Blockchain 2025

This is a repost from the Humans of Bitcoin podcast. Please subscribe to Humans of Bitcoin for more episodes like this.

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."

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!

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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?    

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.

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.

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

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.  

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

"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? 

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?

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!

For less than 1 Euro, Blake booked a coworking hot desk for 1 day in Berlin. He used crypto and purchased through a blockchain coworking startup. Could this be a thing? Invented in 2005 by Brad Neuberg, coworking is a worldwide phenomenon.  Many are familiar with WeWork, the largest coworking operation in the world with a multi billion dollar play. It can be a fantastic real estate play and a valuable service for startups and freelancers. We do a deep dive on coworking and two blockchain industry startups.  00:42 - BCH Hard Fork. 02:26 - What is coworking? 04:00 - How Brad Neuberg changed the way humans interact. 5:55 - Why should I go to the office? 07:20 - Pros and cons of coworking. 09:38 - Coworking and Real Estate 10:50 - How Blockchain can help coworking spaces? 11:35 - Tokenization of coworking Space 12:34 - What is Primalbase? 13:54 - Coffee shops vs coworking spaces. 17:06 - Is Primalbase sustainable as a business model? 19:05 - rent24: A global coworking operation. 19:40 - Coliving: Taking coworking to the next level. 23:45 - Regulations and hacking, the biggest risk of coworking tokenization. 24:58 - Matt asks Blake to book a Hot Desk for one day in Berlin.

Led by Jack Ma's protege, Justin Sun, Tron is going big.  Social media, decentralized exchange, prediction markets, anything you can think of that we have covered on Blockchain 2025, they plan to have on their platform. Like ANY project in this space, you have to have some skepticism. And there are a few areas of concern. But they have done two things that most projects have not: A) They bought a real company - BitTorrent. B) Tron has live a dApps and an exchange for tokens bulit on top of their blockchain. We explore this fascinating project.  

Roughly a 3 billion dollar industry in the United States alone. An industry that many people are part of as a producer or consumer, but few talk about. Blake and Matt analyzed the many problems that plague the adult entertainment industry and found many opportunities for crypto and public blockchains to help. Plus we do a deep dive on SpankChain, a blockchain ecosystem for the adult entertainment industry built on Ethereum. Timestamps: 3:14 - What happens to your brain on porn? 6:02 - The power of the industry 8:05 - Use cases for blockchain - privacy, censorship resistance 11:03 - The difficulties of working and running a business in the adult industry 14:01 - Brenna Sparks and gentleman's club 16:14 - Cutting out middlemen 17:30 - SpankChain    

In Part 2, Blake and Matt debate whether stablecoins will be a contribution or detriment to the cryptocurrency space. They seem to be a hot VC investment, but whether it is good for the ecosystem remains to be seen. Timestamps: 1:35 - Are stablecoins helping? 5:00 - Legal compliance 6:31 - Bitfinexed 9:42 - Deep dive into USDT 11:15 - Are stablecoins even a cryptocurrency? And much more!

As the first of a two part episode, Matt and Blake take an in depth look at Stablecoins, their use and comparison within the cryptocurrency universe. Stablecoins have raised over $350m in investment. There are over 45 projects fighting to knock down Tether and become the stablecoin of choice.

Matt Aaron and new co-host Blake Moore go over the sometimes underlooked importance of mining, exchange tokens, their use within the mining spectrum, and finally take and in-depth look at VIAT Tokens, fresh off a 30 million dollar ICO. During our discussion, you'll discover: 0:41 - Presenting new co-host Blake Moore 2:55 - What does peer to peer electronic cash for the world mean? 3:58 - Mining and how it is often overlooked. Why is it so important? 6:16 - Kevin Zhang - The Tibet story - Cleaner energy used for Mining 9:30 - American Express and the payment of anti-mining propaganda 10:58 - Viat mining token and Binance exchange token 15:09 - A clearer imagery on B&B tokens 17:17 - A sum-up and the “burn” of tokens 18:30 - Back to ViaBTC and payouts within the mining pool 22:02 - Lowering supply of tokens within the long term payout scheme  

Matt and Kelso examine the new documentary yet to be released, Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain. It’s from Alex Winter, who produced popular documentaries Downloaded and Deep Web, covering outlier aspects of the digital space. He’s back to take on blockchain, and if the press release and trailer are any guide, it too looks pretty compelling. Narrated by Rosario Dawson with Ethereum's Joe Lubin as exec producer. The Los Angeles screening happens in less than 48 hours. And guess who will be in attendance ...

