Sebastian Gebski's Reviews > Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains

This is a new book, yeah. But the content isn't - what's been published here is a collection of VB's essays, some of them actually quite old and at least partially outdated.

My thoughts on that:
* I respect VB - he's a freaking genius, and I firmly believe he has great intentions. But his essays are very one-sided, and they typically sound like a sales pitch; at least the first 30% suffer from the same blind spot and naive idealism
* fortunately, the further, the better - essays written after 2019 are much more interesting and dedicated to particular issues; many blind spots are still here (e.g., no realistic assessment of non-fungibility and its limitations), but some considerations (e.g., around DAOs and democratic mechanisms on-chain) are really interesting
* I have no clue why the book is titled "Proof of Stake" - in fact, there's VERY little on it (esp. its unknowns, safety mechanisms, challenges, and risks); the only idea that comes to my mind is that PoS switchover has happened quite recently, so the book with such title will simply sell better ...

I am not sure what was the purpose of the book in the end.
To summarize a big step (which is PoS)? No.
To address criticism and honestly approach challenges and deficiencies? Clearly no.
To build even more hype w/o a pragmatic, feet-on-the-ground assessment? Well, maybe.

It's not that I'd like to bash the book because I'm a crypto skeptic (or even a hater). I think we've all learned a lot due to blockchain, crypto, and the Ethereum ecosystem itself. I also believe in the importance of decentralization in many fields. But I can't stand it when a smart person gets so detached from reality that a reasonable thought stream turns into a fairy tale ...

Pre-2019 essays: 1 star
Post-2019 essays: 4 stars (as decent food for thought)
Altogether: 2.5 stars, rounded to 3