Trevor McFedries joined us for a fascinating chat about his background in the football and music industries, and how this led him into crypto.Trevor is the cofounder of Brud, a technology startup specializing in artificial intelligence and media. At Brud, they create social media personas with the help of CGI technology, the most well known being Lil Miquela. Lil Miquela is a sentient robot navigating life in LA -- and has millions of followers on instagram.

Trevor also started Friends With Benefits, a gated online community on a private discord server with a community token. We talked with Trevor about the increasingly immersive social media experience, the future for creators and the future of organizations.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Trevor's background in football and music, including his time working at Spotify
- An overview of Brud
- Who is Lil Miquela?
- How do these fictional characters fit into the 'real world'?
- How Trevor got into crypto
- The Friends with Benefits community
- Trevor's views on the future of DAOs
- Brud's experience with VCs as opposed to crowdfunding
- Trevor's take on NFTs and Lil Miquela's NFT drop
- The cultural impact of crypto to society and what the future looks like

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Brud: https://bit.ly/3v7bTqL
- Lil Miquela: https://bit.ly/3sDm8Se
- Friends with Benefits: https://bit.ly/2P8DlFj
- Friends with Benefits on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3xbSLtC
- Trevor on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3n62kFT

Sponsors: 
- Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter
- Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter
- ParaSwap: Give ParaSwap a try at paraswap.io/epicenter. This URL will allow you to claim a 50% refund on gas fees for your first swap of at least 1 Eth. This offer is available until May 1st 2021 and refunds will be made every Friday starting April 9th, 2021*Terms and conditions apply. - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/388

#388 Trevor McFedries: Brud – Using AI to Bridge Real and Virtual Worlds

By default, all transactions made on Ethereum are public. Tornado Cash is a decentralized privacy preserving solution built on Ethereum which adds privacy through obfuscation. Users can place Ether and some stable coins in prescribed increments [1 Eth, 10 Eth, 100 Eth...] into the Tornado Pool. In return, they are issued a private note, with which they can withdraw funds at a later time to a different address. 

We were joined by Roman Semenov, co-founder of Tornado Cash, to talk about how the protocol works, how it was set up, community governance, and where he sees Tornado Cash's position in the quickly growing privacy ecosystem on Ethereum.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Roman's background and how he got into crypto
- The problem Tornado Cash solves and how the protocol works
- What tokens are supported and can you swap tokens?
- Smart contracts and zero knowledge
- Costs involved for deposits and withdrawls
- Weaknesses of the protocol
- The Compliance Tool feature
- The regulatory threat to private coins in the future
- Tornado Cash's roadmap and how they see themselves positioned in the wider ecosystem

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Tornado.cash: https://bit.ly/2TGmFXA
- Dune Analytics: https://bit.ly/3iqf2z2
- Tornado Cash on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3px5Hqx
- Roman on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3zl2kaS

Sponsors: 
- Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenter
- ParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter 
- Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/395

#395 Roman Semenov: Tornado Cash – Keeping Your Ethereum Transactions Private

Avalanche is an open, scalable, and secure smart contracts platform. It targets three broad use cases; building application-specific blockchains, building and launching highly scalable decentralized applications (dapps), and building arbitrarily complex digital assets with custom rules, covenants, and riders (smart assets). It prides itself off on being blazingly fast, low cost, and eco-friendly. 

Emin Gün Sirer is the Founder & CEO of the Avalanche network. He is also a long time friend of the show, and joined us again for the 4th time after a 5 year break to share his journey since then, which led him to creating Avalanche. We also dove deep into the technical aspects of the protocol and how it fits into the blockchain ecosystem as a whole.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Gun's journey over the past 5 years which led him to creating Avalanche
- The unique features and trade-offs in the protocol
- A deep dive into bridging within Avalanche
- MEV extraction within the protocol
- Avalanche consensus - reliance on seed anchors

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Episode 103 - Bitcoin-NG – Scientists Versus the Church: https://bit.ly/3oZ5tZy
- Ep 134 - On a Rocky DAO: https://bit.ly/3HQUNob
- Avalanche: https://bit.ly/3nNJs0f
- Ava Labs: https://bit.ly/30Puf5T
- Avalanche on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3xjuh20
- Gun on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3pfJSfF

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/419

#419 Emin Gün Sirer: Avalanche

Leveraging the Cosmos SDK, Evmos is the first IBC-compatible EVM-based blockchain, bringing composability, interoperability, and fast finality to Ethereum. While much of the Cosmos ecosystem has embraced CosmWasm to deploy smart contracts, Evmos brings EVM capabilities to the Interchain and allows developers to write contracts in Solidity, the most widely used language in crypto. 

While the Evmos launch was halted in early March due to a critical vulnerability and a failed chain upgrade, the project is highly anticipated by the Cosmos community as it promises to bring speed, scale, and interoperability to Ethereum. This week, Sebastien was joined by the co-founder of Evmos, Federico Kunze Küllmer, to chat about the innovation that Evmos is bringing to the EVM ecosystem and the long-term vision for the project.

This episode is an excerpt of an extended interview with Federico released on The Interop, a new podcast hosted by Sebastien Couture. To hear the full interview and subscribe to The Interop, check the episode links.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Fede's background and how he got into crypto
- The early days at Tendermint and contributing to Ether Mint
- The delayed launch of the Evmos upgrade and how that has affected the project
- What innovation does Evmos bring to the EVM now and in the future
- Evmos' interoperability with other chains
- Bridges and the issue asset fungibility
- How sovereign chains will interact with smart contracts or addresses on Evmos
- What DeFi applications will be launched on Evmos
- Standout features of the token model
- Is fragmentation on the Interchain a good approach?

