offline

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Close to two years after the initial whitepaper, the revolutionary Ethereum network has finally launched. The decentralized smart contract platform is, without a doubt, the most exciting cryptocurrency project since Bitcoin. The versatile platform with its turing-complete scripting language aspires to power the distributed applications of the future.

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin joined us for the second time to discuss the Frontier Launch, future plans for scalability, governance and the road ahead for the organization and the protocol.

Topics covered included:
- Ethereum's frontier launch and the upcoming development stages
- The plans for how to create a scalable blockchain architecture
- The thinking around transitioning to proof-of-stake
- The state and new board of the Ethereum Foundation
- How Ethereum's development will be funded in the longer term
- His thoughts on the governance of Ethereum and Bitcoin
- When private blockchains make sense and if Ethereum
- What mistakes were made during the development of Ethereum

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Sponsors: 

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Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/091
YouTube: https://youtu.be/3uvbIyzsCLY


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture.
 
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EB91 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum Frontier Launch, Scalability And The Road Ahead

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We've made it to episode 100! Our guest for our celebratory episode is Juan Benet, inventor of the Inter-Planetary File System and founder of Protocol Labs. IPFS is a distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. The possibilities for IPFS could range from distributed cloud hosting to websites without central servers to even replacing HTTP. It's a project as audacious as any we've had on the podcast and Juan did an outstanding job explaining the technology and vision.

Topics covered included:
- Why HTTP is broken and how IPFS could complement and ultimately replace it
- The different technologies IPFS is based on including DHT, Git, Bittorrent and SFS
- How IPFS could enable the 'permanent web' by distributing file storage
- Content-addressing and how hosting works on IPFS
- Mutable content and the Interplanetary Naming System (IPNS)
- Filecoin and incentivizing hosting on IPFS
- Why IPFS is a great fit for smart contracts
- How he wants to build and monetize core internet protocols with his company Protocol Labs

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- IPFS website http://bit.ly/1VNcLIg
- IPFS whitepaper (PDF) http://bit.ly/1N7UdAr
- Replication on IPFS http://bit.ly/1GDJfhb
- Neocities  blog post http://bit.ly/1LfB0tC
- Filecoin http://bit.ly/1LfB2lq
- Protocol Labs http://bit.ly/1GDJ7OQ

Sponsors: 

- Shapeshift: Buy and sell alt coins instantly at http://ShapeShift.io
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Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/100
YouTube: https://youtu.be/erB7i6Uc4DM


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture.
 
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EB100 – Juan Benet: Decentralizing The Web With The Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS)

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With Proof-of-Stake (PoS) a blockchain is secured not by spending an external resource such as electricity but by using value internal to the chain itself. The promise of higher security at a lower cost is what also drives Ethereum to plan a move away from Proof-of-Work to PoS in the future.

Ethereum researcher Vlad Zamfir, who leads their effort in the complex search for the optimal PoS consensus system joined us for an in-depth discussion of the challenges of PoS, the approach Casper is taking and what consensus in Ethereum land could look like in the future.

Topics covered included:
- How he became interested in consensus and Proof-of-Stake (PoS)
- Why Ethereum plans to switch to the PoS systems Casper in the future
- What the Long-Range Attack and Nothing-at-Stake problems are and how Casper addresses them
- How a betting mechanism is used to get validators to reach consensus
- What centralization pressures exist for validators and what operating a validator will look like
- The role of security deposits in Casper
- The difference between Tendermint and Casper
- Whether forks create big UI/UX issues for Casper
- Why Casper is very light client friendly

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Introducing Casper - Ethereum Blog http://bit.ly/1ONermJ
- Review of Casper, Ethereum’s proposed Proof of Stake Algorithm http://bit.ly/1YcWG1G
- Casper Protocol Specification http://bit.ly/1Nzi8GI
- Slasher, Ghost and Other Developments in Proof-of-Stake http://bit.ly/1NziInC
- Epicenter Bitcoin Episode 58 with Vitalik Buterin on Proof-of-Stake http://bit.ly/1PKdHNK

Sponsors: 

- Hide.me: Protect your privacy and personal data with a free VPN account at Hide.me/epicenter

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/105


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture.
 