Matt and Kelso examine crazy amounts of money thrown at blockchain projects. Warranted or not, blockchain is officially a multi billion dollar industry, and it has achieved that status during what’s now known as the extended Crypto Winter -- a bear market closing in on a year long. And estimates by industry insiders claim 2018 is on pace to break investing even during the bull run of late last year. Timestamps: 1:30 - Elon Musk vs. the SEC 5:28 - The ecosystem health outside of tokens (Coinbase, Bitcoin.com) 7:09 - The bear market 9:04 - Wealth transfer and ICOs 11:26 - Are token sales for the people? 13:37 - Major investments outside of ICO’s, Dow Jones, and Fundamentals 15:18 - Gearing up for the next bull run 17:56 - Going back to Bitcoin in 2013 to provide perspective for today Mentioned in the show: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/20/with-at-least-1-3-billion-invested-globally-in-2018-vc-funding-for-blockchain-blows-past-2017-totals/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-08/crypto-growth-nears-ceiling-ethereum-co-founder-buterin-says https://elementus.io/blog/ico-market-august-2018/ https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-2013-to-draw-1000-and-the-winklevii-to-san-jose-this-weekend/

The current state of credit scores worldwide is miserable. In each country, the system is flawed and subjective in how you are evaluated. Move to a new country? You have to start over. No credit card? you may not have credit in the United States. Not registered to vote? This will hurt your score in the U.K. Then there is the lack of privacy. Centralized agencies like Equifax cannot keep your info safe. So we discuss how blockchain could fundamentally change it. And a group of bright, young minds is working on just that at Bloom. Timestamps 3:05 - The current credit score structure in the United States 6:00 - Access to the financial system 7:28 - Centralized data interpretation across the world 9:04 - The Equifax hack 11:32 - Hypocrisy in the current financial system 14:22 - Blockchain disrpuption / free market competition 15:49 - Examples of credit score limitations 17:21 - Can Bloom take down the powers that be?

At listeners request, we will periodically highlight some of the world's goofiest ICOs. Like a really bad episode of Shark Tank. EyeGlob.net is using blockchain to make healthier eyes. Yeah, that's right! They are pro eyes; pro vision, and so are we! EyeGlob.net is in their ICO looking for 33 million dollars for 40% of their company, meaning a valuation of 82.5 million. That is quite a lot of money for a company with no working product.

A male-dominated space, adoption of crypto depends on both men and women. We talk about females in blockchain culture and highlight 3 underrated women who are making a big difference in the blockchain world. During our discussion, you’ll discover: 2:00 How we’re pissing off entire blockchain ecosystem 3:30 How can we bring more women into the space? Why is it predominantly male? 5:25 The mission at bitcoin com and why we need women to achieve that 7:30 Why businesses need to be able to speak women's language and meet their needs 8:51 Are men more likely to take risks? 9:59 Instagram appeal to women …should we use customization in blockchain more? 11:56 Using blockchain can give women more freedom 15:50 Alena Vranova - co-founder of the Trezor hardware wallet 17:41 Taylor Monahan- MyCrypto Previous Co-Founder of MyEtherwallet 24:47 XDite Founder of OTCBTC in Taiwan & also running for Mayor of Taipei 27:46 Why women will help adoption of crypto & much more!

"Whatever controls the courts, controls the state." An intriguing use case. What if disputes could be solved via a decentralized platform? Kleros is working on it. We speak with their cryptoeconomics expert.   What an exciting interview. William George is part of Kleros, a dispute resolution layer built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. In layman's terms, we go from traditional small claims court, centralized dispute resolution like PayPal and Amazon to the Kleros alternative and paint a picture for the future.

Like many blockchain plays, sports startups could work, but will require a ton of serendipitous marketing. If athletes are broadcasting games, they better be really into it and promoting it, because they are getting paid in these new tokens, so a lot depends on the market perception that these tokens hold value. Interesting concepts that will be tough to turn into a sustainable, prosperous business. We talk about: The blockchain project that the NFL Players Association invested in The rise of e-sports Tokenizing athletes Gambling and it's fundamental importance to fan interaction    

You've heard of the advantages of blockchain: *Trustless *Saves time and money *Traceability / Immutability *Accountability Well this industry needs all of the above. The international food and pharma supply chain is a giant ... mess. We speak with the CEO of Ambrosus, Angel Versetti. Whether it's making product recalls more accurate and less costly, understanding where in the supply chain things went wrong, or helping consumers understand where their food really comes from, there is giant potential here.

Cody Wilson. 30 years old. Law school dropout. About five years ago, on a lark, decided to create world’s first 3D printable gun. Succeeded. Media went nuts.  Defense Distributed, his website, was effectively shut downe State Department said having downloadable gun files violated international arms law. Wilson complied. Wilson would later take the fight directly to the federal government. Wilson sued them. He basically lost all early court challenges. But feds feared he would ultimately win. Based his case on 1st and 2nd amendments. Feds cut a deal with Wilson this year. He was allowed to have files for download on his site. Now states are getting into the act. This all relates back to blockchain and bitcoin. Really.