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Hear the full interview on The Interop podcast: https://bit.ly/3JSpj1G
- Evmos: https://bit.ly/3LuN5B8
- Evmos on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3tQ8LSj
- Federico on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3tTWDjv

Sponsors: 
- ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/437

#437 Federico Kunze Küllmer: Evmos – The Ethereum Virtual Machine on Cosmos

In our pilot episode, we talk about the latest news in regulation. Specifically, we talk about the recent regulatory stories out of France, Switzerland and China. 

Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture and is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Stitcher and other podcast aggregators.

Website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe: http://feed.epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe to our Friday newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc
Tip the show: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/tips

Music attribution:
"I Have Got Those Bass Blues (W.I.P. mix)" by SAT of The Maniac Agenda is licensed under CC 3.0 - http://twi.tl/1a7Wzxs
"Porter Robinson - Language" by Signature Beats is licensed under CC 3.0 - http://twi.tl/1gyWLr0

EB Pilot - Regulation and the Future of Bitcoin

In our first episode of Epicenter Bitcoin, we make our predictions for 2014. From security to regulation to mainstream adoption, we discus 9 areas where bitcoin could face the most change. 

Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture and is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Stitcher and other podcast aggregators.

Website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe: http://feed.epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe to our Friday newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc
Tip the show: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/tips

Music attribution:
"I Have Got Those Bass Blues (W.I.P. mix)" by SAT of The Maniac Agenda is licensed under CC 3.0 - http://twi.tl/1a7Wzxs
"Porter Robinson - Language" by Signature Beats is licensed under CC 3.0 - http://twi.tl/1gyWLr0

EB1 - Our Predictions for 2014

This week, we have Joel Hampton on as a guest host, a rather nomadic entrepreneur, currently based in Sydney. His startup Spendr.io is building a site to help people find high-quality, bitcoin-accepting businesses. 

The topics we cover include:

- The Neo & Bee disaster (i.e. another one bites the dust)
- Spendr.io’s plans and importance of reputation
- The importance of having a backup plan in case of phone theft, laptop damage, etc
- The sidechain proposal to allow altcoin-style innovation with bitcoin
- Square Market’s Bitcoin integration

Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture and is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Stitcher and other podcast aggregators.

Website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe: http://feed.epicenterbitcoin.com
Subscribe to our Friday newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc
Tip the show: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/tips

EB15 - Guest Host Joel Hampton: Spendr, Neo & Bee, Sidechains, Square

10 years ago, Adam B Levine, the host of ‘Let’s Talk Bitcoin!’, decided that it was time to encourage other voices to step onto the crypto podcast scene. Among many applicants, Sebastien and Brian were the only 2 Europeans, so Adam suggested that they teamed up in order to record the pilot episode. On December 20th 2013, Sebastien and Brian released ‘Regulation and the Future of Bitcoin’, which marked the beginning of a 10-year (and counting) long journey. The rest is history.

On this anniversary episode, our hosts were joined by special guests and friends of Epicenter, to share their favourite moments and fun stories gathered during the 10 years of epicness.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Adam B Levine - Epicenter’s godfather & the early days of Epicenter
- Trent McConaghy - From Ascribe to Ocean. Ahead of the NFT and inscription hype
- Sebastien Buergel - How he got into crypto, early ventures and Meher’s secret
- Griff Green & Lefteris Karapetsas - The DAO hack and Sebastien Buergel’s alleged role
- Sam Jernigan & Anna Rose - From TradFi to ZK
- Jordi Baylina & Ryan Zurrer - Standing in the Epicenter of the storm and the unsung hero of the DAO hack
- Richard Muirhead - The future of zk proofs, privacy and AI

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Adam B Levine on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3NEL3C4
- Trent McConaghy on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RV0PLG
- Sebastian Buergel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3tuvTbP
- Griff Green on Twitter: https://bit.ly/489UyS6
- Lefteris Karapetsas on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RVhsXN
- Sam Jernigan on Twitter: https://bit.ly/48a2geO
- Anna Rose on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3NEaovY
- Jordi Baylina on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3JsyhFb
- Ryan Zurrer on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3KEyjuf
- Richard Muirhead on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3v8wwZ3

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture, Brian Fabian Crain, Friederike Ernst, Meher Roy & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/527

Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

#527 Epicenter – 10-Year Anniversary Livestream

#590 Anatoly Yakovenko: Solana – From On-Chain Nasdaq to the Pump Fun Craze

Tally is a software platform designed to support tokenized organizations, particularly Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and crypto communities. It provides tools for launching tokens, governing protocols, and enabling staking to foster community participation and growth. Tally facilitates onchain governance, allowing transparent and decentralized decision-making for managing funds, grants, and protocol upgrades. It powers major blockchain ecosystems like Arbitrum, ZKsync, Uniswap DAO and Wormhole DAO by providing interfaces for proposal creation, voting, and staking. The Tally Protocol further enhances this by offering a liquidity layer for governance tokens, that allow token holders to earn staking rewards while retaining voting rights and participating in DeFi.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Dennison’s background
- Has crypto won?
- Does privacy still matter?
- The vision behind Tally
- The evolution of DAOs
- Are grassroots DAOs viable?
- Corporate vs. DAO PMF
- How developer activity & contributors evolved
- Tally’s roadmap
- ICO vs. IPO

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Dennison Bertram on X: https://bit.ly/3Gb6Lgd
- Tally on X: https://bit.ly/4jgz4Zo

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/594			

#594 Dennison Bertram: Tally – The Software Layer for Tokenized Organizations

With an extensive experience in traditional money markets, Maple Finance was envisioned as an institutional capital marketplace which combines the transparency & capital efficiency of blockchains with the regulatory framework of TradFi. Unlike many DeFi protocols that require over-collateralized loans (e.g. Aave), Maple also specializes in under-collateralized lending, enabling greater capital efficiency for institutional borrowers. With over $6b in loans since its inception, Maple plans to further expand its offerings by including RWAs as collateral assets.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Sid’s background
- The vision behind Maple Finance
- Maple’s tech stack
- Deciding risk profiles
- Over-collateralized vs. under-collateralized loans
- Assets accepted as collateral
- Deploying to other blockchains
- Institutional appeal
- Managing defaults
- RWA
- Converging DeFi & TradFi
- Biggest challenges
- Exciting upcoming trends
- Future roadmap
- Crypto correlation or decoupling?

