Epicenter – Podcast on Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

Support the show, consider donating: 1PDMqgBrD6jP5Deh33Xw6PUMFm1ZUY9u66 (http://bit.ly/1VLG29H) As the blockchain field continues evolving rapidly, Sebastien, Meher and Brian take some time to discuss the current environment and the longer term implications of blockchains. We discussed how smart contracts could affect the pace of innovation and the competitiveness of industries. We also talked about the role DAOs will play and what we can take away from the current DAO crowdsale and its connection with Slock.it. Topics covered included: - How companies running on smart contracts could impact the pace and cost of innovation - A smart contract-based insurance example - Why smart contracts and blockchains will challenge our understanding of organizations - The current state of DAOs - Slock.it and the DAO crowdsale Links mentioned in this episode: - Maciej Olpinski's Blog http://bit.ly/1TpCHrO - Slock.it http://bit.ly/1TFubHO - The DAO http://bit.ly/1rqMnvJ - EB108 - The Big Chain Powwow http://bit.ly/1QMZvQp Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/129 YouTube: https://youtu.be/W8xAwbPN6Ko Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

Support the show, consider donating: 12NF4HiErL6phVzQ4vSvvXPWDopDMMKCfV (http://bit.ly/21JOxll) When Jed McCaleb discovered Bitcoin, there didn't even exist an online marketplace to trade the cryptocurrency yet. The experienced founder who had earlier started file sharing site eDonkey, acted fast and started the first Bitcoin exchange MtGox which he later sold to now-infamous Mark Karpeles. Jed later founded the pioneering Ripple project before leaving to start Stellar. We discussed his journey through the industry and the ambitious plans Stellar has to create an open financial system that will give access to financial services to a much broader spectrum of humanity. Topics covered included: - Jed's early involvement in the industry and founding of MtGox and subsequently Ripple - Why Jed left Ripple and started Stellar - How Ripple and Stellar differ - The Stellar Consensus Protocol - Why the organization behind Stellar is a non-profit foundation - Stellar's focus on developing markets and Nigeria in particular - The role and distribution of Stellar's currency Lumen Links mentioned in this episode: - Stellar Website http://bit.ly/1XUNvCf - Stellar Consensus Protocol http://bit.ly/1MWfMrJ - Bitcoin-Lumen Giveaway http://bit.ly/233DGTG - Stellar Graphic Novel http://bit.ly/1NwIXl7 - Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper http://amzn.to/1LxK5im 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/128 YouTube: https://youtu.be/dHkrrMg9RUw Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

When Jed McCaleb discovered Bitcoin, there didn’t even exist an online marketplace to trade the cryptocurrency yet. The experienced founder who had earlier started file sharing site eDonkey, acted fast and started the first Bitcoin exchange MtGox which he later sold to now-infamous Mark Karpeles. Jed later founded the pioneering Ripple project before leaving to … Continued

We were joined by repeat guest Anthony di Iorio, a definite contender for having (co-)founded the most projects in the blockchain space including Ethereum, Kryptokit, Decentral and Jaxx. We got an update on the vibrant Toronto blockchain scene and Decentral. The main discussion revolved around the new wallet Jaxx that is simultaneously a Bitcoin and … Continued

Support the show, consider donating: 1895oevDkjuxipbMBan3bvuvYH1brqEhgx (http://bit.ly/1WMUkW3) We were joined by repeat guest Anthony Di Iorio, a definite contender for having (co-)founded the most projects in the blockchain space including Ethereum, Kryptokit, Decentral and Jaxx. We got an update on the vibrant Toronto blockchain scene and Decentral. The main discussion revolved around the new wallet Jaxx that is simultaneously a Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet and takes a significant step towards a more unified and accessible cryptocurrency experience. Finally, we discussed his recent appointment as Chief Digital Officer at the Toronto Stock Exchange / TMX Group and the upcoming trade show Blockchain World Expo. Topics covered included: - Update on Decentral and Kryptokit - How the Jaxx wallet - Unique UI challenges of Ethereum wallets - The role of community in bringing innovation to corporates - His role as Chief Digital Officer at the TMX Group - The upcoming Blockchain World Expo in Toronto Links mentioned in this episode: - Jaxx Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet http://bit.ly/23TWfw8 - Decentral http://bit.ly/1jBWUd9 - Decentral.tv - Blockchain World Expo http://bit.ly/1WbH5j1 Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/127 YouTube: https://youtu.be/Epm8S-PBSvs Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

Support the show, consider donating: 1NiAfwkdp5qsgy9NDGTFPabxpPhhAdR43L (http://bit.ly/1pKWtXT) 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. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

