Fears of a weaponized blockchain become reality when a software developer races to deactivate the rogue smart contract targeting him for assassination. Life is comfortable for a prominent, if schlubby, developer at a New York City blockchain company. That is, until FBI Special Agent Diane Dumnil seeks his help against a bewildering threat: The Delphians, worshippers of the god Apollo, have launched a rogue program on a blockchain. It's offering a crypto bounty to assassinate a European archaeology professor. The developer brushes off the danger until he learns the next target: Himself. Mythical antiquity collides with a near-future cyberworld as The Oracle's unassuming hero and his FBI partner race against time to dismantle the Delphians' murderous blockchain software. Theirs is a whirlwind tale of oracles ancient and modern, vanished antiquities and conjured crypto billions, cybercriminals and digital idealists--narrated by a cynical hero normally more concerned with dark chocolate than the consequences of the technologies he's pioneering. What happens when the crypto ideals of privacy and truth might cost human lives--especially your own?
Fears of a weaponized blockchain become reality when a software developer races to deactivate the rogue smart contract targeting him for assassination. Life is comfortable for a prominent, if schlubby, developer at a New York City blockchain company. That is, until FBI Special Agent Diane Dumnil seeks his help against a bewildering threat: The Delphians, worshippers of the god Apollo, have launched a rogue program on a blockchain. It's offering a crypto bounty to assassinate a European archaeology professor. The developer brushes off the danger until he learns the next target: Himself. Mythical antiquity collides with a near-future cyberworld as The Oracle's unassuming hero and his FBI partner race against time to dismantle the Delphians' murderous blockchain software. Theirs is a whirlwind tale of oracles ancient and modern, vanished antiquities and conjured crypto billions, cybercriminals and digital idealists--narrated by a cynical hero normally more concerned with dark chocolate than the consequences of the technologies he's pioneering. What happens when the crypto ideals of privacy and truth might cost human lives--especially your own?