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Sid Powell on X: https://bit.ly/3EEKp6q
- Maple Finance on X: https://bit.ly/3Yiuv8l

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/595			

#595 Sidney Powell: Maple Finance – On-Chain Institutional Yield & Lending Markets

Founded by former Meta Diem team members, Sui is a high-performance, layer-1 blockchain designed for horizontal scaling and low-latency transactions. It uses an object-centric data model and the Move programming language to enable transaction parallelization which can handle >200,000 txs/s. Sui’s goal is to combine the benefits of blockchains with Web2’s security & frictionless UX. From account abstraction & ZKLogin, to on-chain storage & data availability solutions like Walrus, Sui rebuilds the Google/AWS stack, fully on-chain and composable.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Adeniyi’s background, from Libra to Sui
- Sui’s long-term vision
- The tech stack of Sui & its primitives
- ZKLogin & account abstraction
- Object-based approach
- Transaction processing & parallelization
- DevEx on Move vs. EVM vs. SVM
- Consensus & scalability
- MEV
- Gaming & SuiPlay
- DeFi on Sui
- Walrus data storage
- Nautilus
- Future roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Adeniyi Abiodun on X: https://bit.ly/3YlFTk1
- Mysten Labs on X: https://bit.ly/4cSR61j
- Sui on X: https://bit.ly/4cS5tDf
- Walrus on X: https://bit.ly/3YnlMlo

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/596			

#596 Adeniyi Abiodun: Mysten Labs – How Sui Leverages Move to Build the Composable Web3nternet

Taiko is a decentralized, Ethereum-equivalent (type I) rollup scaling solution which uses ZK technology. Taiko's goal is to scale Ethereum efficiently while maintaining security and decentralization. Being a type I zkEVM, Taiko retains full Ethereum equivalence, which creates a seamless DevEx, although this comes at the expense of UX as slower proof generation is the main trade-off. Moreover, in order to stay true to its decentralised ethos, Taiko operates as a based rollup, meaning that transaction sequencing is performed by L1 validators.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Joaquin’s background
- Loopring and Taiko’s beginnings
- The 4 types of zkEVMs
- Taiko's zk circuits vs. Polygon’s
- Based sequencing
- Data availability and blob commitment
- Ethereum’s role in the future
- The L2 landscape and its compromises
- Sequencer security model
- Dealing with MEV
- Based preconfirmations & Taiko ecosystem UX

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Joaquin Mendes on X: https://bit.ly/3EKiL8e
- Taiko on X: https://bit.ly/4m1xht3
- Loopring on X: https://bit.ly/42RjzS0

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/597		

#597 Joaquin Mendes: Taiko – Scaling Ethereum in a Decentralised Manner

As society evolves, so do its values and principles, but is that desirable for technology that seeks to build the most reliable, trustless and censorship resistant global settlement layer? Ever since the rise in popularity of Solana with its inflow of retail capital in a memecoin gold rush, Ethereum became even more criticized for sticking true to its core values despite the completely divergent demands of market participants. Moreover, the rollup centric scaling roadmap seemed to further silo attention and cause liquidity fragmentation, driving away value from Ethereum mainnet. As institutional demand is expected to grow with the introduction of staking ETFs, a new executive leadership took charge of Ethereum foundation to help steer the protocol’s narrative at the intersection between community demands and Ethereum’s ethos.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Hsiao-Wei’s & Tomasz’ backgrounds
- How they became co-executive directors of Ethereum Foundation
- Ethereum Foundation’s role moving forward
- Decision making in Ethereum Foundation
- Shaping Ethereum’s narrative
- The layer 2 landscape
- Scaling Ethereum as the global settlement layer
- Sharding
- Rollup scalability & their trade-offs
- What values drive adoption
- L2 interoperability
- Future goals

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Hsiao-Wei Wang on X: https://bit.ly/3GPPw4w
- Tomasz Stańczak on X: https://bit.ly/433ybOh
- Ethereum Foundation on X: https://bit.ly/4iWtPNe
- Ethereum on X: https://bit.ly/4iUpkCT

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/598			

#598 Hsiao-Wei Wang & Tomasz Stańczak: Ethereum Foundation – Humanity’s Shared World Computer

We couldn’t miss the Avalanche Summit where we sat down with Emin Gün Sirer, co-founder & CEO of Ava Labs, to discuss the evolution of Avalanche’s ecosystem and how HyperSDK ushers in a scalable, interoperable, multi-chain future. Join us for a fascinating discussion on Avalanche’s approach to decentralisation, scalability & interoperability, and learn why real-world applicability relies heavily on bespoke blockchain solutions.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Gün x Epicenter bromance
- How the Avalanche ecosystem & community evolved
- The future vision for Avalanche
- Scaling Avalanche and the HyperSDK
- Interoperability and the multi-chain future
- Decentralising Avalanche L1s
- Use cases and institutional adoption
- On-chain privacy
- AvaCloud
- The impact of AI in crypto
- Gün’s focus in the near future

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Emin Gün Sirer on X: https://bit.ly/3ST1QDD
- Avalanche on X: https://bit.ly/3ZyCYEU
- Ava Labs on X: https://bit.ly/3Fr7mdJ

Sponsors: 
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io - 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/600			

