Epicenter - Learn About Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin And Distributed Technologies

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.

Topics covered in this episode: Anthony di Iorio (Founder Decentral, Founder Ethereum, Toronto Bitcoin Meetup, Executive Director Bitcoin Alliance of Canada) Arthur Corry (Managing Director Decentral Accelerate) Ethan Wilding (Resident Philosopher and Ethereum) Michael Perklin (Bitcoinsultants, Director Bitcoin Alliance Canada, Founder Crypto Currency Certification Consortium) Episode links: Decentral Decentral Accelerate Bitcoin Alliance Canada Bitcoin Toronto Meetup Crypto Currency Certification Consortium (C4) Bitcoinsultants Bitcoin: The End of Money Kickstarter As We Know It Bitcoin: The End of Money - Matt Miller Interview This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/026

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. Topics covered in this episode: Adam Ludwin, Devon Gundry & Eric Rykwalder of Chain.com Rodolfo Novak, CEO of Coinkite Roop Gill, videographer for Coindesk David Bailey, Founder and Editor-in-Chief yBitcoin magazine Nic Cary, CEO of Blockchain This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-06

Today out guest is Mike Hearn who many of you are familiar with. He’s one of the first Bitcoin users and the developer of bitcoinj, a Java library used by a number of popular Bitcoin wallets such as the Andoid wallet, Multibit and Hive. Until recently he was working at Google and is now working full-time on Bitcoin, including an interesting crowd-funding platform called Lighthouse. Episode links: Lighthouse Assurance contracts Arianna Simpson - Game Theory, Assurance Contracts, and Crowdfunding with Bitcoin Venumeris Mike Hearn talk at Coinscrum 2014 in London BitcoinJ BitcoinJ on Github This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/025

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. Topics covered in this episode: Adam Cleary, founder of Bullion Bitcoin and Tamás Blummer of Bits of Proof Frédéric Martin and Nicolas Baca of Prismcide Patrick Melton of the Coinsider This Podcast Marco Peereboom, CEO of Coinvoice This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/000-2

Guest Joel Dietz talks about his new company Swarm, a very exciting cryptocurrency-based fundraising platform. Their idea is to provide a more efficient, decentralized and versatile version of Kickstarter. In the future, they also hope to allow companies to sell shares or share-like coins to raise funding. Our conversation took place just a day before the start of the commencement of their own coin SwarmCoin, which will finance the development of the platform. Episode links: Swarm CounterWallet US Marshals Bitcoin Auction Google & Yahoo add Bitcoin prices CoinSummit This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/024

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. Topics covered in this episode: David Schwartz, Chief Cryptographer at Ripple Labs Jon Peters, CEO of Cambrian Edward Karatov, responsible for business development at Cryptonit.net Eiso Vaandrager, VC with Green Gateway Fund Richard Caetano & Matt Tuzzolo developers of BTC Report app This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-04

On today’s show, we have Eddy Travia who joins us from Hong Kong. Eddy is co-founder and Chief Startup Officer at Seedcoin, a seed-stage virtual incubator for Bitcoin startups. He is also the founder of the Bitcoin Institute, a platform to facilitate research into different aspects of cryptocurrencies such as trading, market making, and entrepreneurship. Eddy along with Seedcoin also organised the first Bitcoin conference in Asia in November 2014. Topics covered in this episode: Crypotopay BTC.sx Coin Simple Hive Wallet MEXBT DealCoin zSIM: no URL Episode links: Apple Policy Update May Open Door for Bitcoin Transactions (Coindesk) CoinJar back in the App Store (reddit) Fred Ehrsam on CNBC (reddit) CoinJar on iTunes Apple App Store Review Guidelines Seedcoin Havelock Investments Bitcoin Institute This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/023

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. Topics covered in this episode: Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China (@btcchina) Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and software engineer at Coinbase (@litecoin) Philippe Rodriguez, President of Bitcoin France (@philrod) Filip Roose, co-founder of Orillia and co-founder of the Belgian Bitcoin Association (@filiproose) Episode links: BTC China Litecoin Coinbase Bitcoin France Belgian Bitcoin Association Orillia This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-03

On episode 22 we had Wendell Davis on, who is CEO of two Bitcoin startups. The first one is Hive, a popular and user-friendly Bitcoin wallet targeted at Mac Users (and Android). His second startup, Humint, aims to help companies and brands issue their own cryptocurrencies – think loyalty points. Our discussion of Hive covered wallet business models, usability and the payment protocol. After we talked about the crazy future awaiting us when everyone from a hot dog stand to your grandmother starts issuing their own currency. Finally, we covered some news topics such as the announcement by DISH to start accepting bitcoin and Bitex.la raising $2m to build Bitcoin exchanges in South America. Episode links: Hive Wallet Hive’s Payment Protocol Implementation Humint DISH Press Release bitex.la This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/022

This episode is part of our coverage of the Bitcoin 2014 Conference which took place in Amsterdam from May 15 to 17, 2014. Topics covered in this episode: Jon Matonis, Executive Director and board member of the Bitcoin Foundation (@jonmatonis) Marc Barach, CMO of Jumio (@MarcBarach) Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase (@brian_armstrong) Radoslav Albrecht, Founder of Bitbond (@RadkoAlbrecht) JF Gallas, Chairman of the Board of the German Bitcoin Foundation (@jfgallas) Episode links: Bitcoin Foundation Germany and the Netherlands join the Bitcoin Foundation as affiliates Jumio Coinbase BitBond Bundesverband Bitcoin This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/bitcoin2014-02

For episode 21 we had Asher Tan on CEO of CoinJar, a very successful Australian Bitcoin startup that offers similar services to Coinbase. We talked about the plans with CoinJar, what we think of Circle’s new product and the recent price increase. Levin Keller, who is a board member of the German Bitcoin foundation, joined us to talk about a recent statement by the German Finance ministry on Bitcoin. He has been warning about a possible sales tax on Bitcoin for months and that seems to be happening now. We talked through what the recent announcement means for businesses and where we’re likely to go in the future. Episode links: CoinJar CoinJar Stories Circle Circle Product Video Bitstamp requiring proof of source before withdrawal Statement by Bundesverband Bitcoin on sales tax This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/021