100 books like The Economics of Blockchain Consensus

By Joshua Gans,

Here are 100 books that The Economics of Blockchain Consensus fans have personally recommended if you like The Economics of Blockchain Consensus. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Richard Holden Author Of Money in the Twenty-First Century: Cheap, Mobile, and Digital

From my list on books about the digital economy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an economics professor, but I also have a column in Australia’s leading financial newspaper so I really appreciate authors who can tackle complex topics in an accessible manner. I’m also both extremely interested in and do academic research on topics to do with technologies like two-sided platforms, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. All these books made me think harder about the big issues in these areas, and how to combine rigorous research with what is actually happening—often at breakneck speed—in the real-world digital economy.

Richard's book list on books about the digital economy

Richard Holden Why did Richard love this book?

This book helped me understand why advances in artificial intelligence are going to have a big impact on productivity and economic growth. I loved the analogies to old technologies like electrification of factories, and newer examples like how Team New Zealand used simulations to change racing tactics and boat design.

The book has an important, big idea at its heart. That idea is that AI helps organizations make better predications, and those better predictions allow organizations to be fundamentally redesigned to take advantage of this. This is where the AI productivity revolution comes from.

By Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Prediction Machines as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"What does AI mean for your business? Read this book to find out." -- Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google Artificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life--driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? In the face of such uncertainty, many analysts either cower in fear or predict an impossibly sunny future.

But in Prediction Machines, three eminent economists recast the rise of AI…


Book cover of Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

Richard Holden Author Of Money in the Twenty-First Century: Cheap, Mobile, and Digital

From my list on books about the digital economy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an economics professor, but I also have a column in Australia’s leading financial newspaper so I really appreciate authors who can tackle complex topics in an accessible manner. I’m also both extremely interested in and do academic research on topics to do with technologies like two-sided platforms, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. All these books made me think harder about the big issues in these areas, and how to combine rigorous research with what is actually happening—often at breakneck speed—in the real-world digital economy.

Richard's book list on books about the digital economy

Richard Holden Why did Richard love this book?

First of all, I love everything Michael Lewis writes. But this might be his most engaging book yet. Told through the lens of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, this is an incredible story.

It’s a story that combines genius, brilliance, folly, technology, and crime that left me wondering whether SBF really did something terrible, or just got desperately unlucky. It guided me through Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, its aftermath, and the bankruptcy of FTX with a part harsh judgment and part huge empathy.

By Michael Lewis,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Going Infinite as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's youngest billionaire and crypto's Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?

In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system.…


Book cover of The Everything Token: How NFTs and Web3 Will Transform the Way We Buy, Sell, and Create

Richard Holden Author Of Money in the Twenty-First Century: Cheap, Mobile, and Digital

From my list on books about the digital economy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an economics professor, but I also have a column in Australia’s leading financial newspaper so I really appreciate authors who can tackle complex topics in an accessible manner. I’m also both extremely interested in and do academic research on topics to do with technologies like two-sided platforms, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. All these books made me think harder about the big issues in these areas, and how to combine rigorous research with what is actually happening—often at breakneck speed—in the real-world digital economy.

Richard's book list on books about the digital economy

Richard Holden Why did Richard love this book?

Well, the author is a friend of mine but it’s also on a topic close to my own academic research interests. So it was kind of compulsory reading for me, but it might be the most enjoyable compulsory reading I’ve ever done.

I thought NFTs were just a gimmick to do with internet pictures. But the authors explain, with great examples, that NFTs are best thought of as a new technology for creating digital assets. And better still, providing the true owner with irrefutable proof of ownership of these digital assets.

What I took away was that NFTs are a new technology for tracking property rights. And since property rights have been fundamental to economic development for millennia, this is a topic one can’t afford not to understand.

By Steve Kaczynski, Scott Duke Kominers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Everything Token as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NFTs cause excitement and skepticism. How much value can a token hold? What drives this value?

To properly appreciate NFTs we must first understand what they actually are, how they work and in what contexts they are used.

The Everything Token is an essential primer on NFTs (non-fungible tokens), explaining their use, purpose, and how businesses can create and exploit them to develop new product lines, building customer loyalty and increased revenues at the same time.

Together the authors have spent much of the past few years embedded in NFT communities and helping launch NFT products. As self-described beta testers…


Book cover of Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet

Richard Holden Author Of Money in the Twenty-First Century: Cheap, Mobile, and Digital

From my list on books about the digital economy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an economics professor, but I also have a column in Australia’s leading financial newspaper so I really appreciate authors who can tackle complex topics in an accessible manner. I’m also both extremely interested in and do academic research on topics to do with technologies like two-sided platforms, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. All these books made me think harder about the big issues in these areas, and how to combine rigorous research with what is actually happening—often at breakneck speed—in the real-world digital economy.

Richard's book list on books about the digital economy

Richard Holden Why did Richard love this book?

I first heard about this book on one of my favorite podcasts: Hard Fork. The author is a famous crypto investor at perhaps the world’s leading technology venture capital firm: a16z. The author got a hard time from the hosts, who are both pretty skeptical of crypto. But he handled it so well I knew I had to read the book.

