Episodes
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Missing episodes?
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Repost from Humans of Bitcoin podcast: "A look at DAOs, political organizing, and latin america from one of the thought leaders of the Ethereum ecosystem, Santi Siri."
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One of the oldest companies in the space, Blockchain.com has staying power. With over 40 million downloads, Blockchain.com has a large share of bitcoin transactions and the #1 downloaded wallet.
In 2011 the term "blockchain" was not a word. It was not a thing. In fact their website, blockchain.info at the time, was the first page on the internet to ever use the word.
Back in the day (2011), it made the decision to take the non-custodial approach. This was in contrast to Coinbase's custodial approach.
Years later, Peter is still grinding it out at the Blockchain.com headquarters in London. Peter takes an unconventional approach to life and business. As Peter states, "even Roger thinks I'm weird."
Entering uncharted territory for the company, they finally decided to launch an exchange of their own, PIT, which is billed to be the fastest crypto exchange on the market!
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"Our vision is that the first wave of blockchain adoption will be characterised by a large number of permissioned, purpose-built blockchain platforms geared towards a specific use case or user base.”
-EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum
In a special episode, Matt and Blake review the recent report by the European Union.
How does one of the largest Government entities see the future of blockchain technology? Listen to find out.
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Decentralized Finance or "DeFi" is a hot topic in the blockchain world.
And for good reason. The ability to establish credit and provide loans using cryptocurrency and smart contracts opens up liquidity for the entire world.
Joining us on today's show is Zac Prince of BlockFi, a blockchain lending company.
We discuss the future of DeFi as well as the role played by centralized companies for cryptocurrency backed loans.
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The news of Samsung adding a cold storage wallet to their flagship phone, the S10, sent a bullish signal to the bitcoin and blockchain world.
The Korean technology magnate, which also is producing mining chips, is bringing cryptocurrency to cell phones. This is a big deal.
The majority of Samsung customers, who are non-cryptocurrency users, will have built in exposure to cryptocurrency in the most important electronic device they own.
We take a look at blockchain phones and the importance of the cell phone in cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption.
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Blockchain 2025 listeners, we recently published an interview with Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne on the Bitcoin.com Podcast Network.
We reposted it here: It's a fascinating dive into the future of blockchain from a brilliant polymath who is making things happen right now, from Wall Street to Zambia to Tulum.
Enjoy and please subscribe to the Humans of Bitcoin podcast.
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When you start a business, you can't predict how it will play out in the real world. Take Twitter: they started out as a podcasting company!
ICO and blockchain projects are no exception and many have altered their models.
Evolve or die. Accelerated by the bear market, many teams are hurting for cash and have to change their business model in order to survive.
We cover ICO and token protocols including a decentralized AirBnB, publishing platform, Ripple and more.
How this will affect investors and the industry as a whole?
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Part 2 with Ryan Berckmans of the Forecast Foundation.
If you haven't listened to part 1, find it here:
https://podcast.bitcoin.com/e726-Predictions-Markets-Veil-Augur-Part-1-Ryan-Berckmans
In part 2, here are a few of the topics we cover:
Guesser.io Making journalism more accountable Improving social media conversations Redefining the word expert Open up many new economies -
I like to call prediction markets a "bitcoin within bitcoin". A fascinating use case that takes a little while to wrap your head around. But once you get it, a lightbulb clicks.
We brought on Ryan Berckmans who recently sold Predictions.Global.
Ryan is currently working with the Forecast Foundation, a group that guides Augur, the premier decentralized prediction market.
Ryan has a diverse background, and we got a glimpse into his background as well as a primer on the decentralized prediction market and what the future implications are.
While the main use case is sports betting, we anticipate more use cases to emerge in the near future.
Here is part one.
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This week on Blockchain 2025 we have the second part of our “Industry Revisit” series where Matt and Blake dissect some of the most intriguing blockchain projects from 2018.
As a quick refresher, the goal here is to check back in on these projects to see how things have been progressing and if we believe they still have a compelling use case.
It’s important to do this type of research now so that you’re well informed for the day the market turns back around.
Here are the industries they looked at:
Real Estate:
Putting real estate on the blockchain would enable buildings to become “tokenized”, essentially allowing investors to buy and sell shares in things like apartment buildings or even their own houses.
You could even put the deeds to these houses on the blockchain so that you could easily verify who that property belongs to.
This doesn’t sound revolutionary for those in the US or Europe, but in countries like Haiti and Peru, it can be difficult to determine ownership especially after natural disasters like earthquakes which could destroy public records.
And if you’ve ever purchased a property, you know about all the middlemen that take a a percentage of the final transaction. Blockchain could eliminate those fees and streamline the process.
While this sounds practical, it is still a long way off from being reality due to the existing power structures currently in place.