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EB105 – Vlad Zamfir: Bringing Ethereum Towards Proof-Of-Stake With Casper

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Andrew Miller is a computer science PhD student at the University of Maryland who focuses on cryptocurrency. Having gotten involved in Bitcoin in 2011 and focused on cryptocurrencies early in his research work, he is one of the most prolific researchers in the field.

Our discussion mainly focused on security aspects of Ethereum including their gas model, Proof-of-Work algorithm and plans to switch to Proof-of-Stake. 

Topics covered included:
- How he got involved in doing research on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
- The blossoming of academic interest in the topic
- His work on analyzing Ethereum's gas model
- Potential vulnerabilities of the Gas model
- Ethereum's PoW algorithm
- How Ethereum handles the block size limit


Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Andrew's University Website http://bit.ly/1R399m7
- Ethereum Analysis: Gas Economics and Proof of Work Overview http://bit.ly/1NKDwvo
- Ethereum Analysis: Gas Economics http://bit.ly/1YI4ewY
- Ledger Journal http://bit.ly/1TmsVsf
- Hawk: Privacy-Preserving Smart Contracts http://bit.ly/1YI56BU

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/111
YouTube: https://youtu.be/91UekwMAXJs


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
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EB111 – Andrew Miller: The Gas Model And Ethereum's Economics

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The challenges Bitcoin's wild volatility represents for achieving mass adoption have made the necessity for stable cryptocurrencies apparent long ago. With Ethereum applications, the problem is even more apparent as many use cases from predcition markets to insurance are impractical using the even more volatile ether. Maker DAO is an ambitious attempt to solve the problem by building a bank-like system to issue a value-stable currency on Ethereum.

Rune Christensen joined us to discuss the need for Maker and the complex system to guarantee stability.

Topics covered included:
- Why money is the most successful product ever
- What makes stablecoins are necessary
- The different components of Maker such as the stablecoin Dai, the token MKR and the role they play
- Why Maker needs insurance against black swan events
- Maker's different planned stages of increasing decentralization
- The MKR token sale and its value proposition for investors

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Maker DAO http://bit.ly/1USiCjv
- Maker DAO Whitepaper http://bit.ly/1WTK7qD
- Maker DAO DevCon Talk http://bit.ly/25tHuSi
- EB60 with Robert Sams: Volatility and the Search for a Stable Cryptocurrency http://bit.ly/1SiKKX0

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/124
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-124


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
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EB124 – Rune Christensen: Maker Dao Ethereum's Decentralized Central Bank

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One of the major drawbacks of Bitcoin is its low transaction throughput. Maxing out only a handful of operations per second, there have been many proposals to scale it up so that it can compete with existing distributed database technologies. As the blockchain's demand continues to increase, it's unclear if the Bitcoin protocol will ever be able to handle thousands, if not millions of transactions per second. BigchainDB is taking a different approach. Rather than trying to scale up blockchain technology, it starts with a big data distributed database, RethinkDB, and adds blockchain features and characteristics. 

Trent McConaghy, Co-founder and CTO of Ascribe and BigchainDB, joins us to talk about how this protocol may become to databases, what IPFS and Ethereum are to distributed filestorage and computing, respectively. Able to perform more than one million writes per second and capacities in the petabytes, BigchainDB has the ambition to become the world's public database platform.

Topics we covered include:

- A brief update on Ascribe since Trent was last on the show
- The motivations behind BigchainDB and that problems it's trying to solve
- How BigchainDB plans to solve the typical scalability bottlenecks found in blockchain protocols
- BigchainDB's capacity, performance and latency characteristics
- BigchainDB's consensus model, applied to RethinkDB
- Potential application for BigchainDB, in both centralised and decentralised application stacks

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- BigchainDB: https://www.bigchaindb.com/
- BigchainDB Whitepaper: https://www.bigchaindb.com/whitepaper/
- Ascribe: https://www.ascribe.io/
- Left Gallery: https://left.gallery/
- 23vivi: https://23vivi.com/

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/126
YouTube: https://youtu.be/4epw8KvaQ34


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
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EB126 – Trent Mcconaghy: Scalable Public Distributed Databases With BigchainDB

Support the show, consider donating: 1619zri1pbn8G2M6Arqz85qgto5FbPMjw7 (http://bit.ly/29u7LIF)

Few things arouse excitment among free market believers and enthusiasts of decentralization as prediction markets do. By allowing people to bet on any range of outcomes they promise more efficient markets and better information. Few people have worked with as much dedication on making the promise of prediction markets a reality as Martin Köppelmann. 

