Emin Gun Sirer, Cornell professor, co-director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts (IC3) and the founder of Ava, talks about the settlement the SEC reached with the founder of EtherDelta, and what that could mean for the coders of decentralized systems.  He also puts this action in the context of the history of peer-to-peer sharing and how the government used to prohibit encryption. We also discuss his main takeaway from DevCon4 last week -- hint, maximalism is probably not the future -- and he explains a new consensus algorithm called Avalanche, and how that differs from previous ways to achieve consensus. Then, he gives us a sneak preview of a new coin he is launching, Ava.

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Episode links:

Emin Gun Sirer: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/

IC3: https://www.initc3.org

SEC/EtherDelta settlement press release: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-258

SEC order: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2018/34-84553.pdf

CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz's speech discussing how they would prosecute illegal prediction markets and how coders could be liable: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opaquintenz16

Unchained episode discussing whether coders would be liable: http://unchainedpodcast.co/reflections-on-the-10-year-anniversary-of-the-bitcoin-white-paper-ep90

DevCon4: https://devcon4.ethereum.org

Avalanche white paper: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmUy4jh5mGNZvLkjies1RWM4YuvJh5o2FYopNPVYwrRVGV

Ava: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2629017553989259&id=1801780960046260