The Truth About Crypto: A Practical, Easy-to-Understand Guide to Blockchain, Bitcoin, NFTs, and Other Digital Assets

“Blockchain technology and the digital assets it makes possible are revolutionary” enthuses Rowan University lecturer Edelman (The Truth About Money) in this handy survey. Finance professionals often have a hard time understanding this new asset class, he suggests, because it has “nothing in common with anything [they] have learned about.” He helps bridge that gap with intense enthusiasm: blockchain is “Internet 3.0,” he writes. It “replaces the trust economy with an authentication economy” and as more banks develop blockchain technology, will add “nearly $2 trillion to the $80 trillion global economy by 2030.” Edelman discusses the history of bitcoin, describes how crypto works (with easy to grasp definitions, for instance, of decentralized, aka “distributed across millions of computers around the world”), lays out the technology’s potential positive impact (60% of the world’s unbanked people have smartphones, so could access digital assets), and assesses whether it’s too late to buy in (spoiler alert: it’s not). While his tone sometimes borders on pandering in his attempts to persuade readers they’re smarter than the slow-moving “establishment,” this is nonetheless a rare bird: an actually understandable guide to cryptocurrency. Those wondering what all the fuss is about will find this a great resource. (May)