After founding the Bitcoin prediction market Fairlay, he turned to Ethereum and started the Ethereum-based prediction market Gnosis. We discussed his views on the DAO heist, differences between Fairlay and Gnosis and their upcoming tokensale.

Topics covered included:
- How the DAO heist happened and what we should learn from it
- The Bitcoin prediction market Fairlay
- From Fairlay to Gnosis: Building a prediction market on Ethereum
- The Gnosis architecture
- Gnosis' planned crowdsale and DAO
- Gnosis business model and what will determine the value of the tokens
- The difference between Gnosis and Augur

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Gnosis Website http://bit.ly/29LKrrh
- Gnosis Forum http://bit.ly/29JsDOR
- Fairlay http://bit.ly/29LKwLB
- 7 Reasons to Make a Prediction http://bit.ly/29F25hm
- The Big TheDAO Heist FAQ - Part 1 http://bit.ly/29SMmNl
- The Big TheDAO Heist FAQ - Part 2 http://bit.ly/29u5rRP
- EB98 - Robin Hanson: Futarchy and Prediction Markets episode http://bit.ly/29JtvmA

Sponsors: 

- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices http://jaxx.io
- 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/139
YouTube: http://youtu.be/AKcd9YUeFD0

Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
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EB139 – Martin Köppelmann: Gnosis - The Ethereum Prediction Market

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Prediction markets are fascinating financial instruments which have proven to be accurate at making predictions on things like the outcome of elections, geopolitical events and sporting events. But in our heavily regulated financial world, they are the subject of much controversy. In 2013 for instance, a well-known US prediction market, Intrade, was forced to shut down following a civil suit filed by the CFTC. While some people consider prediction markets to be a useful tool for society, others consider them to be a form of gambling, which is one of the reasons why they have been met with such resistance in certain countries. A purely decentralized prediction market would operate outside the scope of the regulated financial world and be resistant to censorship and outside intervention. 

We're joined by Joey Krug, Co-Founder and Core Developer at Augur, a decentralized prediction market built on Ethreum. The project, which was initially meant to be a Bitcoin sidechain, has ported to Ethereum and is currently in beta on the Testnet. Users can forecast real-world events, such as the outcome of the US election, and earn profits if they are accurate in their predictions. Reporting on events is crowdsourced using a consensus-based system similar to proof-of-stake. 

Topics we discussed in this episode : 

- How prediction markets work
- The controversy around prediction markets
- The Augur project and what it is trying to achieve 
- The evolution of Augur
- The different components of Augur 
- Reporting on events and the reputation token
- Security, attack vectors and how they can be mitigated
- Augur's business model 
- The ethical aspects of prediction markets
- Augur's structure and governance

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Augur: https://www.augur.net/
- Augur Git Repo: https://github.com/AugurProject/augur-core
- Augur Docs: http://docs.augur.net/
- EB139 – Martin Köppelmann: Gnosis – The Ethereum Prediction Market: https://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/139/
- EB97 – Paul Sztorc: Truthcoin & Prediction Markets, From Information-Overload To Crowd Intelligence: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/097/
- EB98 – Robin Hanson: Futarchy, Prediction Markets And The Challenge Of Disruptive Technology: https://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/098/
- EB141 – Ralph Merkle: Revolutionizing Democracy Using DAOs: https://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/141/

Sponsors: 

- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices http://jaxx.io
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Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/143
YouTube: http://youtu.be/_TBg5fmOXUk
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Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.
 