The use of blockchain in the public sector reached another milestone this month when West Virginia became the first U.S. state to allow internet voting by blockchain in primary elections. While the voter participation through this platform was estimated to be small, the intention of the administrators was to test the technology in a pilot project with no immediate plans to implement it at a larger scale. Matt and Kelso review the current challenges of voting, the potential for blockchain to revolutionize, and a few projects that are already operating in the U.S., Africa, and South America. Mentioned in the episode: Voatz - Voatz.com Agora vote - https://www.agora.vote/ Democracy Earth - https://www.democracy.earth/  Follow My Vote - https://followmyvote.com/ Democracy OS - http://democracyos.org/ Vote Watcher - http://votewatcher.com/ Voto Social - http://votosocial.github.io/ Skepticism - http://www.govtech.com/GT-OctoberNovember-Securing-the-Vote.html?flipboard=yes

"We propose that blockchain technologies can become a new framework not only for the production (distribution and financing) of stories but also their creation.” Kelso covered the humongous ComicCon conference a few weeks back. In between meeting celebrities from top comic-book movies like AquaMan, he had the chance to interview a ConsenSys startup, Cellarius. Mentioned in the episode: ApolloBros interview: https://youtu.be/JZSsud-hyXgApolloBros interview: https://youtu.be/JZSsud-hyXg ComicCon 2018: https://comiccon2018.sched.com/event/FSjy ConsenSys:  https://new.consensys.net/ Cellarius: https://cellarius.network/  Transmedia Cyberpunk Franchise 2:26 - 2:36 https://blackgirlnerds.com/bgn-review-cellarius-a-collaborative-sci-fi-universe/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cellarius2084

Encouraging governments to use and implement blockchain, the theory goes will lead to more transparency, data security, streamlined communication and reporting. All around the world, there are billions of hours and dollars wasted on tedious bureaucratic processes. Blockchain for government is providing a public audit. This public audit log has the potential to be free from manipulation and immutable. Forgeries and outright fraud can be made more difficult. Audit logs rest upon nodes, which carry copies of the distributed ledger. One criticism, for example, of the federal security apparatus within the United States prior and during 9/11 was the lack of departmental communication. Blockchain could streamline that. Whichever agency drops the ball in terms of protecting the public would be clearer from an audit log standpoint.  

Today's special guest is none other than Taylor Pearson, author of The End Of Jobs.  He has emerged as a thought leader around blockchain's impact on our future. This episode is centered around you, the individual. The 1950's 9-to-5 company man is a thing of the past. Taylor explains: "The Organization Man was defined by the Social ethic which emphasized the individual as subordinate to the group, the importance of belongingness, and The Organization as the means to achieve belongingness and achieve the proper subordination of the individuals to the group. The Blockchain Man’s world will be defined by the three tenets of the Protocol Ethic. a belief in the individual as the source of creativity a belief in serving the needs of the protocol as the ultimate purpose of the individual and a belief in the application of blockchains to achieve an individual’s highest potential. The Blockchain Man exists as a unit of the blockchain. Of himself, he is isolated, meaningless; only as he collaborates with the blockchain does he become worthwhile, for by sublimating himself to the blockchain, he helps produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts."

In the mainstream press and the global corporate world, cryptocurrency is reviled. It is hated. Its users are thought to be straight trash. Don’t ever forget that. That it derives from distinctly polemical anarchists who were bent on leaving government forms of money makes it all the worse. There is absolutely no reason for the financial system undergirding media and business, insulated and protected by the status quo, to do anything other than what they’re doing: portray cryptocurrency as a plaything for geeks, drug losers, and terrorists. And they have some legitimate arguments: 90% of the projects taking advantage of the buzzword "blockchain" in order to make money. Despite triggering a quick pump in the share price of several companies, the practice of companies attempting to cultivate an exaggerated or fraudulent association with distributed ledger technology has resulted in little more than an increase in the scrutiny and suspicion with which the mainstream markets treat publicly listed crypto companies. Kelso and Matt discuss the hype and try to make sense of it all.

Without a doubt, exchanges, or banks, such as San Francisco based Coinbase have onboarded more folk to cryptocurrencies than any other. Ease of use. Frictionless transactions. At the same time, hacks, flash crashes, government raids and lawsuits are ongoing issues for centralized crypto exchanges. Bank of America recently admitted to doctoring paperwork on over 16 million market orders from institutional clients, claiming to have immediately executed their orders while actually routing these orders to other firms before executing them. If P2P decentralized exchanges take over, it could change the world as we know it.