#600 Emin Gün Sirer: Avalanche – The Multi-Chain Avalanche

Blockchain architecture is constantly being forced to adapt to new technologies, as well as to meet new demands from users and builders. While the idea of apps building their own chains was first explored by Cosmos, it lacked the support and tooling to see it succeed. Later on, rollups also took the centerstage of Ethereum’s scaling roadmap, but due to their general purpose design, it led to a cannibalistic ecosystem. Initia learned from these 2 models and combined the best of both worlds: it built a full-stack framework for a seamless DevEx from the get-go and, more importantly, it designed its tokenomics in order to ensure maximum incentive alignment for its appchains. While the former decision removed the need for each separate chain to reinvent the wheel and risk ending up ‘a jack of all trades, master of none’, the latter ensured that appchains would not extract value away from the L1.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Ezaan’s background
- From building on Terra to Initia
- How Initia is rewriting the appchain thesis
- Initia’s enshrined liquidity & vested interest program (VIP)
- Metrics & Initia’s bet on crypto innovation
- Solving liquidity fragmentation
- Delphi’s involvement in Initia
- Future roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Ezaan Mangalji on X: https://bit.ly/3YQ25Tw
- Jose Macedo on X: https://bit.ly/4j7HPnE
- Anil Lulla on X: https://bit.ly/3EYqcsx
- Initia on X: https://bit.ly/43eoCe4
- Delphi Digital on X: https://bit.ly/43iibqt
- Delphi report on Initia: https://bit.ly/44GZkaN

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/599			

#599 Anil Lulla, Ezaan Mangalji & Jose Maria Macedo: Initia – Incentively Aligned Appchains

After a decade of existence, Ethereum has gone a long way from its initial whitepaper, yet many efforts in scaling and finding product-market-fit have been severely criticized for falling short of their promise. However, despite numerous other ‘Ethereum killers’ being launched over the years, none has managed to attract so many developers and liquidity while sticking true to ethos that (once) powered and united this industry. This year’s ETHPrague plans to confront exactly these existential challenges and steward community culture towards addressing outside criticism and external reality checks. Ethereum’s development, while adapting to market pressures, it always aimed to stick true to its core values in order to remain a technological bedrock for the future of humanity.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- The vision for ETH Prague
- Takeaways from main sessions
- High-level overview of ETH Prague
- The resurgence of Polkadot
- European crypto summer events
- The general state of the Ethereum ecosystem
- Celo’s transition to L2
- L2 liquidity fragmentation
- Choosing the right L2 to build
- Improving hackathons
- Lightning round
- Final words

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Austin Griffith on X: https://bit.ly/4ktigz0
- Marek Olszewski on X: https://bit.ly/3Ta48ON
- Brenda Loya on X: https://bit.ly/4570mxa
- Joseph Schweitzer on X: https://bit.ly/3FBWA4k
- BuidlGuidl DAO on X: https://bit.ly/4kMENXd
- Celo on X: https://bit.ly/3Fmdvbb
- Tellor on X: https://bit.ly/455Ukge

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/601			

#601 Austin Griffith, Brenda Loya, Joseph Schweitzer & Marek Olszewski: ETHPrague – Ethereum Renaissance

Apart from incentivising market participants to secure the network through inflationary rewards, many consider staking as an equivalent of stock dividend yield. As a result, although Bitcoin is regarded as digital gold, protocols are looking for ways to increase its utilisation in DeFi and, ultimately, generate yield. Nowadays, while newer networks are struggling to attract investors and sustain a healthy, decentralised validator set, more established blockchains capture the lion’s share of PoS actors. However, in a constant race for profit basis points, centralised consolidation of stakers seems inevitable. Join us for a fascinating discussion on the staking landscape and the challenges it may present to decentralisation.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Increasing BTC utilization through BTC yield
- Looping yield products
- The maturation of the staking market
- Chorus One staking portfolio
- How to prevent staking consolidation
- Retail vs. institutional-grade operators
- Symbiotic, Eigenlayer & restaking yield

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Mirko Schmiedl on X: https://bit.ly/4jybuqd
- Tobias Jung on X: https://bit.ly/4kRTicf
- Staking Rewards on X: https://bit.ly/45uEsUP

Sponsors: 
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io - 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/602			

#602 Mirko Schmiedl & Tobias Jung: Staking Rewards – Is Crypto Staking Killing Decentralisation?

Bitcoin remains an untapped source of net-new liquidity that could be injected into DeFi. This would completely reshape Bitcoin’s utilization from a mere store of value to a liquid asset that can be ported cross-chain and traded like a liquid staking derivative. Lombard’s LBTC builds upon Babylon’s Bitcoin staking primitive and aims to unlock new yield sources for the industry’s leading asset by increasing its DeFi utilization.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Jacob’s background
- Lessons gathered from Polychain
- Focusing on Bitcoin
- Why Bitcoin staking is crucial for BTC DeFi
- Building on top of Babylon
- LBTC minting
- Sources of BTC yield
- PoS inflation and native token incentives
- BTC as a trading pair in DeFi
- Lombard chain
- Future challenges to overcome
- Bitcoin L2s
- Lombard milestones

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Jacob Phillips on X: https://bit.ly/4jQi63e
- Lombard on X: https://bit.ly/4kFwDQB
- Babylon on X: https://bit.ly/44i23qr

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/603			

#603 Jacob Phillips: Lombard – Unlocking Bitcoin DeFi Through Liquid, Yield-Bearing LBTC

As the summer tour of European crypto conferences landed in Berlin, one of crypto’s cradles, we couldn’t miss DappCon 25, where we got to sit with Jerome de Tychey, Nixorokish & Joshua Dávila to discuss Ethereum’s restructure and whether its culture is still relevant to the wider crypto community. Join us for a fascinating discussion on the impact of crypto politicization and how Ethereum’s ecosystem evolved amidst a society with ever-changing values.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Jerome, Nixorokish & Josh backgrounds
- Ethereum Foundation restructuring
- Ethereum’s culture & crypto politicization
- DAOs & the evolution of Ethereum’s ecosystem
- Is privacy still a societal value?
- User experience & account abstraction
- Future hopes for Ethereum

