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

Worldcoin is a start-up trying to engineer widespread adoption for its cryptocurrency by giving away tokens. Sound too good to be true? Depends how you look at it (literally). Participants must be willing to have their eyes scanned on registration by a proprietary iris scanner dubbed 'orb'. Worldcoin says the scan is necessary to prove that users are human and to verify they only register once. The start-up has attracted big investors but it has also raised concerns among an increasingly privacy-conscious public with some labeling it a MLM.

We were joined by co-founder and CEO, Alex Blania, who explained the idea behind Worldcoin and the aspect of UBI, the current number of orbs in circulation and users, and he addresses the criticisms they have faced so far. Worldcoin is due to launch later this year.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Alex's background and how he got into crypto
• The idea behind Worldcoin and the aspect of UBI
• How does the orb work?
• How they have reacted to some of the criticism regarding privacy and onboarding
• A deep dive into how the protocol works
• The incentive mechanism with Worldcoin
• An overview of Worldcoin users
• The corporate structure of Worldcoin
• Regulatory issues

Episode links:

• Worldcoin
• Worldcoin on Twitter
• Alex on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/435

Helium is a global, distributed network of long-range wireless coverage hotspots for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, powered by the Helium blockchain. Community run hotspots create 'The People’s Network' and they are rewarded with $HNT, the native cryptocurrency of the network, through the Proof-of-Coverage mechanism. Helium has managed to build the largest P2P network with over 600,000 hotspots and is now starting to deploy other networks like a 5g cellular network.

We were joined by Founder and CEO of Helium, Amir Haleem, to chat about how Helium works and the most interesting use cases, how the Proof-of-Coverage mechanism allows the community to participate, and the road ahead for the network.

Topics covered in this episode:

• What is a wireless network and what makes them so interesting
• The objective of Helium
• The use cases Amir is most interested in
• How cellular networks are utilized
• Helium and censorship resistance
• The architecture of the Helium Network
• Proof-of-coverage
• The HNT and Data Credit tokens
• The possibility of Helium becoming interoperable and hosting smart contracts
• The biggest challenges in Helium's future

Episode links:

• Helium
• Helium on Twitter
• Amir on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis Safe: Gnosis Safe is a smart wallet for securely managing digital assets and allows you to define customized access permissions. - https://epicenter.rocks/gnosissafe
• Tally: Tally 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/434

Axelar is a highly scalable, decentralized blockchain that aims to connect all existing blockchains. The proof of stake network, built on the Cosmos-SDK, allows application developers to choose the best blockchain to deploy their applications and use Axelar’s cross-chain communication protocols to lock, unlock, and transfer assets between networks, as well as communicate with applications on other blockchains.

Co-founder and CEO of Axelar, Sergey Gorbunov joined us to chat about his experience working on Algorand, the importance and future of interoperabilty protocols, and the vision behind Axelar.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Sergey's background and how he got into crypto
• The lessons he learnt from his time at Algorand
• Why and how Axelar was built
• The future of interoperabilty protocols
• What are security challenges around interoperability
• Interoperability use cases beyond token transfers
• Atomic transactions with Alexar
• The road ahead for Axelar

Episode links:

• Axelar Site
• Axelar Discord
• Axelar on Twitter
• Sergey on Twitter
• Nonconventional Podcast by Ela Crain

Sponsors:

• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter
• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/433

It's been just short of 2 years since we had Julian Assange's father John, and Harry Halpin, on the show to chat about his imprisonment and the impact it could have on the crypto community. At that time it was unknown if/when Julian would be extradited to the US to face trial. On December 10 2021, the US government won its appeal of a British court ruling that barred Assange’s extradition to the US. On the very same day the AssangeDAO was born and now has a thriving community of 10k people behind it.

The DAO raised over $50 million and the funds were used to bid on an NFT, Clock, which is part of a collection between Assange and digital artist Pak. The bid was successful and proceeds from the sale of the Clock NFT will go to support Assange’s legal defence fund and awareness campaign about the free speech implications of his case.

