Juan Benet and Jesse Clayburgh of Protocol Labs, and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital, discuss the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). Inspired by Y Combinator’s “Simple Agreement for Future Equity”, the SAFT standardizes the legal framework surrounding token issuance and governs the nature of the transactions involved (i.e. the deployment of capital and distribution of tokens). The complex legal environment surrounding tokens, especially in the US, has led many entrepreneurs to choose to...
Jul 24, 2017•33 min
Juan Benet and Jesse Clayburgh of Protocol Labs, and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital, discuss CoinList, a platform for token-backed networks to raise money through pre-launch token sales. While planning the Filecoin token sale, the team at Protocol Labs developed a method of accreditation for US investors in order to comply with securities law. Realising the importance of such a system for the whole ecosystem, they partnered with AngelList to develop this into a platform on which other projects...
Jul 21, 2017•29 min
David Sønstebø, co-founder of IOTA, discusses this next-generation post-blockchain platform designed to serve as the backbone for the Internet-of-Things (IoT). IOTA is a groundbreaking new open-source distributed ledger that does not use a blockchain. Its innovative new quantum-proof protocol, known as the Tangle, gives rise to unique new features like zero fees, infinite scalability, fast transactions, secure data transfer and many others. Because the Tangle uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ...
Jul 18, 2017•53 min
Xander Dunn and Richard Craib discuss Numerai, a new kind of hedge fund built by a network of data scientists. The Numerai platform crowdsources machine learning by releasing encrypted data sets to data scientists, incentivising them to develop machine learning algorithms to analyse the data. Scientists then bid their predictions to the hedge fund by staking funds, and are paid returns in Numeraire, the platform’s native cryptocurrency, for correct predictions. By abstracting its financial data ...
Jul 06, 2017•27 min
In today’s discussion we look at the legality of raising money through token launches, the potential risks involved, and approaches to improving the safety of these new bearer assets. We also examine the term ICO in depth and find that terminology, while relevant is second to the nature of the offer and state of the project involved. Following the discussion is an interview With Peter Van Valkenburg recorded at Devcon2, applying the Howey test to The DAO. weekinethereum.com etherreview.info http...
Jun 24, 2017•1 hr 13 min
What?! Another Erik Voorhees podcast?!!! In this, the sixty seventh episode of The Ether Review, we set out to understand Prism, Shapeshift’s new non-custodial synthetic asset built on the Ethereum network. In reviewing this episode I feel I was unsuccessful in achieving this. However, the peripheral conversation about Erik’s view of the space is extremely enlightening, especially writ large in his positioning of Shapeshift. The Bitcoin scaling debate, the future of digital assets, the financial...
Jun 12, 2017•42 min
After a stunning token launch Gnosis has become a classic example of the hope for greater and more powerful decentralized applications. Founder Martin Köppelmann walks us through the projects genesis, growth, and road to success itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-ethe…id899090462?mt=2 https://twitter.com/koeppelmann
May 22, 2017•33 min
In Brief: A walkthrough of the pressing legal issues in blockchain today. Over the last few months a varying group of legal professionals from New Zealand, Australia, and the USA have been meeting to discuss current events, challenges, and peculiarities in the interaction between blockchain and law. As facilitator I suggested we might record the sessions. This is the first to be published. Attendees: Hannah Glass: Solicitor, King & Wood Mallesons Matt Corva: Law and Business, ConsenSys Alex ...
May 14, 2017•1 hr 16 min
In Brief: Swarm City, once Arcade City, is one of the most ambitious, and controversial projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. Having shed their founder, the remaining team have made considerable development progress. More than just a would be ride sharing DApp, Swarm City aims to provide an exchange infrastructure for any two sided market. Swarm City Mayor Bernd Lapp and Architect Michael Thuy discuss the deeper intricacies of 2 sided market transactional infrastructure in a social setting. We als...
May 01, 2017•41 min
In Brief: Tokenizing fiat currency in a way that is compatible with our existing financial infrastructure and legislation is no easy feat. The consequences however reach across the entirety of industry, the economy, and society. Nick Addison is the CTO of AgriDigital, an agricultural finance company first covered in episode 45 of TER. As part of his work at AgriDigital, Nick is researching ways to port the existing financial infrastructure into the blockchain age. It’s not easy, but as the inven...