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Jerome de Tychey on X: https://bit.ly/4jX1C9F
- Nixorokish on X: https://bit.ly/40dWZB3
- Joshua Dávila on X: https://bit.ly/4ldKa1A
- DappCon on X: https://bit.ly/4ec9e6Z

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/604			

#604 Jerome de Tychey, Joshua Dávila & Nixorokish: DappCon 25 – The Ticker Is $ETH

While L2 rollups did help scale Ethereum, they also created siloed ecosystems, all fighting over the same liquidity, users and devs. t1 Protocol is building layer-2 infrastructure to achieve seamless cross-rollup interoperability through real-time proving, powered by TEEs. t1's low-latency with 1-second block times provides faster preconfirmations, significantly improving UX, all while maintaining full Ethereum composability.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Can’s background
- Why Enigma/Secret Network built on Cosmos
- Solving Ethereum’s liquidity fragmentation
- t1’s rollup & real-time proving in TEEs
- Sequencer setup inside the TEE
- Dealing with other rollup trust assumptions
- Integrating new L2s
- Permissionless TEEs
- Potential attack vectors
- TEE alternatives
- Asset issuance on mainnet vs. L2s
- t1 development
- Partnerships & BD
- Solana vs. Ethereum UX
- TEE misconceptions

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Can Kisagun on X: https://bit.ly/4l4vJgZ
- t1 Protocol on X: https://bit.ly/40gwlb1

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/605		

#605 Can Kisagun: t1 Protocol – Unifying Ethereum's L2 Liquidity Through Real-Time Proving

Stripe has established itself as a leading payment solution for both enterprises as well as startups and individual sellers. By abstracting away all the complexities of traditional payment rails through simple plug-and-play APIs, Stripe created a facile route for cross-border payments, simplifying e-commerce. Similarly, Stripe’s recent integration of stablecoins could further bolster the adoption of decentralised payment solutions, be them USD or other currency proxies. This allows businesses to reach more markets, at a lower cost, with near-instantaneous settlement.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- John’s background
- Stripe’s mission
- How Stripe solves the complexity of internet payments
- Integrating crypto for payments
- Supported blockchains
- Stripe’s Web3 services
- Upsides of accepting stablecoin payments
- Non-USD stablecoins
- Merchant UX
- Expanding crypto support outside the U.S.
- On- and off-ramping
- Acquiring Bridge and Privy
- The best of both worlds: CeFi & DeFi

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- John Egan on X: http://bit.ly/4lzWj1f
- Stripe on X: http://bit.ly/3ZW21lH

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/606			

#606 John Egan: Stripe – The Stablecoin (R)Evolution

The tradition of Epicenter x Vitalik Buterin continued this year as well at EthCC[8], where we got the chance of picking his brain about recent research, interests and Ethereum Foundation’s direction going forward. Join us for a fascinating discussion on biotech and how Vitalik’s Shiba ended up funding it, the utility of blockchains in nowadays society and Vitalik’s view on the Ethereum ecosystem and the Foundation’s response to community requests.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Vitalik’s current interests
- How Shiba Inu funded biotech research
- The Merge and its impact
- Vitalik’s motivation and view on blockchain utility
- Ethereum Foundation’s changes
- Is supporting ETH price important for EF?
- Are L2s incentively aligned with Ethereum L1?
- Native L2s
- The risk of quantum computers

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Vitalik Buterin on X: http://bit.ly/3TtScYw
- Ethereum on X: https://bit.ly/4ljvtuo
- Ethereum Foundation on X: https://bit.ly/4nDSbiz
- EthCC on X: https://bit.ly/4nCoPAX

Sponsors: 
- Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
- Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at gnosis.io -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/607			

#607 Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum – The [LAST] Steward of Decentralisation

Support the show, consider donating: 18ZSe3qvW3rCc9ScS5BjQYmcPYPzuAJu5X (http://bit.ly/1Rp226M)

We're joined by Brock Pierce, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, investor and all around emblematic figure of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Brock tells his story, from his early beginning a entrepreneur in his teens, to the massively successfull video game industry businesses he built in the early 2000s.

As Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, he gives us his perspective on how the Foundation's role has evolved over time and its areas of focus going forward. Brock also weighs in the recent debates around governance and block size.

Topics covered included:
- The lemonade-stand beginnings of Brock's entrepreneurship story
- How he became involved in gaming and pioneered the sale of digital goods
- The 400,000-strong professional gamer supply chain he built in China
- His first contact with Bitcoin and the initial concerns he had
- Blockchain Capital and how he ended up investing in dozens of Bitcoin startups
- The blocksize debate and whether Bitcoin needs an explicit governance process
- The future of the Bitcoin Foundation

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- This Week in Startups with Brock Pierce http://bit.ly/1LASaYZ
- The Finanser Interview with Brock Pierce http://bit.ly/22rSrEX
- Blockchain Capital http://bit.ly/1Mj6iWT
- Brock Pierce – Bitcoins Are The Digital Gold 2.0 http://bit.ly/1Zkc9gv

Sponsors: 

- GTEC: Apply now to enter the GTEC Blockchain Contest and win prizes worth €50k epicenterbitcoin.com/gtec

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/123
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8HJvDzgfvh0


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
- Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
- Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

EB123 – Brock Pierce: From Digital Goods To Digital Currency

Support the show, consider donating: 12NF4HiErL6phVzQ4vSvvXPWDopDMMKCfV (http://bit.ly/21JOxll)

When Jed McCaleb discovered Bitcoin, there didn't even exist an online marketplace to trade the cryptocurrency yet. The experienced founder who had earlier started file sharing site eDonkey, acted fast and started the first Bitcoin exchange MtGox which he later sold to now-infamous Mark Karpeles. Jed later founded the pioneering Ripple project before leaving to start Stellar.

We discussed his journey through the industry and the ambitious plans Stellar has to create an open financial system that will give access to financial services to a much broader spectrum of humanity. 

