Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2009)
Filed under paper | Tags: · bitcoin, computing, cryptography, economy, electronic money, free software, money, p2p, software, technology
A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they’ll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.
Published on 24 May 2009
9 pages
Martin Campbell-Kelly: From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog. A History of the Software Industry (2003)
Filed under book | Tags: · business, computing, history of computing, history of technology, software, software industry, technology
From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed, and the markets they served.
By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM’s CICS and SAP’s R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today’s information infrastructure.
With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgments, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.
Publisher MIT Press, 2003
ISBN 0262033038, 9780262033039
372 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-7-25)
Comments (2)Janet Hope: Biobazaar. The Open Source Revolution and Biotechnology (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · biotechnology, copyleft, floss, intellectual property, open source, software, technology
Fighting disease, combating hunger, preserving the balance of life on Earth: the future of biotechnological innovation may well be the future of our planet itself. And yet the vexed state of intellectual property law–a proliferation of ever more complex rights governing research and development–is complicating this future. At a similar point in the development of information technology, “open source” software revolutionized the field, simultaneously encouraging innovation and transforming markets. The question that Janet Hope explores in Biobazaar is: can the open source approach do for biotechnology what it has done for information technology? Her book is the first sustained and systematic inquiry into the application of open source principles to the life sciences.
The appeal of the open source approach–famously likened to a “bazaar,” in contrast to the more traditional “cathedral” style of technology development–lies in its safeguarding of community access to proprietary tools without discouraging valuable commercial participation. Traversing disciplinary boundaries, Hope presents a careful analysis of intellectual property-related challenges confronting the biotechnology industry and then paints a detailed picture of “open source biotechnology” as a possible solution. With insights drawn from interviews with Nobel Prize-winning scientists and leaders of the free and open source software movement–as well as company executives, international policymakers, licensing experts, and industry analysts–her book suggests that open source biotechnology is both desirable and broadly feasible–and, in many ways, merely awaiting its moment.
Publisher Harvard University Press, 2008
ISBN 0674026357, 9780674026353
428 pages