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Epicenter Bitcoin

EB143 – Joey Krug: Augur - A Decentralized, Crowdsourced Prediction Market Built On Ethereum

Support the show, consider donating: 12yXxgTFJ8ZCz9ysSA59XRHLonP5SFNGVq (http://bit.ly/2drGQjb)

Before 2013 few people paid attention to Bitcoin and blockchain, yet even back in the 1990s a vibrant group of prioneers pursued the vision of financial cryptography and digital cash. One of these was financial cryptographer and software developer Ian Grigg, who today works as an architecture consultant for R3.

Grigg joined us for a discussion of the history of the digital cash, Bitcoin and his work on Ricardian Contracts, which foreshadowed today's smart contracts.

Topics covered included:
- The origin story of financial cryptography
- DigiCash and the startup scene around it in the 1990s
- Ricardian Contracts and why contracts are central to digital assets
- Ricardian Contracts vs blockchain

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Ricardian Contract Paper http://bit.ly/2cOnQsU
- Financial Cryptography Website http://bit.ly/2dM4men
- Financial Cryptography in 7 Layers http://bit.ly/2d9GRXT
- R3CEV http://bit.ly/2dVJiRX
- Brown, Carlyle, Grigg & Hearn: Corda - An Introduction http://bit.ly/2dmtPLP

Sponsors: 

- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices http://jaxx.io
- BitFiniti Conference in Miami Beach Oct 30 - Nov 2: Go to bitfiniti.com/epicenter for discounts on registrations and presenter packages

Show notes: http://epicenter.tv/151
YouTube: http://youtu.be/wokvO1ptE1k
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-151


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

151 – Ian Grigg: Ricardian Contracts And Digital Assets Prehistory

Support the show, consider donating: 1JUBPSscvZzTEoraGbPkMJeeYUgeWCmuww (http://bit.ly/2eBzrRb)

As content becomes more and more abundant and immediately available at our fingertips, our limited attention is a barrier for those whose business it is to attract and harness it. In this context, large (social) media companies understand that attention is a scarce commodity, and, as has been demonstrated, those who control attention wield enormous power over our society.

We're joined by Greg Meredith, CTO of Synereo, to talk about how this new Blockchain platform rebuild the attention economy. In a sense, Synereo is to attention, what Bitcoin is to money, in effect, removing intermediaries from the transaction between those who have attention, and those who wish to attract it. Greg, also gives his insights on how functional programming languages could allow for verifiable computational smart contracts. 

Topics discussed in this episode:

- Greg's background as a mathematician and his work on Microsoft's BizTalk Process Orchestration
- How he transitioned into the crypto-currency space
- What is Synereo and what the project is trying to achieve
- Greg's thoughts on the attention economy and how it is fundamentally broken
- Synereo's technology stack
- How Vlad Zamfir's Casper consensus algorithm influenced Synereo
- Rholang, Synereo's functional smart-contracting language
- Synereo's economic model and product roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Synereo: https://synereo.com
- Synereo White Paper: https://github.com/synereo/synereo.github.io/raw/master/whitepapers/synereo.pdf
- Logic as a distributive law: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.02247v2.pdf
- Quit social media by Dr. Cal Newport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E7hkPZ-HTk
- Deep Work by Dr. Cal Newport: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692

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
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices http://jaxx.io


Show notes: http://epicenter.tv/154
YouTube: http://youtu.be/0jRNSEt-D9A
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-154


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

154 – Greg Meredith: Rebuilding The Attention Economy From The Ground Up With Synereo

Support the show, consider donating: 15yyqx1JhiNqFJ8WFSKF2oA9tKBV9Jycqc (http://bit.ly/2lypYwU)

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin joined us once again to discuss the state of Ethereum and the efforts to innovate the protocol. We covered the takeaways from the DAO fork, switching to the proof-of-stake system Casper and how to think about blockchain interoperability.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- - Lessons from the DAO hack
- - The security flaws of Proof-of-Work
- - Why Proof-of-Stake will provide more security and scalability
- - The state of Casper and transition timeline
- - Blockchain interoperability

