Epicenter - Learn About Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin And Distributed Technologies

Chaincode Labs Founder Alex Morcos joined us to discuss his journey, the role of the company in Bitcoin’s development and the views that drive his work. Topics covered in this episode: Alex’s background in high frequency trading as a founder of Hudson River Trading How Alex first learned about Bitcoin The vision of Chaincode Labs Why Bitcoin represents our only chance of creating digital gold Why Bitcoin’s resistance to change is one of its core features Why the NYA & SegWit2x approach was misguided How getting consensus around a hard fork blocksize increase could work Why Alex is not excited about the efforts to use blockchains in banks Episode links: Chain Code Labs, Inc Twitter Alex Morcos Why Bitcoin doesn’t need a solution – Alex Morcos – Medium No2x: Centralized Services – Alex Morcos – Medium No2x: Full Nodes – Alex Morcos – Medium This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/210

Scaling public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is a long standing technical challenge. In this episode, we cover Zilliqa which has pioneered a design to scale public blockchain throughput with the number of nodes by sharding the blockchain. Sharding has been hitherto proposed as a scaling technique by Ethereum. Zilliqa is one of the first projects to propose a concrete design with an operational testnet processing a couple thousand transactions per second across several shards. Our guests, Xinshu Dong (CEO) and Amrit Kumar (Crypto Lead), walk us through the objectives, protocol design and fundraising structure of this innovative project. We also briefly cover Zilliqa’s novel approach to designing a smart contract language and execution environment. Topics covered in this episode: Sharding as a scaling technique Different kinds of sharding, including state sharding and non-state sharding How Zilliqa works under the hood – consensus algorithms & transaction processing Zilliqa’s novel approach for

For the very first time, all three Epicenter hosts found themselves in the same location. After attending Ethereum’s DevCon 3 in Cancun, we were at a Cosmos Retreat and discussed the conference, retreat, state of the Ethereum ecosystem and recent Parity hack. Topics covered in this episode: Recap of Ethereum’s DevCon 3 conference Current state of Ethereum The most interesting new projects at DevCon The post-DevCon Cosmos retreat The internet of blockchain thesis The case for blockchain’s having sovereignty The massive loss of funds due to Parity’s flawed multisig contract The pros and cons of an Ethereum hard fork Episode links: Ethereum Developers Conference (Devcon3) Cosmos - Internet of Blockchains Many Chains One Ecosystem Slides Many Chains One Ecosystem - YouTube "Ethereum Client Bug Freezes User Funds as Fallout Remains Uncertain - CoinDesk" Parity Multi-Sig Wallets Deployed After 7/30 Issue : ethereum Paritytech - Security Alert This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Meher Roy and

We are joined by Micah Winkelspecht, CEO and Founder of Gem. What started as a Bitcoin API in 2014 has evolved into a leading provider of blockchain solutions for enterprise. Gem addresses the problem of digital data silos and the complexities they introduce when companies and individuals collaborate and share information. Their product, GemOS, provides a full-stack blockchain middleware platform which allows companies to build applications on top of blockchains protocols like Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric. Topics covered in this episode: Micah’s background and how he got involved in the Bitcoin space How the company and product have evolved to support his original vision How blockchain technologies are transforming process digitization The siloed identity problem and what complexities it introduces for people and companies How GemOS is addressing fundamental issues in health care and insurance How blockchain technologies can support regulated industries Micah’s insights on creating awareness among enterpri

Energy markets form a complex ecosystem of actors. Wholesale energy producers create energy through various means, grid operators transport electricity over long distances and deliver it to homes and businesses, who buy it from local utility companies. The utilities act as resellers in this scheme and take on much of the financial risk associated with selling a commodity which is consumed long before payment settlement from consumers. However, utilities have high operation and marketing costs and charge a high markup on the electricity they buy from wholesalers. Karl Kreder, Co-founder of Grid+, a Consensys project, joins us to talk about how blockchain technology can help disintermediate utilities and allow consumers buy electricity directly from producers. The Grid+ Agent is a hardware device which sits in your home, is connected to your energy meter and can interact with the power grid. The Agent has built-in logic allowing it to respond to your energy needs and predict usage. It is also equipped with a Tr

