The truth about Crypto Your investing guide to understanding Blockchain, Bitcoin, and other digital assets

"Blockchain technology and the digital assets it makes possible are revolutionary" enthuses Rowan University lecturer Edelman (The Truth About Money) in this handy survey. Finance professionals often have a hard time understanding this new asset class, he suggests, because it has "nothing in common with anything have learned about." He helps bridge that gap with intense enthusiasm: blockchain is "Internet 3.0," he writes. It "replaces the trust economy with an authentication economy" and as more banks develop blockchain technology, will add "nearly $2 trillion to the $80 trillion global economy by 2030." Edelman discusses the history of bitcoin, describes how crypto works (with easy to grasp definitions, for instance, of decentralized, aka "distributed across millions of computers around the world"), lays out the technology's potential positive impact (60% of the world's unbanked people have smartphones, so could access digital assets), and assesses whether it's too late to buy in (spoiler alert: it's not). While his tone sometimes borders on pandering in his attempts to persuade readers they're smarter than the slow-moving "establishment," this is nonetheless a rare bird: an actually understandable guide to cryptocurrency. Those wondering what all the fuss is about will find this a great resource. (May)

Crypto as investment strategy: even as it shakes up the world--the Bank of England claims it could "transform the global financial system"--many investors fail to understand its potential or even how it works. But not to worry. Thrice ranked by Barron's as the No. 1 independent financial adviser in the United States, Edelman is here to demystify this new phenomenon.

Chapter 1: The Four Most Transformative Innovations in the History of Commerce Chapter 1 The Four Most Transformative Innovations in the History of Commerce All human advances are due to innovation--from new ways of thinking to the invention of new tools. In the world of commerce, it's been suggested that the four most impactful innovations are: Fire The wheel The internet The blockchain It's easy to agree that the first three changed history. But blockchain? "You shouldn't have asked me to show you how it works." Yeah, blockchain. Think of it as Internet 3.0. The first internet connected people on a mass scale--think Facebook and social media. You know how impactful that was (and still is). That led to Internet 2.0 (more commonly called IoT, the Internet of Things). This internet connects things to each other--my dog wears a collar that tells my phone if she leaves the yard. And at the grocer, a QR code tells the automated checkout kiosk that I'm buying a banana. Internet 3.0 is the Internet of Money, aka blockchain. Connecting money via the internet is as transformative to commerce and society as the Internet of People and the Internet of Things have been, and because "money makes the world go 'round," Internet 3.0 will prove to be even more impactful than its predecessors. The wealth-creation opportunities on a global scale are truly unprecedented. Indeed, Nasdaq says blockchain technology "holds great promise in allowing capital markets to operate more efficiently with greater transparency and security." The Bank of England (Great Britain's central bank, comparable to our Federal Reserve) goes even further, saying blockchain technology could transform the world's financial system. More than 90% of the world's banks are developing blockchain technology; in 2021, Bank of America alone filed more than 160 patent applications involving digital payment technologies. JPMorgan Chase says banks will save $120 billion a year. Banks and other companies spent $6.6 billion on blockchain R&D in 2021 and will spend $19 billion annually by 2024, according to market intelligence firm IDC. Already, almost all the nation's top colleges and universities offer courses in blockchain and digital assets, and blockchain engineers are now the highest-paid programmers in the country, earning $175,000+ a year. (According to LinkedIn, US job postings for "crypto" and "blockchain" positions skyrocketed 1,000% in 2021. Major financial services firms, including JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, UBS, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, and Barclays, hired 40% more crypto employees in 2021 than in the prior year. Jobs include sales professionals, workers designing crypto offerings for consumers, and engineers building blockchain platforms for banks.) Excitement isn't limited to the financial sector. MarketsandMarkets reports that the blockchain market will grow 53% per year, reaching $3.2 billion by 2026. For example, Billboard magazine says blockchain "offers solutions to intractable problems, such as song rights monitoring and reliable distribution of royalties and event tickets." All this helps explain why PricewaterhouseCoopers says blockchain technology will add nearly $2 trillion to the $80 trillion global economy by 2030. Transformative, indeed. Excerpted from The Truth about Crypto: A Practical, Easy-To-Understand Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain, NFTs, and Other Digital Assets by Ric Edelman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.