{"id":17414,"date":"2020-10-01T22:09:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=17414"},"modified":"2020-10-02T16:55:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T16:55:50","slug":"libra-shrugged-a-first-try-at-the-amazon-blurb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/10\/01\/libra-shrugged-a-first-try-at-the-amazon-blurb\/","title":{"rendered":"Libra Shrugged \u2014 a first try at the Amazon blurb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your Amazon blurb does what the back-cover blurb used to do, back when books were paper.<\/p>\n

Your reader judges your book by your cover. Then they read the first few lines of the blurb. Then they might read the rest of the blurb. Then they might click “Look inside.”<\/p>\n

So this evening, I’ve been fine-tuning the blurb!<\/p>\n

It’s not perfect, and I expect to keep at it for a while. But I welcome your thoughts.<\/p>\n

If I can get timing nailed down for the cover art \u2014 there’s been a lot of 2020 happening \u2014 I’m going to try for a launch on Monday 2nd November. As soon as I have the date, I’ll put up a listing for pre-orders, and let everyone in hearing range<\/i> know about it.<\/p>\n

Yes, the title is now Libra Shrugged<\/i>. Not sure what to use for a subtitle \u2014 I’ve got a Twitter poll running, if you have ideas. [Twitter<\/a><\/i>]<\/p>\n

I’m still posting excerpts to the Patreon, for $5-and-up subscribers! [Patreon<\/a><\/i>]<\/p>\n

\n

Update:<\/strong> the text below is now well out of date. See the current version live, on the new page for Libra Shrugged!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

When Silicon Valley tries to “disrupt” the world economy \u2014 and someone finally tells them “no.”<\/p>\n

Facebook \u2014 the biggest social network in the world, with intimate influence over its users’ lives. A stupendous, world-shaping success.<\/p>\n

But governments were on Facebook’s case \u2014 privacy scandals, election-rigging scandals, fake news scandals.<\/p>\n

What if Facebook could pivot to finance? No, better \u2014 what if Facebook started its own private currency?<\/p>\n

Facebook could grow powerful enough that governments couldn\u2019t annoy it any more. It would be the Silicon Valley dream.<\/p>\n

Facebook marketed Libra as a payment system \u2014 and “bank the unbanked” for globalization and international development.<\/p>\n

But Libra was really so that Facebook could be too big to regulate \u2014 and to lead the way for its Silicon Valley fellows to be too big to regulate, and swing the power of their money as they pleased.<\/p>\n

The financial regulators looked at Libra, and its weird “blockchain” dreams \u2014 and saw the 2008 financial crisis happening again. Facebook’s plan would have made the company even more entrenched \u2014 but broken whole economies worldwide.<\/p>\n

Libra was as incompetent as it was arrogant \u2014 and governments stopped it in its tracks.<\/p>\n

How did Libra fail so hard? How did Facebook put forward such a bizarre, unformed and ill-considered plan, that horrified every financial regulator who saw it?<\/p>\n

We need to understand what Facebook were thinking with Libra \u2014 and what happens when another company tries the same trick.<\/p>\n

“Libra Shrugged” is the history of a bad idea.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Become<\/a>

Your subscriptions keep this site going. Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working on the blurb for the book. Ideas welcomed. Yes, it’s now called “Libra Shrugged.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152,1328,2011,51],"class_list":["post-17414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-book","tag-libra","tag-libra-shrugged","tag-self-publishing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/libra-white-elephant-header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17414"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17510,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17414\/revisions\/17510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}