Read Write Own is persuasive in cautioning against dismissing the entire crypto sector due to early failures. The examples used are great: like the Helium project—a kind of crowdsourced “people’s 5G network” that uses cryptocurrency payments as incentives. If you want to hear the “glass is half full” case for crypto, this is a must read.

By Chris Dixon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Read Write Own as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'A compelling vision of where the internet should go and how to get there.' Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

_

A potent exploration of the power of blockchains to reshape the future of the internet - and how that affects us all - from technology entrepreneur and startup investor Chris Dixon.

The internet of today is a far cry from its early promise of a decentralized, democratic network of innovation, connection and freedom. In the past decade, it has fallen almost entirely under the control of a very small group of companies like Apple, Google,…


Book cover of Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy

Eyal Zamir and Barak Medina Author Of Law, Economics, and Morality

From my list on ethics and economics.

Why are we passionate about this?

We are law professors at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Eyal Zamir is interested in the intersections of law, economics, ethics, and psychology. In addition to theoretical studies of these issues, he engages in experimental legal studies, as well. Barak Medina studies constitutional law, human rights, and economic analysis of law. He is interested in constitutional interpretation and the interaction between common-sense morality, public opinion and adjudication.

Eyal's book list on ethics and economics

Eyal Zamir and Barak Medina Why did Eyal love this book?

The book provides an excellent introduction to the philosophical foundations of economic analysis as a normative theory of human behavior and as a tool for public policy making.

It lucidly explains and criticizes the building blocks of welfare economics – the normative branch of economic analysis.

By Daniel Hausman, Michael McPherson, Debra Satz

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book shows through argument and numerous policy-related examples how understanding moral philosophy can improve economic analysis, how moral philosophy can benefit from economists' analytical tools, and how economic analysis and moral philosophy together can inform public policy. Part I explores the idea of rationality and its connections to ethics, arguing that when they defend their formal model of rationality, most economists implicitly espouse contestable moral principles. Part II addresses the nature and measurement of welfare, utilitarianism and cost-benefit analysis. Part III discusses freedom, rights, equality, and justice - moral notions that are relevant to evaluating policies, but which have…


Book cover of The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics

Eyal Zamir and Barak Medina Author Of Law, Economics, and Morality

From my list on ethics and economics.

Why are we passionate about this?

We are law professors at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Eyal Zamir is interested in the intersections of law, economics, ethics, and psychology. In addition to theoretical studies of these issues, he engages in experimental legal studies, as well. Barak Medina studies constitutional law, human rights, and economic analysis of law. He is interested in constitutional interpretation and the interaction between common-sense morality, public opinion and adjudication.

Eyal's book list on ethics and economics

Eyal Zamir and Barak Medina Why did Eyal love this book?

This collection of essays by some of the leading contemporary scholars in ethics and in economics provides both critical surveys of the various interactions between these two bodies of thought and original suggestions for future advancements in this important intersection.

The collection includes both general and theoretical inquiries and more specific applications. It may be of interest both to academics (scholars and students) and to policymakers and laypersons.

By Mark D. White (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Economics and ethics are both valuable tools for analyzing the behavior and actions of human beings and institutions. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, considered them two sides of the same coin, but since economics was formalized and mathematicised in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the fields have largely followed separate paths.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics provides a timely and thorough survey of the various ways ethics can, does, and should inform economic theory and practice. The first part of the book, Foundations, explores how the most prominent schools of moral philosophy relate to economics;…


Book cover of Civil War Barons: The Tycoons, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Visionaries Who Forged Victory and Shaped a Nation

Nick Vulich Author Of 1861

From my list on capturing the essence of the Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

What could be cooler to a kid growing up in the 1960s and 1970s than the Civil War? TV spoon-fed us westerns—Bonanza, F-Troop, The Lone Ranger, and The Wild, Wild West. Many of the stories were set during the Civil War or had characters molded by it. And then, somewhere in the mid-1960s, my parents took me to a civil war reenactment. Guns cracked. Cannons boomed, and men fell. I was hooked. I’ve devoured every Civil War book I could get my hands on for the past fifty years and watched every movie remotely connected to the subject. So, it’s only natural I wrote a book about it.

Nick's book list on capturing the essence of the Civil War

Nick Vulich Why did Nick love this book?

We often think about the Civil War in terms of battles, casualties, and fatalities, which isn’t surprising as war is always considered a bloody business sprinkled with death and destruction. However, many historians overlook that it wasn’t just bullets that won the war. Technological innovations changed the battlefield. For example, Samuel M. Pook teamed up with John Eads to design a new style of armored battleship—dubbed Pook’s Turtles. Just weeks after the gunboats were commissioned, they enabled Ulysses S. Grant and Admiral Andrew Hull Foote to take Forts Henry and Donelson. Later, the fleet assisted John Pope in taking Island 10 and again in the Vicksburg campaign.

