The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology

Would have been better without the gushing adjectives and adverbs. Telling me it's awesome and transformational and using superlative after superlative does very little to explain what it actually is and how it works. Half the sentences are non-value added fluff or plain repetitions.

This book is a must read for managers in both technical and business capacity working at financial institutions involved in blockchain PoCs and projects. Chapter 4, blockchain in financial services provide a crisp clear positioning of the blockchain technology for financial services. The whole book shows due diligence made by author on the various technical challenges that the blockchain need to solve as emerging technology in areas such s identity and security yet provide trade-offs and help to raise the right questions for early adopters of the blockchain technology. Finally I am readying a book (I have been reading several) that takes hype out and provides a framework to evaluate the value of the blockchain as transofmative technology. Love the key ideas to focus upon at the end of each chapter, these are gems as in the blockchain asking the right questions about the blockchain is what is needed the most by both business manages and technologists.

This talks about a lot of "stuff" without really explaining what any of this "stuff" is. The first chapter "What is the Blockchain?" did not satisfactorily answer that question but I did learn the blockchain needs the internet. I don't think I have anything else to add to the other one and two star reviews as they seem to sum up the many shortcomings of this book.

The first chapters gave a good overview on blockchain (and some other technologies ). This is however more a marketing book on blockchain than a practical guide, e.g. a lot of comparisons and assumptions are made that blockchain will develop in the same way how the Internet developped but it is not entirely clear why that would be the case. Blockchains to be used to re-write about everything but is that realistic? And in what timeframe?Anyway, the book make you think and that it probably its best characteristic...

Easy to read, emphasis is on how business will be impacted; points to new characteristics and values block chain will introduce in how we do business. May need multiple reads to fully digest the opportunities for those looking to play any role.

The book reads like a sales-pitch. The author uses piles of adjectives to tell how wonderful blockchain will be, but seems unaware of any of the complications or intricacies. Blockchain has incredible potential but is still in the early days and he seems to miss the challenges that are clearly in view. I grew frustrated with the panglossian view and felt that the author did not really understand the technology that he was writing about.

Book covers the possibilities of block chain and core value, but not much detail on the technology's specific capabilities and limitations. No specifics on state balances, game theory, or how to address the scaling issThis made the entire latter half on applications seem unsubstantiated.

The writing is disjointed and a bit all over the place, making this a very difficult book to read and understand. It seems to lead to being very theoretical. If you're looking to understand the blockchain, I would pick a different book.

if you want a general introduction you get it here. Of course you can get that far cheaper in other books. If your expecting a 'blueprint' (as per the description you are going to be horribly disappointed.At best this book can be described as 'evangelist prep'. I cannot begin to describe how annoyed and irritated I was by the end of this book- as an IT professional I was seeking more than arm-waving, 'big-picture' statements. I had deeper understanding of smart contracts from 20 minutes on the ethereum website.Should the book been marketed at £1.99 I may have been less irritated.

I purchased this book to get up to speed on block chain and its relevance to business. Unfortunately, this book didn't really help. It is unbalanced, not well structured and does not follow a logical flow. The hyperbole is completely OTT (paradym shifts a plenty) while the somewhat random notes at the end of each chapter would fail any college exam (what serious author includes Wikipedia in their citations)?Also, I note that pretty much all the positive reviews were from reviewers provided with a free copy of the book. Not exactly impartial feedback!So, pretty poor really.

I was none the wiser after reading the first couple of chapters, and have now consigned it to the recycling bin. This is badly-written drivel and a waste of time and money.

It's a great intro if you do not know anything about the subject. Although some info will be outdated now.

As I am currently writing my bachelor thesis on this topic I ordered almost every book available concerning blockchain. "THE BUSINESS BLOCKCHAIN" by William Mougayar is definitely the most superficial of them. The very first chapter is meant to explain what the blockchain is but the explanation is extremely superficial. Throughout the book you have the feeling that the writer has attempted to provide a good writing style. Nevertheless, it seems to be badly edited. The informative content is quite scarce. The writer does not show all possible applications of this technology, does not show the variety of start-ups that has been emerging in the recent years. For a better insight you should try Dan Tapscotts "Blockchain revolution" or even better Melanie Swan: "Blockchain - Blueprint for a new economy". All in all, I have to admit that any book I read about blockchain is to enthusiastic propagate a totally new world order coming along with this technology. If you want a realistic assessment of the possibilities of this technology for the financial industry, you should google John McLean: „BANKING ON BLOCKCHAIN: CHARTING THE PROGRESS OF DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY IN FINANCIAL SERVICES