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

Before 2013 few people paid attention to Bitcoin and blockchain, yet even back in the 1990s a vibrant group of prioneers pursued the vision of financial cryptography and digital cash. One of these was financial cryptographer and software developer Ian Grigg, who today works as an architecture consultant for R3. Grigg joined us for a discussion of the history of the digital cash, Bitcoin and his work on Ricardian Contracts, which foreshadowed today’s smart contracts. Topics covered in this episode: The origin story of financial cryptography DigiCash and the startup scene around it in the 1990s Ricardian Contracts and why contracts are central to digital assets Ricardian Contracts vs blockchain Episode links: Ricardian Contract Paper Financial Cryptography Website Financial Cryptography in 7 Layers R3CEV Brown, Carlyle, Grigg & Hearn: Corda - An Introduction This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/151

Last week the biggest blockchain-focused developer conference took place in Shanghai, China: Ethereum’s DevCon 2. Epicenter show host Meher Roy was at the conference and brought back his impressions and insights for a comprehensive discussion of the current state of Ethereum projects and the Ethereum community. Topics covered in this episode: What Ethereum’s developer conference DevCon 2 was like The big change in going from concepts to alpha version over the last year The continued lack of sustainable business models in Ethereum The lack of interest by Venture Capitalists and the big tech companies in Ethereum and blockchain technology The current state and incentive problems of crowdsales Three areas of focus in Ethereum: Scalability, Privacy and Governance The search for the next protocol Episode links: Ethereum Foundation Website Ethereum YouTube Channel Insanity and Brilliance at Ethereum's Developer Conference Melonport: Decentralized Asset Management on Ethereum Golem: Worldwide Supercomputer Metamask: Ethereum Browser Extension Cosmos Whitepaper This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/150

That blockchains represents a fundamental technological revolution has become widely accepted. What is still more nebulous, but could turn out just as disruptive is how smart contracts while transform the legal system and our understanding of what contracts are and how they work. Legal researcher Lukas Abegg who is currently finishing his PhD on copyright issues around 3d printing and has been researching smart contracts as well joined us to discuss the question whether code is law and what blockchain can learn form 3d printing. Topics covered in this episode: The copyright questions around 3d printing How legal issues around 3d printing are like issues around smart contracts How information theory can help us conceptualize smart contracts The thesis of Lessig’s book ‘Code is Law’ The case for law regulating code Why Alternative Dispute Resolution has big potential for blockchain applications Episode links: Code is Law? Not Quite Yet Lessig's Code Lawrence Lessig Talk 'Thinking Through Law and Code' EB125 - Florian Glatz A Legal Framework for DAOs This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/149

We’re joined by Kyle Torpey, a freelance writer, and journalist who writes for a number of publications in the blockchain space including Bitcoin Magazine, Coin Journal, and others. Know for his well-written articles and in-depth reporting on the important topics affecting Bitcoin today, Kyle provides his point of view on the scalability debate and gives an update on the recent and upcoming changes to the bitcoin protocol. Topics covered in this episode: An update on the scalability debate The outcome of the recent Hong Kong scalability workshop and code dev meeting in California The Bitcoin core development process The recent release of Bitcoin Code 0.13.0 The inclusion of Segregated Witness and what it enables Upcoming features in the roadmap Takeaways from the Ethereum hard fork Division in the Bitcoin community The evolution of the Bitcoin ecosystem in the last 2 years Potential mainstream applications for Bitcoin Episode links: The Five Most Useful Properties of Bitcoin When Should Developers Turn to Bitcoin? Darknet Customers Are Demanding Bitcoin Alternative Monero The Power of Schnorr: The Signature Algorithm to Increase Bitcoin's Scale and Privacy BIP-47 vs BIP-75: How Will Bitcoin Wallets Maintain Privacy While Becoming Easier to Use? This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/148

With academic research on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still in its infancy, Sarah Meiklejohn’s track record of publications in the area stands out. The UCL computer science professor has explored topics ranging from anonymity in Bitcoin to how a central bank could go about issuing a cryptocurrency. Topics covered in this episode: What techniques can be used to deanonymize Bitcoin users How Bitcoin’s usage evolved over time Whether privacy-enhancing overlays in Bitcoin currently work What a cryptocurrency issued by a central bank could look like The architecture of RSCoin Episode links: Sarah Meiklejohn UCL Website Meiklejohn & Orlandi (2015): Privacy-Enhancing Overlays in Bitcoin Danezis & Meiklejohn (2016): Centrally Banked Cryptocurrencies Meiklejohn et al (2016): A Fistful of Bitcoins EB70 - Michael Gronager: Chainalysis EB83 - David Andolfatto: Fedcoins and Cryptocurrencies Issued by Central Banks This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/147

In the last 20 years, content publishing platforms have proliferated to an almost insane number. There are countless places where people and companies can post articles, blogs, videos, photos, live content and so on. Despite this diverse offering, little innovation has happened in monetizing content, which still mostly remains ad-based. We’re joined by Ryan X. Charles, Bitcoin Developer and Founder of Yours. Yours would like to address the monetization problem by allowing content producers to earnBitcoin when they create good content. Yours is an in-browser application which implements a Bitcoin wallet and enables micro-transactions through their own implementation of the Lightning Network. Content Creators are paid by Curators who attribute value to the content. Curators are themselves rewarded when content they find valuable goes viral. Topics discussed in this episode: Ryan’s background as the Lead Developer of BitCore, and his experience at BitGo and Reddit What is Yours and what types of applications it enables The technical components of Yours The Yours application and how users post and access content Why he chose to build Yours on bitcoin How micropayments are implemented in Yours How Yours addresses the issue of copyright infringement What challenges Yours may face in order to reach critical mass Episode links: Yours website Yours client This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/146

