Crypto Finance: Knowledge Session

What are the moving parts of a blockchain and how do they play a part together? This podcast looks at communication, protocol, consensus, systems, and applications relevant in the technology stack of a blockchain. It also explores how these elements can change and what the consequences are for a project when they do change.

This episode, hosted by Dr. Lewin Boehnke, Head of Research at Crypto Finance AG, started as a general overview, and the Q&A with the team developed into a discussion of forks in particular and resilience in general.

Handling cryptocurrency addresses seems seamless when using standard tooling like electrum wallet or mobile wallets. You want to pay somebody? Scan their QR code. You want somebody to pay you? Your app will provide you with one that they can scan. New ones every time.

You usually don't need to know what is happening under the hood, until of course you deviate from the typical usage patterns by introducing repeating transfers between fixed counterparties, corporate structures, or you just have the urge to get a better grasp of the details.

In this session, recorded this May, our Head of Research, Dr. Lewin Boehnke, gives us a look under the hood and guides us through key derivation and its usual and not so usual uses.

Last summer, while Fomo3D was in full bloom, Alexander Moser, Business Developer at Crypto Storage AG, hosted a session about game theory. It was not the typical session you would expect, where he would explain why proof of work is secure. Instead, he looked at fringe scenarios that can come up, intentionally or accidentally, in smart contracting platforms and contracts build on those. This ended up in a wild brainstorming exchange about topics ranging from the possible impact of in-contract incentives to economic considerations for the platform itself.

As this happened during a hot summer evening, the windows were open and the audio quality suffered as a result. We hope that it is still an enjoyable episode.

History lesson in the knowledge session. In a session back in January 2019, we took the then recent coinmetrics blog about inconsistencies in the Bitcoin Private monetary supply (https://coinmetrics.io/bitcoin-private/) as an opportunity to review that and two more prior hacks. The origin story of Monero (https://soundcloud.com/the-bitcoin-game/the-bitcoin-game-42-riccardo-fluffypony-spagni) and the hack of Cryptsy (since the original source is now down, here's the internet wayback machine archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20160115053621/http://blog.cryptsy.com/).

What all three incidents had in common is that actions of individual developers got by far not the scrutiny that they should have prior to being entrusted with projects and having their code deployed in production systems.

It's a lesson in recent history and a call to caution.

New crypto assets come up every now and then, and some of them bring something new to the table. It is very rare for a new project to get the attention of the established Bitcoin community. By combining scalability with anonymity and opt-in auditability, Mimblewimble raised many eyebrows.

The anonymous drop of the Mimblewimble whitepaper was such a moment. Bernadette Leuzinger, COO of Crypto Fund AG, hosted the session about this topic in January 2019, right around the time of the mainnet start of two implementations.

We discuss the protocol, the implementations, and practical implications.

Atomic swaps are a very simple tool but hard to grasp concept. This is partly due to the technology and game theory, but what adds to the complexity is the emergent economic and regulatory implications that we also touch on in this episode of our internal knowledge session by Crypto Finance's Head of Research, Dr. Lewin Boehnke.

The recording is rather old, several months at this point. But as often, we are not chasing the news in our knowledge sessions but rather aim for the more fundamental topics.

This podcast is a guide to the Crypto Broker Weekly Rotation Report given by our Senior Trade Patrick Heusser, with an explanation of the type of indicators, the rationale for their choice, and an overview of the report structure. He references the report from June 13, 2019: the PDF of this report in the podcast can be found here for you to follow while listening:

https://www.cryptofinance.ch/en/crypto-broker-weekly-rotation-report-cw-24-2/

The report provides information on bitcoin and altcoins and extensive insights into the crypto asset market, including quantitative data analysis, macro market comments, technical chart analysis, and rotation (sector) analysis. You can find the most recent reports here:

https://www.cryptofinance.ch/en/insights/?_search=rotation%20report

Should you wish to receive the weekly Crypto Broker Rotation Report by email, you may subscribe to the report in the form at the bottom of this web page:

https://www.cryptofinance.ch/en/brokerage/

Disclaimer

This publication, provided by Crypto Finance AG, is published for information purposes only. No information provided in this publication shall constitute investment advice. This publication does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to acquire or dispose of any investment or to engage in any other transaction. This publication is not intended for solicitation purposes, but only for use as general information. All descriptions, examples, and calculations contained in this publication are for illustrative purposes only. While reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of this publication to provide details that are accurate and not misleading at the time of publication, Crypto Finance AG (a) does not make any representations or warranties regarding the information contained herein, whether express or implied, including, without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any warranty with respect to the accuracy, correctness, quality, completeness, or timeliness of such information, and (b) shall not be responsible or liable for any third party’s use of any information contained herein under any circumstances, including, without limitation, in connection with actual trading or otherwise or for any errors or omissions contained in this publication.

Crypto Finance AG is a corporate entity registered under Swiss law in Switzerland and not subject to prudential supervision. All intellectual property, proprietary, and other rights and interests in this publication, and the subject matter hereof, including, without limitation, all registered design, copyright, trademark, and service mark rights, are owned by Crypto Finance AG, its affiliates, or third parties. Investments in virtual currencies are high-risk investments with the risk of total loss of the investment. You should not invest in virtual currencies unless you understand and can bear the risks involved with such investments. Crypto Finance AG excludes its liability for any losses arising from the use of, or reliance on, information provided in this publication.

Talking about 'public' or 'permissioned'/'private' blockchains does not do the flexibility of the ecosystem justice. Even considering the in-betweens does not do the trick. In this first-ever-published recording of our twice-weekly internal knowledge sessions, our Head of Research, Dr. Lewin Boehnke, looks at the landscape and argues that there are at least three characteristics that have to each individually be considered on a private-public scale that determine the use cases of that cube.