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Legendary scientist and cryptography pioneer Ralph Merkle joined us to discuss his recent paper on DAOs. Merkle examined how the voting mechanisms in today's democracies are flawed and how a decentralized, transparent DAO making decisions using prediction markets could create more efficient democratic systems.

Topics covered included:
- Merkle proofs, Merkle Roots and his early forays into cryptography
- Blockchains as living organisms
- Why DAOs will be subject to a Darwinian evolutionary process
- Why voting is flawed and we need new governance methods to save democracy
- The concept of a DAO democracy
- How prediction markets and futarchy would help govern a DAO democracy

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Ralph Merkle DAO Democracy Paper [PDF] http://bit.ly/29XR7RG
- Ralph Merkle's Homepage http://bit.ly/2anLaPA
- Ralph Merkle's Wikipedia page http://bit.ly/2am6xE6
- EB98 - Robin Hanson: Futarchy, Prediction Markets http://bit.ly/2aE3djy
- Tim Urban: Why Cryonics Makes Sense http://bit.ly/2akC6MV
- Alcor - Life Extension Foundation http://bit.ly/2a9P7IM

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Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/141
YouTube: http://youtu.be/dvzpvXLbpv4

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

EB141 – Ralph Merkle: Revolutionizing Democracy Using DAOs

Student and teacher of Songmagic. Inspired by the Masters of Enchantment. 

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.