Unchained

This is a recording of the full "blockchain block" of the Singularity University Global Summit in late August. It features a talk by me on the power of decentralization, Abra CEO Bill Barhydt on the evolution of Bitcoin, and Atlas Holdings Group CEO Mickey Costa on distributed autonomous organizations. Following are two panels. The first is on where we are in the development of crypto and how we get consumer adoption with Bill and Galia Benartzi of Bancor. The second is on blockchain for good, with Cara LaPointe of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and Anne Connelly of Singularity University. It was a great day for a lot of stimulating discussion on where we are in crypto's development and how we can steer it in the direction we want.

Thank you to our sponsor!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

Episode links:

Singularity Global Summit: https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/

Singularity University Global Summit 2018 program: https://su.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SUGS_PROGRAM_2018_AUGUST-21_V4-1.pdf

Bill Barhydt: https://twitter.com/billbarhydt

Abra: https://www.abra.com

Mickey Costa: https://twitter.com/mickeycosta

Atlas: https://atlas.money

Galia Benartzi: https://www.bancor.network

Bancor: https://www.bancor.network

Cara LaPointe: http://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu/cara-lapointe/

Anne Connelly: https://su.org/about/faculty/anne-connelly/

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Robert Leshner, founder of Compound, describes how its protocol will enable people to earn interest on crypto assets, and why he thinks this will be crucial to crypto becoming mainstream. He also describes how the company is currently building an interest rate model -- a task so difficult that an early version "blew up" the Ethereum virtual machine -- and why using one of its smart contract-based money markets is both riskier and less risky than using an exchange. We talk about who will use Compound and how, which coins they're going to launch with, and how Compound plans to make money.

Thank you to our sponsors!

AltLending: https://altlending.com

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

Episode links:

Compound: https://compound.finance

Robert Leshner: https://twitter.com/rleshner

Intro to Compound: https://medium.com/compound-finance/introducing-compound-the-money-market-protocol-4b9546bac87

TechCrunch article on Compound: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/cryptocurrency-compound-interest/

Unchained interview with Nadav Hollander of Dharma: http://unchainedpodcast.co/nadav-hollander-on-how-dharma-could-create-new-forms-of-debt-ep80

Unchained interview with Joey Krug of Augur: http://unchainedpodcast.co/joey-krug-on-how-augur-is-like-any-other-tool-ep79

Unchained interview with Danny An of TrustToken, which is creating TrueUSD: http://unchainedpodcast.co/harbor-and-trusttoken-on-why-they-dont-mind-being-unsexy-ep77

Unchained interview with Will Warren of 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

Unchained interview with Vitalik Buterin: http://unchainedpodcast.co/vitalik-buterin-creator-of-ethereum-on-the-big-guy-vs-the-little-guy

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Founder and CEO of Adamant Capital Tuur Demeester explains what factors he considers when valuing crypto assets, why this has led him to become a Bitcoin maximalist, and why he doesn't think Ethereum can scale. We also discuss why he doesn't have much faith in any of the smart contract platforms that are vying in this space. He also describes why he believes proof of work is superior to proof of stake, and why he's excited about the Lightning Network and the apps being built on top.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode Links:

Tuur Demeester: https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester

Tuur's critique of proof of stake: https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/critique-of-buterins-a-proof-of-stake-design-philosophy-49fc9ebb36c6

Why Tuur is bearish on Ethereum: https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/im-not-worried-about-bitcoin-unlimited-but-i-am-losing-sleep-over-ethereum-b5251c54e66d

https://medium.com/@tuurdemeester/why-im-short-ethereum-and-long-bitcoin-aee5b1c198fd

Unchained interview with David Vorick of Siacoin, Nebulous and Obelisk: http://unchainedpodcast.co/why-asics-may-be-better-than-gpus-even-if-they-tend-toward-mining-centralization-ep67

For a recap of the battle between big and small block factions in Bitcoin: http://unchainedpodcast.co/what-bitcoins-history-says-about-its-future