Galen Wolfe-Pauly, CEO of Tlon, the company behind Urbit, joined us to discuss one of the most radical and curious projects to come on the podcast. In development for 15 years already, Urbit aims to unravel the cloud computing paradigm that led to the creation of internet monopolies like Google and Facebook. Instead, in Urbit, each person has a personal server, a kind of digital sovereign entity, where applications are run, which leaves control and data in the hands of users. Galen joined us to discuss what the philosophy and ideas driving Urbit, how a radically different internet could look like and what our path is to get there. Topics covered in this episode: The 15 year long history and evolution of Urbit Understanding Urbit through the metaphors of a personal server, a personal blockchain, a republic or an operating function The main Urbit components Nock, Hoon and Arvo How Galaxies, Stars and Planets create Urbit’s hierarchy The Urbit namespace and why it has value How Urbit aims to radically reenginee

As the ICO boom continues to drive funding and interest in cryptocurrencies, mainstream consumer applications are increasingly looking towards tokenization. One of these was social network Pepo, founded by veteran entrepreneur and previous founder of fab.com Jason Goldberg. Faced with the difficulties of integrating blockchain, they decided to start Simple Token – a company focused on building easy solutions for mainstream applications to use blockchain. Simple Token CEO Jason Goldberg and Chief Technology Strategist joined us to discuss the case for branded token, Simple Tokens architecture and the balance between easy user experience and decentralization. Topics covered in this episode: Jason’s long history as an entrepreneur and the turbulent story of fab.com The perils of raising too much money How the quest to tokenize social network Pepo lead to founding Simple Token The opportunity in tokenizing mainstream consumer applications How Simple Token uses Ethereum and sidechains to allow companies to issue

Nasdaq is one of the largest and most well known financial institutions in the World. As the second-largest stock market by market capitalization, Nasdaq is also one of the leading software companies in capital markets, providing its Nasdaq Financial Framework to exchanges all around the globe. Fredrik Voss, VP of Blockchain Innovation at Nasdaq, joins us to discuss how Nasdaq is leveraging blockchain technologies to propel itself into the future. Having invested in Chain and Stratumn, Nasdaq is taking a very hands-on approach, building products which it integrates into the various software solutions they sell. Topics covered in this episode: A high-level overview of Nasdaq as a stock exchange and software company Nasdaq’s thesis regarding blockchain technologies The potential challenges ahead What blockchain technologies bring to regulators regarding oversight and auditing Nasdaq’s Venture Program and its investment thesis Why Nasdaq chose to invest in Chain and Stratumn Types of applications built in partn

For many years, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were regarded as little more than a nerdy curiosity by the financial world. But with the rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the process of cryptocurrencies becoming a recognized asset class has begun. One person at the forefront of this transformation is Ari Paul. Previously a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago’s $8 billion endowment, he recently left to start the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital. He joined us for an insightful conversation about one of the biggest trends in the industry. Topics covered in this episode: Ari’s background as a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago The difficulties of investing in cryptocurrency for a large endowment Why he started the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital How to construct a cryptocurrency portfolio The hedge fund vs the VC model in the cryptocurrency space Why cryptocurrencies represent an exceptional investment opportunity The operational complexities of running a crypto hedge fun

Enterprise consortium blockchains have gained a lot of interest in recent months. And although we can see many applications for this particular type of network deployment, many questions remain to be answered before these systems can move to production. Issues related to scaling, network deployment, access controls and key management remain open at this point. With its deep roots in the enterprise, Microsoft hopes to have answers to these questions. Matt Kerner, Partner GM for Blockchains at Azure, joins us to discuss Coco Framework. Coco is an open-source system which promises to enable high scalability and offer confidentiality for enterprise blockchain consortiums. This novel framework leverages Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) to deliver blockchain networks with throughput comparable to database speeds. Topics covered in this episode: Matt’s background and role at Azure Azure’s high-level thesis regarding blockchains Coco Framework and how it fits in Microsoft’s vision The different components of Coc

