Roman Shemakov – författare

"A masterful narration on the digitization of property in China."Tan YinglanFounding Managing PartnerInsignia Ventures Partners, Singapore"...captures the fascinating story of 'smart city initiatives' and tells you all you need to know."Ben ShenglinProfessor&DeanInternational Business SchoolZhejiang University, Hangzhou"...smartly combines economics, geo-politics, finance and real estate."Joshua VargheseFounding Partner, Axia Real Assets, TorontoLong-planned advances in China — in 5G, blockchain, central bank coins, and SME superapps — have coalesced into a new world of digitized, tokenized, and tradable assets. New digital mega-projects like the Blockchain Service Network, smart cities, and new foreign exchange digital rails are animating physical assets: offices, warehouses, homes, and farms. Powered by a network of sensors, AI, and distributed trust, property has digitized wings. The resulting inflow of data from every part of the 'built' world will create new industries, uproot traditional finance, and transform cities.The global trade war is not just a re-ordering of technology: it's a re-ordering of cities. Nations which export this digital technology first will alter the digital fabric of the developing world. A digital Non-Aligned Movement is afoot! One way for the US to catch up is public-private partnerships between Silicon Valley and DC — or just 'copy' China. This book explores the many people and companies, large and small, which are blazing new trails in China's 'Internet of Everything' to transform the way we live, buy, and move.

An estimated 75% of the infrastructure that societies will depend on in 2050 does not yet exist, reflecting $139 trillion of investment over the next quarter century. Conventional wisdom regards these forthcoming water networks, roads, energy grids, and data centers as passive backbones of economic life. Centralized challenges this assumption, demonstrating how these systems actively shapes governance by regulating the flow of materials, managing access, and controlling storage.Centralized examines the oldest and the most contemporary forms of large-scale infrastructure: water and the internet. Drawing on archival documents, engineering blueprints, financial records, and interviews, the book analyzes eight transformative projects over two millennia across the United States, China, Turkey, and Russia. From the Dujiangyan irrigation canals to the creation of TCP/IP protocols, the case studies demonstrate how engineering networks produce predictable bureaucratic structures. Despite their technological differences, hydraulic and digital networks share a unifying logic of design, finance, and administration—one that ultimately consolidates authority.Built on the work of Keller Easterling, Norbert Wiener, Taisu Zhang, and Paul Edwards, Centralized offers a critical historical perspective on the relationship between technical and social systems.Preface by Benjamin Bratton. Illustrations by Flora Weil.