In this Market Forces segment of Hidden Forces, host Demetri Kofinas covers all things blockchain related with Andrew Keys of Ethereum's Consensus Systems. Andrew's role at consensus is to help cultivate an ecosystem of distributed application development – everything from payment processing, contract transfers, distributed computing, and even the future of the internet as we know it. Building on the innovation, adoption, and possibilities of Bitcoin, Andrew Keys has immersed himself over the last several years in what many people are calling Bitcoin 2.0 – otherwise known as Ethereum – and has become one of the world's go-to business ambassadors for blockchain technology and the Ethereum protocol. 

In today's conversation, we explore the explosive growth of the cryptocurrency industry – where it's been, what it looks like today and its potential to shape our collective future. "This is ultimately about the move away from a centralized system for organizing society towards a decentralized one that is more appropriate for the technological present," says Demetri Kofinas. Indeed, the question of centralization versus decentralization is central to the framework of blockchain technology. For all of recorded history, human beings have achieved scale through a bureaucracy. Empires, nation states, and corporations are all built upon layers of authority and thickets of bureaucracy. Blockchain manages to overcome this by shifting the burden of validation from the center to the periphery. In other words, no central authority is required in order to approve any transaction or mediate any dispute among users of the blockchain protocol. There is no need for third-party verification (TPV).

If you have been looking for a great resource for learning more about Ethereum or the blockchain, then you have come to the right place. One of Andrew Keys' main tasks as head of Global Business Development for Consensus Systems is to help educate potential users of this technology on how it all works. You won't be disappointed.

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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