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

By Epicenter Media Ltd.Business Investing

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

August 09, 2017 #195 Loi Luu: KyberNetwork – Towards Truly Decentralized Crypto-Asset Exchanges
We're joined by Loi Luu, Co-founder of KyberNetwork. This new decentralized exchange protocol, built on Ethereum, aims to match buyers with reserve operators, who create liquidity for crypto-asset pairs. Trades occur instantaneously and without the need for a trusted third party exchange operator.
12 hr 59 min
August 04, 2017Eyal Hertzog: Bancor and the Rise of User-Generated Currencies
Bancor is a simple, but hard-to-understand protocol that enables price discovery and liquidity even for assets that aren’t actively traded. Co-Founder Eyal Hertzog joined us to explain how the Bancor protocol works and why they think it will play a key role in enabling a massive wave of small, but interconnected user-generated currencies. We dissected the workings of the protocol, its radical implications as well as the takeaways from their record-shattering, but controversial crowdsale.
Topics covered in this episode:
Eyal’s background in early internet startups
The origin story of Bancor
Why asset markets suffer from the double coincidence of wants problem
The benefits of Bancor-based Smart Tokens
How Bancor and BNT can create a liquidity network
Why BNT benefits from network effects
What went well and what didn’t go well about the Bancor Crowdsale
Why Eyal thinks the price floor was a good idea
Episode links:
Bancor protocol
Bancor Whitepaper
Response to “Bancor is Flawed” – The Bancor Protocol
Bancor at Coinfest 2017 in Amsterdam - YouTube
Bernard Lietear, EURO architect discusses Bancor
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/194
1 hr 13 min
August 04, 2017 #194 Eyal Hertzog: Bancor and the Rise of User-Generated Currencies
Bancor Co-Founder Eyal Hertzog joined us to explain how Bancor makes trading the long tail of assets more efficient and how this will enable user-generated currencies at scale.
1 hr 12 min
July 26, 2017Dave Collins & Jake Yocom-Piatt:: Decred – A Hybrid Approach to Blockchain Governance
Dave Collins and Jake Yocom-Piatt join us to talk about Decred, a cryptocurrency which introduces an innovative system of community-based governance into its blockchain. Decred implements a hybrid Proof of Work and Proof of Stake system in which miners validate transactions, while users can vote on new features and upgrades to the protocol. This clever approach enables efficient blockchain governance, which has demonstrated to be successful in a recent protocol upgrade on the live network.
Topics covered in this episode:
Dave and Jake’s respective backgrounds in the blockchain space
The challenges addressed by Decred, specifically regarding blockchain governance
Decred’s hybrid Proof of Work/Proof of Stake approach to governance
How users of the network vote on protocol upgrade with “”tickets””
Possible downfalls and attack vectors to this approach
How Decred’s governance model successfully implemented a hard fork on the production network
Decred’s approach to development funding
Episode links:
Decred Website
Decred Documentation
This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/193
1 hr 10 min
July 26, 2017 #193 Dave Collins & Jake Yocom-Piatt:: Decred – A Hybrid Approach to Blockchain Governance
Dave Collins and Jake Yocom-Piatt join us to talk about Decred, a cryptocurrency which introduces an innovative system of community-based governance into its blockchain.
1 hr 8 min
July 19, 2017Aviv Zohar & Yonatan Sompolinsky: Of Spectre & Ghosts – Radical Ideas to Scale Blockchain Tech
Hebrew University academics Aviv Zohar and Yonatan Sompolinski joined us to discuss their research at the forefront of blockchain technology. We talked about their early proposals for scaling Bitcoin using the GHOST protocol, which later inspired Ethereum. And then we discussed SPECTRE and a new type of network based on directed acrylic graphs (DAG). DAGs abandon the blockchain data structure to allow constant generation of blocks that later get merged achieving block times of seconds and throughput many orders of magnitudes above current blockchain network.
Topics covered in this episode:
How Aviv Zohar wrote one of the first academic papers on Bitcoin in 2011
The GHOST protocol and how it could allow much faster block times
The difference between what Ethereum built and the GHOST protocol
Why DAG (Directed Acrylic Graphs) have massive advantages over blockchains
Towards massive on-chain scaling and speed with the SPECTRE Protocol
Their view on existing DAG-based networks like IOTA and Byteball
Episode links:
SPECTRE Medium Post
SPECTRE (full paper)
Accelerating Bitcoin's Transactions
Inclusive Blockchain Protocols
On Bitcoin and Red Balloons
Aviv's Website
Yonatan's Website
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/192
1 hr 10 min
July 19, 2017 #192 Aviv Zohar & Yonatan Sompolinsky: Of Spectre & Ghosts – Radical Ideas to Scale Blockchain Tech
Hebrew University academics Aviv Zohar and Yonatan Sompolinski joined us to discuss their radical proposals for how to scale blockchain technology.
1 hr 9 min
July 11, 2017Richard Craib: Numerai – A Revolutionary Hedge Fund Built on Blockchain and AI
Numerai Founder Richard Craib joined us to discuss his radical project to build a hedge fund with network effects. Numerai manages its portfolio by giving its data in encrypted form to data scientists who compete to create the best predictions and get paid with cryptocurrencies. Numerai expects to radically alter the structure of the hedge fund and asset management industry.
Topics covered in this episode:
How hedge funds work and what trends effect them
Quantitative trading and the role of AI in investing
How Numerai uses crowdsourcing and AI to manage its portfolio
How Numerai lets data scientists build models without knowing the underlying data
The Function of Numerai’s own token Numeraire
Why Numerai is switching from paying data scientists in Bitcoin to Ethereum
Numerai’s crazy goal of managing all the money in the world
Episode links:
Numerai
Numerai Whitepaper
An AI Hedge Fund Goes Live On Ethereum – Numerai – Medium
A New Cryptocurrency For Coordinating Artificial Intelligence on Numerai
Encrypted Data For Efficient Markets
Building the Numerai Meta Model
Introducing Numeraire
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/191
1 hr 12 min
July 11, 2017 #191 Richard Craib: Numerai – A Revolutionary Hedge Fund Built on Blockchain and AI
Numerai Founder Richard Craib joined us to discuss how Numerai combines AI and blockchain to build a hedge fund that crowdsources its portfolio management and thus creates network effects.
1 hr 11 min
July 04, 2017Erik Voorhees: Prism – The World’s First Portfolio Market Platform
Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees joined us to discuss his journey in the industry, the evolution of the decentralized exchange Shapeshift and their latest project Prism. We spent most time diving into the mechanics and enormous potential of Prism. Prism allows users to create a portfolio of digital assets that is purely managed on the Ethereum blockchain and illustrates how blockchain-based financial products can be built.
Topics covered in this episode:
Erik’s journey in the blockchain space from SatoshiDice to Shapeshift
Shapeshift’s evolution and long-term vision
Erik’s view on ICOs and why they will disrupt the stock markets
Prism – The world’s first trustless portfolio market platform
The mechaniscs of Prism
Why Erik supports SegWit2x
Episode links:
Shapeshift Website
Erik Vorhees' Blog: Money and State
Erik Vorhees Twitter Page
Prism Exchange
Introducing Prism - Blog Post
Epicenter 130 with Erik Vorhees
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/190
1 hr 2 min

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Epicenter brings you in-depth conversations about the technical, economic and social implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Every week, we interview business leaders, engineers academics and entrepreneurs, and bring you a diverse spectrum of opinions and points of view.