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

Bonus Episode: At a side event at Devcon in Bogota Colombia, Friederike moderated a panel discussion on censorship resistance and credible neutrality with Phil from Flashbots, Patrick from Infura, Sebastian from HOPR, Martin from Gnosis, and Sreeram from EigenLayer. We dove deep into what credible neutrality constitutes, whether it needs defending, and if so how we should go about it.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Introduction to the panel
• What is censorship resistance and credible neutrality?
• When has Ethereum been or not been crediably neutral, and where is it today
• Recent cencorship instances in the space
• The roadmaps for more credible neutrality

Episode links:

• Devcon

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/B007

We caught up with Cosmoverse co-founder and YouTuber Cryptocito, for a chat from this year's event in Medellin. We look back on the 2nd edition of the conference and how the ecosystem has grown since last year. We also dive into some of the announcements, notably, ATOM 2.0.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Cosmoverse in Medellin
• Cryptocito's background and how Cosmoverse was born
• Highlights from the conference
• Mesh security systems
• Cosmos community growth
• Thoughts on Interchain Foundation (ICF)
• ATOM 2.0

Episode links:

• Cosmoverse
• Crytpocito's youtube
• Cosmoverse on Twitter
• Cryptocito on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Omni: Access all of Web3 in one easy-to-use wallet! Earn and manage assets at once with Omni's built-in staking, yield vaults, bridges, swaps and NFT support.
  https://omni.app/ -

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/464

HOPR is a decentralized and incentivized peer-to-peer mixnet open to anyone who wants to join and run a node. The network allows people, companies, and devices to exchange information online with its metadata stripped. People who communicate and transact using HOPR — or apps and services which run on top of the platform — can be sure that no-one can find out what data is being shared, who is sending or receiving it, or even how much data is being sent. HOPR gets its name from the fact that it provides metadata privacy by sending data packets through multiple nodes - or “hops” – in the network. Decentralization ensures that the network is fully independent and there is no entity that can control it or intercept the traffic.

We were joined by HOPR founder Sebastian Bürgel, who chatted about the need for a platform such as this in the space, how it works by sending packets through nodes, the HOPR token, and The DecenGov DAO.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Sebastian's background
• An overview of HOPR
• Mixnet vs onion routing
• Who is the HOPR user?
• How packets move through the network
• The distribution requirements for HOPR nodes
• The costs involved
• The HOPR token
• The DecenGov DAO
• Why privacy systems in crypto have such a hard time finding traction

Episode links:

• HOPR
• HOPR on Twitter
• Sebastian on Twitter
• Join the Epicenter team!

Sponsors:

• Tally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycash

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/463

Crescent is an AMM/Orderbook Hybrid Decentralized Exchange that allows trading inter-chain assets in a cost-efficient manner. Crescent is a sovereign Cosmos chain that was created after migrating the Gravity Dex from the Cosmos Hub. Crescent particularly focuses on efficient use of liquidity by giving powerful tools to market makers to use their capital and provide good prices for traders.

We were joined by the founder of Crescent Network, Hyung Lee, to chat about his involvement in the Cosmos ecosystem, B Harvest, the Gravity DEX, and combining AMMs and orderbooks. We also hear about Crescent's roadmap and future role within the ecosystem.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Hyung's background and how he got into crypto and the Cosmos ecosystem
• Launching Crescent on its own chain
• The vision for Crescent's role within the ecosystem
• Liquidity formation for the project
• Comparing AMM and orderbooks and the advantages/disadvantages of each
• How AMM and orderbooks have been combined
• The future of AMMs
• Difference between a market maker and a liquidity provider
• Cross chain dex aggregation
• MEV and the interchain world

Episode links:

• The Crescent Ethos
• Crescent Network
• Crescent on Twitter
• Hyung on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Omni: Access all of Web3 in one easy-to-use wallet! Earn and manage assets at once with Omni's built-in staking, yield vaults, bridges, swaps and NFT support.
  https://omni.app/ -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/462

In the countdown to the merge, Sebastien and Friederike teamed up with Eduardo Antuña, Co-founder of DappNode, at this year's Dappcon which is back after a 2 year hiatus. Hear as they chat about what the merge means for the broader Ethereum ecosystem.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Update on Dappcon
• The implications of the Tornado Cash sanctions in the wider crypto space
• ZK bridging and the merge
• The Gnosis ecosystem
• The importance of privacy
• The user experience in crypto and how its important for onboarding
• POAP distribution

Episode links:

• Dappcon
• The Merge
• Dappcon on Twitter
• Eduardo on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Tally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycash

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/461

Decentralized stablecoins have long been regarded as a fundamental building block for the decentralized web. The first ground-breaking project in this area is Maker with their stablecoin DAI. Multiple ideas existed for how Maker should evolve and the path Maker chose was to add multiple types of collateral and rely on governance input to maintain stability. Over time, the vast majority of Maker's collateral came to be represented by USDC, a centralized stablecoin issued by regulated US institutions.

