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Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees joined us to discuss his journey in the industry, the evolution of the decentralized exchange Shapeshift and their latest project Prism. We spent most time diving into the mechanics and enormous potential of Prism. Prism allows users to create a portfolio of digital assets that is purely managed on the Ethereum blockchain and illustrates how blockchain-based financial products can be built. Topics covered in this episode: Erik’s journey in the blockchain space from SatoshiDice to Shapeshift Shapeshift’s evolution and long-term vision Erik’s view on ICOs and why they will disrupt the stock markets Prism – The world’s first trustless portfolio market platform The mechaniscs of Prism Why Erik supports SegWit2x Episode links: Shapeshift Website Erik Vorhees' Blog: Money and State Erik Vorhees Twitter Page Prism Exchange Introducing Prism - Blog Post Epicenter 130 with Erik Vorhees This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options:

After years of what has seemed like an endless debate, bitcoin may be at a crucial turning point in its relatively short lifetime. The question network scalability has divided the community into several factions which are seemingly irreconcilable. However, in just a few weeks, the future of bitcoin may be decided as miners and users throw their support behind one of many proposals to propel the bitcoin network into a new era. Bitcoin Developer and Principal Architect at Paxos, Jimmy Song, joins us to discuss the different scalability proposals for which miners are currently signaling their support. Among others, Segregated Witness (BIP 141), Emergent Consensus (Bitcoin Unlimited) and SegWit2x (The New York Agreement), are gaining significant traction among miners. Will one of these proposals gain majority support, allowing for the network to upgrade with relative ease, or will we enter a situation where one proposal is backed by a strong minority of users, potentially forking the network into two? Topics cove

Token sales, often called Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), are exploding in popularity. Seemingly each week a new record is hit with huge sums being raised by alpha-stage projects in almost no time. William Mougayar, an investor, author and blogger, who has been at the forefront of the token sale movement joined us to unpack the most dynamic trend in the blockchain ecosystem. We cover the great promise of token sales in disrupting venture capital and changing how startups are build and grown. We also address the apparent irrationality of valuations and what distinguishes a responsible from a reckless token sale. Topics covered in this episode: The current state of the ICO market Issues with recent ICOs such as BAT, Bancor and Gnosis Why more attention needs to be paid to the relationship between token and application usage How one should think about token valuations Whether we are in a bubble or not How VCs are responding to disruption through ICOs Episode links: Startup Management Blog "The Ultimate Rea

With most of the world’s computing power concentrated in Internet companies’ data centers, the Internet has become a very centralized place. The Golem project aims to build the sharing economy of computing power. This “global, open sourced, decentralized supercomputer” will function thanks to the combined power of a massive network of machines, from personal laptops to whole data centers. We’re joined by Julian Zawistowski and Alex Leverington, CEO and P2P engineer at Golem. We discuss how Golem hopes to create a more balanced distribution of computing power for the Internet. Topics covered in this episode: What is Golem and the problem it is addressing What may people and companies use Golem for How Golem compares to other projects like iExec or TrueBit Who are the different participants in the Golem network How Golem executes computations The role Ethereum has to play in Golem How payments work in Golem The economic model for Golem’s decentralized marketplace The project’s current status and roadmap Episo

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 covered 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 Episode links: Proposals for a DLT Regulatory Framework Want To Hold An ICO? CoinList Makes It Easy -- And Legal Thoughts on

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

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 intersec

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 Ethere

Coin Center is a non-profit in Washington DC that focuses on research and advocacy issues facing public blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Their aim is to protect users and foster innovation through achieving sound policies and regulations. Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh joined us to discuss the work of the center and the most pressing regulatory issues facing the industry today. Topics covered in this episode: The origins and objectives of Coin Center How to judge the success of Coin Center Why Peter is more bullish on permissionless than permissioned blockchains The three areas of blockchain regulation: Consumer protection, anti money laundering and securities His view about ICOs Why people should pay attention to money transmission regulations Episode links: Coin Center Website Open Matters: Why Permissionless Blockchains are Essential to the Future of the Internet Framework for Securities Regulation of Cryptocurrencies Twitter Peter Van Valkenburgh This episode is hosted by Bri

The road to mainstream adoption of blockchain technologies is a long one. Although the user experience of wallets has greatly improved since the dark days of command-line only interfaces, decentralized applications continue to struggle with onboarding non-technical users. Jarrad Hope and Carl Bennetts, join us to discuss Status, a mobile Ethereum client which aims to turn the standard wallet experience on its head. At its core, Status is a mobile instant messenger client that leverages the Whisper protocol for secure peer-to-peer communication. Through its familiar messaging interface and elegant design, users can chat and send Ether directly in the app. As the first implementation of Ethereum’s Light Client Protocol, users may also use decentralized applications such as uPort, Gnosis and Aragon on their mobile phones. Built as an open source project, Status’ developer platform also allows developers to easily port their Dapps to the app. Topics covered in this episode: Jarrad and Carl’s background and journ

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 a

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 conflictHow a Bitcoin fork could happenHow to split coins in case of a forkHow UASF could be used to activate SegWit without miner supportRequirements for UASF to be safeHow Ele

For decades, science and academia have leveraged distributed computing to solve massive computational problems. Distributed grid computing schemes allow donors to volunteer their desktop computer’s idle resources toward scientific projects in physics, biology, and chemistry, where large amounts of parallel computing resources are necessary. Relying on software like BONIC, these networks provide features such as built-in fault tolerance and result verification. And with the proliferation of mobile and IoT, the potential for massively distributed grid networks has never been greater. Gilles Fedak, a researcher at the French computer science research body Inria, joins us to discuss a new project which aims to build a high-performance distributed cloud infrastructure marketplace. Relying on mature grid computing technologies, iExec utilizes Ethreum to organize a peer-to-peer marketplace of computing resources, allowing anyone to rent their idle resources to grid networks. If it succeeds to execute on its vision,

Bitcoin and Ethereum miners collectively make up what is perhaps the most powerful computational resource in the world. However, mobile phones from the early 2000’s could arguably run more complex operations than these networks combined. While blockchains themselves may never reach the level of computational power of modern computers, they may be leveraged as the underlying verification layer for centralized computing. We’re joined by Jason Teutsch and Christian Reitwiessner. They are the co-authors of a visionary whitepaper which describes Truebit. This protocol would allow complex computations to be executed on off-chain systems while being validated by Ethereum miners. The results of these computations would consequently be available to on-chain smart contracts. Truebit makes clever use of proof systems and game theory to build a protocol where a Task Giver can ask a third party, the Solver, to execute a complex computation in exchange for a reward. Not limited to Solidity, these could be executed in tradi

In the world of Bitcoin podcast, there is one show which definitely stands out as the longest running, Let’s Talk Bitcoin! In its 4-year history, the show has produced over 320 episodes and expanded to become a network of podcasts which includes Epicenter and many others. We’re joined by Adam B. Levine the founder and host of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! It was thanks to Adam that Sébastien and Brian first connected in 2013, so in many ways, we consider him as the “”spiritual grandfather”” of Epicenter. Adam reflects on his signature show and the network he created in 2014. He discusses the future of the network and makes an announcement live on the show, which even takes us by surprise. Topics discussed in this episode: The history of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! podcast What listeners can expect for the future of the show The LTB Coin reward token experiment, what was learned and the future of that project The Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Network and how it’s evolving The Tokenly project and its use cases Token.fm: a platform fo

For a long time the native asset of the Ripple network XRP was the cryptocurrency with the second biggest market cap. But with much of the supply controlled by Ripple, it remained surrounded by controversy. Still, XRP remains an interesting asset to enable cross-border payments in the future. Miguel Vias recently joined Ripple after a long career on Wall Street to develop XRP as a liquid and widely accepted asset. Topics covered in this episode: How Miguel Vias went from trading precious metals to XRP The similarities between precious metals and cryptocurrencies The role Ripple sees for XRP The connection between XRP and interledger Why the FinCEN fine changed Ripple’s course XRP’s role in cross-border payments How Miguel is trying to create liquid markets for XRP Episode links: Ripple Website CME Group Executive Miguel Vias Joins Ripple | Ripple "Ripple and R3 Team Up with 12 Banks to Trial XRP for Cross-Border Payments | Ripple" Q4 2016 XRP Markets Report | Ripple Welcome | Interledger FinCEN F

In the footsteps of the finance industry, the energy sector has been caught by the blockchain fever. Conceived over a century ago, increased usage and an explosion of devices have made energy grids outdated. Smart grids offer a two-way dialogue where electricity and information are exchanged between utilities and its customers. This new grid takes advantages of connected devices and green energy production to provide more reliability, security and sustainability. Carsten Stöcker, Senior Manager Machine Economy & Blockchain at Innogy, shares his vision for how blockchains will serve as the transactional fabric for tomorrow’s smart grids. In this new paradigm, energy is locally produced and blockchains provide the rails on which local energy marketplaces can be built. The German utility has been conducting blockchain experiments for several years and is soon releasing the Mobility Transaction Platform moveX. The Ethereum-powered platform will serve an ecosystem of electric vehicles with transaction layer ne

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 covered 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 Episode links: Polychain Capital Beyond Bitcoin: The future of cryptocurrencies - The Signal Bitcoin Will Never Be a Currency—It's Something Way Weirder | WIRED The Golden Age Of Open Protocols – AVC Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentraliz

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 covered 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 Episode links: Dr. Peter Rizun's talk at Scaling Bitcoin Montreal 2015 Dr. Peter Rizun: "A T

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 covered 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 Episode links: Ethereum Foundation Ethereum R&D Roundup Valentine's Day December Development Roundup R3 Chain Interoperability Paper Epicenter 58: Ethereum, Proof-of-Stake and Future of Bitcoin Epicenter 91: Frontier Launch and Scalability This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/171