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Ethereum Foundation: https://ethereum.org/
- Ethereum R&D Roundup Valentine's Day: https://ethereum.org/2017/02/14/ethereum-rnd-roundup-valentines-day-edition/
- December Development Roundup: https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/31/december-roundup/
- R3 Chain Interoperability Paper: http://www.r3cev.com/blog/2017/1/23/chain-interoperability
- Epicenter 58: Ethereum, Proof-of-Stake and Future of Bitcoin: https://epicenter.tv/episode/058/
- Epicenter 91: Frontier Launch and Scalability: https://epicenter.tv/episode/091/

Sponsors: 
- MerkleWeek: Blockchain Training, Keynotes & Hackathon in Paris from March 9th to 12th - Get 30% off with promo code EPICENTER - http://www.merkleweek.com/
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/171
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/3p8CGBgLTZQ
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-171

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

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

171 – Vitalik Buterin: DAO Lessons, Casper and Blockchain Interoperability

Support the show, consider donating: 16LVjxWGTbQuTV7Nxmpa1gCSfidbPpa71S (http://bit.ly/2me3j6i)

With both the Bitcoin Unlimited and Segregated Witness efforts far from reaching majority support and exploding transaction fees, the debate around how to scale Bitcoin continues on. One of the key arguments against bigger blocks and Bitcoin Unlimited is that a blocksize restriction is needed to create a healthy fee market. Dr Peter Rizun has been researching the economics of transaction fees in Bitcoin extensively and joined us to discuss what dynamics affect fees and why he thinks the blocksize limit will eventually fall.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Bitcoin seen through the eyes of a physicist
- The dynamics that determine transaction fees in Bitcoin
- How orphaning risks drive the fee market economics
- The relationship between the block reward and the fee market
- Why the blocksize limit will eventually fall
- Why Peter supports Bitcoin Unlimited
- The state of discussion between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Unlimited

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Dr. Peter Rizun's talk at Scaling Bitcoin Montreal 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad0Pjj_ms2k
- Dr. Peter Rizun: "A Transaction Fee Market Exists Without a Block Size Limit"": https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/resources/feemarket.pdf
- XT Nodes - Bitcoin Hashrate Distribution: http://xtnodes.com/
- Bitco.in Forum: https://bitco.in/forum/
- Ledger - Peer-Reviewed Journal on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: http://ledgerjournal.org/ojs/index.php/ledger

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

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/172
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/2eaMVWUXW8U
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-172

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

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

172 – Peter Rizun: A Bitcoin Fee Market Without A Blocksize Limit

Support the show, consider donating: 1TonpBUGNCtBJm82a8K5hwiym5zVaQPDq (http://bit.ly/2mu3ptS)

Writing his college thesis on Bitcoin in 2012 and becoming Coinbase's first employee in 2013, Olaf Carlson-Wee has been at the forefront of cryptocurrency for many years. Recently, he left Coinbase to start Polychain Capital, a hedge fund focused solely on investing in cryptocurrencies and protocol tokens. Olaf joined us to discuss his journey in the industry and the investment thesis behing Polychain. 

Topics discussed in this episode:
- How Olaf Carlson-Wee became Coinbase's first employee
- The investment thesis behind Polychain Capital
- Why protocol tokens represent a huge investment opportunity
- The current state of tokensales
- Why the blockchain crowdfunding campaigns will start resembling VC deal structure
- His view on the state of the Bitcoin network and community

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Polychain Capital: http://polychain.capital	
- Beyond Bitcoin: The future of cryptocurrencies - The Signal: https://blog.mixpanel.com/2016/07/27/blockchain-technology-olaf-carlson-wee/
- Bitcoin Will Never Be a Currency—It's Something Way Weirder | WIRED: https://www.wired.com/2017/01/bitcoin-will-never-currency-something-way-weirder/
- The Golden Age Of Open Protocols – AVC: http://avc.com/2016/07/the-golden-age-of-open-protocols/
- Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model: https://blog.coinbase.com/app-coins-and-the-dawn-of-the-decentralized-business-model-8b8c951e734f#.rl4mv6p98
- Fat Protocols | Union Square Ventures: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols
- a16z and USV invest $10m in new digital asset hedge fund: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/09/andreessen-horowitz-and-union-square-ventures-invest-10-million-in-new-digital-assets-hedge-fund/#2e6f5ce95e97
- The future is a decentralized internet | TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/08/the-future-is-a-decentralized-internet/

Sponsors: 
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io


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

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

173 – Olaf Carlson-Wee: Polychain Capital and the Rise of Protocol Tokens

Support the show, consider donating: 
BTC: 1KgnEbgUAtpmBBNKGhR7JroJBoMvEpJ5GZ (http://bit.ly/2pmi6ky)
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Years into the great Bitcoin scaling debate no solution is in reach. Neither bigger blocks nor Segregated Witness have anywhere near consensus support. With the conflict escalating, a Bitcoin fork has become a real possibility.