Religion:
Projects like 0xOmega are looking to put religion on the blockchain. While it may not be the most killer use case, it’s not that far fetched to consider putting a sacred text on the blockchain so that the original mandates are recorded in history for no-one to tamper with.
It would be the equivalent of putting the Ten Commandments or the Constitution on the blockchain, so that there would be no ambiguity as to what the original founders intended the documents to proclaim.
Followers could even use the token to vote on proposed changes or to give donations to those in need. Again, not the best use case but this interesting to think about.
File Storage:
When Facebook first started, a majority of their operating costs went to towards purchasing servers to store data. These days, start-ups can simply sign-up for Amazon Web Services and upload all of their data to the cloud for a fraction of the cost.
Decentralized file storage projects are looking to go a step further by allowing people to rent out their excess computer space, just like you would rent out a spare room on Airbnb.
Aside from the possibility of even cheaper storage, this would also prevent the risk of a handful of companies being responsible for protecting everyone’s data.
A decentralized network could spread out the risk amongst a massive fleet of computers, so no single entity bore the responsibility of securing the network.
Traditional cloud services may not go away, but there is definitely a place for decentralized file storage. Big name investors like Naval Ravikant have backed projects like IPFS, and Blake is confident that this space will blow up at some point in the future.
Decentralized Exchanges:
Coinbase and Binance are two of the biggest money making machines in the blockchain industry. Despite Bitcoin’s weak price action, they have been raking in profits.
However, centralized exchanges are susceptible to cyber attacks. We’ve seen this time and time again with exchanges like Mt. Gox and Cryptopia.
Decentralized Exchange’s look to solve this problem by relaying buy and sell orders directly between two people. Thus eliminating the risk associated with trusting a third party.
Before these take off, they must address pressing issues like regulatory requirements and the ability to find liquidity for the assets.
Coinbase and Binance have already taken precautionary steps to avoid being dethroned by either acquiring or building decentralized versions of themselves.
Once the usability and design improves, expect these products to be just as sticky as their predecessors which have served as the gateway to cryptocurrency for millions around the globe.
That’s it for this week’s episode. As we mentioned it’s important to check back in and see how things are shaking out in this fast evolving space. We hope that you enjoyed and as always feel free to drop us a note if you have any comments or questions.
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On this week’s episode, Matt and Blake run through highlights of different industries that are going to be affected by cryptocurrencies.
Bear markets are the best time to educate yourself on the latest trends and projects in the space. Things move fast and you want to be well prepared for when the market turns back around. This episode provides a great overview on the status of some of the best projects of 2018.
Let’s dive into the episodes that were covered:
Future of Blockchain
Jared Tate of DigiByte is one of the foremost experts in the blockchain space. He understands the technology on a deep level, and when governments want to know about blockchain, this is the guy they call.
Despite his bullishness, he only sees a few use cases for blockchain, mainly related to security, identity, and supply chain logistics. He thinks projects like “One Belt One Road” are important to watch because they could unleash the power of blockchain on a global scale.
Crowdfunding
The ICO boom and bust stunted the growth of this revolutionary form of fundraising. As regulators stepped in, innovation has slowed down and led to feelings of trepidation amongst both entrepreneurs and investors.
While it’s still the Wild Wild West, keep in mind that this is the first time that the fundraising process has been democratized. Giving the average person the opportunity to invest in the next Facebook or Uber.
Healthcare
Taking down the incumbents in an industry like healthcare is going to be a challenge. These companies are deep pocketed, bureaucratic, and built on complex systems that have been around for decades. Ideas like peer-to-peer healthcare are interesting, but still very far away from being practical.
To disrupt this space, one would need to completely rebuild the industry from the ground up, as opposed to simply making a few minor tweaks and adjustments. It raises the question, does this really need a blockchain?
Wine Futures
Vinsent is a project that allows consumers to pay vineyard directly for a case of wine that will be delivered to their door once it has been properly aged and bottled.
They recently received an investment from Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who is scheduled to appear on the show in the coming weeks.
Tokenizing wine will create a market for fine wines, allowing wine connoisseurs to buy and sell tokens of their favorite vineyards and blends.
Black Markets
70% of all commerce in the world runs through the black market. While most think the black market is made up of things like fire arms and bootleg DVDs, it’s easy to forget that any business that doesnt pay taxes technically falls into this underground “shadow economy”.
These companies are heavily reliant on cash, and they could really anonymous cryptocurrencies like Monero or Z-Cash to begin making more secure transactions both online and in-person.
This space is even more intriguing given the fact that countries like Russia and Iran have been removed from the international banking system, and may need to turn to cryptocurrencies to maneuver around regulations.
Prediction Markets
Prediction markets are decentralized betting networks where anyone can create a market for a future event that they’re interested in wagering on.
