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

The 2016 Ethereum hard fork left us with two distinct Ethereum chains. While the main Ethereum chain dwarfs Ethereum Classic in terms of market cap, ETC has sustained its position as a significant actor in the broader blockchain ecosystem. ETC’s recent listing on Coinbase demonstrates its credibility as a significant industry player. We’re joined by Anthony Lusardi, Director of the Ethereum Classic Cooperative, an organization who’s goal is to promote the development of the Ethereum Classic Network. Similarly to other industry organizations, The Cooperative invests in core development of the ETC blockchain, community building, marketing, and brand awareness. Topics covered in this episode: Anthony’s background and how he became involved in the crypto community The Ethereum Classic Cooperative and the goals of the organization What the ETC ecosystem looks like two years after the fork The people and companies contributing to the project and building on the platform The overlap and friction points with the broader Ethereum community ETC’s unique value proposition as a blockchain platform SputnikVM as an alternative to the Ethereum Virtual Machine The potential attack vectors on ETC, including 51% attacks Why the ETC community stands behind Proof-of-Work The Cooperative’s plans to remain relevant and the project’s development roadmap Episode links: Ethereum Classic Cooperative Website Ethereum Classic Website Crypto51: Cost of a 51% Attack for Different Cryptocurrencies @eth_classic on Twitter This episode is hosted by Sébastien Couture and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/244

One of the key scalability challenges with public cryptocurrency blockchains is that their size grows linearly with the number of transactions. Mature blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum contain >170GB and >1 TB of historical data respectively. New nodes joining these chains need to download this data and verify it in order to become a “full node”. The number of full nodes is a key measure of decentralization, and difficulty becoming a full node translates into future centralization. In this episode, we are joined by the duo of Evan Shapiro and Izaak Meckler, CEO and CTO at O(1) Labs respectively. O(1) Labs is a pioneering company that uses zkSNARK technology in order to construct a cryptocurrency blockchain, called Coda, that solves the blockchain size scalability bottleneck. New nodes joining the Coda network will be able to trustlessly boot up in under a minute by verifying cryptographic proofs that attest to the validity of the current chain. This technology has great potential to enable decentralization, and for one blockchain to be a light client of another blockchain. Topics covered in this episode: Scalability challenges of current cryptocurrencies Background on O(1) Labs and their mission statement How Coda uses succinct computational integrity technology (zkSNARKs) to enable further decentralization of blockchains Snarky – a domain specific language for zkSNARK computations Current state of Coda and roadmap Episode links: Coda protocol website Coda Whitepaper Presentation on Snarkly by Izzak Meckler zkSNARKs in a nutshell by Christian Reitweissner zkSNARKs in a nutshell by Vitalik Buterin Coda presentation at hack.summit("blockchain") 2018 This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/243

When the Bitcoin Foundation fell apart and funding for Bitcoin core development was needed, the MIT founded the Digital Currency Initiative to step in. In the years since, the DCI has evolved into a vibrant center of cutting edge research on some of the most difficult challenges around blockchain technology. DCI Director Neha Narula joined us to discuss the DCI’s position between academia and industry, their policy on conflicts of interest, and their most fascinating research topics. Topics covered in this episode: How her interest in distributed systems and scaling lead led her to the blockchain space The mission and history of the MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative How cryptocurrency might evolve over time as an academic field The DCI’s project on digital fiat currency How zkLedger could enable privacy-preserving auditing for distributed ledgers Why sharding is unlikely to succeed in the short- and medium term Why Neha is most optimistic about layer 2 approaches to scaling like lightning network The story of discovering and writing about IOTA’s vulnerability How DCI handles conflicts of interest and strives for neutrality Episode links: MIT Digital Currency Initiative Neha Narula Personal Website What’s New at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative The Importance of Layer 2 Cryptographic vulnerabilities in IOTA zkLedger | the future of audit zkLedger Whitepaper Neha Narula: The future of money | TED Talk This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/242