Apr 26, 2017•40 min
Matt Hale of Divvi is the first speaker in the second half of the conversation we began last week. Divvi is a Sydney based decentralized energy market startup. The huge scale of residential solar deployment makes Australia a uniquely appropriate environment for this kind of solution. We also look at the challenges of breaking into the highly regulated and cartel run infrastructure space. Secondly Luke Anderson, describes the dilemma of selecting blockchain as an appropriate solution to a problem...
Apr 16, 2017•40 min
Last week I was honoured with the privilege of representing New Zealand at the inaugural ISO/TC-307 Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies standards committee meeting. The event was hosted by the secretariat, Standards Australia. 18 nations attended. While at the meeting, blockchain legend Nick Addison wrangled together a who’s who of blockchain entrepreneurs for a round table discussion. We convened in the media room at the international convention center. The group grew piecemeal over ...
Apr 12, 2017•1 hr
Today we hear first from Joe Reed who won the Seattle IPFS / Ethereum Hackathon in February. His entry Matriarch expands on the ERC20 compliant Minime token, using it as a basis for crowdfunded MeDAOs. It’s an avant-garde idea and compliments his decentralized reddit project, Community. Then Gabriel Mitchell of ethereumclothing.com raises the subject of branding in cryptocurrency. These interviews have been buried in my content bank for months now and it’s fun to sometimes unearth gems. Short in...
Mar 28, 2017•33 min
By now word of the Andreessen-Horowitz/Union Square Ventures investment in the digital asset hedge fund Polychain Capital was reached far and wide across the cryptoverse. Among other things, this interview with founders Olaf Carlson-Wee and Ryan Zurrer explores the questions that must be asked while establishing a long term crypto portfolio. Much of the discussion is especially pertinent in light of the recent ETH jump and fork concerns with Bitcoin.
Mar 20, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Ever wished for a final login, a final app? The last user name you would ever need, the last thing you would ever need to download? The Ethereum mobile client Status promises just that and it’s release is just around the corner. Founders Jarad Hope and Carl Bennetts join us to explain. Nick Szabo’s blog Post: Money, Blockchains and Social Scalability https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funenumerated.blogspot.co.nz%2F2017%2F02%2Fmoney-blockchains-and-social-scalability.html etherreview.info...
Mar 13, 2017•28 min
Charlie Shrem and Jason Granger explain the Mainstreet investment fund. A limited partnership which distributes it’s revenues to addresses associated with self verified token holders. A separate company, Intellisys, manages the fund. The intricate problem solving required to create a legal token on the Ethereum blockchain that is backed by traditional investments, is fascinating. Mainstreet started accepting funding on the 27th, so this episode is coming out a bit late. You can links to both Mai...
Mar 03, 2017•34 min
In Brief: On today’s episode Kenny Rowe joins to discuss: Maker DAO Governance The decision making around forks DAOs in relation to stable value tokens The double token model of stable token platforms Community diversification as it relates to application development The serfdom of the attention economy Bitcoin on telephone poles Friction in fundraising rails The magic of technology Kenny Rowe has been a part of the Maker DAO team since shortly after its inception. Initially a community organize...
Feb 22, 2017•50 min
In Brief: Stas Oskin, Wings founder, explains how DAOs can be packaged for use by startups outside the blockchain space. Learning from others mistakes, the team at Wings are building a platform with the ability to vet, fund and launch DAOs based on input from its community. The idea of decentralized due diligence is powerful and if the mechanisms perform as expected, we may see a more refined crop or projects emerging as a result. Especially interesting is Wings’ aspiration to use the ambitious ...
Feb 10, 2017•25 min
In Brief: If there is one thing we learned in 2016 it’s that building a secure, stable, decentralized application is difficult. One of the responses to the problem has been the Open Zeppelin smart contract framework. Open Zeppelin is really a community of developers 300 strong. Collectively they have built the framework over time in a similar fashion to Truffle or Dapple. In addition to maintaining the Open Zeppelin framework, the community audits smart contract deployments like the Golem, First...
Feb 03, 2017•22 min
In Brief: From better signature schemes for blockchains, to quantum preparedness, to novel cryptography like zero knowledge proofs and threshold signatures, Dan Boneh takes us on a tour of cryptography in our age. Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, Dan Boneh, has been working in the field of cryptography for over 25 years. During which time he has co-developed a signature scheme known as BLS Signatures. This was an opportunity to have some real questions answered, or more accu...