In the past year, the first killer application of blockchain technology has emerged: venture funding. As blockchain-facilitated crowdfunding is disrupting venture capital at blistering speed, we are joined by Ciaran O’Leary, Founder and General Partner at BlueYard. BlueYard stands at the intersection of this transition. Structured as a traditional VC fund, its thesis focuses fully on the decentralized economy and it invests in tokens too. Ciaran joined us to discusses what blockchain means for VCs and its implications for BlueYard. Topics covered in this episode: Ciaran’s journey as a VC How the VC industry has been changing Why he founded Blue Yard and its investment thesis Value creation in a blockchain economy Buying equity vs buying tokens Why tokens and ICOs are erroding the distinction between hedge funds and VC funds Best practices for running ICOs Episode links: BlueYard Capital BlueYard Investment Thesis Filecoin Investment Article Protocol Labs Investment Article Userfeeds & why the web needs

Scalability and interoperability are two of the main issues facing blockchain protocols today. In a future in which entire industries and economies rely on distributed technologies, it is unclear how blockchain networks will support massive amounts of data, and exchange transactions in a trusted way. Peter Czaban, co-founder of Polkadot, joins us as we dive deep into the Polkadot Network. Polkadot is a heterogeneous multi-chain network, consisting of many connected chains (or parachains), all of which have their own set of features and characteristics. Transactions flow across chains, while Polkadot ensures the global security and consensus of the network, forming an ‘Internet of Blockchain networks’. Scalability is achieved through the parallel processing of transactions on the different parachains. Topics covered in this episode: Peter’s background and his role at Parity technologies What is the Polkadot project and what problems it is addressing How Polkadot handles the issue of scaling The different comp

Nick Morgan, a former attorney at the SEC, joined us to discuss their recent report on the DAO and what it means for the ICO boom. Topics covered in this episode: The history and mandate of the SEC Nick’s years as a trial attorney at the SEC How the Howey Test is used to determine if something is a security The application of the Howey Test to the DAO case The weaknesses in their argument that token holders relied on the effort of others Why the SEC did not prosecute the Slock.it founders Why the SEC will likely focus on token sales involving fraud How the SEC’s limited resources will make it hard for it to impact the ICO boom The implications of the SEC report for cryptocurrency exchanges Episode links: SEC Press Release on The DAO SEC Report on Investigation of The DAO Seven Takeaways from the DAO Report - Kyle Mitchell EB134 – Emin Gün Sirer And Vlad Zamfir: On A Rocky DAO Nicolas Morgan Website The DAO Report: Understanding the Risk of SEC Enforcement - CoinDesk This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian

After Bitshares and Steemit, Dan Larimer’s latest project EOS has also gathered lots of attention. Their record-setting crowdsale has already raised $300m and is continuing for another year. Dan joined us to discuss his journey in the industry, what connects the different projects, how EOS works and how the EOS crowdsale works. Topics covered in this episode: A history of Dan’s previous projects Bitshares and Steemit How Dan knows when the time has come to move to the next project Why they describe EOS as a decentralized operating system The EOS approach to scalability Benefits and downsides of the EOS fee model EOS’ Delegated Proof of Stake consensus How EOS handles malicious validators Addressing criticisms around EOS’s crowdsale terms and governance structure Episode links: EOS Website EOS Whitepaper EOS Consensus Presentation May 2017 - YouTube Vitalik Buterin Criticisms of EOS Dan Larimer's Response to Vitalik block.one This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes an

Prior to hosting his ground breaking podcasts Beyond Bitcoin and The Ether Review, Arthur Falls had left his home country of New Zealand to fish lobster off the coast of Maine. Like many people in the blockchain space, his unlikely journey into the world of decentralized technologies is a fascinating one, and he shares it with us in this episode. Arthur recently traveled to over a dozen locations around the World, conducting interviews for an upcoming documentary. He shares what he learned and his favorite experiences from this trip. Topics covered in this episode: Arthur’s unlikely journey from lobster fisherman to blockchain podcaster A brief history of his past projects and what he has going on at the moment His recent blockchain world tour and what he learned from that experience His views on the state of the ecosystem and institutional investment money now flowing into the space Episode links: The Ether Review Ether Review Legal Discussion #1 — Challenges in Blockchain Law Initial coin offerings now s