One of the sectors which is ripe for disruption is the real estate industry. In the US for instance, a handful of historic and very powerful players operate what is known as MLS, or Multiple Listing Services, and hold unofficial monopolies on residential and commercial real estate listings. Brokers, who depend on these listing services to sell properties, agree that their incumbent positions have created a situation where fees have continued to rise, while little to no added value has been added for their users. Stephen King and Russel McLernon join us to explain RexMLS, a decentralized Multiple Listing Service built on Ethereum and IPFS. Currently in beta, the DApp would allow brokers to list properties at a very low cost, and be accessible to international markets, something which is lacking in the current model. Topics covered in this episode: The basics of MLS or Multiple Listing Services What is RexMLS and the problems it is trying to address The benefits of a decentralized MLS The different technical components of RexMLS Why they chose Ethereum and IPFS The user experience of RexMLS The product’s roll-out phases How users are incentivized to participate in the system The RexDex token exchange and the token injection model RexMLS’s governance model Episode links: RexMLS Website RexMLS Beta RexMLS White Paper This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/145

From BitShares to his central role during the inception of Ethereum Charles Hoskinson has continually influenced key projects in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. After departing the Ethereum project in 2014, he has recently stepped back into the limelight by pledging support and resources to turn the fledgling Ethereum fork ETC into a viable project. Charles joined us together with Alex Chepurnoy, a developer at his company IOHK. Besides Ethereum Classic, we talked about IOHK and Scorex, IOHK’s modular blockchain framework project that Alex Chepurnoy has been leading. Topics covered in this episode: The vision and activities of IOHK Scorex: A Modular Blockchain Framework Conflicts of vision that lead to Charles’ departure as original CEO of Ethereum in 2014 Why the hard fork broken Ethereum’s social contract Why ETC should differentiate and find its own path The role governance could play in ETC’s future Episode links: IOHK Scorex IOHK - Input Output Hong Kong Website Charles Hoskinson: Hoskus Parvum Opus: A Brief Sojourn Back to Ethereum Ethereum Classic: keep censorship-resistant Ethereum going ETC Declaration of Independence Let's Talk Bitcoin #304 Immutability vs Consensus Debate This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/144

Prediction markets are fascinating financial instruments which have proven to be accurate at making predictions on things like the outcome of elections, geopolitical events and sporting events. But in our heavily regulated financial world, they are the subject of much controversy. In 2013 for instance, a well-known US prediction market, Intrade, was forced to shut down following a civil suit filed by the CFTC. While some people consider prediction markets to be a useful tool for society, others consider them to be a form of gambling, which is one of the reasons why they have been met with such resistance in certain countries. A purely decentralized prediction market would operate outside the scope of the regulated financial world and be resistant to censorship and outside intervention. We’re joined by Joey Krug, Co-Founder and Core Developer at Augur, a decentralized prediction market built on Ethreum. The project, which was initially meant to be a Bitcoin sidechain, has ported to Ethereum and is currently in beta on the Testnet. Users can forecast real-world events, such as the outcome of the US election, and earn profits if they are accurate in their predictions. Reporting on events is crowdsourced using a consensus-based system similar to proof-of-stake. Topics covered in this episode: How prediction markets work The controversy around prediction markets The Augur project and what it is trying to achieve The evolution of Augur The different components of Augur Reporting on events and the reputation token Security, attack vectors and how they can be mitigated Augur’s business model The ethical aspects of prediction markets Augur’s structure and governance Episode links: Augur Augur Git Repo Augur Docs EB139 – Martin Köppelmann: Gnosis – The Ethereum Prediction Market EB97 – Paul Sztorc: Truthcoin & Prediction Markets, From Information-Overload To Crowd Intelligence EB98 – Robin Hanson: Futarchy, Prediction Markets And The Challenge Of Disruptive Technology EB141 – Ralph Merkle: Revolutionizing Democracy Using DAOs This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/143

Blockchain smart contracts are self-executing contracts composed of computer code. These programs, which are executed by the entirety of the network, enforce the rules described within the code. Effectively, in this realm, code is law. And as we’ve seen recently, altering the outcome of that code after it has been deloyed, should we later realize that it was flawed or did not produce an intended result, can be messy. In addition, there are instances where human intervention can be necessary or even desirable. Take a mortgage agreement for example. Should a smart contract be entrusted with the responsibility of making a decision when the borrower can no longer make his payments? In cases such as this, subjective human intervention is be necessary. Scot Farrell and Claire Warren, lawyers at the global law firm King & Wood Mallesons, think that humans should not be automated out of every process. While code is logical and predictable, it cannot act reasonably or take into account certain unforeseen events. They have proposed DnA contracts (Digital and Analog), where automation can occur when absolute automation is possible, but where humans may intervene at the edges and provide input when needed. Topics covered in this episode: What issues DnA contracts are trying to address The basic concepts behind DnA contrats The scenarios where DnA contracts may be valuable Examples of DnA contracts applied to interest rate swaps and mortgages How DnA contracts could be integrated with blockchain technologies The impact of DnA contracts on legal services Episode links: How to use humans to make “smart contracts” truly smart DnA Contracts proposal on GitHub This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/142