Book Reviews: Technology and Applications
Space Rover
Stewart Lawrence Sinclair. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. 2024. 159 pages, including index.
Index Terms— lunar vehicles, philosophical questions, planetary samples
Reviewed by—Julie Kinyoun
What are space rovers and what can they do for us? We generally think of a “space rover” as a machine to explore matter in outer space, but space rovers are also used to clean up nuclear waste like the 1986 Soviet Chernobyl site or serve as search and rescue vehicles for wreckage underwater like that of the Titanic or the more recent Oceangate Titan submersible. In the fictitious world of Disney, a space rover is a humanized robot “Wall-E” (Waste Allocation Load Lifter–Earth class) designed to manage collective waste on a dead Earth.
Stewart Lawrence Sinclair does not open Space Rover with any mention of these topics. He does open the book with a description of the wreckage left on his step-grandfather’s ranch from the 2017 Ventura Thomas fire. While the book is dense with the history of planet exploration and details about all outer space rovers on both Mars and the Moon, Sinclair introduces the topic with a description of photos from of his step-grandfather. The photos include early equipment from NASA; original prototypes of lunar roving vehicles; and platforms that conveyed spacecrafts to the launch tower from the vehicle assembly building.
Sinclair recounts the history of space rovers through anecdotal stories from his life. In the first half of the book, he focuses on his father’s blended family’s work on moon rovers. The second half of the book focuses on information about Mars rovers and Sinclair’s relationship with Mr. Cooper, his mother’s childhood neighbor, who became a brilliant mentor and inspiration to Sinclair. The book is dedicated to him at the front.
One main function of a space rover is to collect samples of terrain for analysis on earth. These samples can provide geological information about the physical environment being explored. This can result in a theory of creation like that of the moon by the crew of the Apollo 15. Besides contributing to this discovery, lunar vehicles on the Apollo 15 mission also expanded the area they were able to explore, and the complexity of scientific equipment and communication they were able to employ.
With the utilitarian function of space rovers as scientific instruments, their use introduces philosophical and ethical questions about our role as humans in the universe. These questions are not new: Sinclair reviews the book “On the Silver Globe” (1903) by Jerszy Zulawski about adventurers on a quest to the Moon in search of Utopia (p. 21). Although this book was published over a hundred years ago, the questions it explores foreshadow current issues in exploration and astronomy.
Sinclair concludes his historical and factual recount of space rovers with a summary of the current philosophical issues with rovers. Humans yearn for something beyond us.
Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator
Keith Houston. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023. 374 pages, including index.
Index Terms — calculator, development, history
Reviewed by — Donald R. Riccomini, IEEE Member, Senior Lecturer Emeritus, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053 USA (driccomini@gmail.com).
The calculator, as Keith Houston shows in Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, stems from the human need to express, store, and share mathematical quantities and processes. The book is deeply researched, highly readable, and offers a fascinating and thorough account of the technical and historical forces affecting the evolution of the calculator. It can serve as a text in the history of science, background reading for students in electrical and computer engineering, or as a general introduction to the history of computational technology.
The drive to develop physical methods for recording and manipulating numbers began when humans first marked objects with symbols. The oldest known example, a 42,000-year-old tally stick with notches representing quantities, “marks the point . . . we began to delegate our memories to external devices” (p. 6). The Sumerians elaborated on this system by creating tokens for both single units and “a fixed quantity” or group of units (p. 11). This represented the beginning of the “place-value system,” where the value of a symbol depended “not on its size but rather on its position within a collection of other symbols” (p. 23). Over time, the place-value system led to the counting board and the abacus, where the location of a pebble on a grid or later a bead on a wire—in the ones or tens column, for instance—determined its value.
In the seventeenth century, Edmund Gunter used the place-value system to engrave a scale with logarithmically spaced numbers. To multiply 2 by 3, the user spanned a divider from 2 to 3, then moved the divider to start at 3. The product, 6, appeared at the other end of the span. Here the spacing does the arithmetic, not the user. William Oughtred improved on Gunter’s method by mating two scales, one with numbers along the bottom, the other along the top, and sliding them in relation to each other. The divider was later replaced by a cursor or “sliding vertical bar” (p. 73) to ease reading multiple scales on a single slide rule.
