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

When spinning up a few hundred data-gathering Bitcoin nodes prevented some breadwallet users from transmitting bitcoin transaction, a minor panic quickly erupted about the Bitcoin compliance startup Chainalysis and their supposed sybil attack on the Bitcoin network. Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager joined us for a discussion of what happened and what role transaction monitoring will play in the future. We dove deep into the tension between the desires for user privacy and the requirements to achieve integration into existing financial services. Topics covered in this episode: How Chainalysis’ nodes caused problems for breadwallet What damage a large scale sybil attack could really do to Bitcoin The role transaction monitoring will play to achieve Bitcoin integration in existing systems Why transaction-related blockchain analysis does not threaten Bitcoin’s fungibility The best way users can protect their anonymity Episode links: CoinDesk: Chainalysis CEO Denies Launching Sybil Attack Bitcoin Talk Discussion Reddit: A Bitcoin Compliance Startup is Sybil Attacking the Network Reddit: Chainalysis versus Mycelium Story Inside Bitcoin Article This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/070

Powering an estimated 5-10% of all Bitcoin transactions, Electrum is one of the leaders of the Bitcoin wallet space. The open-source walled was started in 2011 and played a key role in the development of the light-weight SPV wallets. Developer Thomas Voegtlin joined us for a discussion of Electrum, their recent 2.0 release and the rapidly evolving Bitcoin wallet space in general. Topics covered in this episode: The evolution of Bitcoin wallets and what motivated him to start Electrum Electrum 2.0 and its new features such as Multi-sig and hardware wallet support The security tradeoffs between using an SPV wallet versus a full node client How Bitcoin aliases could do away with Bitcoin addresses Episode links: Electrum Electrum Github Repo On the Privacy Provisions of Bloom Filters in Lightweight Bitcoin Clients BIP 39 BIP 37 Versum MIT paper This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/069

Is Bitcoin secure from attacks that could destroy the currency? To a large part, this is determined by how expensive it is to carry out an attack and by the potential profits the attacker could generate. Ideally, an attack is so expensive to carry out that no profit-driven attacker would engage in it. But in this episode, Brian argues that the cost of attacking Bitcoin will likely decrease in the future and the ability to short Bitcoin and thus benefit from an attack will increase dramatically. Topics covered in this episode: How an attacker would need to go about shorting bitcoin How the kamikaze mining pool could be used to bribe miners to join the attacker Why all profit-driven miners will have an incentive to join the attack, whether or not they believe it will succeed Why the block halving in 2016 could be an exceptionally dangerous time for Bitcoin, since an attack would be cheap to execute and likely to succeed How a gradual decrease of the block reward, instead of the 4-year halving rhythm would reduce risk Episode links: Bitcoin Development Mailing List Thread - Death by halving This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/068

What Bitcoin did for money, OpenBazaar is trying to achieve for commerce. Born as a fork of the Dark Market project, OpenBazaar aims to facilitate online trade by removing unneeded middlemen. Built as an open source protocol, users simply install the application on their computer to gain access to marketplaces available on the network. From the app, they may also place items or services for sale by creating “Ricardian contracts”, which get propagated to the network and made accessible to everyone to see. The protocol, which uses Bitcoin as a means of payments, utilises multi-signature transactions. This makes it possible for transacting parties to include third-party arbitrators, who may intervene in the event of a dispute. We talked to Brian Hoffman, the project’s Lead Developer, about this paradigm-shifting project and the potential it has to disrupt person-to-person marketplaces such as eBay. Currently in beta, OpenBazaar is due for a full release in Q1-Q2 of 2015. Topics covered in this episode: History and current status of the project Mechanics of a simple transaction on OpenBazaar Ricardian contracts OpenBazaar’s proposed arbitration model Reputation and the important role it plays in peer-to-peer trading Business models that may be threatened by this technology Episode links: OpenBazaar OpenBazaar Git Repo Ricardian Contracts OpenBazaar Reddit Bitrated This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/067

Levin Keller is known to many in Berlin as the man who warned everyone about the dark scenario where buying Bitcoins in Europe would be subject to VAT. As with the VAT issue, Levin was also concerned with the complexity of filing tax returns. For merchants and companies dealing in Bitcoin, keeping track of gains and losses makes proper accounting a messy ordeal. His startup, Coyno, hopes to solve that by providing standalone, read-only bookkeeping for your existing wallets. Coyno allows you to import the public seed from your HD wallet and keeps track of transactions. The service, currently in beta, reads your wallets’ public addresses and stores bookkeeping information whenever a transaction occurs. By recording the exchange rate at the time of transaction, Coyno can generate reports of taxable events, allowing users to more easily file their taxes. By allowing Coyno to read all your wallets, it’s able to differentiate incoming and outgoing transaction from funds being moved within your organization, a feature lacking from other reporting tools. Levin also talks about his journey of being incubated at the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator in Berlin. He also weighs in on some of the challenges of building a Bitcoin startup and attracting investors in Europe. Episode links: Coyno Beta Coyno announcement Axel Springer Plug and Play This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/066

