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

VitaDAO is a decentralized collective funding early stage longevity research. Their mission is to extend human lifespan by researching, financing, and commercializing longevity therapeutics in an open and democratic manner.We were joined by Tyler Golato and Paul Kohlhaas, co-founders of Molecule and initiators of VitaDAO to talk about how drug discovery and approval currently works, what the status of longevity research is, what role IP plays -- and how all of this could change in the future with DAOs like VitaDAO.Topics covered in this episode:Paul and Tyler's backgrounds and how they came to work on VitaDAOLongevity - thinking of aging as a diseaseWhere is the research at today?How longevity research currently takes place in the pharmaceutical industryHow VitaDAO is alleviating patency issuesThe first funded project with the Knudsen lab in Copenhagen - MoleculeHow DAOs make the decisionsEpisode links:The Molecule blogVitaDAOGoldman asks: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'VitaDAO DiscordVitaDAO on TwitterMolecule on TwitterPaul on TwitterTyler on TwitterSponsors:Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusoneParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter - paraswap.io/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/403

Vitalik Buterin joins us for an in-depth conversation at EthCC 4 in Paris. During his keynote presentation, he expressed his hope for Ethereum to go beyond DeFi as he wishes to see more non-financial applications built on the platform. From better social media platforms to novel approaches for funding public goods, from his perspective, Ethereum has the potential to change the world for the better, beyond financial applications.Topics covered in this episode:How has the past year been for Vitalik and EthereumThe state of crypto todayWhat interesting experiments are in crypto now defining membershipHas Ethereum gone too far into financial applicationsVitalik's views on using rollups on non-DeFi applicationsWhat are the biggest problems of the world today?NFTs and social mediaThe concept of retroactive public goods fundingThe future of DAOsEpisode links:Episode 171 - DAO Lessons, Casper and Blockchain InteroperabilityVitalik's talk at EthCC 4Vitalik on TwitterSponsors:CowSwap: CowSwap is a Meta-Dex Aggregator built by Gnosis. It taps into all on-chain liquidity offering the best prices on all trades and provides some UX perks (no gas costs for failed transactions!) and protects traders against MEV. - https://epicenter.rocks/cowswapThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/402

EthCC is back and stronger than ever! Despite the pandemic, ongoing travel restrictions and sanitary passes, the Ethereum France team hosted the fourth edition of the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris. Over 1,000 people attended the week-long affair, which saw an impressive number of side events and, as always, legendary parties. For many attendees, it was their first conference since last year's edition, and the first time they were able to embrace their fellow Etherians since the beginning of the pandemic.For this EthCC recap panel, we're joined by Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran, Ethereum France President Jerome de Tychey, and ParaSwap Founder Mounir Benchemled. We discussed the conference, how the ecosystem has evolved this past year, the rapid growth of DeFi and NFTs, and what to look forward to as the community continues to grow.Episode links:KaikoParaSwapEthereum FranceSponsors:ParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenterChorus One: Start earning rewards and contribute to network security by staking with Chorus One, a staking provider securing over $1bn in assets on over 25 decentralized networks. Head over now to chorus.one to start your staking journey. This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/401

Recently launched Osmosis is a Cosmos based and IBC enabled AMM protocol that allows for a high level of customization by liquidity providers. As the main dex on the Cosmos network, Osmosis provides liquidity for IBC-enabled Cosmos assets like AKT and ATOM for the first time.Head of the Osmosis development team, Sunny Aggarwal, joined us for a chat about why the protocol was built and the problem it solves, the wider Cosmos ecosystem, and the roadmap for the protocol.Topics covered in this episode:Why the Osmosis project was builtHow Osmosis works on CosmosWhat is IBC?What the ecosystem looks likeWhat the AMM landscape looks like on CosmosWhat the roadmap of Osmosis looks likeThe Gravity BridgeHow was the chain bootstrapped?What is the ION?The Osmosis communityEpisode links: OsmosisCosmosOsmosis on MediumOsmosis on TwitterSunny on TwitterSponsors: Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Zubin Koticha. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/400

Originally started with a focus on prediction markets, Gnosis has done innovative work around automated market makers (AMMs) and decentralized exchanges for years. The latest protocol launched by the Gnosis team is CowSwap. CowSwap introduces various innovations that could improve user experience, reduce gas costs, reduce the effects of MEV and result in better outcomes for retail traders.We were joined by Felix Leupold, software developer at Gnosis to discuss CowSwap and the future of decentralized exchanges.Topics covered in this episode:Felix's background and how he started working on CowSwap with GnosisWhy did Gnosis make the  shift away from prediction markets, and why the return to focus on AMMsThe relationship between Gnosis Protocol and CowSwapHow CowSwap works from a user perspectiveHow are solvers chosen and what are the incentives around providing solutionsWhat MEV is and why it’s a problemThe upcoming integration with Balancer V2How fees in CowSwap work and the effect on LPsWhere is CowSwap today and what is its roadmapFelix's views on the future of order-book based exchangesEpisode links:CowSwapGnosisCowSwap on TwitterFelix on TwitterSponsors:Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterExodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/399