Christopher Spencer developed a repeating rifle that fired seven balls in quick succession. Abraham Lincoln’s first test determined the gun was a dud. However, the second test went off without a hitch, and the war department ordered 2,000 Spencer Rifles. Many other…

By Jeffry D. Wert,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Civil War Barons as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Before the Civil War, America had undergone a technological revolution that made large-scale industry possible, yet, except for the expanding reach of railroads and telegraph lines, the country remained largely rural, with only pockets of small manufacturing. Then the war came and woke the sleeping giant. The Civil War created a wave of unprecedented industrial growth and development, producing a revolution in new structures, ideas, and inventions that sustained the struggle and reshaped America.

Energized by the country's dormant potential and wealth of natural resources, individuals of vision, organizational talent, and capital took advantage of the opportunity war provided. Their…


Book cover of Parks and Recreation and Economics

Ana Espinola-Arredondo Author Of Intermediate Microeconomic Theory: Tools and Step-by-Step Examples

From my list on getting into microeconomics.

Why am I passionate about this?

When understanding the interactions in our economy, it is critical to recognize all participants in this complex system. I’m passionate about microeconomics because it provides me with a different perspective to examine the world around me. I use my microeconomic glasses and I enjoy rationalizing the daily interactions and predicting the potential outcomes.

Ana's book list on getting into microeconomics

Ana Espinola-Arredondo Why did Ana love this book?

This is a funny exploration of the popular TV series, showing how each episode is packed with microeconomics topics, including comparative advantage, demand and supply, costs, market imperfections, and government interventions.

It even includes several references to macroeconomics, including growth, labor markets, and inequality.

Readers can also consider other titles in this series, based on their taste of popular culture, including Superheroes and Economics, Seinfeld and Economics, and The Beatles and Economics, among others.

By Jadrian Wooten,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Parks and Recreation and Economics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book provides an in-depth look at the primary foundations of economics explored through the lens of the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation. Each episode of the hit television series, Parks and Recreation, includes material to help an eager learner understand the basics of one of the most fascinating fields of study.

Whether you've wondered how economists determine specialization or why fast-food restaurants continue to pop up around your neighborhood, the same situations have occurred in Pawnee. Each chapter highlights key scenes or major episodes that demonstrate how the characters experience economics in exactly the same way the rest…


Book cover of Who Shall Live? Health, Economics And Social Choice

Joseph P. Newhouse Author Of Pricing the Priceless: A Health Care Conundrum

From my list on the economics and history of American health insurance.

Why am I passionate about this?

My mother wanted me to be a physician, but as a child I was very squeamish about human biology and knew that wasn't for me. In college I was exposed to economics and found it, and the policy debates about national health insurance, fascinating. So, maybe with my mother’s wishes in the back of my mind, I became a health economist. I was privileged to direct a large randomized trial called the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, which varied the cost of medical care to families. This project lasted more than a decade and got me so deep into the economics of health and medical care that I became a professor of health policy and management.


Joseph's book list on the economics and history of American health insurance

Joseph P. Newhouse Why did Joseph love this book?

Eminently readable, this is a classic book by the doyen of American health economics that explains in non-technical terms the economics of health and medical care. It has been updated with several essays that Fuchs has published in the almost five decades since the book was first published.  

By Victor R Fuchs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Who Shall Live? Health, Economics And Social Choice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since the first edition of Who Shall Live? (1974), over 100,000 students, teachers, physicians, and general readers from more than a dozen fields have found this book to be a reader-friendly, authoritative introduction to economic concepts applied to health and medical care.Health care is by far the largest industry in the United States. It is three times larger than education and five times as large as national defense. In 2001, Americans spent over $12,500 per person for hospitals, physicians, drugs and other health care services and goods. Other high-income democracies spend one third less, enjoy three more years of life…


Book cover of The Role of Measurement in Economics

Alex M. Thomas Author Of Macroeconomics: An Introduction

From my list on becoming a critical economist.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about the dissemination of economic ideas both inside and outside university spaces. In addition to classroom lectures at my university, I give a lot of public lectures on economics. Through these talks, I introduce the audience to the tradition of doing economics using a critical perspective. I have an MA and MPhil in Economics from the University of Hyderabad and a PhD in Economics from the University of Sydney.

Alex's book list on becoming a critical economist

Alex M. Thomas Why did Alex love this book?

Today, economics is synonymous with measurement.

This book on measurement in economics was published in 1951. Stone discusses the link between theory and empirics in this book.

I like this slim book of Stone’s because it shows the strengths and weakness of empirical exercises in economics. It also raises foundational questions regarding empirical constructs.

Books like this allow us to ask foundational questions regarding the links between theory and empirics in economics as well as theory and applications in statistics.

By Richard Stone,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Role of Measurement in Economics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1951, and originally delivered as the Newmarch Lectures for 1948-9, this book examines the role of measurement in obtaining and applying economic knowledge. Esteemed economist Richard Stone, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, divides his topic into four sections: questions of fact and empirical constructs; the truth or falsity of a hypothesis; the estimation of parameters; and questions of prediction. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in economics and the development of the discipline.


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