Before founding what is now one of the most successful companies in the cryptocurrency industry, Eric Larchevêque and his co-founder opened La Maison du Bitcoin, a Bitcoin education center and co-working space in the second district of Paris. It was through chance encounters in this space that Leger was born in the basement of 35 rue du Caire, where the company also operated a Bitcoin exchange desk and a handful of crypto miners. Eric Larchevêque, CEO of Ledger, joins us again since his last appearance as a guest 200 episodes ago. We discuss the meteoric rise of Ledger from a ten-person team to now nearly 150 people across three continents. This fascinating discussion is a master class in product development, scaling at lightning speed, and staying true to your vision when everyone is pushing you to change course. Topics covered in this episode: Eric’s background and how he became involved in the Bitcoin space La Maison du Bitcoin and the early days of Ledger in Paris The meteoric growth of Ledger and how the company managed to scale without imploding The appointment of Pascal Gautier as President how to hire the right people when scaling fast Ledger’s various funding rounds and lessons learned from working with corporate investors The particularities of building products for the crypto community Ledger’s product lineup (Nano S, Blue, and Vault) and target clients The upcoming release of the revamped wallet app Ledger Vault as a security solution for institutional investors Ledger’s hardware technology and rock-solid approach to security Episode links: Ledger Wallet Website Ledger Corporate Website CoinHouse (formerly La Maison du Bitcoin) Announcing the new Ledger Wallet desktop and mobile applications Former CRITEO COO joins leading security player in Cryptocurrency space Ledger raises USD 75 million to secure cryptocurrency assets This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/241

While many cryptocurrency holders have thought about how to secure their assets, how to pass on cryptoassets in case of one’s death is rarely on people’s mind. Lawyer Pamela Morgan has been helping people and organizations build solutions to safely store their cryptoassets and has recently turned her attention to inheritance planning. Though we have often explored the legal issues surrounding blockchains and cryptocurrencies on Epicenter, never have we discussed the topic of inheritance. We discussed her new book “Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning” and how people can design a simple plan to give heirs a high chance of recovering assets in less than an hour. Topics covered in this episode: How an impassioned talk on Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos started her crypto journey Common misconceptions lawyers have about crypto Her work through Empowered Law on educating lawyers Third Key Solutions and building non-custodial key management solutions The most frequent mistakes people make when it comes to protecting cryptoassets How to do inheritance planning for cryptoassets Differentiating between technical and legal aspects to inheritance planning Episode links: Empowered Law – Law and Education to Empower the World Third Key Solutions – Non-Custodial Key Management and Consulting Services Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning Book Inheritance Planning for Cryptocurrencies: 3 Steps in 3 Minutes When Disaster Strikes: Developing a Recovery Plan for Bitcoin and Digital Tokens Pamela Morgan on Twitter This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/240

In the past few years, we witnessed the development of multiple smart contract languages – Solidity, Viper, Michelson, Scilla etc. These languages need to enable developers to write correct, predictable behavior smart contract code. Each language development effort therefore ends up spending resources into building formal verification toolsets, compilers, debuggers and other developer tools. In this episode, we are joined by Grigore Rosu, Professor of computer science at UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) for a deep dive into the K framework. The K framework is mathematic logic and language that enables language developers to formally define all programming languages; such as C, Solidity and JavaScript. Once a language is formally specified in the K framework, the framework automatically outputs a range of formal verification toolsets, compilers, debuggers and other developer tools for it. Updates to the language can be made directly in K. This technology has massive implications for smart contract programming language development, and formal verification efforts in the blockchain space. We also cover his efforts to express the Ethereum virtual machine using the K framework, and to develop a new virtual machine technology, called IELE, specifically tailored to the blockchain space. Check out the episode to understand a game changing technology in the formal verification and smart contract safety space. Topics covered in this episode: Grigore’s background with NASA and work on formally verified correct software Motivations to develop K framework Basic principles behind the operation of K framework How K deals with undefined behavior / ambiguities in a language definition The intersection of K framework and smart contract technology Runtime Verification’s collaboration with Cardano KEVM and IELE, smart contract virtual machines developed by Runtime Verification Broader implications of the K framework for the blockchain industry Episode links: Defining the undefinedness of C - formalisation of C using the K framework IELE - a new virtual machine for the blockchain Runtime verification - Grigore's company K Semantics of the Ethereum Virtual Machine Short video on Grigore's partnership with Cardano An overview of the K framework by Runtime Verification A detailed technical overview of the K semantic framework This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/239

