On Bitcoin

  I’ve been catching up on NYReview articles, since the mail delivered several issues at once. That led me to “Bitcoin Mania” by Sue Halpern who is identified mostly by a forthcoming novel. It’s quite a long article and I read every bit of it. And while it makes use of a few unfamiliar Fachwörter, the piece is composed in perfectly readable English.

   But I hardly understood any bit of it.  (It’s actually quite a strange experience to read a quite long article in my own language without “getting” any of it.)

   Let me give you a sample which, I assure you, is representative:

Once the validating cryptograhic puzzle for the latest block before and after it by its unique hash, and                       the block and its hash are posted to all the other computers that were attempting to solve the puzzle.

   I have two questions. How many readers of this piece will actually get much beyond its opening? And, more puzzling, how did it get into the NYReview. I hope this is not a sign of things to come under the editorship of Mr. Buruma.