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 … Continued

Support the show, consider donating: 1EW2s8TzMXbXhu3ajUHj4Fi4Ksbo7jUZ3v (http://bit.ly/1VLFlgx) The relatively new concept of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), is often praised as a new type of organizational structure that has no identifiable owner or owners, and whose actions are automated and determined solely by a pre-defined set of rules. Views on DAOs differ widely. On one hand, members of the Bitcoin/blockchain space often portrayal them as AI-like swarm organisms, free from the shackles of nation-states, and that can act at will regardless of laws or regulation. On the other hand, legal experts caution that, like corporations, DAOs and their creators could be held liable in civil lawsuits, and that they may be served a hard dose of reality when they end up in court. We are joined by Florian Glatz, attorney, researcher and software developer (not to mention the proud owner of the awesome domain name blockchain.lawyer). We discuss some of the basic legal concepts surrounding contracts and in what ways smart contracts may or may not fit within our existing legal framework. We also dive deep into DAOs, and address some of the challenges they may pose in the near and distant future. Topics covered include: - The history of innovation in law - How merchant law (Lex Mercatoria) emerged in the 13th century - How we can define smart contracts - The legality of smart contacts - The need for natural language contracts vs. contracts which are written in code - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations - The Slock.it DAO - What would happen if one tried to sue a DAO Links mentioned in this episode: - Florian's Website: http://blockchain.lawyer - What are Smart Contracts? In search of a consensus: https://medium.com/@heckerhut/whats-a-smart-contract-in-search-of-a-consensus-c268c830a8ad - Smart Contracts, Platforms and Intermediaries: https://medium.com/@heckerhut/smart-contracts-platforms-and-intermediaries-c3d30f5182a6 - How to Sue A DAO: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-sue-dao-stephen-palley?trk=mp-reader-card - How to Incorporate a DAO: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-incorporate-dao-stephen-palley?trk=mp-reader-card Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/125 YouTube: https://youtu.be/q5V01d3sp80 SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-125 Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

The relatively new concept of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), is often praised as a new type of organizational structure that has no identifiable owner or owners, and whose actions are automated and determined solely by a pre-defined set of rules. Views on DAOs differ widely. On one hand, members of the Bitcoin/blockchain space often … Continued

Support the show, consider donating: 1GW6t1vzHkN28F8agdW6vBqBxc9dKvad3B (http://bit.ly/1Rp3LZM) 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. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

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 … Continued

Support the show, consider donating: 18ZSe3qvW3rCc9ScS5BjQYmcPYPzuAJu5X (http://bit.ly/1Rp226M) We're joined by Brock Pierce, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, investor and all around emblematic figure of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Brock tells his story, from his early beginning a entrepreneur in his teens, to the massively successfull video game industry businesses he built in the early 2000s. As Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, he gives us his perspective on how the Foundation's role has evolved over time and its areas of focus going forward. Brock also weighs in the recent debates around governance and block size. Topics covered included: - The lemonade-stand beginnings of Brock's entrepreneurship story - How he became involved in gaming and pioneered the sale of digital goods - The 400,000-strong professional gamer supply chain he built in China - His first contact with Bitcoin and the initial concerns he had - Blockchain Capital and how he ended up investing in dozens of Bitcoin startups - The blocksize debate and whether Bitcoin needs an explicit governance process - The future of the Bitcoin Foundation Links mentioned in this episode: - This Week in Startups with Brock Pierce http://bit.ly/1LASaYZ - The Finanser Interview with Brock Pierce http://bit.ly/22rSrEX - Blockchain Capital http://bit.ly/1Mj6iWT - Brock Pierce – Bitcoins Are The Digital Gold 2.0 http://bit.ly/1Zkc9gv Sponsors: - GTEC: Apply now to enter the GTEC Blockchain Contest and win prizes worth €50k epicenterbitcoin.com/gtec Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/123 YouTube: https://youtu.be/8HJvDzgfvh0 Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

We’re joined by , Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, investor and all around emblematic figure of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Brock tells his story, from his early beginning a entrepreneur in his teens, to the massively successfull video game industry businesses he built in the early 2000s. As Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, he gives us … Continued

Support the show, consider donating: 1F1SQTL7zqagxsgjnmoFXx6R9w4tuakFDD (http://bit.ly/1QpeoZv) For Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, part of the cypherpunk movement since the early 1990s, the vision of a decentralized financial system that has both openness and privacy has existed since long before Bitcoin. After many failed attempts, Bitcoin proved that that vision could be achievable. But Bitcoin also failed to deliver on the privacy features as blockchain analysis allows tracing movements and deanonymizing many users. Zooko joined us to discuss his project Zcash, a fully anonymous cryptocurrency that is scheduled to launch in July. Through Zcash’s use of ground-breaking Zero Knowledge Proofs (or zkSNARKs) the blockchain will leak no information about sender, recipients nor amounts. It was a fascinating discussion of the most anticipated launch of a cryptocurrency since Ethereum. Topics covered included: - Zooko's long cypherpunk history - How overconfidence derailed many cypherpunk projects - Why Bitcoin's privacy is broken and how Zcash provides true privacy - The too-good-to-be-true Zcash team - Why Zcash is based on a fork of Bitcoin - How the initial parameter generation creates a potential security weakness - Why Zcash believes in an evolutionary approach to designing cryptocurrency protocols Links mentioned in this episode: - Zcash website: http://bit.ly/1p1NZuD - Why Zcash - Project Announcement http://bit.ly/1RwhoUC - Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin [PDF] http://bit.ly/1M2uc3o - EB116 - Eli Ben-Sasson: Zero Knowledge Proofs http://bit.ly/1TDUtx1 Sponsors: - GTEC: Apply now to enter the GTEC Blockchain Contest and win prizes worth €50k epicenterbitcoin.com/gtec - 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/122 YouTube: https://youtu.be/M7CMU5OMEgE Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

For Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, part of the cypherpunk movement since the early 1990s, the vision of a decentralized financial system that has both openness and privacy has existed since long before Bitcoin. After many failed attempts, Bitcoin proved that that vision could be achievable. But Bitcoin also failed to deliver on the privacy features as blockchain … Continued