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

One of the foundational problems in payment networks is that they are mostly uninteroperable. This problem exists at all levels, from consumer payment solutions like PayPal, to national and multi-national banks. This complexity is brought on by the proprietary nature of payment networks, and moving value from one to another requires a negotiation between parties on which common payment network to use in a transaction. We saw similar problems in the early days of the Internet, assembled around protocols which allow for data to be routed and move between networks in a standardized way. We’re joined by Stefan Thomas and Evan Schwartz, co-creators of Interledger. This neutral protocol would bring the same level of interoperability we know take for granted around the flow of data, to payments, thus allowing money to move freely across networks. A market maker, who holds accounts in both networks, would receive funds in escrow from a sender, and move funds to an escrow account with the receiver, getting paid by the sender when he shows the proof the funds were delivered to the receiver. Topics covered in this episode: What is Interledger and what problem is it trying to solve Interledger’s architecture How connectors and routing works, and how we may compare it to the way data flows on the Internet Cryptographic Escrow and its role in Interledger Requirements for payment solutions to become Interledger compatible Interledger’s community group at the W3C How Interledger applies to micropayments Ripple’s role in Interledger Episode links: Interledger Interledger Whitepaper Interledger + WebTorrent - Demo by Evan Schwartz Interledger Architecture Interledger Github Interledter Slideshare Ripple Lab Episode 92 with Stefan Thomas This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/131

In the short history of the Bitcoin industry, there has been an impressive amount of high profile hacks, ranging from a few hundred thousand to many millions of dollars. In all of these, customers, Bitcoin users, where robbed of their funds because poor security policies, negligence, incompetence, or plain old scamming. Recently, the cryptocurrency conversion service ShapeShift fell victim to a hack in which over $200,000 of company funds were stolen, initially by an employee, and then by a hacker to whom this employee had sold sensitive company information. Luckily, no customers lost any money as ShapeShift does not hold any funds on behalf of users. We talked to ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees who walks us through this captivating ordeal, which sounds like it could be the plot of a movie. He speaks about how the company is trying to recover and what he has learned from this unfortunate event. Topics covered in this episode: How the ShapeShift hack went down What steps the company has taken to avoid this from happening again What he learned from the hack ShapeShift’s long-term vision as a company and product Ethereum’s role in their recent growth His history as an entrepreneur in the Bitcoin space His views on libertarianism and the long-term impact of Bitcoin on that movement Episode links: Looting of the Fox: The Story of Sabotage at ShapeShift Bitcoin.com podcast - Details of the Shapeshift.io Hack The Slaying of Bearwhale Erik's Blog This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/130

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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Maciej Olpinski's Blog Slock.it The DAO EB108 - The Big Chain Powwow This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/129

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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Stellar Website Stellar Consensus Protocol Bitcoin-Lumen Giveaway Stellar Graphic Novel Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/128

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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Jaxx Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet Decentral Decentral.tv Blockchain World Expo This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/127

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 covered in this episode: 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 Episode links: BigchainDB BigchainDB Whitepaper Ascribe Left Gallery 23vivi This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/126

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 owne r 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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Florian's Website What are Smart Contracts? In search of a consensus Smart Contracts, Platforms and Intermediaries How to Sue A DAO How to Incorporate a DAO This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/125

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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Maker DAO Maker DAO Whitepaper Maker DAO DevCon Talk EB60 with Robert Sams: Volatility and the Search for a Stable Cryptocurrency This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/124

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 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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: This Week in Startups with Brock Pierce The Finanser Interview with Brock Pierce Blockchain Capital Brock Pierce – Bitcoins Are The Digital Gold 2.0 This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/123

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 in this episode: 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 Episode links: Zcash website Why Zcash - Project Announcement Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin [PDF] EB116 - Eli Ben-Sasson: Zero Knowledge Proofs This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/122