Centrifuge is an open and permissionless protocol built on Polkadot and Ethereum that unlocks collateral for DeFi. Centrifuge allows for the tokenization of real world assets such as invoices, real estate, or goods, and puts them on the blockchain. This allows users to borrow against these assets from investors. Investors lend dai in exchange for an interest rate that depends on the borrower and the asset used as collateral.We were joined by Lucas Vogelsang, CEO & Centrifuge Co-founder, and Cassidy Daly, Token Design & Research at Centrifuge. They explained why they built the protocol and how it works, the first application built on top, Tinlake, its integration with other DeFi platforms such as Maker, and their vision for the future.Topics covered in this episode:How did Centrifuge come about and what is its visionWhat challenges do they face using real world assets as collateralHow users are protected against spam and fraudThe underwriter token modelWhat are the value limits on what can be borrowed?Some use cases of where Centrifuge can make the biggest impactWho are the lenders involved in the protocol?How the protocol works on a technical levelThe Centrifuge token - CFGAltair - the Kusama parachain on PolkadotWhat the integration of Tinlake assets in DeFi looks likeEpisode links:Centrifuge websiteTinlakeUnderstanding TinlakeCentrifuge on TwitterLucas on TwitterCassidy on TwitterSponsors:Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterSolana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/398

Ethereum 2.0 is an upgrade to the Ethereum network that aims to improve the network's security and scalability. Recently, we chatted to Danny Ryan about the Merge and switch to Proof of Stake. As a follow up to that episode, we were joined by Dankrad Feist, who heads the sharding and statelessness research at the Ethereum Foundation.We dove deep into the technical infrastructure of how Eth2 addresses scaling through sharding, the pros and cons of data shards vs. execution shards, and how this links up with ZK-rollups. We also talked about the Ethereum state and how the state can be altered for protocol improvements.Topics covered in this episode:Dankrad's background and how he came to work on EthereumAn overview of potential protocol updates and where they’re at right nowData availability shards and the overall concept of sharding in the protocolHow shards are maintained with validators and Proof of StakeHow Rollups work and the vision for their futureThe role of execution shards and what they provide that data availability shards don'tComposability across data shardsStatelessness; what the Ethereum state is and how it is usedWhat is state rent?EVM and parallelizationDankrad's views on the future of Ethereum and what it will bring to the blockchain spaceEpisode links:Episode 393 with Danny RyanEth ResearchEthereum BlogEthereum CommunityEth R&D DiscordEthereum on GitHubEF on TwitterDankrad on TwitterSponsors:Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/397

zkSync is a trustless protocol for scalable low-cost transactions on Ethereum. It's also the only zkRollup protocol which supports EVM smart contracts.Alex Gluchowski is co-founder of Matter Labs, and co-creator of zkSync. We spoke with Alex in depth about how the protocol works and the potential for a highly scalable transaction and application layer on Ethereum.Topics covered in this episode:Alex's background and how he got into the crypto spaceAn overview of existing Ethereum scaling solutionsDifference between Optimistic Rollup and zkRollupTransferring funds to the zkSync Layer 2 and gas fees involvedHow the zkSync transaction sequencer worksWithdrawing funds to Layer 1 and timescales involvedHow the procol deals with reorgsHow block formation works on zkSyncThe function of the zkSync tokenEpisode links:zkSyncFor DeveloperszkSync on TwitterAlex on TwitterSponsors:Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterExodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/396

By default, all transactions made on Ethereum are public. Tornado Cash is a decentralized privacy preserving solution built on Ethereum which adds privacy through obfuscation. Users can place Ether and some stable coins in prescribed increments [1 Eth, 10 Eth, 100 Eth...] into the Tornado Pool. In return, they are issued a private note, with which they can withdraw funds at a later time to a different address.We were joined by Roman Semenov, co-founder of Tornado Cash, to talk about how the protocol works, how it was set up, community governance, and where he sees Tornado Cash's position in the quickly growing privacy ecosystem on Ethereum.Topics covered in this episode:Roman's background and how he got into cryptoThe problem Tornado Cash solves and how the protocol worksWhat tokens are supported and can you swap tokens?Smart contracts and zero knowledgeCosts involved for deposits and withdrawlsWeaknesses of the protocolThe Compliance Tool featureThe regulatory threat to private coins in the futureTornado Cash's roadmap and how they see themselves positioned in the wider ecosystemEpisode links:Tornado.cashDune AnalyticsTornado Cash on TwitterRoman on TwitterSponsors:Exodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenterSolana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/395

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items. They let us tokenize things like art, collectibles, even real estate. They can only have one official owner at a time and they're secured by the Ethereum blockchain. And they have taken the crypto space by storm is recent months. Showtime is a NFT social media network where creators & collectors showcase their digital art. It reads all marketplaces and instead of buying and selling, you can comment, share and like. It's been described as the Instagram for NFTs.We were joined by Alex Masmej, Co-founder and CEO of Showtime, to chat about why he got into NFTs and in particular crypto art, how Showtime works and its purpose, and the future of the platform.Topics covered in this episode:Alex's background and how he got into cryptoThe story behind the $ALEX tokenUncollateralized lending and why it's importantThe vision for ShowtimeAlex's views on the NFT crazeWhat is the open social graphWhy Alex chose to focus on crypto artHow Showtime compares to similar platforms like Opensea and ZoraThe Showtime business model, funding sources, and 5 year planEpisode links:ShowtimeShowtime on TwitterAlex on TwitterSponsors:ParaSwap: ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage - http://paraswap.io/epicenter Solana: Solana is the high performance blockchain supporting over 50k transactions per second to power the next generation of decentralized applications. - https://solana.com/epicenterExodus: Exodus the easy-to-use crypto wallet available on all platforms and supporting over 100 different assets. - https://exodus.com/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/394