Review: An Introduction to Cybercurrency
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 8, 2014
There has been a lot of talk about Bitcoin in the various financial and technical media lately. This book helps to explain the basic technical information of what Bitcoins are, how they are created, and how they can be earned and traded. Concepts such as Bitcoin Wallets and mining are explained in a way that most readers with minimal technical computer background will be able to grasp.While a techie may find the explanations lacking depth, this book is meant more for the general population who want to understand what all of the hype is about in order to make a more informed decisions on whether to take a flyer on investing and trading in Bitcoins. Suggestions on safeguards in dealing with Bitcoins are touched upon, and there is a brief discussion of the benefits and possible negatives of jumping into the Bitcoin world.There are plenty of pointers to outside sources for more information on mining or storing Bitcoins for those who want to investigate further, but I would have liked a little more information included in the book itself, especially in the area of places that accept Bitcoins as payment. As someone with a technical background, I would have appreciated more pointers to sources for the technical and security issues involved with the creation of Bitcoins since that level of detail was beyond the scope of this book, perhaps as a selected bibliography listing at the end of the book.There are other virtual currencies out in the cyberworld besides Bitcoin, and the concept has been tried in the past with poor results; however, with Bitcoin being the most talked about of the various currencies these days, this book will give the reader a place to start in their understanding about Bitcoin specifically and of the general principles of virtual currencies and how they operate.Recommended.