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Nadav, founder of Dharma protocol, explains how it enables the borrowing and lending of crypto assets, what would happen in the case of default, and why it would make sense to do it in a decentralized fashion rather than using one of the many fintech companies in the lending space. He talks about what effect he thinks decentralized credit markets could have on the market capitalization of all debt, why it will likely enable forms of debt currently unimaginable, and who could benefit most from this protocol. He also dives into why Dharma doesn't currently have a token, how or whether it could work on a non-Ethereum blockchain and ways the for-profit company could someday make money.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Nadav Hollander: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander

Dharma protocol: https://dharma.io

The Dharma white paper: https://github.com/dharmaprotocol/WhitePaper/blob/master/DharmaWhitepaper.pdf

To understand the similarities with Dharma, check out the 0x interview with Will Warren: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

New types of debt possible with Dharma: https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1032754247341756416

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Joey Krug, cofounder of Augur and co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, talks about what Augur is and is not, why it’s difficult to create new financial markets today and whether or not Augur markets could curb fake news. He explains why the teams burned its escape hatch key and whether he’s worried that Augur’s crowdsale would be considered an unregistered securities offering, plus answers whether he would benefit financially if assassination markets pop up on Augur. We also discuss what he sees happening in the market in his role as co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, what problems he think need to be resolved before Augur and dapps can take off, and which projects he believes have the greatest potential to democratize finance.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Start Engine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com/

Episode Links:

Joey Krug: https://twitter.com/joeykrug?lang=en

Augur: https://www.augur.net/

Pantera: https://www.panteracapital.com/

Joey on Unconfirmed: https://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/joey-krug-on-how-to-create-a-regular-cryptocurrency-ep022

Augur FAQ: https://www.augur.net/faq/

Predictions Global: https://predictions.global/

Assassination markets on Augur: https://www.coindesk.com/the-first-augur-assassination-markets-have-arrived/

SEC action against Sand Hill Exchange: https://www.sec.gov/news/pressrelease/2015-123.html

Listen to the Unchained interview with 0x: http://unchainedpodcast.co/will-warren-of-0x-on-why-decentralized-exchanges-are-the-future

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Dfinity's Dominic Williams talks about how Dfinity is an internet computer that can host our software and data, instead of it being held by centralized services. He describes the consensus algorithm, threshold relay, and why he believes Dfinity will be much more secure than Bitcoin. We also dive into Dfinity's governance mechanism, the "blockchain nervous system." Williams, who has written about the "AI-managed environment provided by the blockchain nervous system" and talked about how Dfinity upgrades the "code is law paradigm" to "the AI is law paradigm," explains on the show that the blockchain nervous system is not an AI and is manually controlled by users.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Dfinity: https://www.dfinity.org

Dominic: https://twitter.com/dominic_w?lang=en

Dfinity as decentralized cloud: https://medium.com/dfinity/the-decentralized-cloud-vision-of-the-dfinity-blockchain-f68449c49be2

Dfinity consensus algorithm: https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-white-paper-our-consensus-algorithm-a11adc0a054c

Threshold relay: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/threshold-relay-blockchain-stanford.pdf

Posts where Dominic has described Dfinity's governance system as an AI:

https://medium.com/dfinity/dfinity-in-a-nutshell-a-non-technical-introduction-ec45ec5967c1

https://medium.com/dfinity/the-dfinity-blockchain-nervous-system-a5dd1783288e

Phi: https://dfinity.org/pdf-viewer/pdfs/viewer?file=../library/phi-dfinity-extended-v2.pdf

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Josh Stein, CEO of Harbor, and Danny An, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, talk about security tokens and tokens backed by real-world assets, often called an unsexy area of crypto. They explain the strategies their teams are using to tackle the tokenization of what currently constitute $250 trillion in assets, what kinds of new behaviors and business opportunities "faster, cheaper, more liquid" assets could open up, and how they'll comply with regulations across all jurisdictions for markets that are global and trade 24/7/365.

Thank you to our sponsors!