Backbone to the financial system? Powering decentralized technology? The first true world currency? There is probably who hasn’t dreamt of a world ten years from now when Bitcoin would be all those things. The promise of cryptocurrencies are enormous, but will Bitcoin really emerge as the winner? And how can we reconcile this grand vision for Bitcoin with an ecosystem where projects launch new coins and blockchains every day? The one project that rekindles those Bitcoin dreams and paints a potential path to Bitcoin’s ultimate success are sidechains. Developed by Adam Back, Greg Maxwell and several other Bitcoin core developers, sidechains aims to allow the permissionless, rapid innovation of alt chains, but using the established monetary base and network of Bitcoin. It’s a complex project, but with Blockstream founders and sidechains visionaries Adam Back and Greg Maxwell we couldn’t have had better companions on our journey into understanding the coming Bitcoin-Sidechains-Macrocosm. Topics covered in this episode: The motivation behind sidechains The concept of digital scarcity Concerns about the security of sidechains Different stages of sidechains from federated pegs to merged mining to block extension Episode links: Blockstream Sidechains white paper Saving Bitcoin From Destruction This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/065

Adam B. Levine, the “Spiritual Grandfather” of Epicenter Bitcoin and Editor-in-Chief of Let’s Talk Bitcoin, joins us to share is “crazy” passion for information and cryptocurrency. Never shy when it comes to talking about complicated subjects, Adam divulges his ideas about the next iteration of the experimental Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network and his newly launched standalone token vending machine, SwapBot. Adam also opens up about his role as the Chief Visionary Officer of CoinPowers and why it ultimately failed as a project. We also get Adam’s take on the future of crowdfunding and what role he sees himself playing within the crypto community moving forward. Topics covered in this episode: The integral part Adam played in the creation of Epicenter Bitcoin How the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast show and network were born The Tokenly Platform The recent discontinuation of certain LTB Network shows LTBCoin and the problems it aims to solve Tokens Vs. cryptocurrencies Content monetization and crowdfunding Episode links: Let's Talk Bitcoin LTBCoin SWAPBOT Prototype Tokenly Project This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/064

When it comes to Bitcoin, Tim Swanson is known to many as the man who sees the glass half empty. Whether or not that’s true, it’s fair to say that Tim has critical opinions about Bitcoin and questions many of the assumptions held by those who wish to see it succeed. A researcher and educator, he is the author of several books including “Great Wall of Numbers: Business Opportunities and Challenges in China” and “Great Chain of Numbers: A Guide to Smart Contracts, Smart Property and Trustless Asset Management”. He also blogs about Bitcoin, economics and various other topics at OfNumbers.com. He currently serves as an advisor to Hyperledger and is Head of Business Development at Melotic. Topics covered in this episode: True cost of Bitcoin transactions Bitcoin as a niche technology Vs. Consensus-as-a-service and semi-trusted networks Hyperledger, a decentralised ledger platform Melotic, a digital asset exchange Bitcoin’s adoption as a payment system Trusted transparency in mining Remittances Episode links: OfNumbers.com Dave Hudson's Blog (Hashing It) Slicing data: what comprises blockchain transactions? OP-ED: The Rise and Rise of Lipservice: Viral Western Union Ad Debunked A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now? Architecture of Internet Money This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/063

Eris Industries spawned when three people got together to come up with a solution to Olivier Janssens’ £100K bounty to replace the Bitcoin Foundation with software. Their proposal, initially called Project Douglas and built on top of Ethereum, was designed to replicate the functions of a trade association on a blockchain. Today, Eris has evolved into a Distributed Application Software Stack, with which developers can rapidly deploy distributed applications that are flexible, legally compliant and secure. Interestingly, Eris allows organisations and companies to adopt blockchain technology without being fully decentralised. We’re joined by one of the Founders and COO of Eris Industries, Preston Byrne, who explains how Eris works and talks about some of the practical use cases which may arise. Siân Jones is also here to weigh in on some of the innovative aspects of this exciting open-source project. Episode links: Eris Industries: Deserver White Paper Thelonious White Paper Eris Package Manager White Paper Eris Legal Markdown White Paper Blockchain Your Business in 7 Steps This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/062

Every quarter, CoinDesk releases its excellent State of Bitcoin Report proving an accurate benchmark of where the Bitcoin ecosystem stands. We were very fortunate to be joined by the man who compiles the State of Bitcoin Report, Garrick Hileman. As an economic historian at the London School of Economics and a frequent contributor to CoinDesk, Garrick is best know as an expert on Bitcoin and other currencies. We would like to pay our respects to the 17 innocent people who lost their lives in the recent terror attacks in Paris. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones. Je suis Charlie! Topics covered in this episode: The recent $5m hack on Bitstamp Startup activity and VC investments The continually slumping Bitcoin price Merchant and user adoption What we should look forward to in 2015 Episode links: Garrick's Website Stake of Bitcoin 2015 Report (CoinDesk) New Index Ranks Argentina 'Most Likely' to Adopt Bitcoin (CoinDesk) This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/061