Electrum Developer Thomas Voegtlin joined us to discuss the state of the Bitcoin scaling debate. We discussed Bitcoin Unlimited, ASICBoost, SegWit activation without miner support and how a Bitcoin fork could play out. Possible outcomes include that Bitcoin Unlimited gains a majority of hashing power and starts mining bigger blocks. In the event of a fork, a proof-of-work change could be done to defend the minority chain from miner attacks. And lately a proposal was brought forward to activate SegWit without the support of the hashing power.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- ASICBoost and its potential role in the conflict
- How a Bitcoin fork could happen
- How to split coins in case of a fork
- How UASF could be used to activate SegWit without miner support
- Requirements for UASF to be safe
- How Electrum would handle a fork

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Electrum Bitcoin Wallet: https://electrum.org/#home
- ASICBoost – Hacker Noon: https://medium.com/@samcole_74219/asicboost-655a73d48ae4
- Bitcoin's New Controversy: The AsicBoost Allegations Explained - CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-new-controversy-asicboost-allegations-explained/
- Timo Hanke on ASICBoost and SegWit Non-Activation: https://twitter.com/timothanke/status/849896505653706753
- From AsicBoost to UASF: Greg Maxwell on Bitcoin's Path Forward - CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/asicboost-uasf-greg-maxwell-bitcoins-path-forward/
- [bitcoin-dev] Thomas Voegtlin: Soft Fork Threshold Signaling Proposal: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/014146.html
- UASF Working Group: https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/uasf/
- [bitcoin-dev] Greg Maxwell: I do not support the BIP 148 UASF: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/014152.html
- Thomas Voegtlin: Electrum, SPV Wallets And Bitcoin Aliases — Epicenter: https://epicenter.tv/episode/069/

Sponsors: 
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/179
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/18QdbsSo8T8
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-179

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

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

179 – Thomas Voegtlin: Blocksize, Bitcoin Unlimited, ASICBoost and Activating SegWit

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Anyone who has ever started a company knows just how tedious that process that can be. Whether it's establishing a shareholder's agreement, defining the company's constitutional structure, raising funds, or transferring shares, corporate governance procedures remain largely paper-based, requiring validation from multiple stakeholders, and their lawyers. Blockchain technologies, and specifically smart contracts, provide the rails upon which these processes can be digitized and streamlined, reducing operational costs, eliminating errors and automating menial tasks.

Manu Thanabalan, CTO of Otonomos, joins us to discuss how his company is leveraging smart contracts to accelerate incorporation and automate corporate governance. Otonomos provides the tools and services which allow for anyone to start a company in any of the jurisdictions they support. Using their platform, founders are able to define board members and issue shares, while captables are kept up-to-date in real-time. Day-to-day governance mechanisms and standard procedures such as voting and share transfers are automated through a smart contact, which complies with local jurisdictional regulation. 

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Mano's background as a quantitative trader and how he transitioned into blockchain
- The fundamental problem Otonomos is addressing
- How we may be able to unlock a tremendous amount of value by liberating shares currently locked in private companies
- Leveraging smart contracts to automate standardized corporate legal procedures
- The types of constitutional rules which can be digitized and automated with smart contracts
- The ability to simplify accounting and auditing with Otonomos
- The Otonomos technology stack
- The current state of Otonomos and their product roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Otonomos Website: http://otonomos.com

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/180
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/i7e_ORfk-Lg
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-180

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

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

180 – Mano Thanabalan: Simplifying Incorporation & Automating Corporate Governance with Otonomos

