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

We’re joined by Alexey Akhunov, an independent Ethereum researcher. Alexey has been working on an ambitious project called TurboGeth. As the name implies, it is a version of Geth which features a number of speed and performance optimizations.

Alexey also leads the state rent working group of the Ethereum 1.x project. Ethereum 1.x came out of Devcon when core developers began to realize that the full migration to Serenity would likely take several years. The team hopes to bring progressive improvements to Ethereum in parallel to the development of Serenity.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Alexey’s background as a computer scientist
• The story behind TurboGeth and how it differs from the original Geth client
• The speed and performance optimizations of TurboGeth, as well as its trade-offs
• What is Ethereum 1.x in the context of Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity)
• Which people and projects are part of Ethereum 1.x
• What is state rent and why it may be beneficial to Ethereum
• Implementing state rent in Ethereum 1.x and 2.0
• eWASM and how it can be introduced in Ethereum 1.x and 2.0
• The future of Ethereum and the progress towards Serenity

Episode links:

• Alexey Akhunov on Medium
• TurboGeth talk at Bevcon4
• Ethereum State rent for Eth 1.x pre-EIP
• Ethereum state rent - rough proposal
• State Rent proposal version 2 (rushed)
• Ethereum state rent proposal 2
• ETH Roadmap AMA
• EthCC
• EthCC Epicenter Meeup

Thank you to our sponsors for their support:

• Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks. More at aka.ms/epicenter.

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/274

In this episode, we revisited the perennial topic of digital currency regulation with Siân Jones, our regulatory correspondent and founder of the regulation-focused virtual currency consultancy COINSULT. With the final version of the BitLicense, what may turn out to be the most influential document for digital currency regulation, is now out. Besides diving into many different aspects of the onerous BitLicense, we talked about California’s coming rules, how Bitcoin startups will be affected and the implications of Ripple’s fine.

NOTE: Since the episode was recorded the advocate general at the EU Court of Justice recommended that Bitcoin be exempt from VAT.

Topics covered in this episode:

• A brief primer on BitLicense and the process by which it emerged
• What the key aspects of BitLicense are and how they changed through the revisions
• Why BitLicense will stifle innovation by dramatically increasing the cost and bureaucratic burden of running a digital currency startups
• How different companies are responding to the rules
• Why California’s virtual currency draft bill got a lot of things right
• What Ripple got fined for and why FinCEN could go after most cryptocurrency startups for the same reasons
• The status of the European Court of Justice case on VAT

Episode links:

• NY BitLicense rules and regulations
• California's virtual currency draft bill
• FinCEN fines Ripple Labs Inc.
• What Ripple's FinCEN fine means for the digital currency industry
• Canada Senate digital currency report
• ECJ official proposes Bitcoin VAT exemption
• Siân's company COINSULT

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/088

In just over ten years, geospatial tracking has gone from being a niche technology used by the military and outdoor enthusiasts to mass adoption, available to just about every connected device in existence. GPS and other location-tracking systems not only allows us to find our way and share our location but is critical to businesses and governments. However, while GPS has become a standard thanks to its accuracy and availability, decentralized applications can’t rely on its location data as it can be easily spoofed and lacks reliability.

We’re joined by Ryan John King, CEO of FOAM, a blockchain protocol which aims to offer secure location services independent of external centralized sources such as GPS. FOAM introduces a novel crypto-spacial coordinate system that is better suited to blockchains than standard addresses or latitude and longitude coordinates. It also provides a Proof of Location Protocol, which leverages long-range low-power radio networks, and incentive mechanisms, allowing network participants to arrive at consensus on whether an event or agent is verifiably at a particular point in time and space.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Ryan’s background and how he became involved in the space
• How geospatial tracking works and the pitfalls of GPS
• The vision for FOAM and the problem it is trying to solve
• The proposed Crypto-Spatial Coordinate Standard
• FOAM’s Spacial Index fullstack visualizer
• The Proof of Location Protocol proposed by FOAM
• Low-power radio networks and their role in the system
• The civil and business applications for FOAM

Episode links:

• FOAM Website
• FOAM Blog

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/229

Over the past year, as cryptocurrencies and ICOs started to go mainstream, we have seen a huge surge in regulatory activities. In the US, many different regulatory bodies including SEC, CFTC and FinCEN stepped forward to regulate crypto projects in different ways. Seemingly contradictory statements have added to confusion and fear of a broad crackdown looming.

We were joined by CoinCenter Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh to shed clarity on recent developments and understand where things are heading.

Topics covered in this episode:

• The recent congressional hearings about cryptocurrencies and ICOs
• How the US regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies evolved in the last year
• Whether overly broad and contradictory regulation is emerging in the US
• Understanding the difference between CFTC and SEC
• Why CFTC regulating existing cryptocurrencies and SEC ICOs would be a good outcome
• Why decentralized exchanges will be a likely target by SEC
• The recent letter by FinCEN about ICOs and money transmission
• Comparing US to European regulation and why the US could end up more friendly

Episode links:

• Coin Center Website
• The Bank Secrecy Act, Cryptocurrencies, and New Tokens: What is Known and What Remains Ambiguous
• FinCEN raises major licensing problem for ICOs in new letter to Congress.
• Federal Court Adopts CFTC Position on Cryptocurrency Authority
• SEC.gov | Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings
• Gibraltar Plans to Regulate ICO Tokens as Commercial Products
• E182: Peter Van Valkenburgh - Towards Sound Bitcoin Policy
• Donate to Coin Center

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/227

What started out as a plan to build prediction markets, Gnosis ended up building crucial Ethereum infrastructure and tooling. Safe is one of its many successes, which originated during the 2017 ICO mania, as a solution for managing the raised capital securely, via a multi-sig. Even back then, the multi-sig model was quickly adopted by the entire industry, as a gold standard for asset security. Smart accounts and ERC-4337 represent the next step towards mass-adoption, through achieving a Web2-like UX.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Lukas’ background and how Safe was founded
• Bitcoin vs. Ethereum multi-sigs
• Smart accounts & ERC-4337
• Safe’s design phylosohpy
• Safe CORE, SDK & API
• Safe wallet UX
• Expanding cross-chain support
• Safe account recovery
• OpSec
• Safe’s smart contract security
• Gnosis ecosystem evolution

Episode links:

• Lucas Schor on Twitter
• Safe on Twitter
• Gnosis DAO on Twitter
• Gnosis Chain on Twitter
• Gnosis Pay on Twitter

Sponsors:

• Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
• Chorus1: Chorus1 is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture.