State Change

Today, we look at the problem of modern slavery and how it intersects with wildlife conservation. This subject is brought to the fore by growing interest in using blockchain technologies to illuminate the business processes which conceal the presence of slavery. Our guests are Brian Iselin, founder of SlaveFreeTrade.org, and Bubba Cook, Western and Central Pacific Tuna Programme Manager for the World Wildlife Fund. This episode was co-hosted and edited by Alexis Kenyon. Inevitably, some of this material will be disturbing. slavefreetrade.org wwf.org consensysmedia.net

Recalling State Change #40 Weaponized AI propaganda machine, we discussed at length the value of attention. Today we take this subject to it’s maximum extend. Software engineer Simon de la Rouviere and biochemical engineer Meher Roy shed light on how the battle for our attention is the basis for the online economy. We see it in the business models of two of the biggest companies on earth — Facebook and Google. That ever present question of how blockchain will affect these dynamics hangs over the discourse. Simon envisions a post scarcity world in which the only remaining economy is the attention economy. Meher takes a more conservative position. Between these two perspectives we get a foundational understanding of the dynamics involved, and a view of how they might evolve. https://twitter.com/MeherRoy https://twitter.com/simondlr itunes.apple.com/podcast/state…d1088310627?mt=2 twitter.com/Statechange_ Statechange.net

While today decentralization seems like a revelation, one thinker more than any other stands as its chief proponent. In 1945 Friedrich Hayek bucked the post war fashion of command-control thinking and announced the futility of central economic or societal planning. His essay, The Use of Knowledge in Society, is a concise and accurate argument for the organizing principles of the internet, horizontal organizations, and blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Guests: Jeffrey Tucker: CLO of Liberty.me, Director of Digital Development at The Foundation for Economic Education https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker Stephen Macaskill: President, Blockchain Association of New Zealand, former CEO of Amagi Metals an e-commerce precious metals company. https://twitter.com/orderofstuff Kirk Dameron of ConsenSys, Adjunct Professor Regis University, VP of Operations, Altius Space Machines https://twitter.com/ConsenSysKirk https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2 https://twitter.com/Statechange_ Statechange.net

The surprising outcome of the last US Presidential election brought attention to the effect fake news and social media manipulation can have on public thought. Today we are going to take a deep look at what exactly took place, while considering possible solutions to the problems we uncover. Berit Anderson and Brett Horvath, Co-founders of Scout.ai, join us to discuss their investigative piece, The Rise of the Weaponized AI Propaganda Machine, while media and marketing guru Amanda Gutterman of ConsenSys, provides an industry perspective. Berit Anderson: https://twitter.com/berit_anderson Brett Horvath: https://twitter.com/bretthorvath Amanda Gutterman: https://twitter.com/amandagutterman Arthur Falls: https://twitter.com/arthurfalls https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2 https://twitter.com/Statechange_ Statechange.net

Technology enables new forms of social organisation. That statement is itself a truism, but as we see technological development accelerate, our means of organising ourselves is constantly changing. Our guests today are Joseph Lubin and Vinay Gupta. Joe is the Founder of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum. He has a background in robotics, software engineering, and wealth management. He also had a short stint as CEO of a Jamaican record label. Vinay Gupta is the inventor of the Hexayurt emergency shelter and was once a member of both ConsenSys and Ethereum. Vinay now runs an investment firm, Hexayurt Capital. Have we reached an inflection point where old systems exist at odds with reality? Both Joe and Vinay think that might be the case. We discuss the nature of the firm as described by ronald coase, intermediation price discovery, the future of organization and the role of burning man in the birth of the internet. We compare the Joe’s and Vinay’s organizations and explore the role of blockchain in decentralized organizations. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2 https://twitter.com/Statechange_ Statechange.net

Today we compare in-depth the self-sovereign and federated models of identity. Why is our means of proving who we are important? Well, for one thing, relying on an authority which doesn’t have our best interests at heart to manage our identity is one of the many problems exploited by the decentralized propaganda machine described last episode. Our guests today are Christian Lundkvist, senior technologist at ConsenSys and Chief Architect and Researcher of the uPort self sovereign identity platform, and Steve Wilson, has spent 22 years researching identity, 14 of which has been independent. Steve currently leads the independent research business, Lockstep and is also working with Constellation Research where he studies blockchain technology. Christian Lundkvist: https://twitter.com/ChrisLundkvist Stephen Wilson: https://twitter.com/Steve_Lockstep https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2 https://twitter.com/Statechange_ Statechange.net

In brief: Ethereum developer framework Truffle offers a Swiss Army Knife of solutions to the blockchain application developer. Recently Truffle was added to the Azure marketplace, allowing the Microsoft development community can take advantage of this powerful tool. Since June of 2015 developer Tim Coulter has been assembling the scripts and tools he used for the projects he worked on into successive versions of Truffle. At the turn of the year, Truffle downloads crossed the 30,000 mark. By Tim’s estimate the framework is in the hands of between 4000 and 5000 developers. Now that number is only set to increase. Content: Tim Coulter, Arthur Falls etherreview.info