Concurrently, Wilhelm Schickard designed the “first mechanical calculating machine—a device that encodes the rules of arithmetic within its own mechanisms rather than delegating them to its human user” (p. 81). Schickard’s design used sprockets to calculate and carry, but unfortunately one prototype “was lost in a fire” and the other “has never been found” (p. 82). In the nineteenth century, Charles Thomas invented the Arithmometer using Leibniz’s “’stepped drum’” (p. 97) rather than sprockets for each digit, and after a slow start the machine became the “best known” and “most trusted mechanical calculator” of its time (p. 105).
Like the Schickard, the Arithmometer was a desktop calculator. The Curta, invented by Curt Herzstark in the early 20th century, was also a “conventional arithmometer” (p. 108) but used only “one large drum, right in the center of the machine” (p. 109), shrinking the calculator to the size and shape of a pepper mill 2.5” in diameter and 5” long. A modest commercial success, the Curta was the “first and last practical mechanical calculator” (p. 109) that could fit into a large pocket but arrived at “the end of an evolutionary road, not at the start” (p. 112). With Claude Shannon’s demonstration that “relays could be used to solve any problem in terms of Boolean algebra” (p. 135), calculator technology rapidly progressed from electromechanical relays through vacuum tubes, capacitors, and finally transistors to control the 1s and 0s of binary arithmetic.
These developments led to the Olivetti Programma 101, a desktop calculator introduced in 1965 that was programmable; “could fit on a desk” (p. 168); was operable by “the average office worker” (p. 166); “pioneered the modern convention for calculator input” (p. 164); could be programmed with “magnetic cards” (p. 168); could do arithmetic and square roots; move data between registers; and print out results. The Programma 101 sported a “bright off-white aluminum casing,” “cooling vents” (p. 171), and “was designed, not merely engineered” (p. 167). “One might almost call it a personal computer” (p. 166), as “revolutionary on the outside as it was on the inside” (p. 172). Competition from the HP9100A—a “brazen” clone of the Programma 101 (p. 175)—along with “commercial mishaps, governmental indifference, and alleged espionage” (p. 177), and the eclipse of individual transistors by integrated circuits, drove the Programma 101 from the market.
The next development of the calculator came from Texas Instruments (TI). Needing an application to succeed the transistor radio, TI saw an opportunity in creating “a calculator that could fit in one’s pocket” (p. 185). This requirement led to two major advances: the integrated circuit, a single piece of silicon with electrical components defined within it; and metallization, a process for creating conductive strips between the components. TI worked with Canon to produce the Pocketronic, a calculator using integrated circuits, but it was still too large to be truly pocketable at “eight inches by four” and weighing two pounds (p. 194).
The Pocketronic did, however, invite competitors, notably the Busicom LE-120, “the world’s first pocket calculator” (p. 202). It measured just 2.5” x 5” x 1”, weighed only ten ounces, used a single Mostek chip, and had an LED readout, but performed only “basic calculations . . . to keep its price as low as possible” (pp. 202-203). Ironically, the price was still too high for the average consumer, and the LE-120 did not sell as expected.
A major advance in calculator design and performance emerged with the introduction of the HP-35. The calculator operated through algorithms, not some “breakthrough in math, material science, or manufacturing” (p. 212); accommodated more than 30 usable keys; had a display visible “both on the desk and in the hand” (p. 216); ran on a “handful of AA batteries” (p. 215); and could display “between twelve and fifteen LED digits” (p. 215). The HP-35 achieved all its technical goals, was a “roaring commercial success” (p. 224), and fit inside Bill Hewlett’s pocket.
As the calculator market began fragmenting into “ever-narrower niches” (p. 236), TI shifted its focus to a major unserved market—schools—and was highly successful working with teachers to develop K-12 math programs with “calculators for every stage of a child’s education” (p. 246). The rise of the PC, however, and its ability to incorporate the capabilities of the calculator, vastly reduced the marketability of the TI-81 and its competitors for both educational and business markets.
