The Third Web

Juan Benet and Jesse Clayburgh of Protocol Labs, and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital, discuss the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). Inspired by Y Combinator’s “Simple Agreement for Future Equity”, the SAFT standardizes the legal framework surrounding token issuance and governs the nature of the transactions involved (i.e. the deployment of capital and distribution of tokens).

The complex legal environment surrounding tokens, especially in the US, has led many entrepreneurs to choose to leave Silicon Valley because they can develop the technology better elsewhere. Those who remain in the US have had to compromise on the optimization of their models in order to comply with legacy regulatory frameworks. Recognising these limitations, and seeking to mature the ecosystem beyond such models, several interested parties (including Protocol Labs, AngelList and CoinCenter) have worked together to create standard legal agreements for this novel asset class.

Essentially, a SAFT represents a promise for future tokens at a fixed price. The agreement can be structured so that investors receive these tokens when the network launches, or with inbuilt vesting to incentivise continued support by investors.

The development of the SAFT model involved consultations with the foremost legal experts at the intersection of cryptocurrencies, securities law and regulatory compliance. By simplifying token issuance and the requisite compliance concerns, it provides an essential bridging of the gap between current technological progress and future regulation.

protocol.ai

twitter.com/protocollabs

twitter.com/juanbenet

twitter.com/jesseclayburgh

polychain.capital

angel.co/polychain-capital

twitter.com/ryanzurrer

consensys.net

consensysmedia.net

etherreview.info

https://itunes.apple.com//podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

Juan Benet and Jesse Clayburgh of Protocol Labs, and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital, discuss CoinList, a platform for token-backed networks to raise money through pre-launch token sales.

While planning the Filecoin token sale, the team at Protocol Labs developed a method of accreditation for US investors in order to comply with securities law. Realising the importance of such a system for the whole ecosystem, they partnered with AngelList to develop this into a platform on which other projects can host their token pre-sales. The end result, CoinList, streamlines the complicated token launch process for developers and investors alike.

By supporting a wide variety of sale mechanics, contracts, and pricing schemes within a standard set of requirements, the platform allows developers to focus on optimising their projects instead of spending time on convoluted compliance processes. Its focus on simplifying due diligence reduces complications for developers while “filtering out the signal from the noise”.

With the ability to clear transactions simultaneously across fiat and cryptocurrencies, and the aim of hosting high-quality and high-integrity projects, CoinList opens up the token ecosystem to an influx of capital from a range of new investors. It gives these investors visibility into the progress of a sale, a clear quality checklist for each token, and a record of their previous investments and the requisite legal agreements.

The significant institutional capital still pushing into the cryptocurrency space highlights the demand for such a versatile yet user-friendly platform at this time. With its solutions to regulatory uncertainty, costly compliance and the current knowledge barrier to investing, CoinList is well-placed to bring in the era of Web 3.0

coinlist.co

twitter.com/coinlist

angel.co

twitter.com/angellist

protocol.ai

twitter.com/protocollabs

twitter.com/juanbenet

twitter.com/jesseclayburgh

polychain.capital

angel.co/polychain-capital

twitter.com/ryanzurrer

consensys.net

consensysmedia.net

etherreview.info

https://itunes.apple.com//podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

David Sønstebø, co-founder of IOTA, discusses this next-generation post-blockchain platform designed to serve as the backbone for the Internet-of-Things (IoT).

IOTA is a groundbreaking new open-source distributed ledger that does not use a blockchain. Its innovative new quantum-proof protocol, known as the Tangle, gives rise to unique new features like zero fees, infinite scalability, fast transactions, secure data transfer and many others.

Because the Tangle uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) instead of a blockchain, users automatically act as validators, allowing transaction validation to become an intrinsic property of utilising the network. Each transaction requires the sender to verify two previous transactions, resulting in infinite scalability while avoiding the validation centralization that is common with existing consensus mechanisms.

IOTA is also developing a novel standard for embedding minuscule ASIC chips in all IoT devices. These chips perform nominal proof-of-work hashes in order to prevent spam and Sybil attacks, and because the network is partition-tolerant and only eventually consistent, brute force hashing attacks are prevented.

