

Epicenter - In-Depth Conversations about Blockchain & Crypto
Epicenter Media Ltd.
Epicenter brings you in-depth conversations about the technical, economic and social implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Every week, we interview business leaders, engineers academics and entrepreneurs, and bring you a diverse spectrum of opinions and points of view.
Epicenter is hosted by Sebastien Couture, Brian Fabian Crain, Friederike Ernst, Meher Roy and Felix Lutsch. Since 2014, our episodes have been downloaded over 8 million times.
Epicenter is hosted by Sebastien Couture, Brian Fabian Crain, Friederike Ernst, Meher Roy and Felix Lutsch. Since 2014, our episodes have been downloaded over 8 million times.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 22, 2014 • 48min
Eric Larchevêque, Nicolas Baca & Thomas France: La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris
La maison du Bitcoin is a dedicated Bitcoin center located in the heart of ”Silicon Sentier”, which is situated in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Founded by entrepreneurs Eric Larchevêque and Thomas France, La maison du Bitcoin is an open space where people are encouraged to walk in and get information about Bitcoin. It also offers a variety of services such as a co-working space for bitcoiners and the ability to purchase Bitcoin over the counter. It’s also the home to meetups, conferences and training seminars.
For 10% off the upcoming Euro Bitcoin conference happening on October 8 in Paris, go to EuroBitcoin.org and use the code EPICENTER.
Episode links:
La Maison du Bitcoin
French Bitcoin Association
Coinhouse
Euro Bitcoin Conference
This episode is hosted by Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/040

Sep 15, 2014 • 1h
Bastian Brand: The Intelligent Cryptoinvestor, Bitcoin Investment Whitepaper
Dr. Bastian Brand is an investment manager at Pathfinder Capital. Pathfinder Capital is a London-based Venture Capital firm that focuses on frontier markets and cryptocurrencies. He is also the founder of the Bitcoin Startups Munich group and was previously a consultant at McKinsey.
The episode focused on his comprehensive paper surveying the investment landscape in the cryptocurrency space. We discussed the advantages of buying bitcoins versus investing in cryptocurrency startups, the prospect of Bitcoin 2.0 projects, and his views on the different sectors of the Bitcoin industry.
Episode links:
Pathfinder Capital
The Intelligent Cryptoinvestor Blog
Bitcoin Startups Munich
Bitcoin Startups Munich Meetup
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/039

Sep 8, 2014 • 57min
Flavien Charlon: Coinprism – Colored Coins, Open Assets Protocol & Crypto Equity
Flavien Charlon is the founder of coloured coin wallet Coinprism. Colored coins allow people and organizations to securely issue and trade real-world assets like commodities, stocks and bonds on the bitcoin network. Coinprism recently won the global Startup Challenge hosted by the Bitcoin Foundation in May 2014. Other notable projects include Predictious, a Bitcoin-based prediction market. He has 8 years of experience in software engineering at Microsoft, building large scale distributed systems, and is a graduate of Ecole Centrale Lyon, where he received an Msc. in Engineering.
For 10% off Inside Bitcoins London on September 15 and 16, use the discount code EPICIBC14
Episode links:
Coinprism
Colored Coins
Open Assets Protocol
Flavien Charlon speaking at CoinSummit San Fransisco
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/038

Sep 1, 2014 • 60min
Siân Jones & Thomas Spaas: Is Bitcoin Subject to VAT? (European Consumer Goods Tax)
Thomas Spaas, director of the Belgian Bitcoin Association and an international tax lawyer in Antwerp, and our regulatory affairs correspondent Siân Jones, join us to discuss a Swedish court case on VAT, the European Value Added Tax. The case has made it all the way to the Court of Justice of the European Union and may set the precedent for how the sale of Bitcoin will be taxed.
For 10% off Inside Bitcoins London on September 15 and 16, use the discount code EPICIBC14
Register for Inside Bitcoins London
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/037