The application driving the shift to the PC was VisiCalc—a “contraction of ‘visible calculator’” (p. 264)—that replaced printed financial tables with a graphical program allowing changes to ripple through the spreadsheet without disturbing unrelated cells. VisiCalc accelerated the sales of both the Apple II and the IBM PC and drove the pocket calculator from the business and education markets. The advent of the cell phone completed the process by enabling access to the calculator—and the computer’s—capabilities anywhere.
The power of the electronic spreadsheet to replace the calculator is particularly appropriate, considering that its form and function hearken back to the counting board of the Sumerians—who also solved math problems by moving symbols on a grid, in the form of pebbles on a board, and who would intuitively understand the principles of operation of the modern spreadsheet. The calculator, paradoxically, has always been and is still with us—“everywhere and nowhere at once” (p. 277)—and is still the “ghost in the machine” at the center of the computational universe (p. 278).
WordPress All-In-One for Dummies, 5th ed.
Lisa Sabin-Wilson. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2024. 594 pages, including index.
Index Terms—content management, web development, website security
Reviewed by—Timothy Esposito, Logistics Documentation Manager, Oracle.
WordPress is one of the most popular and versatile platforms for maintaining websites. Back in 2016, we reviewed the 7th edition of WordPress for Dummies. With WordPress All-In-One for Dummies, Sabin-Wilson has updated and expanded the content of her prior works, bringing it up to speed with modern website technology. This tome is touted to be “8 books in one!” which means that the hefty publication is divided into eight sections, each with their own chapter numbering scheme. The “books” are organized so you can read this reference from cover-to-cover to learn how to create and maintain websites on the WordPress platform.
Much like other books in the For Dummies series, there are standard structures that WordPress All-In-One for Dummies follows. Formatting is consistent with similar publications, and a system of icons clearly calls items to your attention. Setting up and maintaining a website can be a technical process, and although WordPress strives to make it easy for you, some baseline technical experience is expected. This book strives to take those technically sophisticated concepts and tasks and breaks them down so that a moderate to beginner can consider following the processes needed. One area that is brought to the forefront is website security. For example, that section has been updated and expanded with current best practices. Also, other popular concepts, such as SEO (search engine optimization), have been expanded upon. The writing is fun, engaging, and encouraging.
If you ever wanted to learn more about how websites are created, outside of using a templated host like Wix.com, then this 5th edition of WordPress All-In-One for Dummies is a great resource for you. If you follow this book from start to finish, you’ll be able to register your domain, find a host for your content, install WordPress, and start creating your website. It covers all the basics as well as providing in-depth topics for your consideration. What it does not do is delve too deeply into the behind-the-scenes aspects of WordPress. However, I do recommend this book for anyone who is creating or maintaining a WordPress-managed website, as it will be an invaluable resource to you.
The Heart and The Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots
Daniela Rus and Gregory Mone. 2024. W. W. Norton & Company. [ISBN 978-1-324-05023-0. 272 pages, including index. US$14.99 (digital).]
Index Terms—artificial intelligence, autonomous robots, human augmentation, robotics
Reviewed by—Arif Reza Basirun, Student, Universitas Gadjah Mada, supported by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP), Indonesia.
The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots explores the transformative potential of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing human capabilities. It envisions a future with reduced limitations, increased efficiency, and new avenues for creativity and innovation. The book highlights the flexibility of these technologies in addressing real-world challenges, such as using autonomous vehicle technology to design disinfection robots during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by humanity’s fascination with superhuman abilities, the research draws from science fiction and superhero narratives, aiming to surpass human limitations through robotics and computing integration.
Daniela Rus and Gregory Mone’s research employs a multifaceted approach integrating advanced computational models, algorithms, new materials, and electromechanical components. This pushes the boundaries of robotics, emphasizing the creative application of mathematical models to develop robots capable of performing tasks with precision, strength, and autonomy. These autonomous robots can revolutionize fields such as medicine and environmental science by processing large datasets in real-time, enabling humans to make accurate and swift decisions. The research envisions making such superhuman abilities accessible to a broader population, transforming task execution, decision-making, and problem-solving processes.