With a transaction volume limited only by the speed of light, IOTA is a promising new solution to the limitations presented by blockchains.

iota.org

twitter.com/iotatoken

twitter.com/davidsonstebo

consensys.net

consensysmedia.net

etherreview.info

https://itunes.apple.com//podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

IOTA white paper: iota.org/IOTA_Whitepaper.pdf

Directed Acyclic Graph: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*F-rjJqQ1PyF8dOnjOaiLFg.png

Xander Dunn and Richard Craib discuss Numerai, a new kind of hedge fund built by a network of data scientists.

The Numerai platform crowdsources machine learning by releasing encrypted data sets to data scientists, incentivising them to develop machine learning algorithms to analyse the data. Scientists then bid their predictions to the hedge fund by staking funds, and are paid returns in Numeraire, the platform’s native cryptocurrency, for correct predictions.

By abstracting its financial data to be only machine-readable, Numerai ensures that human biases and overfitting are overcome, and that short-term and long-term returns are equally weighted.

With the ultimate goal of “owning all of the money in the world”, the Numerai hedge fund has high hopes for the future.

numer.ai

etherreview.info

twitter.com/xanderai

twitter.com/richardcraib

https://itunes.apple.com//podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

In today’s discussion we look at the legality of raising money through token launches, the potential risks involved, and approaches to improving the safety of these new bearer assets. We also examine the term ICO in depth and find that terminology, while relevant is second to the nature of the offer and state of the project involved. Following the discussion is an interview With Peter Van Valkenburg recorded at Devcon2, applying the Howey test to The DAO. 

weekinethereum.com

etherreview.info

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

What?! Another Erik Voorhees podcast?!!!

In this, the sixty seventh episode of The Ether Review, we set out to understand Prism, Shapeshift’s new non-custodial synthetic asset built on the Ethereum network. In reviewing this episode I feel I was unsuccessful in achieving this. However, the peripheral conversation about Erik’s view of the space is extremely enlightening, especially writ large in his positioning of Shapeshift. The Bitcoin scaling debate, the future of digital assets, the financial world’s response — it’s all here. Some of this interview was geared to fit Shapeshift’s messaging, not something you’ll hear on TER very often. None the less, it’s fun to hear such an astute thinker and communicator knock some soft ball questions out of the park.

etherreview.info

shapeshift.io

https://twitter.com/ErikVoorhees

http://www.weekinethereum.com/

itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

Letstalkbitcoin.com

thebitcoinpodcast.com

After a stunning token launch Gnosis has become a classic example of the hope for greater and more powerful decentralized applications. Founder Martin Köppelmann walks us through the projects genesis, growth, and road to success

itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ethe…id899090462?mt=2

https://twitter.com/koeppelmann

In Brief: A walkthrough of the pressing legal issues in blockchain today. 

Over the last few months a varying group of legal professionals from New Zealand, Australia, and the USA have been meeting to discuss current events, challenges, and peculiarities in the interaction between blockchain and law. As facilitator I suggested we might record the sessions. This is the first to be published.

Attendees:

Hannah Glass: Solicitor, King & Wood Mallesons

Matt Corva: Law and Business, ConsenSys

Alex Sims: Associate Professor, Head of Commercial Law, The University of Auckland

Liesl Eichholz: Studying Master of Laws, University of Otago

Arthur Falls: Host of The Ether Review, State Change, Director of Media, ConsenSys

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

In Brief: Swarm City, once Arcade City, is one of the most ambitious, and controversial projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. Having shed their founder, the remaining team have made considerable development progress. More than just a would be ride sharing DApp, Swarm City aims to provide an exchange infrastructure for any two sided market.

Swarm City Mayor Bernd Lapp and Architect Michael Thuy discuss the deeper intricacies of 2 sided market transactional infrastructure in a social setting. We also look at Swarm City’s stage of development and the rollout practices of the Swarm City team.

Subscribe on iTunes: 

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2

In Brief: Tokenizing fiat currency in a way that is compatible with our existing financial infrastructure and legislation is no easy feat. The consequences however reach across the entirety of industry, the economy, and society. 

Nick Addison is the CTO of AgriDigital, an agricultural finance company first covered in episode 45 of TER. As part of his work at AgriDigital, Nick is researching ways to port the existing financial infrastructure into the blockchain age. It’s not easy, but as the inventory of tools grows, so do the number of possible solutions to the problems Nick has uncovered. 

In this episode we look at a prospective architecture for a Digital Australian Dollar (DAD), the problems with implementing that architecture and the consequences of making such a transition. It’s a great tour through the solution space of today.

https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ether-review/id899090462?mt=2