strictly a currency, Ethereum is a decentralized platform for just about anything. Ethereum is the basis for basic applications (apps), smart contracts, as well as for currency and even decentralized currency creation. Ether is the currency driving Ethereum. Henning Diedrich does a great job at explaining things in a basic form, while also touching on more technical stuff. It is a great read about the history of cryptos, the developers, function, and where things are going into the future. The current financial system, as well as application systems, depend on servers and are outdated and not nearly as secure as what the blockchain technology has to offer. When it comes to the business and corporate realm, these guaranteed systems can execute contracts and run on their own, absent of wasting time with lawyers and courts. There is so much information in this one book about blockchains and the technology behind it. Definitely a great read and perfect for anyone into technology, finance, or coding in general. It reminds me of a mini blockchain bible. The world as we know it is about to change.

This book is great!! I have been investing in the crypto market for over a year. I want to make a career as a consultant in the near future. I thought I was pretty savvy as to what it all meant. BUT I was wrong.. Ethereum is so important but This book covers everything and is so well written that even a newbie will be able to make an educated decision if they want to invest or not. Even more important, any investor needs to understand what is happening when prices fall, or what ICO events mean, block chain.etc etc.. This book is so detailed and easy to follow that I just bought another for a friend. There are times when you can tell the author is struggling to explain in simple terms and I need to read until I get where he is coming from but over all this will be my bible as I progress in the learning curve. Plus he provides his email address, welcomes any suggestions as to make the book better. He has redone it a few times since the original printing...Thank you Henning

This book badly needs an editor. Often, it is just a stream of conscious prose.But, despite all of these flaws, I would rate this highly. There are fantastic and deep insights all over the book. It is difficult to read this book and not learn new things. The author is without doubt very knowledgeable and you can see it in several places in this book.This book will help you in getting (a) a big picture view of blockchains in general and ethereum in particular. (b) a feel for the trade-offs and real issues associated with Ethereum (c) a decent idea of what blockchain is all about.

I should have reviewed this book sooner, when I bought it. Maybe it could have saved a few people from purchasing it.It combines imprecise, isolated, non-technical statements with a complete lack of technical explanation as to how these exact statements are implemented in Etherium. Even the things that are correct, are not correlated to specifics that would allow one to actually work on a project or explore Etherium mechanisms.

Interesting read, but I am not sure that it increased my knowledge greatly.

The only reason this book isn't getting five stars is because it's clearly not been edited. Otherwise it's going to be one of the best books in the market. The author is deeply knowledgeable and enthusiastic on the topic, which keeps the reader engaged. He's fun to read, which is really saying something when it comes to a technical book. But: it's unedited, and the grammatical errors will detract from the perceived seriousness of the message for those who are prone to pedantry (management, engineering management, etc). Just tell them that this is an early release, and to look past that stuff. It's a good book.

The book covers lot of concepts at a high level. It does not go in to the details. For example book does not take you through how ethash works and in step by step technically how transactions are validated and smart contracts are executed. Lot of internal technical details are missing and I had to surf the web to get things more clarified. But still I think this is the best book out there to learn ethereum in one place. If you can wait till Feb 2018 - then possibly the book Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and Dapps by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood would be a better one.

I just received my copy today before boarding a flight. Imagine my disappointment when I see that this is a preview edition with preview edition printing. In the description it says it's a preview print but that's easily missed since it's not at the top and many people scroll down to reviews and ratings right away. I wouldn't pay $28 for a preview. Very disappointed.