Jan 13, 2017•43 min
In Brief: In spite of the tumultuous public life of it’s founder, the sharing economy project is evolving and moving forward rapidly. We’ve just seen the end of a successful token launch and an all star advisory board informing new leadership fronting a strong dev team. Arcade City is back on the road. Three members of the post-Chris David team: Bernd Lapp, Michael Thuy, and Stephan Ponnet discuss the status and future roadmap of Arcade City. What was once thought of only as a ride sharing App h...
Jan 08, 2017•40 min
In Brief: Round 2 of the biggest hackathon in blockchain is nearing it's apex. On the 22nd of December a winner will be announced. Today the man behind the hack.ether.camp virtual accelerator, Roman Mandeleil looks back over the last two months of competition and explains how the platform operates. Then we hear from some of the leading contestants: Once artchain has been established, the art market can be securitized, which has heretofore been an impossibility. This is the Blockchain Revolution....
Dec 20, 2016•57 min
In Brief: Tezos is a blockchain based smart contract platform that incorporates protocol level governance, modular design, and a functional scripting language. Pretty much the shopping list of features the Ethereum community is looking for. Yes, Yes, I know this is supposed to be a show about Ethereum, but examining emerging platforms is the best way to understand what the people with the deepest understanding would like to see changed in the protocol. Tezos is modular, designed to enable drop i...
Dec 10, 2016•19 min
In today's episode we compare two books by William Mougayar: Opening Digital Markets (1997), and The Business Blockchain(2016). We also discuss the Steemfest conference which took place in Amsterdam last month. William Mougayar is an entrepreneur, venture advisor and angel investor, who previously held senior positions at Hewlett-Packard and Cognizant. He is the founder of Startup Management (http://startupmanagement.org/) where he blogs and curates on start-ups and the cryptocurrency economy. h...
Dec 01, 2016•32 min
In Brief: Melon is a protocol and asset management software suite for setting up and managing portfolios containing cryptocurrencies. It achieves this through the use of the Polkadot blockchain network. Raison D’etre: Polkadot, designed by Gavin Wood, is like an internet of blockchains. It is the communication protocol that Melon needed to manage digital assets across multiple blockchains. Right now there is no safe way to give the ability to secure and manage digital assets to another entity. E...
Nov 24, 2016•6 min
In Brief: The DAO hacker and Geth attacker have left a trail of evidence that can provide high quality identifying information about their persons. Bok Khoo is an actuary in the finance industry and software enthusiast. Recently Bok has turned his interest toward blockchain forensics. In particular tracing malicious actors on the Ethereum network. https://www.bokconsulting.com.au/blog/100-tricky-stick-puzzles-disrupt-the-ethereum-devcon2-conference-in-shanghai/ https://www.bokconsulting.com.au/b...
Nov 16, 2016•22 min
**In Brief:** Chinese multinational, Wanxiang Group, has purchased over 700 hectares of land on which to build a smart city where it plans to experiment with blockchain based systems. Wanxiang Group is a Chinese multinational focused primarily on automotive parts manufacturing. Recently Wanxiang has been moving into finance and agriculture. Now, with the establishment of the Wanxiang Blockchain Labs research organization and Fenbushi Capital investment fund, Wanxiang is making big moves into the...
Nov 07, 2016•30 min
Sometimes the urge to layer in-jokes into a podcast title is impossible to resist. . . and then 24hrs later you change it. The effort to understand the significance of type based and functional programming languages led me to the Urbit project. This attempt to re-design the internet is one of a number of technologies that have evolved alongside blockchain and address some of the same problems. The Urbit developer's focus on mechanical perfection is a sensibility worth observing. The first title ...
Oct 24, 2016•1 hr 7 min
In many ways still a frontier nation, Australia's style of innovation is practical and direct. Three of the startups covered in todays interviews come from industries outside of tech, each looking to blockchain to solve a problem unique to their industries. Finhaus Labs, a research and consulting team offers supporting services and friendly advice to these, and the rest of the local blockchain business community. Interviews: Nick Addison, Finhaus Labs Connor Svendsen, independent Emma Weston, Fu...
Oct 17, 2016•1 hr 33 min
Core samples from oil wells can be worth more than gold. BHP Billiton, one of the largest mining companies in the world, is piloting a program to track their custodianship and provenance using IPFS and Ethereum. Not only is this an interesting use case, but it is also the first time we have seen a production deployment of both IPFS and Ethereum. If you would like to contact Tyler, please email me at the address mentioned in the podcast. https://twitter.com/FreeMyVunk https://twitter.com/arthurfa...
Sep 28, 2016•45 min