Topics covered included:
- Jed's early involvement in the industry and founding of MtGox and subsequently Ripple
- Why Jed left Ripple and started Stellar
- How Ripple and Stellar differ
- The Stellar Consensus Protocol
- Why the organization behind Stellar is a non-profit foundation
- Stellar's focus on developing markets and Nigeria in particular
- The role and distribution of Stellar's currency Lumen

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Stellar Website http://bit.ly/1XUNvCf
- Stellar Consensus Protocol http://bit.ly/1MWfMrJ
- Bitcoin-Lumen Giveaway http://bit.ly/233DGTG
- Stellar Graphic Novel http://bit.ly/1NwIXl7
- Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper http://amzn.to/1LxK5im

Sponsors: 

- Ledger Nano: Smart card security for your Bitcoins - Get 10% off your first order when you use the code EPICENTER at http://ledgerwallet.com

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/128
YouTube: https://youtu.be/dHkrrMg9RUw


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
- Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
- Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

EB128 – Jed Mccaleb: Stellar And The Vision Of An Open Financial System

Support the show, consider donating: 1PDMqgBrD6jP5Deh33Xw6PUMFm1ZUY9u66 (http://bit.ly/1VLG29H)

As the blockchain field continues evolving rapidly, Sebastien, Meher and Brian take some time to discuss the current environment and the longer term implications of blockchains. We discussed how smart contracts could affect the pace of innovation and the competitiveness of industries. We also talked about the role DAOs will play and what we can take away from the current DAO crowdsale and its connection with Slock.it.

Topics covered included:
- How companies running on smart contracts could impact the pace and cost of innovation
- A smart contract-based insurance example
- Why smart contracts and blockchains will challenge our understanding of organizations
- The current state of DAOs
- Slock.it and the DAO crowdsale

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Maciej Olpinski's Blog http://bit.ly/1TpCHrO
- Slock.it http://bit.ly/1TFubHO
- The DAO http://bit.ly/1rqMnvJ
- EB108 - The Big Chain Powwow http://bit.ly/1QMZvQp

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/129
YouTube: https://youtu.be/W8xAwbPN6Ko


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
- Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com
- Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

EB129 – The Far Future In Front Of Us

Support the show, consider donating: 145PoPHFLFYTTRe1wMZtdzYqsgptgfTKmY (http://bit.ly/2fWcvKF)

System scalability and extensibility of system features are two central problems around which research in the cryptocurrency / blockchain industry has centered. For example, the Blockstream sidechains project foresaw hundreds of blockchains coordinating together to form an ‘Internet of Chains’ delivering extensibility to the Bitcoin system. 

Recently, Dr. Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and Parity, put forth Polkadot, a technical vision to achieve the similar end-goals using different system architecture. Polkadot could enable individual blockchain networks to share security and communications infrastructure with other blockchain networks, forming in effect an ‘Internet of Blockchain networks’. 

Melonport, a team based out of Zurich, has taken up the challenge of deploying the Polkadot network and also building decentralized asset management software on the same network. In this episode we converse with Mona El Isa and Reto Trinkler, co-founders of Melonport, in order to discover more about the overall vision.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Melonport, a team based out of Zurich, has taken up the challenge of deploying the Polkadot network and also building decentralized asset management software on the same network. In this episode we converse with Mona El Isa and Reto Trinkler, co-founders of Melonport, in order to discover more about the overall vision.
- Description of problem(s) Polkadot seeks to resolve
- Analogous design problems from technological history
- Overview of Polkadot network
- Overview of Melonport asset management software
- How Melonport and Polkadot connect with each other
- Next steps for the team

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Melonport website: https://melonport.com
- Melonport white paper: https://melonport.com/melonprotocol.pdf
- melonproject on GitHub: https://github.com/melonproject
- Melonport explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG6LISz1iyw
- Polkadot Network: http://polkadot.network
- Polkadot white paper: http://polkadot.network/PolkaDotPaper.pdf
- Parity and Melonport joint press release: https://ethcore.io/press.html/

Sponsors: 
- Ledger: Smart card security for your Bitcoins - Get 10% off your first order when you use the code EPICENTER - http://ledgerwallet.com
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/158
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/rfRufqN8S9c
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-158

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

158 – Reto Trinkler & Mona El Isa: The Polkadot Protocol - One Blockchain To Connect Them All

Support the show, consider donating: 
BTC: 1CD83r9EzFinDNWwmRW4ssgCbhsM5bxXwg (https://epicenter.tv/tipbtc)
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ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth)

Blockchain technologies are changing the way we think about data archival and storage. For instance, most database systems can only capture the current state of a data set. This means we must rely on secondary backup systems to ensure historical data can remain accessible, a stark contrast from what the most basic of blockchains provide out of the box. Database systems that offer immutability and historical context for data would be greatly beneficial for companies as it would make internal and external audits much less costly and time-intensive.

We're delighted to bring you an interview with Flip Filipowski and Brian Platz. Flip is a veteran entrepreneur whose career spans 50 years, having worked for and founded some of the world's largest software companies of the 80's and 90's. He is also the CEO of SilkRoad Equity and a Founding Partner of Tally Capital. Brian's background includes having founded A List Appart in 1994, which is among the oldest and most influential web development blogs, and SilkRoad Technologies. 

Flip and Brian join us to talk about their new company, Fluree. Their product, FlureeDB, is a scalable graph database which provides the benefits of blockchain technologies, such as immutability, replayability and fault tolerance. Currently, in development, the goal for FlureeDB is to support various consensus rules based on the network configuration: private systems, federated (or consortium) clusters, and fully decentralized public networks. 

