Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

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 Coco and its architecture The role of TEE’s in Coco How Coco achieves confidential transactions Identify management and network governance in Coco How Coco fits into other blockchain initiatives at Microsoft The framework’s roadmap Episode links: Announcing the Coco Framework for enterprise blockchain networks Introducing the Coco Framework - YouTube Coco Framework Whitepaper This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/201

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 a new information ranking system OB1 & OpenBazaar – BlueYard Capital – Medium This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/200

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 components of the Polkadot Network The various players in the network The consensus model used in Polkadot The types of applications Polkadot would enable The Web3 Foundation and its goals Episode links: Polkadot Website Polkadot Pre-Sale Website Polkadot Community Chat Aura Consensus This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/199

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 Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/198

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 and listening options: epicenter.tv/197

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 surpass early stage VC funding Hedge Funds Investing in Cryptocurrencies 'Exploding' - 62 in Pipeline This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/196

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 Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/195

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 at Coinfest 2017 in Amsterdam - YouTube Bernard Lietear, EURO architect discusses Bancor This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/194

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 Website Decred Documentation This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/193

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 links: SPECTRE Medium Post SPECTRE (full paper) Accelerating Bitcoin's Transactions Inclusive Blockchain Protocols On Bitcoin and Red Balloons Aviv's Website Yonatan's Website This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/192