David Gerard

Criticism of cryptocurrency

In 2017, Gerard released his first book, Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain, which criticises cryptocurrency for, among other reasons, its energy cost and the high number of exchange hacks. Martin Walker of the London School of Economics Business Review called the book "the first real, 'no holds barred', attack on the whole bitcoin/cryptocurrency/blockchain movement". Regarding the cryptocurrency bubble, the BBC said, "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain is a very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon." In the American Book Review, Aaron Jaffe recommended it alongside David Golumbia's Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism. In 2021, US investor Mike Burry changed his Twitter image to a quote from Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain: "NFTs exist so that the crypto grifters can have a new kind of magic bean to sell for actual money, and pretend they're not selling magic beans."

In 2020, The book explores Facebook's aborted attempt to create Libra, a cryptocurrency, and discussed reactions to it from central banks.

Wikipedia editing Gerard has been active as a Wikipedia volunteer since the encyclopedia's early days, and formerly was an administrator on the project.

Personal life Gerard lives in Greater London with his wife and child.