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Flip and Brian's respective backgrounds and entrepreneurial ventures
- How blockchain will disrupt most major companies that exist today
- FlureeDB and the problem it is trying to solve
- How FlureeDB improves compliance procedures for enterprise
- How FlureeDB can address some of the challenges ahead with regards to GDPR
- FlureeDB's technical infrastructure and elementary components
- The different consensus modes and scalability properties of FlureeDB
- Why they chose to structure the company as a Public Benefit Corporation
- FlureeDB's development roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Fluree Website: https://flur.ee/
- FlureeDB Whitepaper: https://flur.ee/assets/pdf/flureedb_whitepaper_v1.pdf
- Blockchain, Meet Database: https://medium.com/fluree/blockchain-meet-database-5eecaa38a358


Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

#216 Brian Platz & Flip Filipowski: FlureeDB – A Scalable Blockchain-Based Graph Database

Support the show, consider donating: 
BTC: 1CD83r9EzFinDNWwmRW4ssgCbhsM5bxXwg (https://epicenter.tv/tipbtc)
BCC: 1M4dvWxjL5N9WniNtatKtxW7RcGV73TQTd (http://epicenter.tv/tipbch)
ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth)

A significant part of the modern digital economy, is underpinned by machine learning models that are trained to perform tasks such as facial recognition, content curation, health diagnostics etc. Data to train machine learning models is the essential commodity of this century - a sentiment captured by epithets such as ""Data is the new oil"". Today's dominant AI paradigm has companies focus their efforts on gathering data from their users in order to train models and monetise usage of the model. This model has many consequences such as loss of privacy for the user, consolidation of data in a handful of large companies, low access to data for startups and a fundamental impossibility of collecting sensitive data such as markers for depression.

Our guest, Andrew Trask, is building OpenMined - a platform that merges cryptographic techniques such as homomorphic encryption and multi-party computation and blockchain technology to create the ability to train ML models with private user data. OpenMined will allow AI companies of the future to develop models, have them trained on user data without compromising user privacy, and incentivise users to train their model. We walk through the OpenMined vision and its potential impact on AI business models and AI safety

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Challenges with the current AI paradigm
- OpenMined's vision to allow training of AI models with private user data
- How OpenMined works under the hood
- Applications enabled by OpenMined
- Current state and OpenMined hackathon

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- OpenMined hackathon: http://hackathon.openmined.org/
- OpenMined website: https://openmined.org/

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/217
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/m5p5UFAboqc
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-217

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

#217 Andrew Trask: OpenMined – A Decentralised Artificial Intelligence Platform

Support the show, consider donating: 
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ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth)

The healthcare industry is paradoxical. On the one hand, treatment technologies represent some of the most advanced science known to humankind, while some administrative tasks are still performed using paper and fax machine. Studies have shown that the administrative costs of healthcare can represent up to one-third of the total cost of care. Also, as diagnosis, treatment, and care, becomes increasingly data-driven and patient-specific, the industry needs to adopt more secure and robust technologies to manage patient data and communications between the patient and the different participants in the healthcare supply chain.

We are joined by John Bass and Corey Todaro, who are respectively CEO and CPO of Hashed Health, an innovation firm focused on accelerating the meaningful development of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies for the industry. Hashed Health works to build solutions which leverage blockchain to solve some of the most important challenges facing this sector.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- John and Corey's respective backgrounds in the building technology for the healthcare sector
- Nashville as a hub for the US healthcare industry
- What is Hashed Health and what problems the company is trying to solve
- The particular issues facing the US and global healthcare sectors
- How healthcare in the US differs from that of European countries
- The different entities of Hashed Health: Hashed Collective, Hashed Labs, and Hashed Enterprise
- Hashed Enterprise and the products they are building for the industry

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Hashed Health Website: http://hashedhealth.com
- Hashed Health Blog: https://hashedhealth.com/blog/
- Hashed Health Podcast: https://hashedhealth.com/media/podcasts/

Sponsors: 
- Gnosis X: Build a revolutionary prediction market dApp on Gnosis & win up to  $100,000 in GNO tokens - http://epicenter.tv/gnosisx

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/228
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/SVJSjQ8wwCk
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-228

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

#228 Corey Todaro & John Bass: Hashed Health – Rebooting The Healthcare Industry

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ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth)

Since he started blogging as Two Bit Idiot in 2013, Ryan Selkis has been both industry insider and industry critic. Consistently calling out excesses and abuses, but also maintaining his sights on the long-term potential. 

He recently founded Messari, a project that aims to bring more transparency and fairness to the industry. Messari has narrowed in on siloed, inaccurate and incomplete data as a key factor that allows insiders to profit at the expense of the public. We talked about the various ways in which Messari tackles that problem, ranging from a community-led effort to gather project data to the ambitious goal of a token-curated registry of stand-up projects.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Ryan's start into the crypto industry as pseudonymous blogger Two Bit Idiot
- His insights from being the Digital Currency Group's first employee
- CoinDesk and the challenges of journalism in crypto
- Why poor and inaccurate information benefits industry insiders at the expense of retail investors
- Messari's mission to lead a self-regulatory effort for the crypto industry
- How an open, distributed crypto data library could help create a fairer playing field
- The plans for Messari's token-curated registry of projects following reporting standards
- The economics and game theory around the Messari token and TCR

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Messari - Crypto News, Pricing, and Research: https://messari.io/
- Introducing Messari: An Open-Source EDGAR Database for Cryptoassets: https://medium.com/tbis-weekly-bits/introducing-messari-an-open-source-edgar-database-for-cryptoassets-46fec1b402f6
- Messari Whitepaper: https://messari.github.io/tcr/whitepaper.pdf
- A token to self-regulate tokens. But really.: https://medium.com/@twobitidiot/a-token-to-self-regulate-tokens-but-really-a61da77e6a7b
- Cryptoasset network value, market cap, rankings & metrics | OnChainFX: https://onchainfx.com/
- Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) | Twitter: https://twitter.com/twobitidiot
- Messari Community Analyst Application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DxH-QgSn57BzGC_qAsIElF5UJGg_b10jplqbRs798fQ/viewform?edit_requested=true

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/247
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/x8zTE5I1kGU
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-247

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

#247 Ryan Selkis: Messari - Bringing Transparency and Self-Regulation to the Blockchain Industry

Support the show, consider donating: 
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ETH: 0x8cdb49ca5103Ce06717C4daBBFD4857183f50935 (https://epicenter.tv/tipeth)

The difficulties of compensating content creators for their work has been a driving force of the web for decades. It gave rise to advertising-driven tech giants like Google and Facebook and contributed to the decline of industries like music and publishing. Coil aims to change this and leverage blockchain and the Interledger Protocol to build a new business model for the web.