We are bullish on file storage using the blockchain. The cloud is just someone else's computer. And you are susceptible to others accessing your data (see Dropbox hack) A blockchain solution would empower decentralized end-users: files are encrypted, distributed, and then distributed in redundancy all around the world. You’re the only person who can access your files. Not even someone hosting your files can get to them, theoretically.   

Religion has always been very top-down, and for good reason. We explore the idea of religion without a central authority. Scripture = Ledger? Matt Liston and Avery Singer made a blockchain-based religion called Zero Ex Omega. Their first totemic object is a narwhal with a doge head, and their place of worship is a chat room. Tying it all together, the Bitcoin world has its own remnants of religious themes and figures.

This is an episode that sounds like a Sci-Fi movie. But it is (eventually) going to happen and that is very exciting! Imagine a world where anyone can become a market maker; profit from information and knowledge you have. We have people who call themselves experts and we really don’t know … prediction markets will have a radical impact on the way we consume media. Journalism, global warming, business, politics .. all will be affected.

What if we could organize property titles to a blockchain? Tokenize real estate all over the world? In Haiti, the disastrous earthquake in 2010 had a destructive effect on the land registry: approximately 16,000 civil servants were killed and an unknown number of title deeds and land registry records were destroyed. To this day, land ownership issues are still unsolved. Very few of us can afford an apartment in San Fran or Hong Kong, but what if we could invest just a few hundred dollars? Fraud and Cybersecurity Vulnerabiliies   Lack of International Standards Lack of Liquidity Lack of Transparency    

In 2017, Global Financial Integrity estimated the global drug industry added up to $652 billion of trade per year, making it the second biggest underground market after the $1.13 trillion of activity in the counterfeit and pirated goods market. When you add in the domestic and household economy of the world’s households, the subsistence economy, the barter economy, the volunteer economy, the “under the table” economy, the criminal economy and a few other smaller players, you get something that adds up to 3/4 of the world’s total economic activity. The formal economy – the territory of professional and paid work, of tax statements and GDP – is only 1/4 of the world’s total economic activity. In short, "black markets" make the world go round. What role will anonymous cryptocurrencies and decentralized marketplaces play in our transition to the information age?

Stuart tells us some stories about Scotland's pride: Buckfast tonic wine, which is prone to causing poor behavior. From there, we tackle: The traditional wine market: the exporter, the importer, the distributor, the store, the customer ... a long supply chain that can be improved to be more efficient How feasible is it to move away from in person purchases to online with wine? Baby boomers and millennials, their impact in the current industry Avoiding fraud with blockchain technology: the corks and their fingerprint The potential to decentralize trust in supply chains and bring measurable benefits and value to the public and private sectors. Projects trying to be the solution: Vechain and “My story” app, for eliminating counterfeit VINX, wine futures for giving to consumers a pull or a discount to buy in

Today we are talking about a complex, important industry: Healthcare. It is especially poor in the United States, so we invited an expert: Ryan Kuriakose of the Open Health Exchange. Ryan and I talk about the challenges of the current ecosystem and examine where blockchain tech may be able to help: Lowering costs Data efficiency and control the Big Pharma industry Help for the underinsured Service providers and the middlemen Regulatory issues Blockchain opportunities in the industry: peer to peer, logistics, empowerment and control of patient data The Open Health Exchange, Ryan's platform Why are prescription drugs so expensive? Why does everyone HAVE to have insurance? In the future, will Peer to Peer healthcare become a dominating force?

Crowdfunding emerged after the 2008 financial crisis in response to the difficulties faced by early-stage enterprises attempting to generate marketing traction and funding. Crowdfunding allows nonprofits, artists, musicians and businesses to form a community of investors and/or fanbase before they launch. Is blockchain the next level? We have a look at ICOs. Can we democratize funding for everything?

Bonus interview: Matt speaks with Jared Tate, founder of DigiByte. Jared is arguably the world's leading expert on blockchain technology. Jared talks about blockchain and it's role for the future: Cybersecurity Insurance International Trade Identity China's "One Belt, One Road" He also has a book coming out with a title that hits close to home: Blockchain 2035

To close out season 1, we will be talking about the original and most popular blockchain use: currency.  Remember, the word "blockchain" came from Satoshi's orginal whitepaper on Bitcoin. Can "digital money" disrupt state-backed currencies like the U.S. Dollar? We look at the impact of cryptocurrency in developing countries and corrupt governments. How is blockchain changing the current industry? Unprecedented speed, low fees, remittance (Intl) payments, and censorship resistance.