In this revelatory book Don Tapscott the bestselling author of Wikinomics and his son blockchain expert Alex Tapscott bring us a brilliantly researched highly readable and essential book about the technology driving the future of the economy Blockchain is the ingeniously simple revolution ary protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value Though it s best known as the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital cur rencies it also has the potential to go far beyond currency to record virtually everything of value to humankind from birth and death certifi cates to insurance claims land titles and even votes Blockchain is also essential to understand if you re an artist who wants to make a living off your art a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from an immigrant who s tired of paying big fees to send money home to your loved ones or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it blockchain technology will create winners and losers This book shines a light on where it can lead us in the next decade and beyond