We were joined by Coil Founder and former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas and Coil Co-Founder Ben Sharifian to discuss their ambitions to change how content is consumed and paid for.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- What web monetization is
- The difference between web monetization and web payments
- The negative effects of advertising-driven business models
- What the Interledger Protocol (ILP) is
- The current state of ILP
- Why Stefan and Ben decided to leave Ripple and start Coil
- The case for web monetization as an initial use case for Coil
- The idea of users paying a fixed bandwidth per second to content creators
- Possible user experiences that could be built on top of Coil
- How to bootstrap Coil and get adoption

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Coil Website: 
- Coil: Building a New Business Model for the Web: 
- Layer 3 Is for Interoperability: 
- Talk about Ripple and Coil at TOA18 - Stefan Thomas: 
- E92: Stefan Thomas - Understanding Ripple: 
- E131: Evan Schwartz & Stefan Thomas - Building the Internet of Payments with 
Interledger:

Sponsors: 
- DutchX: The open, decentralized trading protocol for ERC20 tokens using the Dutch auction mechanism - https://epicenter.tv/dutchx
- Azure: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks - http://aka.ms/epicenter

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/261
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/lBPVAC0H8kU
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-261

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture, Meher Roy & Sunny Aggarwal.

#261 Ben Sharafian & Stefan Thomas: Coil - A New Business Model for the Web

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We're joined by Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys. Joseph founded ConsenSys as an Ethereum development studio on the heels of the Ethereum crowd sale in 2014. The company has since grown to a distributed organization of over 1,000 people. Over 50 companies and projects have emerged from ConsenSys, including Metamask, uPort, Gnosis, and GitCoin, to name only a few. Today, the company continues to invest in growing the Ethereum ecosystem by funding projects, and through consulting services for companies and institutions.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Joseph's background working as a technologist in the financial industry
- How he discovered Bitcoin in 2011
- What lead Joseph to meet Vitalik Buterin and the founding Ethereum team
- How he founded ConsenSys and the company's vision
- The company's impressive growth and output
- The recent round of layoffs at ConsenSys
- How he thinks blockchain can change the world for the better
- His advice to companies feeling the pressure of the current bear market
- Joseph visiton for the future of ConsenSys and Ethereum

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- ConsenSys website: http://bit.ly/2FfPbqN
- The Prophets of Cryptocurrency Survey the Boom and Bust (The New Yorker): http://bit.ly/2FeVjj8
- The Uncanny Mind That Built Ethereum (WIRED): http://bit.ly/2FdHDVl
- ConsenSys Monthly Report — November 2018: http://bit.ly/2FcPQct
- A Prehistory of the Ethereum Protocol: http://bit.ly/2FcQ2sd
- Joseph Lubin on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2Ff0X4M

Sponsors: 
- Toptal: Simplify your hiring process & access the best blockchain talent  – Get a $1,000 credit on your first hire - http://toptal.com/epicenter
- Azure: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks - http://aka.ms/epicenter

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/269
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/97uz09S1Us8
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-269

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture, Meher Roy & Sunny Aggarwal.

#269 Joseph Lubin: Consensys – The Distributed Incubator which Jumpstarted the Ethereum Ecosystem

The concept of a decentralized exchange has been a holy grail in the cryptocurrency space for many years. Many attempts have been made, but most decentralized exchanges suffered from central points of failure, poor user experience and little liquidity.

Launched during Ethereum's DevCon 2018, Uniswap is one of the first fully decentralized exchanges and managed to become the leading DEX very fast. We were joined by Uniswap Founder Hayden Adams to discuss Uniswap's unique model, the different participants in the protocol and the importance of decentralized exchanges for the blockchain space.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- How Hayden's exploratory project to learn smart contract development took off and became Uniswap
- How Uniswap works and its different participants
- The advantage of an automated exchange instead of using order books
- The role of liquidity providers in Uniswap
- Feedback loops that can make Uniswap markets popular or collapse
- The challenging economics of liquidity shares
- Addressing Arthur Hayes' criticism of decentralized exchanges
- Why Uniswap didn't create a tokeneconomic monetization model

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Uniswap Exchange Protocol: https://bit.ly/2MVWl8i
- Uniswap Whitepaper: https://bit.ly/2MTouN6
- Uniswap: Getting Started & Documentation: https://bit.ly/2FiCdqt
- Unisocks Exchange: https://bit.ly/2IQYi0u
- Distributed 2018: Presentation about Decentralized Exchanges by Arthur Hayes (BitMEX): https://bit.ly/2XpvIMI
- Buidl Asia 2019 Conference in Seoul, Korea on July 22-23: https://bit.ly/2FipiF8
- HackAtom Seoul on July 19-21: https://bit.ly/2KXaGP7

Sponsors: 
- Azure: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks - http://aka.ms/epicenter
- Trail of Bits: Trust the team at the forefront of blockchain security research - https://trailofbits.com

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/292

#292 Hayden Adams: Uniswap – An Automated Decentralized Exchange for Ethereum

Epicenter is a podcast about the technologies, projects & people driving decentralization and the global blockchain revolution.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sebastien Couture and Meher Roy. Every week, we find the most interesting people in the industry for in-depth discussions about their projects, ideas and stories.

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