Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain
by David Gerard · first published 2017
32mentions
13recommended by
21HN commenters
2017–2025first – last mentioned
62% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Skeptical, often funny survey of the crypto landscape that debunks hyped blockchain use cases and covers hacks, scams, ICOs and failures; suits newcomers wanting a critical counterweight to boosters.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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> Yet every day there are stories (such as this article) showing crypto becoming more deeply ingrained in mainstream circles. Check out Attack of the 50-foot blockchain by David Gerard. He goes through many of those articles and debunks them. They are misleading articles written by crypto enthusiasts to promote their own agenda. > I doubt there is much middle ground…
on “Goldman Sachs to Open a Bitcoin Trading Operation” ↗…decentralized, append-only databases have wider applications (outside of crypto), what are those applications? When will we see the disruption? David Gerard showed that blockchain is wearing no clothes in Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain and nothing has happened since he published that book to make me think he was wrong.
on “Cryptocurrency Is a Giant Ponzi Scheme” ↗I recommend David Gerard's book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain. Then you can ignore the hype and move on with your life. Other than various forms of fraud and financial manipulation no one has found a "real life use case" in a decade and a half. At least no real-life…
on “Ask HN: What is a real life use case for Blockchain?” ↗…contrive use cases for existing Ponzi schemes like CMU Coin. The world already has more than enough Bitcoin shills. Universities don't need to be pumping and dumping more of them out. David Gerard's book "Attack of the 50 Foot BlockChain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts" would be an excellent down-to-earth textbook for a realistic course about blockchain. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/book/ >Attack of the 50 Foot…
on “Developing Blockchain Use Cases for CMU Coin” ↗…created by con artists, charlatans, and swindlers looking to take your money and run." [1] [1]: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ico-cryptocurre... About the author David Gerard - The Book "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain" [2] is an unmatched gem in a sea of 24-hour non-sense crytpo promotion. Ironically another voice of reason is "pseudonymous" Trolly McTrollface [3] [2]: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/table-of-contents/…
on “SEC Commissioner's “safe harbor” proposal for ICOs will only enable scammers” ↗Blockchain solutions are touted as improvements and replacements for solutions that already exist. It's not that blockchain solves problems previously not solvable. Read Attack of the 50-Foot Blockchain for some perspective.
on “Ask HN: What would be an alternative to blockchain and crypto?” ↗…Finance by Brett Scott How Money Got Free by Brian Patrick Eha Handbook of Digital Currency by David LEE Kuo Chuen Blockchain Technology Explained by Alan T. Norman Cryptoassets by Chris Burniske Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich Code by Lawrence Lessig Blockchain and the Law by Primavera De Filippi Bitcoin by Dominic Frisby Blockchain by Mark Gates The Age of Cryptocurrency…
on “Top 57 Cryptocurrency Books” ↗People wondering why I say this need to read “The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism” by David Golumbia and “Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain” by David Gerard. This stuff is based on crackpot economics so it’s inherently a scam.
on “Israel’s most-hyped initial coin offerings were scams, ex-employees allege” ↗I can recommend "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts" by David Gerard. Excellent stuff.
on “$600M taken in largest DeFi hack to date” ↗A good starting point is Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts by David Gerard.
on “Tether minted most USDT to just 2 firms – Alameda and Cumberland” ↗I'm just reading the book "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain" by David Gerard. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35525995-attack-of-th... It was published in 2017, but lists all the false arguments the author of this article makes. Even M-Pesa, mentioned…
on “Cryptocurrency and the unbanked” ↗Read David Gerard’s book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and the articles on his web site. Do the research as the crypto boosters like to say.
Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain by David Gerard is an excellent summary of the crypto landscape. The author takes the view (which I agree with) that crypto is a scam in its entirety, so there is a lot of ground to cover. The book's…
on “Books to read to understand financial crime” ↗Even though I like cryptocurrency, I greatly enjoyed the "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain" book by this author, which covers some of the greatest failures in the history of cryptocurrency - hacks, scams, bugs, and the like. I recommend all cypto fans give it a read - the acerbic tone might…
on “Number go down – Corona-chan loves Bitcoin” ↗The author has also written a hilarious book: Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain
on “Tether is “too big to fail” – the entire crypto industry utterly depends on it” ↗