Support the show, consider donating: 
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Naming systems are an important component of any networked information system. It's difficult to imagine how the Internet could have been adopted by the masses had it not been for the Domain Name System, which translates machine-readable IP addresses into human-readable domain names. Blockchains, with their long and complex address formats, suffer from a similar problem. One might think a solution would be to apply the same naming system architecture we have for the public Internet to public blockchains. But DNS, in the eyes of many, is a largely flawed system. Centrally controlled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Internet domain names are vulnerable to censorship and barriers to entry are kept artificially high – registering a new Top Level Domain (ex: .epicenter) costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We're joined by Alex Van de Sande and Nick Johnson to discuss their approach to creating an open, secure and decentralized naming system for the Ethereum Network. The Ethereum Naming System (ENS) allows users to register .eth domain names, which can be used in supporting Ethereum wallets and clients. Names are reserved by placing a deposit in a smart contract and can be mapped to any Ethereum addresses. So rather than sending funds to 0x8cd...0935, one would simply need to type a memorable name like epicenter.eth into their wallet. Backed by the Ethereum Foundation, ENS will likely become the defacto standard for name registration in Ethereum. 

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Alex and Nick's respective backgrounds and roles in the Ethereum Foundation
- How the Internet's Domain Name System works
- The problems and pain points with DNS and how it is governed today
- What is ENS and what problems it is addressing
- The ENS auction system and how names are registered
- The different parties involved in ENS
- ENS's technical architecture and governing smart contract
- The current governance model of ENS and future plans for increased decentralization of governance
- ENS's economic model and technical roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Ethereum Name Service: https://ens.domains
- ENS Registrar: http://registrar.ens.domains/
- ENS Github Project: https://github.com/ethereum/ens/
- ENS Gitter Channel: https://gitter.im/ethereum/go-ethereum/name-registry
- ENS Twitter Bot: https://twitter.com/EnsBot

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/183
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/rBx5UPzF68w
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-183

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

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

183 – Alex Van de Sande & Nick Johnson: ENS – A Global Naming System for Ethereum

There’s an interesting paradox when it comes to the U.S. government and tech: Either they’re an inventor, early adopter, and buyer of emerging new tech … or they’re a very late adopter (as in the case of government officials using Blackberries vs. iPhones). But when it comes to the blockchain, they’re trying to get ahead of and stay on top of the game — with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, co-chaired by Reps Jared Polis (D-Colorado) and David Schweikert (R-Arizona).

What exactly is a “caucus”, and what’s the government’s perception of cryptocurrencies and similar? While people have been talking about the numerous applications of blockchain for years, which ones resonate right now with the government, and why? Where do states play more (or less) of a role than federal agencies in deciding blockchain matters? Finally, what is the “hard thing” policymakers need to be willing to do in supporting the widespread application of blockchain-based technologies?

The guests in this episode of the a16z Podcast — Polis and Schweikert, along with Coinbase chief legal and risk officer (and mayor of Atherton, California!) Mike Lempres — discuss all this and more, in conversation with a16z policy team partner Matthew Colford. This podcast was recorded as part of our (now-annual) podcast road trip, in conjunction with the a16z Tech Policy Summit, in Washington, D.C.

a16z Podcast: The Blockchain, in Congress

Support the show, consider donating: 
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Data is the new oil, and those who control massive amounts of it have a major competitive advantage. That advantage becomes exponential when that data is used to teach artificial intelligence. Companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon have a far greater probability of building strong AI than smaller actors simply by the sheer amount of user data and metadata they possess. Let's now envision an alternate reality where big data lives on public infrastructure and is accessible to anyone who wishes to use it for the purpose of teaching AI. Big data as a public resource could have the potential to enable vast amounts of innovation at the edges, far greater than that of a small set of incumbents building large centralized AI systems.