We were joined by Julian's brother Gabriel, and Stellar Magnet, core contributors of the AssangeDAO. We spoke about Julian's case as it currently stands, how the DAO was born and why they chose to purchase the NFT, and the road ahead.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Julian Assange and his imprisonment from his involvement with Wikileaks
• The Assange DAO and why an NFT was purchased with the funds raised
• What are the next step options that the DAO is considering?
• Where to learn more about the Assange DAO
• How to contribute

Episode links:

• Episode 339 - What Julian Assange Represents to the Crypto Movement
• AssangeDAO site
• US based site
• UK based site
• AssangeDAO on Twitter
• Gabriel on Twitter
• Stellar on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/432

NEAR Protocol is a leading smart contract platform that aims for simplicity, security and scalability. NEAR was one of the first sharded blockchains and allows deploying smart contracts using Web Assembly on currently four different shards. NEAR's sharding design, Nightshade, splits the blocks into different segments, which allows for great scalability without negatively impacting user and developer experience. Since, its launch NEAR has evolved into one of the most active smart contract ecosystems.

Illia and Alex, co-founders of NEAR, joined us to chat about the NEAR's protocol design and recent advances, such as the launch of Aurora, NEAR's EVM shard. We also discussed how their sharding solution works and how it can scale to support a massive amount of users and applications.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why Illia and Alex decided to build NEAR
• NEAR's core idea to scale through sharding
• NEAR’s Nightshade sharding design
• Dealing with interactions between programmes
• How cross-shard interoperability works
• Aurora - the EVM shard
• NEAR's focus on user experience
• Pagoda - the first web3 startup platform
• The biggest challenges ahead

Episode links:

• NEAR Protocol
• Aurora
• NEAR on Twitter
• Alex on Twitter
• Illia on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis Safe: Gnosis Safe is a smart wallet for securely managing digital assets and allows you to define customized access permissions. - https://epicenter.rocks/gnosissafe
• Tally: Tally 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/431

Gitcoin is a platform which funds software developers for work in open source ecosystems. Open source creates value without capturing it: Gitcoin creates funding mechanism to correct the asymmetry between value created and value captured. So far they have raised $51million, which were then distributed to public goods projects.

We were joined, for the second time, by Gitcoin's founder Kevin Owocki. Hear as we chat about quadratic and public good funding, the Internet of Jobs, and Kevin's book, Greenpilled - Regenerative CryptoEcononmics, which is out soon!

Topics covered in this episode:

• An update on what's happened since Kevin was last on the show
• High level funding stats and measuring the success of Gitcoin
• Quadratic funding - why and how?
• Public good funding
• Impact DAOs and Regenerative CryptoEconomics
• Gitcoin's transformation to a DAO
• The Internet of Jobs (IoJ) - advantages and disadvantages
• Greenpilled - Kevin's book

Episode links:

• Episode 257 - Gitcoin – Aligning Incentives in Open-Source Development
• Gitcoin results
• Greenpilled - Regenerative CryptoEconomics - book coming soon
• Take the Green Pill
• Gitcoin on Twitter
• Kevin on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis Safe: Gnosis Safe is a smart wallet for securely managing digital assets and allows you to define customized access permissions. - https://epicenter.rocks/gnosissafe
• Tally: Tally 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 Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/430

Agoric is an Proof-of-Stake blockchain built on the Cosmos-SDK that allows developers to create secure smart contracts written in JavaScript. It offers developers safe, reusable DeFi components and built-in economic primitives like a stablecoin, while connecting to the larger blockchain ecosystem via IBC.