Optimal results in robotics are achieved through Pareto optimization, balancing efficiency, power consumption, and flexibility. This iterative process involves simulations and real-world testing to refine robot capabilities. Optimal robots can adapt to various tasks and complex environments, requiring advanced algorithms and communication systems. Surpassing traditional design limits, these robots perform beyond human abilities, leveraging innovative computational thinking, new materials, and electromechanical components for enhanced performance, ensuring practical and effective robot designs for diverse applications.
Robotics and AI have profound practical implications for meeting industrial needs and broader societal challenges. These technologies enhance public health measures and operational efficiency in complex environments, emerging as key drivers of innovation across various sectors. Ongoing exploration and application of these technologies promise even greater benefits, underscoring the importance of creative and strategic thinking in their development and deployment.
This book’s strength lies in its advocacy for developing robots that are less mechanical and more human-like, emphasizing the importance of machines operating smoothly and empathetically in human environments. However, it lacks depth in discussing the methodologies and technological advancements necessary to achieve this goal, including design, implementation, and ethical considerations. Additionally, it does not explore the social implications of integrating such robots into daily life, such as impacts on employment, privacy, and human interaction, highlighting the need for further research on the harmonious integration of robots into human society.
Overall, The Heart and the Chip is ideal for a multidisciplinary audience interested in robotics, computational science, engineering, and speculative technology. The book appeals to researchers, professionals, and innovators in advanced robotics, algorithmic processes, and new materials. It is also relevant for visionaries and futurists exploring human augmentation and the ethical implications of technological advancements.
Google Workspace for Dummies
Paul McFedries. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2024. 448 pages, including index.
Index Terms—collaboration, productivity tools, technology
Reviewed by—Timothy Esposito, Logistics Documentation Manager, Oracle.
Google is ubiquitous in modern society from cell phones to cloud hosting. While it may have started with just a search engine, you have access to many other free tools through your Google account. However, navigating through the maze of options available to you can be a daunting task. Where do you start? What benefits are there to using the Google Workspace? How does it all tie together? These may sound like questions you can just Google yourself, it may be easier to read Google Workspace for Dummies.
Following the other books in the For Dummies series, Google Workspace for Dummies uses a standardized structure and format. The layout, headings, callouts, and icons are familiar to anyone whose read another book in the For Dummies series. It begins with an overview, followed by a common entry point to the Google platform, Gmail, and contact management. From there, the guide moves to the free suite of tools that people use in place of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint: Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. While not an exhaustive instruction on how to use those tools, it does cover the basics and is more than enough to get you started. Next, there is a section on collaboration, which includes sharing those Google Docs you just made, chatting with teammates, managing calendars, scheduling video calls, and managing communication through groups. The concluding section is a set of Top Ten lists which include tips on security, email practices, and how to work from home.
Google Workspace has much to offer the everyday user for a very reasonable price of nothing. Although many more features exist than are covered in this book, Google Workspace for Dummies is a great starting point for people who are looking to take advantage of an interconnected, collaborative work experience. Even the most experienced Google user is bound to pick up a tip or two from reading this book.
Microsoft Copilot for Dummies
Chris Minnick. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2025. 306 pages, including index.
Index terms — AI/artificial intelligence, customizing/customization, troubleshooting
Reviewed by —Marcia Shannon, freelance technical writer/editor (mstewartshannon@gmail.com)
The cover of Microsoft Copilot for Dummies makes and delivers on three promises to its readers:
- Generate top-notch results from prompts
- Integrate Copilot functions with Office applications
- Customize the AI to meet your needs
This is a how-to-get-it-done book for anyone who has not dipped a toe in the AI pool yet.
I have found that the best way to review any …for Dummies book is to follow as many of the procedures as possible, so that is what I did. This was my first experience using Copilot although I am an experienced Microsoft Office user. By following Chris Minnick’s thorough instructions, I started using the Copilot feature in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint without too much difficulty.
So why buy a hard-copy handbook when there is plenty of help online? The short answer is that online help is to this book as crumbs are to a three-tiered wedding cake. The depth and breadth of the information in a well-organized manual is so much better than hoping you type the right words in the right order into the Search field. The spaghetti-tangle that can result from using online help for a complicated issue can be discouraging. The print version can be used while working on a problem without the distraction of multiple open windows.