Rai Reflex Index (RAI) decided to fork Maker and choose a path favoring trust-minimization over faster scaling. Unlike with Maker, only ETH is accepted as collateral and a different mechanism is used to maintain low volatility that doesn't rely on governance input. We were joined by Reflexer Labs' co-founder Ameen Soleimani to chat about the philosophical differences to Maker, the mechanisms used to ensure the stability of RAI, the threat of regulatory intervention for DAI and how we can create truly trust-minimized stablecoins to ensure the resilience and neutrality of DeFi.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Ameen's background and the vision behind Reflexer
• How RAI differs from Maker
• The problem with DAI becoming multi-collateral and adding more governance control
• RAI's stability mechanism
• The function of the redemption price
• Who holds RAI and how stable is it?
• FLX governance
• How decentralized stablecoins can scale

Episode links:

• Reflexer Labs
• Reflexer on Twitter
• Ameen on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Steakwallet: Steakwallet is your new favorite multi-chain, mobile wallet. Tired of having a different wallet for every chain? Get Steakwallet today and get the power of Web 3 across all chains right at your fingertips: https://steakwallet.fi/ -

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/460

DappCamp is a 21-day cohort-based course for Web2 developers making the shift to Web3. It offers hands-on experience on how to architect, develop, and scale a Web 3.0 app on Ethereum. Participants are given the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded peers to learn and build together, and also meet world-class founders who built some of the most successful apps on Ethereum to understand best practices and common pitfalls.

Preethi Kasireddy, Founder of DappCamp, started her crypto journey while at a16z and later joined Coinbase as a software engineer. After teaching herself Ethereum Dapp development during the 2017 ICO boom she built smart contracts for various crypto projects and created TruStory where she and her team built a blockchain on Cosmos. She also writes a great blog which often see her posts go viral. Preethi joined us to chat about how her journey in crypto has evolved, her love of writing, learning and teaching, why she created DappCamp, and being a woman in the crypto space.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Preethi's background and how she got into crypto
• Her early days with Coinbase and TruStory
• Preethi's love of writing which led to her blog
• DappCamp
• What are the major struggles people face with learning web3 development?
• Opportunities for DappCamp graduates
• How DappCamp will evolve in the future
• Being a woman in crypto
• Keeping up to date with the crypto industry

Episode links:

• DappCamp
• Preethi’s Blog
• DappCamp Twitter
• Preethi’s Twitter

Sponsors:

• Tally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycash

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/459

On August 8, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, citing allegations it helped North Korea's Lazarus hacker group launder millions of dollars worth of crypto proceeds stolen from various crypto projects over the past few years. Coin Center believe that OFAC has overstepped its legal authority by adding certain Tornado Cash smart contract addresses to the Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons (SDN) List, potentially violating US Americans' constitutional rights to due process and free speech.

Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Center, joined us for an in-depth look at how OFAC operates, why he believes this sanctioning represents an overreach, what's next for Tornado Cash, and what this means for the rest of the blockchain ecosystem.

Topics covered in this episode:

• An overview of the Tornado Cash case
• What is the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)?
• How is it determined who gets on the OFAC list? What happens to you if you're on the list?
• Does this only apply to US Americans?
• How does one get removed from the list?
• What did Tornado Cash do wrong, and what should they have done?
• Is there an acceptable level of maliciousness within the system?
• Comparison to PGP
• Why Tornado Cash was targeted over other privacy enhancing tools
• The reaction from the crypto ecosystem

Episode links:

• OFAC - The Office of Foreign Assets Control
• Coin Center
• Tornado Cash on Twitter
• Coin Center on Twitter
• Peter on Twitter
• Join the Epicenter team!

Sponsors:

• Tally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycash

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/458

CosmWasm is a smart contracting platform built for the Cosmos ecosystem. It's the Cosmos (Cosm) way of using WebAssembly (Wasm). CosmWasm is written as a module that can plug into the Cosmos SDK, meaning that anyone currently building a blockchain using the Cosmos SDK can quickly and easily add CosmWasm smart contracting support to their chain, without adjusting existing logic.

We were joined by the project's founder, Ethan Frey, for a deep dive into what WebAssembly is and the benefits of its integration with Cosmos SDK, its interaction with IBC and use cases for other cross-chain apps, and the roadmap ahead.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Ethan's background and how he got into crypto and in particular Cosmos
• What Ethan worked on during his time at Tendermint
• Why CosmWasm was created
• What is WebAssembly and what are its advantages
• How does WebAssembly compare with the EVM?
• What are the pros and cons of developing Cosmos SDK modules vs building things in CosmWasm?
• How CosmWasm interacts with the IBC module
• The roadmap for CosmWasm
• Potential use cases on cross-chain CosmWasm apps
• The CosmWasm Academy

Episode links:

• CosmWasm
• CosmWasm Academy
• WYND DAO
• CosmWasm on Twitter
• Join the Epicenter team!

Sponsors:

• Tally Ho: Tally Ho is a new wallet for Web3 and DeFi that sees the wallet as a public good. Think of it like a community-owned alternative to MetaMask. - https://epicenter.rocks/tallycash

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/457

A cashless society - one where paper and coin currency is no longer used and instead replaced with electronic transactions. Many countries are already moving in this direction with benefits noted as including lower crime rates and reduced money laundering, and of course convenience. But going cashless does have its downsides.

Brett Scott is the author of Cloudmoney, a revelatory story about the fusion of big finance and tech, which requires physical cash to be replaced by digital money or 'cloudmoney'. Diving beneath the surface of the global financial system, He uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure waging a covert war on cash, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress.

He joins us to dive deeper into the thesis behind his book and to share his views on how cryptocurrency and blockchain fits into this.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Brett's background and how he got into the Fintech space
• The central thesis of Cloudmoney
• The meaning of 'not all money is created equally'
• The arguments around Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism
• Privacy and the value of digital payment data
• Central bank digital currency
• Brett's views on the blockchain industry
• IOU vs money as a commodity
• Where to buy Brett's book

Episode links:

• Cloudmoney
• Brett's newsletter
• Brett on Twitter
• Join Epicenter as our Community Manager

Sponsors:

• Steakwallet: Steakwallet is your new favorite multi-chain, mobile wallet. Tired of having a different wallet for every chain? Get Steakwallet today and get the power of Web 3 across all chains right at your fingertips: https://steakwallet.fi/ -

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/456