With the rise of smart contract technology, we’ve become acutely aware of the need for smart contract code to accurately reflect the intentions of its author; and for the code to have certain (safe) behaviors in all circumstances. Creating the languages and software tools to enable ordinary developers to write safe contracts has become an intense research endeavor in the cryptocurrency space. Scilla is a Turing incomplete intermediate level language; inspired from the paradigms of functional programming and formal verification; that makes it easy for smart contract developers to automatically prove statements about smart contract behavior. For example, Scilla could allow a future multi-signature smart contract author to mathematically prove that funds in that contract would always be retrievable by certain addresses (and never get stuck like the Parity incident). The ability to mathematically prove such safety properties of the smart contract has the potential to be an enabling invention prior to widescale use of this technology. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Amrit Kumar and Dr. Ilya Sergey to discuss Scilla, the smart contract language of the upcoming Zilliqa blockchain. In a previous episode, we’ve already covered the vision and technical approach of Zilliqa to solve the transaction scalability problem of permissionless blockchains. This episode focuses specifically on their smart contract language development efforts. Topics covered in this episode: Updated on Zilliqa’s progress since our last episode The technology of mechanised proofs Dr. Ilya Serger’s effort to mechanically prove safety properties of a blockchain consensus network Aims of the Scilla language Future capabilities enabled by the Scilla language Developer experience and perspective using formal verification tools How Scilla compares to Michelson, Tezos’ approach to smart contract languages with a similar end goal Current state of development of Scilla, and next milestones Episode links: Our previous episode on the Zilliqa platform Ilya Sergey's paper on mechanising blockchain consensus Scilla whitepaper Michelson, Tezos platform's smart contract language Zilliqa blog for updates on platform development Coq, a formal proof management system This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/238

As a society, we have organized as tribes, hierarchies, and markets to accomplish the most impressive of achievements. Human cooperation and collective organization are present at nearly every significant milestone in the history of human civilization. As we move towards an increasingly connected and automated society and economy, there will become a need for decentralized infrastructure which enables companies and markets to make fast decisions at scale. We’re joined by Matan Field, CEO of DAOstack, a new platform that aims to become the operating system for collective intelligence. DAOstack is building a toolset to allow decentralized governance and building self-organizing collectives at scale. Topics covered in this episode: Matan’s background and journey since founding Backfeed What is a DAO and the necessary components to create a functional DAO The role of DAOs in today’s society and over the long-term DAOstack as “WordPress for DAOs” The different layers of DAOstack and their respective roles Holographic Consensus and the governance model of the DAOstack Genesis DAO The purpose of the GEN token and the idea of circular token economies DAOstacks recent crowdsale and upcoming project roadmap Episode links: DAOstack Website DAOstack Introduction Video DAOstack on Medium An Explanation of DAOstack in Fairly Simple Terms Decentralized Governance Matters DAOstack White Paper Epicenter Episode 115 with Matan Field on Backfeed This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/237

Aragon Founder Luis Cuende joined us to discuss their work on building tools for decentralized governance. We covered the origins of his deep drive, why this is a crucial fight for humanity and the tools that Aragon has built. Topics covered in this episode: How Luis became an advisor to the European Commissionas as a 16-year old Why freedom and technology became Luis’ prime obsession The origin story and vision of Aragon The risk surveillance and authoritarianism pose to humanity Why decentralized governance is the key to freedom How to think about inequality and blockchain governance Why on-chain governance makes more sense on application than protocol level AragonOS and its different applications The Aragon Network Token and potential role in a decentralized court system The road to decentralizing Aragon organizationally Episode links: Aragon Network The Aragon Manifesto Decentralized organizations can solve the world’s worst problems Aragon - The fight for freedom Video Decentralizing Aragon’s development – Aragon Decentralizing Aragon’s development II: Minimum Viable Foundation Decentralizing Aragon's development III: Onboarding new teams This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/236

The rise of Binance is one of the most astonishing stories in the blockchain space. Within less than a year of its launch, Binance has become the most popular crypto exchange trading over $2bn per day. In the past quarter, Binance made profits of $200m, likely the fastest company ever to reach this success. Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”) joined us to discuss why he started Binance and the extraordinary organization they built. We discussed the role of the Binance token, how their strong commitment to values helped build a loyal community, and how he sees the organization evolve in the future. Topics covered in this episode: CZ’s journey in the blockchain space from blockchain.info, to OKCoin to founding Binance The astonishing rise of Binance to $200m/quarter profits in less than 1 year How Binance went from deciding to do an ICO to finishing it in 2 weeks Why strong values are a key differentiator for Binance How Binance built a vibrant and loyal community The critical role of the Binance token in its success The principles CZ uses to run an efficient distributed organization How regulatory competition is rapidly improving the conditions to build crypto companies Binance’s plans to build a decentralized exchange Episode links: Binance Website From Zero To Crypto Billionaire In Under A Year: Meet The Founder Of Binance The World's Biggest Crypto Exchange Is Heading to Malta Binance CEO: The Future of Cryptocurrency - YouTube Binance Whitepaper I Don't Like Big ICOs ICOs — Not Just “Good-to-Have,” But Necessary This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/235