Besides covering the Agoric platform, we dove into the long prehistory with Agoric CEO Dean Tribble. Dean and his co-founders have been working on smart contracts and secure computing for decades, long before cryptocurrencies were invented, and a lot of that work shaped the Agoric platform today. We talked about underlying design principles like the Object Capability Security Model, but also the tradeoffs between Ethereum's model of scaling on a single chain versus the Cosmos model of sovereign chains interoperating asynchronously.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Dean's background and how he got into crypto
• Smart contracts in pre-blockchain times
• Why was Agoric created?
• The Object Capability Security Model
• Why they chose to build on the Cosmos SDK and the problems that solves
• IBC transfers
• How much can Agoric scale?
• What's coming next for Agoric

Episode links:

• Episode 286 - Agoric and the Decades-Long Quest for Secure Smart Contracts
• Agoric website
• Agoric on Twitter
• Dean on Twitter

Sponsors:

• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter
• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/429

Olympus is a hotly debated project in the DeFi space. It posits to be a decentralized reserve currency protocol. Each OHM token is partially backed by the Olympus treasury, but how large the treasury is, depends on what is counted towards it. We would argue that OHM tokens should be discounted for this purpose. Users can interact with Olympus DAO through staking and bonding, which incentivizes users to deposit or sell their collateral to the Olympus treasury in return for discounted OHM tokens.

We were joined by Olympus Founder Zeus to chat about why the protocol was created and how it works, and we address the debate about it being a Ponzi scheme.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Zeus' background and how he got into crypto
• Why and how the OHM was created
• Bonding and staking within the protocol
• APY on Olympus DAO
• How Olympus would deal with a DAO run
• Is Olympus a Ponzi?
• The goals for Olympus this year

Episode links:

• Olymus DAO website
• Olympus Discord
• Olympus on Twitter
• Zeus on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Tally: Tally 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
• CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswap

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Zubin Koticha. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/428

Zodiac is a collection of tools built according to an open standard which proposes a composable design philosophy for DAOs. Built by the Gnosis Guild team, this extension pack for DAOs enables connection between platforms, protocols, and chains, no longer confined to monolithic designs. It not only changes access, but bridges chains, organizations, and networks through DAO-to-DAO (D2D) collaboration mechanisms.

We were joined by Kei Kreuther and Auryn Macmillan, founders of Gnosis Guild, a core contributor to the Zodiac platform. Hear as we chat about the rise of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, the Zodiac Toolset and how it works, and the future of DAOs in not only the blockchain space but also in the real economy.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Kei and Auryn's backgrounds and how they got into crypto
• Where DAOs came from and the arc of their evolution
• The overlap between DAOs and cooperatives
• Unraveling the abundance of DAO tools
• The components and modules of the Zodiac Toolset
• The types of legacy organizations or governance structures that are most ripe to transition into DAOs
• The future of DAOs and their place within the real economy

Episode links:

• A prehistory of DAOs
• Ep 33 - Reality Keys – A Certificate Authority for Facts
• What DAOs and Cooperatives can learn from each other
• Fostering Worker Cooperatives with Blockchain Technology: Lessons from the Colony Project
• Gnosis Guild Blog
• Zodiac
• Gnosis Guild Discord
• Gnosis Guild on Twitter
• Kei on Twitter
• Auryn on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusone
• ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/427

The current lack of privacy on the internet exposes billions of people to mass surveillance and data breaches, undermining trust in digital services and stifling innovation. Nym is a mixnet and develops the infrastructure to prevent this data leakage by protecting every packet’s metadata at the network and application layers.

We were joined by Nym's CEO & Founder Harry Halpin, and CSO Jaya Klara Brekke, to chat about the threat mass surveillance has on society, what Nym sets out to do and take a deep dive into the architecture of the protocol.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Harry and Jaya's backgrounds and how they got into crypto
• Harry's personal experience with surveillance
• Mass surveillance on the internet
• The rationale behind the cypherpunk manifesto “transparency for the powerful, privacy for the rest of us”
• The 'general public's' attitude towards privacy
• The Nym infrastructure, purpose and benefits
• How Nym works with other applications
• How does incentivization work
• Harry's relationship with Julian Assange

Episode links:

• “Privacy for end users, transparency for the infrastructure” blog post
• Ep 339 - What Julian Assange Represents to the Crypto Movement
• Nym website
• Main Telegram
• Node Setup Help Chat
• GitHub
• Documentation
• YouTube
• Harry on Twitter
• Jaya on Twitter
• Nym on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Tally: Tally 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
• CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity - including other dex aggregators such as Paraswap, 1inch and Matcha - offering the best prices on all trades. It provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswap

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/426