StartEngine: https://www.startengine.com/unchained

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Harbor: https://harbor.com

Trust Token: https://www.trusttoken.com

True USD: https://www.trusttoken.com/trueusd/

An overview of security tokens: https://medium.com/@apompliano/the-official-guide-to-tokenized-securities-44e8342bb24f

More on Harbor and security tokens: http://fortune.com/2018/05/18/security-token-harbor-ce

More on True USD: https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/18/trusttoken-readies-sale-of-more-trueusd-asset-based-tokens/

The PICO: https://medium.com/harborhq/introducing-the-private-ico-pico-3e8b782924c1

Episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

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In July in San Francisco, I moderated a panel at "Distributed 2018: Unlocking the Global Power of Decentralized Business." The title of our discussion was "Innovate or Reinvent?" and the panelists were Amber Baldet, cofounder and CEO of Clovyr, Matt Roszak, cofounder and chairman of Bloq, and Lily Liu, cofounder of Earn.com. We had a wide-ranging discussion, which included topics such as how the "Crypto 50" combined have more budget for blockchain development services than Fortune 50 companies,  how developing in the blockchain space and revolutionize an existing market requires that the new offering be many times better than existing options, and why enterprise needs to wait to get permission rather than ask for forgiveness, which doesn't hinder new projects. We also discussed how government is also a competitor in the space, that building entities don't include only decentralized projects and corporations, and how regulation could affect the development of the space.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Quantstamp: https://www.quantstamp.com

The Sun Exchange:  https://www.thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

Distributed conference: https://2018.distributed.com

Amber Baldet: https://twitter.com/AmberBaldet

Clovyr: https://clovyr.io

Matt Roszak: https://twitter.com/MatthewRoszak

Bloq: https://www.bloq.com

Lily Liu: https://twitter.com/calilyliu

Earn.com: https://earn.com

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Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties, and Benny Giang, Dapper Labs’ head of Asia, describe how employees at venture studio AxiomZen came up with the idea for CryptoKitties, what problems it exposed in crypto (beyond scaling!), and how CryptoKitties can teach people the value of decentralization. They also defend the $140,000 price tag on one kitty, explain how they plan to grow from the current 300 users per day that the blockchain is logging, and surmise that if it weren't for user experience issues, CryptoKitties could have been 100 times bigger. Plus, they talk about the Kittyverse.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

The Sun Exchange: https://thesunexchange.com

Episode links:

CryptoKitties: https://www.cryptokitties.co

AxiomZen/Dapper Labs: https://www.axiomzen.co

Roham Gharegozlou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roham

Benny Giang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennygiang/

The $140,000 CryptoKitty: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/cryptokitty-auction.html

Fundraising news: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/cryptokitties-raises-12m-from-andreessen-horowitz-and-union-square-ventures/

CryptoKitties on HTC's new phone: http://fortune.com/2018/07/11/cryptokitties-app-htc/

Listen to previous episodes of Unchained with these CryptoKitties investors:

Chris Dixon: http://unchainedpodcast.co/chris-dixon-on-how-trust-is-the-best-lego-block-ep70

Naval Ravikant: http://unchainedpodcast.co/naval-ravikant-on-how-crypto-is-squeezing-vcs-hindering-regulators-and-bringing-users-choice

Bill Tai: http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology

William Mougayar: http://unchainedpodcast.co/icos-why-people-are-investing-in-this-380-million-phenomenon

"Developers all the way down" -- Unchained episode with Meltem Demirors and Jill Carlson: http://unchainedpodcast.co/episode-74

Listen to my previous interview with Arianna Simpson on Unconfirmed about CryptoKitties: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/arianna-simpson-of-autonomous-partners-on-privacy-cryptokitties-and-crypto-regulation

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In this hilarious skeptics' episode, Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, and Jill Carlson, an independent consultant, explain why they think crypto needs fewer moral arguments and more empirical evidence, and how there's too much focus on financial engineering, but not enough focus on winning hearts and minds. They also explain why people are not machines where "you put in a token and get out an action," what the "sh*tcoin waterfall" is, and why cryptoeconomics isn't anything new. Plus, they give their tips for working in the space.

Thank you to our sponsors!

DACC: https://www.digitalassetcustody.com

Preciate: https://preciate.org/recognize/

Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com

Episode links:

Meltem on Twitter: https://twitter.com/melt_dem

On Medium: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem

Jill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_jillruth

AirTM: https://www.airtm.io

Fat protocols thesis: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Amber Baldet's tweet about the finger guns guy: https://twitter.com/amberbaldet/status/1006286345122275331

Meltem's tips on working in crypto: https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/so-you-want-to-work-in-crypto-57961ca074c4

Jill's tips on working for yourself: https://medium.com/@jillcarlson/working-alone-165ababeafc2

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