We're joined by Trent McConaghy, who is the CTO and Co-founder of BigchainDB and Ascribe. Trent brings along a special surprise guest, Fred Ehrsam, former Co-founder at Coinbase. For the first half of the show, we have a fascinating discussion with Trent and Fred about the intersection of AI and blockchain technologies, and the implications of publically available data sets on innovation in AI. For the second half of the show, we talk with Trent about the public implementation of BigchainDB, the Interplanetary Database (IPDB), and the applications for a public big data storage network accessible to all of humanity.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- The issues which arise with big data centralization in the context of building artificial intelligence
- How blockchain technologies could serve as the public data infrastructure for teaching AI
- How an AI might gain financial dominance over humanity by selling art on a DAO
- An update on Ascribe and BigchainDB
- The IPDB network and what goals it hopes to achieve
- The IPDB Foundation, its members and governance rules
- The technical components of the IPDB network
- Use cases and applications for a public decentralized global database

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- IPDB - Interplanetary Database Foundation: https://ipdb.foundation/
- IPDB Dev Portal: https://developers.ipdb.io/

Sponsors: 
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/184
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/XpCi_XbWAzk
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-184

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

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

184 – Fred Ehrsam & Trent McConaghy: IPDB – The Interplanetary Database and its Applications in AI

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The saying goes: if you're not paying for it, it's likely that you're the product. And with the rise of targeted ads, user behavior tracking, and alike, more and more users are turning to ad blocking software to protect their privacy and improve their browsing experience. In the last 25 years, the content monetization and Internet advertising industries have evolved to become complex ecosystems with multiple intermediating layers between users, publishers, and advertisers. This has created a situation where user's rights are constantly violated and where little accountability exists.

We're joined by Brendan Eich, Founder, and CEO of Brave. As an early Internet pioneer, Brendan created Javascript while working at Netscape in the mid 90's, and helped found the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation, where he served as CEO for several years. Brave is a new desktop and mobile browser which blocks ads and tracking by default. This has the advantage of drastically improves page load times while protecting users' privacy. But Brave is much more than just a browser. Their team will launch the Basic Attention Token, which will serve as the currency of attention marketplaces between publishers, advertisers, and users. With the ambition to turn the Internet advertising industry on its head, this new attention economy marketplace will eliminate the need for unneeded intermediaries, provide publishers with new content monetization models and remunerate users when they chose to share their data with advertisers.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Brendan's background as an early Internet pioneer
- How monetization of content and attention on the Internet are broken
- How the Internet advertising industry works and the players involved
- A high-level overview of the Brave browser
- Brave's features and product roadmap
- The Basic Attention Token and its role as a currency for attention
- How BAT will serve to create attention marketplaces between publishers, advertisers, and users

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Brave Website: https://brave.com
- Basic Attention Token: https://basicattentiontoken.org/

Sponsors: 
- Ledger: Smart card security for your Bitcoins - http://ledgerwallet.com

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/185
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/MUtHhYes6-A
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-185

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

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

185 – Brendan Eich: Brave – Reinventing the Monetization of Content and Attention

Support the show, consider donating: 
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Our regulatory expert Siân Jones joined us to discuss her work on a regulatory framework for distributed ledger technology (DLT) for Gibraltar. We discuss how the framework differs from other efforts and aims to attract rather than curtail blockchain businesses. We also covered why the rapid changes require the flexibility of a principle-based approach to regulation. Finally, we discussed current trends around ICOs and how they could be impacted by regulation.


Topics discussed in this episode:
- How the Gibraltar DLT Regulatory Framework came about
- How Gibraltar's approach differs from others like BitLicense
- Why a principle-based approach is preferable for technology regulation
- Why the framework focuses on custodial services, not decentralized protocols
- The path from proposal to regulation
- Recent trends in how ICOs are conducted
- Why principle-based regulation could improve the ICO market

Links mentioned in this episode: 
- Proposals for a DLT Regulatory Framework: http://www.gibraltarfinance.gi/downloads/20170508-dlt-consultation-published-version.pdf
- Want To Hold An ICO? CoinList Makes It Easy -- And Legal: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/05/18/want-to-hold-an-ico-coinlist-makes-it-easy-and-legal
- Thoughts on Tokens by Balaji S. Srinivasan: https://medium.com/@balajis/thoughts-on-tokens-436109aabcbe
- Tezos: https://www.tezos.ch
- COINsult: http://coinsult.eu

Sponsors: 
- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/186
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/kWQFOehjp8A
- Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-186

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

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

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Matt Czernik