Epicenter - In-Depth Conversations about Blockchain & Crypto

CoinSummit London Conference Series – July 10 and 11, 2014 This episode features a panel discussion called “The challenges of operating a Bitcoin business in Europe”. Peter Smith, COO of Blockchain.info, Mark Lamb, CEO of Coinfloor and Frank Schuil CEO, of Safello provide their insights on some of the challenges of running a Bitcoin business on the old continent. These challenges include regulatory compliance, establishing banking relationships and establishing trust with consumers. The panel is moderated by Adam Vaziri of Diacle. Episode links: European Banking Authority EBA opinion on “virtual currencies” This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/coinsummit-london-03

Gavin Wood joins us for an episode that is all about Ethereum. The uniquely ambitious Ethereum project with its turing-complete programming language is building a platform on which the next generation of decentralized applications can be run. While the project is still in development, the goal is to provide the infrastructure for the completely decentralized web of the future. The first part of the episode features an interview of Ethereum CTO and lead developer of the C++ client Gavin Wood. In the second part of the episode, Brian discusses the crowdsale of Ethereum’s own cryptocurrency ether that is currently going on from an investment perspective. Episode links: Ethereum This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/031

CoinSummit London Conference Series – July 10 and 11, 2014 Our second CoinSummit Episode is out! In it we have two fantastic interviews. In the first one we discussed transaction fees, the economics of Bitcoin and the coming relaunch of Coinometrics with Jonathan Levin. Jonathan is a co-founder of Coinometrics and just finished his Master’s thesis on Bitcoin at Oxford University. In the second interview we talked with Peter Todd, one of the thought leaders in the Bitcoin space. We covered the economics of transactions, mining centralization and the state of Bitcoin development. Peter is a core developer and also an advisor to projects such as Mastercoin and Dark Wallet. He’s also come up with a number of important innovations such as treechains and stealth addresses. Episode links: CoinSummit Coinometrics This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/coinsummit-london-02

Radko Albrecht joins us to discuss his startup, the Bitcoin-based peer-to-peer lending platform, BitBond. We dove deeply into why Bitcoin-based peer-to-peer lending is such a compelling proposal. We also talked about a lot of the intricacies such as volatility, reputation and loans pegged to fiat currencies. The final part we discussed raising venture capital for European Bitcoin startups and how Bitcoin will change the financial industry. This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/030

CoinSummit London Conference Series – July 10 and 11, 2014 We start our coverage of CoinSummit with Garrick Hileman, CoinDesk contributor & Economic Historian at LSE, who delivers the opening “State of Bitcoin” keynote, a data-driven assessment of how the Bitcoin Ecosystem is developing. The second part of the episode features a panel discussion called Will Bitcoin Last the Distance where Jeff Garzik, Bitcoin core developer, Prof. Emin Gün Sirer, Cornell University, Peter Todd, Bitcoin a core developer discuss the issue of mining centralization. This panel is moderated by Angel Investor Jez San. Episode links: CoinSummit CoinDesk State of Bitcoin 2014 “How to Disincentivize Large Bitcoin Mining Pools” by Emin Gün Sirer “It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork” by Emin Gün Sirer “Jeff Garzik Announces Partnership to Launch Bitcoin Satellites into Space” on Coindesk This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/coinsummit-london-01

Steven Morell and Gabriel Mirón join us to discuss the recent New York Department of Financial Services BitLicense proposal. Our regulatory affairs correspondent Siân Jones also joins us briefly to give a general overview of this proposed legislation. We also take the opportunity to talk about Bitcoin’s development in Latin America, notably as a means to disrupt the remittance market, a multi-billion dollar industry. Our guests also talk about their respective companies. Steven is Chief Product Officer at Moneero, a company based in Uruguay and which is building a full suite of Bitcoin services. Gabriel is CEO of MEXBT, a Bitcoin exchange based in Mexico. Episode links: BitLicense draft proposal press release BitLicense draft proposal document MEXBT Moneero This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/029

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. These interviews were conducted by Siân Jones and focus on the area of regulation. Topics covered in this episode: Patrick Murck, General council of the Bitcoin Foundation Preston Byrne, Securitisation lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright in London This episode is hosted by Siân Jones. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-08

The recent publication of a European Banking Authority opinion on “virtual currencies” has caused great concern among actors of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Siân Jones joins us to dissect this 46-page document and the 70+ risks it identifies. Siân also helps us better understand the EBA, its role and the extent of its influence in the European Union. We also briefly recap the Coinsummit conference which took place in London and which we attended. Episode links: European Banking Authority EBA opinion on “virtual currencies” Bitcoin receives red carpet welcome in the Isle of Man [City A.M.] sle of Man Launches Digital Currency Startup Incubator [Coindesk] COINsult This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/028

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. These interviews were conducted by Siân Jones and focus on the area of regulation. Topics covered in this episode: Bryan Skarlatos, Partner at Kostelanetz & Fink Estaban van Goor, Indirect Tax Lawyer at PwC Jerry Brito, research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University Luis Cuende, hacker and European Commission advisor This episode is hosted by Siân Jones. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-07

Today we’re joined by two guests. Tatiana Moroz is a singer-songwriter, anti-war activist and a very active bitcoin enthusiast and evangelist. Recently, Tatiana created Tatiana Coin, the very first musical artist coin on the Counterparty Protocol. She also recently joined Bitcoin Magazine as their sales director and joins us from New York. Wendell Davis is also with us again from Thailand. He’s the creator of the beautiful Hive wallet and CEO of Humint, a company which aims to help companies create and deploy branded coins. Wendell is quite knowledgeable in crowd sale platforms as well as new crowdfunding models and will help us dissect some of the challenges and opportunities of creating custom coins. Episode links: EBA: Financial Institutions Should Avoid Bitcoin, Await Regulation (CoinDesk) EBA opinion on “virtual currencies” document Tatiana Coin Website Tatiana Coin on Coinpowers Woman’s Crypto Association Hive Web Hive Wallet Hummint This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/027