This is not just a beginner’s training book, it also includes discussions of the best use of features and customizing those features for experienced AI users, from advice about using plug-ins to expand an application’s usability, detailed troubleshooting advice, and discussion of the future of AI applications. Any Microsoft Office user will find this book to be a handy reference where you will have a fringe of sticky notes marking frequently consulted sections, reader’s notes in the margins, and highlighted sections for revisiting troubleshooting tips and unexpected situations.
Readers of other …for Dummies publications will be familiar with the book’s format. The Introduction includes a brief list of the most used topics, and an explanation of the four icons used throughout the text.
The Getting Started sections in each chapter are thorough by describing the variations and limitations when using Copilot on a desktop/laptop, or on a mobile device, recommending best practices where applicable.
The book has four major sections. Part 1, “Meeting your AI Assistant,” explains what Copilot can do, how to start it in Microsoft Edge, how to chat and browse the internet, how to use it on a mobile device, and how to use a Copilot+ PC.
Part 2, “Getting Work Done with Microsoft 365 Copilot,” details how to use Copilot in each of the Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams). The following chapters have instructions on generating and manipulating images within those applications. The last section’s chapter of the section details how to use Microsoft Planner for project management.
Part 3, “Jumpstarting Your Productivity with Copilot,” builds on the information from the prior sections. Here Minnick enters the area of more expert usage. The chapter on creating custom Copilot agents through the Copilot Studio tool requires the user to be familiar with using Copilot within the usual Microsoft Office applications. The following chapter describes how to create custom plugin programs to increase the usability of the Copilot Chat window.
One small complaint: I had difficulty seeing the illustrations. The all-gray on off-white images require strong lighting to bring out their details. Once I had the proper lighting (using my phone’s flashlight) I could see how the illustration related back to the text.
The organization of the index is very user-friendly. All the topic words pertinent to each Microsoft application are listed under the application’s name. That avoids the tiresome and frustrating search that the reader will encounter when a commonly used word, such as “error”, is followed by the application names. This ensures that the user will find the information without side trips through a list of “not that.” Keeping the entire book organized by application is critical presenting this much information coherently.
Part 4 has an intriguing title, “The Part of Tens”. Here the aim is to encourage users to keep current with new features and tools that work with or in Copilot. The first of its two chapters describes ten readily available plugins for Copilot. Minnick describes the plugin’s purpose, where to obtain it, and what to expect from it, with a warning to keep privacy and secrecy concerns in mind before adding a third-party feature to Copilot.
The second chapter of this section and the concluding chapter of the book describe ten more Copilot features or opportunities to collaborate with other Microsoft users about new features to the application.
My own experience with Copilot is shallow, but even that limited success makes me want to master this application. I have challenged myself to deepen my understanding and usage of Copilot with the constant help of this book.
Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World
Georgina Voss. Brooklyn, NY: Verso. 2024. 214 pages, including index.
Index Terms—infrastructures, power dynamics, social inequity, systems thinking, technology
Reviewed by Gregory Zobel, Associate Professor, Western Oregon University.
Georgina Voss’s Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World is delightful, smart, and engaging. Rarely do books about systems, critical literacies, or social justice deliver engaging prose, exciting details, witty observations, and copious connections to theories, histories, experiences, and locations. The book is an accomplishment and a joy.
Voss accomplishes what many academic writers and texts often try for: a relevant, effective, and engaging analysis. In this case, understanding problems that arise from “systems thinking” or systems’ related methodologies. She argues these “systems,” while initially discovered while grounded in actual material, biological, and/or relational environments, are almost always removed by observers from their original context and then used to frame and understand other problems in different contexts. This enables users and experts to ignore the original contexts’ power dynamics, inequities, and problems while applying a clean “system” label to other, unrelated contexts.
Whether Voss is discussing the history and development of shipping containers, modernization of ports, complexities of European air traffic control maps, or financial processing challenges of gray area industries, she fills her pages with tight, bright prose. She offers readers awe, spectacle, sensory awareness, and incisive insights into system labels, the problems they perpetuate, and additional challenges they create.
