Curious is an exploration of the narratives - spoken or unspoken - that shape our lives, our institutions, and even future technologies. Each season, we release about 15 episodes on a particular topic - from Cryptocurrency to Storytelling. We explore the contexts, histories, and people that are sh…
In this episode, we talk with Thomas France - the founder of Ledger Wallet, which has quickly become one of the most popular hardware wallets in the world. Thomas is an entrepreneur who has focused all of his time and attention the past few years on Ledger, including issues of security and user experience. In today’s episode, we discuss: Thomas’s early forays into cryptocurrency. Why security is inherently tough in cryptocurrency. What you should be thinking about, no matter how you store your crypto. Ease-of-use and how to make storage and security simpler for everyone. The current state of the cryptocurrency world in terms of adoption and growth. The post S01E12: Smarter Security and Precaution in Cryptocurrency with Thomas France appeared first on CURIOUS.
In this episode, we chat with Brad Mills - currently an advisor to the ICO portfolio team at Alphabit, an actively managed cryptocurrency fund. Brad is an entrepreneur who’s been a bitcoin evangelist and algorithmic trader since 2011, and today, he talks a lot about how he sees cryptocurrency evolving and what that means for smart investing: How to think about cryptocurrency investing short-term versus long-term. ICOs and how to judge them. The sometimes ugly politics of cryptocurrency. Staying centered in a sea of uncertainty, volatility, and hype. The post S01E11: ICOs, FOMO, and the Promise and Hype of Cryptocurrency with Brad Mills appeared first on CURIOUS.
Mt. Gox – a one-time cryptocurrency exchange – was founded in 2010. By early 2014 – a short 4 years, Mt. Gox was processing about 70% of all bitcoin transactions in the world. And while everyone noticed how much Mt Gox had grown, something else happened between 2011 and 2014 that nobody noticed. Starting in […] The post S01E10: The Perils and Promises of Investing in Cryptocurrency with Teddy Wayne appeared first on CURIOUS.
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have an awesome conversation with Jack Gavigan, who is the COO of Z-Cash and someone who’s been at the intersection of tech and finance for a long time (he’s worked at Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, & Lloyds, to name just a few places he’s landed during […] The post S01E09: Investment, Finance, and Privacy in the Blockchain with Jack Gavigan appeared first on CURIOUS.
In 1660, Prince Rupert traveled to England from his home in Germany. Like many noblemen of his time, Prince Rupert was seemingly related to almost everyone else in the nobility – so despite being a German prince, he was also a nephew of the English king. And so – while in England, the German prince […] The post S01E08: Investment, Speculation, and The Future of Cryptocurrency with Spencer Bogart appeared first on CURIOUS.
On Halloween Day in 2017, executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter sat in front of a group of US Senators and were grilled for hours about how they allowed disinformation and Russian ads to be shown to some 126 million people. But while this question about Russian ads might be important, it’s also very limited […] The post S01E07: The Philosophy and Ethics of Cryptocurrency and the Blockchain with Dmitry Buterin appeared first on CURIOUS.
If we want to be smarter about cryptocurrency, to make better long-term decisions, we need a map showing us where we’ve come from so that we can see where we’re headed. Really, there are 3 histories - 3 stories - that show us not only how cryptocurrency has come about - but more importantly where it’s likely headed. The post S01E06: Cryptocurrency – How’d We Get Here and Why Now? appeared first on CURIOUS.
I’m joined today by Arvind Narayanan, an assistant professor at Princeton University, who is an assistant professor at Princeton and an affiliate scholar at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He’s well know for his work on privacy, security, and de-anonymization, and he’s one of the foremost scholars on privacy and security in cryptocurrency and the blockchain. In this episode, we cover… * What led Arvind to become so fascinated with privacy and de-anonymization. * How the public - and even experts - dramatically underestimate the ability to take “anonymous” data and link it back to identities through relatively simple processes. * The fragility of privacy. * The vast amount of data leaks even in cryptocurrencies. * The limitations of smart contracts. * Current and potential future societal impacts of blockchain technology. * Why some technology threats are vastly over-examined and others are ignored. The post S01E05 – Privacy, Security, and the Blockchain (Arvind Narayanan) appeared first on CURIOUS.
We can’t fully imagine all of the ways that cryptocurrency - or any other technology - might change our lives. Nonetheless, it’s a question worth asking, perhaps especially if it means that many aspects of finance and other areas of our life might be reinvented. And in this episode, we discuss: * Current and potential future use cases for blockchain and cryptocurrency; * Ways it Cryptocurrency is impacting and will impact the world - particularly how that will vary according to location and circumstance; * Blockchain applications outside of finance; * The biggest ways cryptocurrency will affect a person’s day-to-day life; * How one cryptocurrency is revolutionizing the way that micro-financing is apportioned and secured (FoxCon); * The Gartner Technology Hype Curve and trough of despair as it relates to cryptocurrency; * Potential barriers to wide-scale adoption of cryptocurrency. The post S01E04 – How Cryptocurrency Will Be Used in the Future (Bernard Golden) appeared first on CURIOUS.
In this episode, I’m joined by Bernard Golden and Arvind Narayanan to discuss some of the deeper technologies underlying cryptocurrencies. This includes discussions of… * The basics and history of modern cryptography. * What’s the best way for explaining the technology and importance of bitcoin and blockchain? * Mining - How does the blockchain securely record transactions without high risk of hacking or fraud? * Is it important for more people to better understand the technical side of cryptocurrency? * What are the biggest advantages to a global distributed ledger? * What’s a good basic explanation of hash functions and hash pointers? * In asymmetrical cryptography, how is anyone able to verify a digital signature without a private key? The post S01E03 – How Does Cryptocurrency Work? (Part 2) – with Bernard Golden & Arvind Narayanan appeared first on CURIOUS.
In this episode, my producer, Heather, and I discuss some basic questions about how cryptocurrency really works… * What is a blockchain, and how does it get stored? * Who are miners, and how do they get rewarded for good behavior? * How does the protocol for a cryptocurrency control the transactions that occur or don’t occur? * Do we need tokens for all cryptocurrencies? * Why is cryptocurrency even potentially better than the money we have right now? The post S01E02 – How Does Cryptocurrency Work? (Part 1) appeared first on CURIOUS.
Beyond the hype, does cryptocurrency hold actual promise or value? At its most basic level, cryptocurrency is built to alter the way that money and currency work. It might do much more, but how and why it might fulfill this original promise is the more fundamental and interesting question. In this episode: * Digitization of Trust * Brief History of Money * The Hidden Costs of Shared Belief * The Obvious Costs of Security and Stability * Why and How Cryptocurrency Might Digitize Trust * What Digitization of Trust Would Allow The post S01E01 – Does Cryptocurrency Matter At All? appeared first on CURIOUS.