The Oracle. A New Novel by Cornell Tech’s Ari Juels
Few novels, especially mystery novels chart territories of the size covered in Ari Juels’s The Oracle, but fewer authors have his tools. Juels is a professor at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island and a “renowned expert on blockchains and smart contracts.” He’s also an entertaining and surprisingly instructive novelist.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Mix them altogether and shake in an understanding of ancient art, Greek mythology and human nature and you get story telling as you’ve never read it before.
Juels starts us out with the Oracle at Delphi where the intrigue sets seed. By the time we’re done, he takes us on a ruminative walk along the High Line in Chelsea, into the secret room where a billionaire stores his ancient treasures and for a cup of coffee with an attractive FBI field agent in Chelsea Market.
Like I said, a lot of territory.
The Gist of The Oracle by Ari Juels
Released just this week, The Oracle presents a well-intended, idealistic crypto nerd guiding others through the labyrinth of blockchains, smart contracts, associated programs and the universe of individuals who work with them.
There’s no need for me to explain what smart contracts or cryptocurrencies are. That’s because Juels does that himself as he playfully weaves this tale of the nerd who woke up to find a $700,000 bounty on his head.
That’s not quite accurate. The FBI wakes him up, and an odd couple dedicated to saving his life emerges.
Neither the nameless narrator nor the FBI agent he teams up with knows why he’s second in line among a group on an unidentifiable entity’s hit list. But when the first in line dies, the urgency increases.
While this is an intriguing story, it gives readers even more. You come away with not just a mystery resolved but with some sense of the intricate world of block chains and their many uses as well as the potential for dangers.
About the Author
Ari Juels, according to his website “is the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor in the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion and a Computer Science faculty member at Cornell University. He is a Co-Director of the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3). He is also Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs.”
I can add, after attending a Q&A at Cornell Tech, where he answered questions from Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett, that with his natural humor and good nature, Juels defies all nerd stereotypes.
He’s a wry, self-deprecating individual who you’d be happy to find sitting next to you at Starbucks, a good guy who’s stepped out the box to create an entertaining and informative “crypto thriller.”
Check out The Oracle. You won’t be disappointed.
A Vote in the Shadows: When the Public Record Disagrees with Fay Christian
There are two truths in public governance. Timelines do not lie. And silence is often the loudest answer.
1 COMMENTS