Ostensibly, the book’s purpose is to help make sense of technology in a complex world—hence the subtitle of this book. While Systems Ultra does this throughout its six chapters, Voss makes clear: “This is a book about making sense of what is meant by ‘systems’” (p. 7). Voss does this by examining multiple technological examples and environments such as airplanes and flight paths, high technology maker labs, shipping logistics and construction, as well as automobile manufacturing, pornography, and financial infrastructures. Understanding technology by understanding their infrastructures is how Voss addresses her central goal: critically thinking about and understanding “systems.” Her “making sense” is built upon understanding the slippery, and often cagily applied-by-experts term, “systems.” As Voss states,
“…the idea of systems has become expert at peeling apart the relations from the context, replicating and reinforcing the power structures that sustain it. This is why a systems literacy is particularly vital when challenging tradition and working towards dismantling social inequity” (p.25).
Voss’ endnotes are robust but not overwhelming. Her vocabulary is smart, informed, accurate, and yet still avoids jargon that many similar analyses wallow into when written from an academic perspective. And it is this touch that makes the book so approachable.
It’s worth noting that my first read of the first few chapters was not nearly as pleasant as this review. I had to set the book down and return to it about a month later. Upon re-reading it, what initially struck me as a bit complex and overwhelming—whether that was the framing, writing, or concepts—it had become lucid, engaging, and smart. All this is to say, if at first read, the book does not connect, it is worth coming back to and discovering just how wonderful it is upon return.
Financial Technologies and DeFi: A Revisit to the Digital Finance Revolution
Abeba N. Turi, ed. London, England: Springer. 2024. 142 pages.
Index Terms—blockchain, digital wallets, fintech
Reviewed by Aditya Yusta Kalpika Student, Universitas Gadjah Mada, supported by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP), Indonesia.
This edited volume explores the transformative impact of financial technology (fintech) on traditional financial institutions, highlighting how the integration of finance and technology has revolutionized customer experiences and expectations. This shift has prompted collaborations between traditional banks and fintech firms to maintain market share. It also traces the origins of fintech to Bitcoin’s emergence and discusses the role of stablecoins in cryptocurrency markets.
Additionally, Financial Technologies and DeFi: A Revisit to the Digital Finance Revolution provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of transitioning to a blockchain-based decentralized key management system (DKMS) for digital payments. It delves into the theory and practice of patent and property rights schemes within distributed ledger technology, offering a holistic view of blockchain-based patent systems and their interaction with other markets. This book also examines the allocative efficiency achieved through self-enforcing protocols, the potential of blockchain-based patent systems to enhance cryptocurrency financial stability, and blockchain’s potential for traceability and immutable ownership records. It also addresses the complexities of food traceability systems and explores new product lines for banking in the metaverse, including the implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).
Turi’s research employs a mixed-methods approach to explore the implementation and impact of blockchain technology in the food supply chain and fintech sector. The study analyzes the impact of blockchain on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food supply chain, focusing on food traceability and safety. It also examines fintech’s role in market structure, technologies used, and challenges faced by financial institutions. The research further discusses the technical tools and technologies used in blockchain-based systems, analyzing their impact on food traceability and safety.
The comprehensive analysis reveals the evolving landscape of digital finance, highlighting the transformative impact of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and blockchain technology, especially the pivotal role of digital wallets in the modern financial system, particularly among millennials and Gen Z, and the shift from centralized traditional payment systems to decentralized systems using public and private keys. It systematically reviews payment technologies, focusing on the surge in blockchain-based patent applications and their impact on financial sector innovation. Additionally, it addresses the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services and the need for regulatory clarity to foster innovation. Finally, the analysis provides a clear picture of current progress and future directions in the fintech sector, particularly in payment technologies, open banking, and decentralized lending.
The book’s strengths include detailed organization, in-depth analysis of blockchain-based patent systems, and practical discussion of fintech implications. However, it lacks depth in discussing metaverse economics and traditional financial systems and overemphasizes collaboration and standardization without addressing implementation challenges.
Overall, Financial Technologies and DeFi offers a comprehensive exploration of the evolving digital financial landscape, focusing on the transformative impact of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and blockchain technology. It provides valuable insights for researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers, particularly on fintech trends, blockchain-based patent systems, and the metaverse economy.