In Brief: Imagine the security of a blockchain transaction with the speed and low cost of a packet of information sent through traditional infrastructure. This is what state channels can offer any blockchain. After finishing his work on the Co-tricity project (the ConsenSys run part of which is now Innogy), Ameen Soleimani, has turned his attention to state channels. State Channels are a design pattern in which signed messages representing transactions are exchanged between two parties. These parties can choose at any time to broadcast the last message to the blockchain, updating it to a state representative of the sum of all exchanges between the two parties. Sound complicated? Ameen does a great job of explaining the idea which offers a solution both to scaling and to blockchain privacy.  The Raiden network is the most advanced instantiation of state channels currently in development. The Gnosis prediction market also uses state channels for its markets. This could well be the technology that defines 2017. Content: Ameen Soleimani, Arthur Falls

In Brief: Longtime applied cryptography guru and uPort developer Pelle Braendgaard announces the upcoming release of the uPort developer Alpha! Then we take a look at tokenless blockchains and examine the fundamental confusion behind DAO projects. uPort promises to solve the biggest problem on the internet: representing a unique human being. Existing trusted server based solutions have provided something to work with, but every person who’s suffered major identity theft can attest to their limitations. Those limitations are especially conspicuous when a blockchain interface is needed as they present a permission silo for attackers to target. Not too cool. With uPort blockchains will finally be open to the public. Bring on 2017! Content: Pelle Braendgaard, Arthur Falls https://twitter.com/pelleb https://twitter.com/ArthurFalls Subscribe on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state%E2%80%A6d1088310627?mt=2

In Brief: ConsnenSys and enterprise software giant Synechron have joined forces to take the blockchain solution world by storm. Synechron is a global financial services software delivery firm. Seeing an opportunity to improve back and middle office efficiency and revolutionize multi-party payments, the software giant is moving into the permissioned Ethereum space. ConsenSys and Synechron have formed a partnership to fill demand for a range of new software solutions. Content: Sandeep Kumar, Arthur Falls http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state%E2%80%A6d1088310627?mt=2 https://twitter.com/ArthurFalls synechron.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeepkumarnyc

In Brief: Institutional education today suffers from a perverse incentive: The educators define the method by which their own performance is measured. Jarad Pereira explains how his decentralized assessment platform can solve the problem. Jarad describes a system comprised of assessment in which students are free to acquire skills and knowledge in any way they choose. When they wish to be assessed, they make a request to the Universal Education System which assigns multiple individuals who have been favorably assessed in the relevant skill to assess the student. After assessment is complete, the scores the assessors have given the student are compared. Outliers are penalized - indicating that they are divergent with educated opinion, while those convergent with the mean are rewarded. The student is scored based on the combined opinion of the assessors. It’s a novel approach that combines economic incentive, game theory and decentralization. Content: Jarad Pereira, Arthur Falls Subscribe on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state…d1088310627?mt=2

In association with the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and Blockchain for Wall Street conference, ConsenSys hosted a panel discussion with some of the experts who will be attending the event.   Panelists: Ron Quaranta, Chairman, Wall Street Blockchain Alliance    Michael Wuehler, INFURA Project Lead, ConsenSys  Chris Burniske, Blockchain Products Lead, ARK Investment Management Richard Johnson, Vice President, Market Structure & Technology, Greenwich Associates We re-examine past predictions and develop a clear picture of the significance of blockchain in the financial industry. For the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_oZzptDmX8&feature=youtu.be http://www.wsba.co/ http://www.blockchainforwallstreet.com/ http://consensys.net/ https://twitter.com/ronqman https://twitter.com/wuehler https://twitter.com/ARKblockchain https://twitter.com/_richjohnson

Carolyn Reckhow is responsible for designing and implementing the developing organizational structure of ConsenSys. Balancing employee autonomy with a coherent and unified collective direction is a challenge which Carolyn addresses with a deft hand. Taking inspiration from the distributed information networks that ConsenSys builds services with, and drawing on some of the techniques of Holacracy, Carolyn is developing a system known internally as Meshocracy. Content: Carolyn Reckhow, Arthur Falls Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2

Martin Lundfall, mathematician, poet, and developer on the Co-tricity project, is here today. Co-tricity is a joint venture with German utilities provider, RWE and ConsenSys. It allows the peer to peer trading of energy, targeting prosumer and small business. Content: Martin Lundfall, Arthur Falls Subscribe on iTunes & Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/consensys https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-change/id1088310627?mt=2

Michael Wuehler is a developer for the Infura Ethereum/IPFS as a service offering. He is also the founder of the NYC Ethereum Meetup. Today we talk about how the Infura team is mitigating the recent attacks on the Ethereum Network, and Mike's Ethereum journey. Content: Michael Wuehler, Arthur Falls https://twitter.com/wuehler https://twitter.com/arthurfalls https://infura.io/ http://www.meetup.com/NYC_Ethereum/