You can create markets for basic things such as “Will the Yankees win the World Series?”, to the more outlandish ones like “Will Donald Trump be bald next year?”.
Anything goes, and they have even proven to be better than meteorologists in predicting things like orange grove output in Florida. “The Wisdom of the Crowds” theory may be right after all.
This is definitely one of the more futuristic and exciting innovations in the cryptocurrency realm, and we look forward to speaking with Veil to hear about their project in a few weeks.
If there’s a topic that sticks out, we encourage you to do some research and see where it leads you. Start with a simple Google search on any of the topics mentioned, and go from there. This is the best way to educate yourself on how the future might play out.
We’ll be back in a few weeks with the second half of Season 2 industries. If you have any questions about the content feel free to reach out and we’d be happy to help.
For more on us, follow at and subscribe at bitcoin.com/podcast
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Matt and Blake got together this week to discuss the differences between two very important concepts in crypto, Proof of Work and Proof of Stake.
One of the best features of cryptocurrencies is that there's no need for a 3rd party such as a bank to validate transactions on the blockchain. Two strangers can send money to each other with confidence thanks to the consensus mechanisms mentioned above. -
We constantly talk about the importance of adoption: eventually a cryptocurrency projects need USERS in order to succeed.
One key to adoption we haven't covered: humor. A sense of lightness, taking things less seriously help keep a community together.
On today's episode we tell the story of Dogecoin. It started out as a joke. Yet 5 years later, it has a strong community and is working towards making a real impact on money.
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We covered 10 industries in the first season of Blockchain 2025 in the first part of 2018. We revisit each one to see if any of the projects have made any real world progress.
Full show notes at https://podcast.bitcoin.com/s9-Blockchain-2025
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"Named after a Harry Potter spell also known as the Tongue-Tying Curse that prevents an opponent from casting theirs, Mimblewimble enables the bulk of a blockchain’s past transaction data to be removed."
It is all the buzz right now in the cryptoworld. Even BTC maximalists are closely following Beam and Grin, privacy coins utilizing MimbleWimble.
Alexander of the Beam project which just launched a few days ago, joined us and did an excellent job explaining MimbleWimble on laymens terms.
Alexander calls Beam a “Scalable confidential cryptocurrency." Listen and learn:
Explain MimbleWimble to my grandma
How are decisions made by the Beam foundation?
The treasury gets 20% of rewards over 5 years.. … could “non profit foundation” be shut down and end the protocol?
Can businesses and merchants easily use BEAM in commerce and pay taxes, etc?
Regulation concerns?
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We have done over 40 episodes on blockchain and talked about the common risks of technology and adoption. With most ICO's and projects, the overwhelming, evident risks are:
1. No product market fit
2. Inability to get adoption, network effects.They come up frequently on the show. But they aren't the only risks. Some are more abstract and less evident. For example, the risk of quantum computing.
What is it exactly and could it be a threat to bitcoin and other blockchains?
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Listeners of the show know that most dApps we have covered on the show are all built on top of the Ethereum blockchain.
Naturally, there are many competitors to Ethereum. One of them, Zilliqa, looks to build a blockchain predicated on speed; faster transactions per second.
Xinshu Dong, the CEO broke down the Zilliqa project, complex dApps and some ideas about dApp adoption in 2019.
Timestamps:
01:27 - On Singapore: one of the top ICOs spots in the world.
03:08 - Why does the world need a Zilliqa Blockchain?
07:46 - The DAO: an example of not needing a company to launch a product or service.
10:00- Is speed the main selling point of Zilliqa?
12:45 - Costs of a typical transaction fee on Zilliqa.
15:17 - When Xinshu expects to see Blockchain use on a massive scale.
17:24 - Some DApps that Xinshu would like to see operating.
19:35 - Gaming: where the fans creates value.
22:49 - How is Zilliqa doing financially? -
"Calling this one now... the crypto craze of 2019 will be game assets and collectibles." -Erik Voorhees
We have many touch points from developers, investors, and entrepreneurs in the cryptosphere that Cryptokitties was not a one-off phenomenon. A fad, yes. Also, it is a preview of a massive up and coming niche in the cryptoworld.
Collectibles from stamps, coins, jewelry, cars have and will always exist. Thanks to blockchain, unique digital collectibles are on the rise.
Blake and Matt break down this new ecosystem.
Timestamps:
00:42 - Opportunities and the bear market.
03:30 - Crypto-Collectibles 101.
04:31 - Antiques for the 21st century.
06:02 - Collectible: First stage of becoming money.
08:33 - The rise of CryptoKitties.
11:00 - What gives a Crypto-collectible value?
12:15 - Pokemon and Decentraland.
14:30 - What is a non- fungible asset?
16:03 - The risks of trading cryptocollectibles
And much more! - Show more