We’re joined by Loi Luu, Co-founder of KyberNetwork. This new decentralized exchange protocol, built on Ethereum, aims to match buyers with reserve operators, who create liquidity for crypto-asset pairs. Trades occur instantaneously and without the need for a trusted third party exchange operator. Topics covered in this episode: Loi’s background and involvement with various projects such as TrueBit, Smart Pool, and Oyente The desirable features of a decentralized exchange Other decentralized exchange projects and how they compare to KyberNetwork KyberNetwork’s unique design philosophy KyberNetwork’s user experience and how a trade occurs from start to finish The various actors in the network and their respective roles How KyberNetwork mitigates certain vulnerabilities, such as transaction front running How network actors are compensated KyberNetwork’s DAO governance model and development roadmap Episode links: KyberNetwork KyberNetwork Blog KyberNetwork White Paper This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and

Bancor is a simple, but hard-to-understand protocol that enables price discovery and liquidity even for assets that aren’t actively traded. Co-Founder Eyal Hertzog joined us to explain how the Bancor protocol works and why they think it will play a key role in enabling a massive wave of small, but interconnected user-generated currencies. We dissected the workings of the protocol, its radical implications as well as the takeaways from their record-shattering, but controversial crowdsale. Topics covered in this episode: Eyal’s background in early internet startups The origin story of Bancor Why asset markets suffer from the double coincidence of wants problem The benefits of Bancor-based Smart Tokens How Bancor and BNT can create a liquidity network Why BNT benefits from network effects What went well and what didn’t go well about the Bancor Crowdsale Why Eyal thinks the price floor was a good idea Episode links: Bancor protocol Bancor Whitepaper Response to “Bancor is Flawed” – The Bancor Protocol Bancor a

Dave Collins and Jake Yocom-Piatt join us to talk about Decred, a cryptocurrency which introduces an innovative system of community-based governance into its blockchain. Decred implements a hybrid Proof of Work and Proof of Stake system in which miners validate transactions, while users can vote on new features and upgrades to the protocol. This clever approach enables efficient blockchain governance, which has demonstrated to be successful in a recent protocol upgrade on the live network. Topics covered in this episode: Dave and Jake’s respective backgrounds in the blockchain space The challenges addressed by Decred, specifically regarding blockchain governance Decred’s hybrid Proof of Work/Proof of Stake approach to governance How users of the network vote on protocol upgrade with “”tickets”” Possible downfalls and attack vectors to this approach How Decred’s governance model successfully implemented a hard fork on the production network Decred’s approach to development funding Episode links: Decred Webs

Hebrew University academics Aviv Zohar and Yonatan Sompolinski joined us to discuss their research at the forefront of blockchain technology. We talked about their early proposals for scaling Bitcoin using the GHOST protocol, which later inspired Ethereum. And then we discussed SPECTRE and a new type of network based on directed acrylic graphs (DAG). DAGs abandon the blockchain data structure to allow constant generation of blocks that later get merged achieving block times of seconds and throughput many orders of magnitudes above current blockchain network. Topics covered in this episode: How Aviv Zohar wrote one of the first academic papers on Bitcoin in 2011 The GHOST protocol and how it could allow much faster block times The difference between what Ethereum built and the GHOST protocol Why DAG (Directed Acrylic Graphs) have massive advantages over blockchains Towards massive on-chain scaling and speed with the SPECTRE Protocol Their view on existing DAG-based networks like IOTA and Byteball Episode lin

Numerai Founder Richard Craib joined us to discuss his radical project to build a hedge fund with network effects. Numerai manages its portfolio by giving its data in encrypted form to data scientists who compete to create the best predictions and get paid with cryptocurrencies. Numerai expects to radically alter the structure of the hedge fund and asset management industry. Topics covered in this episode: How hedge funds work and what trends effect them Quantitative trading and the role of AI in investing How Numerai uses crowdsourcing and AI to manage its portfolio How Numerai lets data scientists build models without knowing the underlying data The Function of Numerai’s own token Numeraire Why Numerai is switching from paying data scientists in Bitcoin to Ethereum Numerai’s crazy goal of managing all the money in the world Episode links: Numerai Numerai Whitepaper An AI Hedge Fund Goes Live On Ethereum – Numerai – Medium A New Cryptocurrency For Coordinating Artificial Intelligence on Numerai Encrypted