Aug 28, 2014 • 38min
Dave Carlson, Jez San, Marc Aafjes, Naveed Sherwani & Timo Hanke: CoinSummit London – Pannel: The Ever Changing Landscape of Bitcoin Mining
Today’s panel discussion is called “The ever changing landscape of Bitcoin mining” where moderator Jez San is joined by some of the most prominent figures in the mining industry, Marc Aafjes of Bitfury, Dave Carlson of Megabigpower, Timo Hanke of Cointerra and Naveed Sherwani of Peernova. The discussion revolves around several key topics, notably, everyone seems to agree the industry should move away from the term mining and start calling it transaction processing. They also discuss the rapid evolution of ASIC processors in the last year, the importance of improving the overall power efficiency of the network and where ASIC production is heading. They also talk about a highly debated subject which is the shift from home mining to centralised data centers. The panels ends with predictions on the total hashing power of the network at the end of this year.
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/036

Aug 25, 2014 • 1h 3min
George Samman: BTC.sx, Bitcoin Derivatives, Recent Price Movements, Wall St and Regulation
George Samman is co-founder and COO of the Bitcoin derivatives exchange, BTC.sx. George helps us get a broad understanding of derivatives as a financial product, and we explore their uses in the context of Bitcoin. He also brings his perspective with regards to bridging the gap between Wall Street and the Bitcoin ecosystem. As a Chartered Market Technician, he has a very technical view on market movements and gives us his thoughts on the recent BTC price fluctuations.
Episode links:
BTC.sx
SeedCoin
George Samman
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/035

Aug 21, 2014 • 44min
Flavien Charlon, Gavin Wood, Richard Gendal Brown & Ron Gross: CoinSummit London – Panel: Decentralized Applications and Appcoins
This episode features a panel discussion called “Decentralized Applications and Appcoins.” Flavien Charlon, founder of Coinprism, Ron Gross of the Mastercoin Foundation and Gavin Wood of Ethereum discuss the fascinating things which are happening in the so-called Bitcoin 2.0 space. The panel starts with a short status update on each of the panellist’s respective projects. They also dig into some of the legal implications, lay out the security challenges and give their thoughts on how they feel the appcoin and DAC space will evolve in the coming years.
Episode links:
Coinprism
Mastercoin
Ethereum
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/034

Aug 18, 2014 • 1h 9min
Edmund Edgar: Reality Keys – A Certificate Authority for Facts
Edmund Edgar is the founder of Reality Keys. His startup won the Startup Challenge award at the Bitcoin 2014 Conference in Amsterdam. They are providing cryptographic data feeds on real-life events. This can then be used to base derivatives, contracts or insurances on. There is no question that services like Reality Keys will play a key role in crypto currency’s future. Previously he was Director of Information Technology at Princeton Review Japan and he is also a graduate of Oxford University.
Read the blog post summarising this episode on Bitcoinist.net.
Episode links:
Reality Keys
By My Coins
Edmund Edgar on Twitter
Codius
Truth Coin
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/033

Aug 14, 2014 • 38min
Andrew Turner, Michael Jackson & Olivier Janssens: CoinSummit London – Interviews
CoinSummit London Conference Series – July 10 and 11, 2014
In this episode we talk to Olivier Janssens, a Bitcoin early adopter and investor, and his associate Andrew Turner. We discussed Olivier’s recent $100,000 bounty replace the Bitcoin Foundation. He told us why he chose Mike Hearn’s Lighthouse project as the winner of 40% of that bounty and the effect that Lighthouse could have on Bitcoin core development funding.
We also interviewed Michael Jackson. He’s the former COO of Skype and currently a VC at Mangrove Partners. We discussed the recent EBA opinion paper. We also talked about his experiences with the regulation of new and disruptive technologies from his days at Skype as well as investing in Bitcoin companies.
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/coinsummit-london-04

Aug 11, 2014 • 59min
Freya Stevens & Ira Miller: Coinapult – Locks and Letting the Bit Drop
Coinapult’s CEO Ira Miller and marketing specialist Freya Stevens join us for a discussion about their company and plans for the future. We particularly dove into their new Locks feature, which allows people to ‘lock’ the value of their bitcoins to other assets such as US Dollar, Euro or gold from directly within the Coinapult wallet. The goal is to remove one often-named barrier to mainstream adoption: volatility.
We also talked about the amazing ‘Let the Bit Drop’ project, which involves sending bitcoin per SMS to every resident of a small Carribean island. A party in Q4 will launch the project and educational materials will be given to residents via government channels.
Episode links:
Coinapult
Coinapult Locks
Let the Bit Drop
Bitcoin UK Podcast
This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/032