The Decentralists

Pavel Durov is a Russian business executive and entrepreneur serving as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the secure messaging service, Telegram since 2013. Telegram is basically the WhatsApp if Eastern Europe.Along with his brother Nikolai Durov, he founded the social network VKontakt, a Russian version of Facebook, in 2006, which quickly became the most popular social network in Russia before founding Telegram in 2013 and leaving Russia for Dubai.As of 25 August 2024, Durov was the 120th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $15.5 billion, according to Forbes largely driven by his ownership of Telegram. On 24 August 2024 Durov was arrested on criminal charges relating to an alleged lack of content moderation on Telegram and refusal to work with police, which allowed the spread of criminal activity.  To this day, Durov remains in custody in France.What's next for Pavel Durov?  Should he be on the Russian sanctions list? Tune in as the Decentralists discuss Durov, Telegram and Ukraine.

It's time for yet another Hot Topix involving everyone's favourite Billionaire nemesis, Elon Musk.For those of you who have been living under a rock, Elon Musk is a South Africa-born, American tech entrepreneur who made his initial fortune co-founding and then selling the online payment platform PayPal. With his millions from PayPal, Musk embarked on a Howard Hughes like adventure, taking whacky ideas from the fringes, electric cars and colonising Mars and made them mainstream with Tesla and SpaceX. Like Hughes, Musk has amassed a ridiculous fortune from his crazy ideas and also like Hughes, the money and fame seems to have gone to his head. Howard Hughes made his fortune from Oil wells in Texas and decided to build the Spruce Goose, the largest airplane ever built that flew once for a grand total of 30 seconds before being turned into a museum. Elon turned his passion for snide commentary and provoking the government in rants to his 200 million Twitter followers into a $44 billion bid to take Twitter private, change the name to X and turn it into a free speech platform.Howard Hughes ended up living in Las Vegas hotel penthouse refusing to cut his toenails and drinking his own Urine, Musk has become a big supporter of Donald Trump's third bid to become President of the United States.Just like Michael Corleone said in the Godfather part 3 "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!", the Decentralists are back talking about Elon Musk. Tune in to this episode of Hot Topix to find out why?

The war in Ukraine is at a stalemate and a ‘new' conflict has exploded in Gaza occupying the world's attention. Partisan politics has tied up American funding in Washington, and Ukrainians are freezing in the dead of winter. To make matters worse, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are threatening the world more than ever before. There's a palpable sense that we're on the brink of something terrible, especially considering the spectre of a second Trump Presidency.To quote Malcolm Gladwell, the war in Ukraine is a tipping point. What's really at stake in Ukraine? Tune into this episode of The Decentralists to find out.

It has now been a little over six months since Meta rolled out "Threads" - Their supposed X (Formerly known as Twitter) killer.  Like Twitter, Threads is available as both an app and a desktop client, and it offers users the ability to post and share short text posts, images, and videos, as well as interact with other users' posts through replies, "reposts," and likes. Current estimates put total Threads users at around 160 Million accounts.The path that Threads is following is littered with has-beens, wannabes and hand-wringing venture capitalists - Gab, Truth Social, Parler, GETTR, Bluesky... And that's just the ones we can think of.Is Threads going to leave X hanging on by a thread? Does microblogging have a future? Tune in to this episode of The Decentralists to find out.

On October 7th, full scale war broke out in Gaza between Hamas, a terrorist group and Israel. Thousands of rockets from Gaza pounded Israeli settlements killing 1200 people, Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed tens of thousands. The Israel / Hamas war has taken public attention away from the frozen conflict in Ukraine just as Winter sets in.  Is the Israel / Hamas war a coincidence or is there someone in the background pulling the strings? Tune in to this episode of The Decentralists as Henry, Mike and Geoff discuss some interesting coincidences that point to the Kremlin.

In October 2022, Elon Musk spent $44 billion buying Twitter which he subsequently renamed "X". Musk's purchase of Twitter took almost a year as the drama played out in front of our eyes. Elon first went public in early 2022, ironically on Twitter with a public spat with founder Jack Dorsey over what her perceived as a lack of free speech on the platform. When Jack didn't take the bait, Musk upped the ante by declaring that if he couldn't get satisfaction, he would buy Twitter and do it himself. This is our third podcast on the Twitter drama and given recent events on X, it might be our last as Musk's anti-semiticrants have driven adverstisers away in droves and revenue has tanked.What are Elon's plans for X (formerly Twitter)?  Does he even have a plan? Tune into this episode of The Decentralists to find out just how badly Elon could mess up X (formerly know as Twitter)

International momentum is growing to seize Russian state assets, including central bank reserves to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine. Otherwise, western taxpayers will end up footing the bill.Canada leads the world with Senator Ratna Omidvar's recent amendment to the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) allowing the seizure of Russian state assets and private assets to rebuild Ukraine. Other countries are poised to follow suit, but there's concern that seizing assets could lead to a loss of leverage with Russia in terms of pressuring Putin to end the war.On this episode of The Decentralists we speak with Peace Coalition members, Dr. Jon Unruh and our very own Mike Cholod about their recent Opinion piece in The Conversation.Will seizing state assets discourage Russia from ending the war? Or is it a new tool for peace-making? Join the Decentralists with special guest Jon Unruh to find out.

After being summoned by the Government of Canada, Mike's about to walk into several meetings with some of the highest-ranking officials and Ministers in Ottawa. Learn all the details including ‘what it's really like' within the hallowed halls of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill. Mike was rather surprised!Please join us to learn who's involved, what was discussed, and the next steps to move forward on this episode of The Decentralists.

After more than nine months, Mike is back in Canada. Why? Well, he was summoned by the Government of Canada. An influential Member of Parliament and a well-respected Senator have heard about the unique plan to rebuild Ukraine that The Peace Coalition has developed, and they want to talk.Please join us to learn who's involved, what was discussed, and the next steps to move forward on this episode of The Decentralists.

The war in Ukraine is not just a physical war of tanks, trenches, artillery and attrition. It's also being fought across the Internet on the social media front line and deep within the darkweb where armies of hackers from both sides fight a brutal cyberwar. Sometimes these electronic battles erupt into the daylight with both horrendous and hilarious results. Are there legitimate reasons to train national cyber-soldiers - a professional army of hacktivists? Find out what we've discovered in Ukraine on this episode of The Decentralists.

Ukrainian people are very technically sophisticated, especially in the big cities like Kyiv and Lviv. Evenryone has the latest iPhone compete with air buds. You can order, pay and tip at every restaurant by scanning a QR code at your table. Banking is virtual and people pay and transfer money by sharing credit card numbers and tapping Apple Pay. Hungry? Glovo will deliver in the middle of an air raid and Uber, Uklon or Bolt will pick you up and drive you anywhere in Kyiv anytime.How did Ukraine become such a technically sophisticated nation? Tune in to the latest  episode of the Decentralists to find out.

Ukrainians routinely complain about paying extra fees for expedited processing of documents, or to have a plumber repair their toilet. Kyiv is littered with unfinished apartment buildings because developers skim so much from the construction funds that the structure cannot be finished. Doing business in Ukraine is challenging and it's not just because of the illegal Russian invasion. For decades corruption has been a reality. Is corruption inevitable in post-soviet countries? What effect could corruption have on Ukraine's recovery and rebuilding after the war? And how can it be eradicated?Find out on this episode of the Decentralists.

WIRED recently published an explosive article The Kremlin has Entered your Telegram Chat, regarding the experience of Russian rights activist Marina Matsapulina. Matsapulina, like most Russians and indeed most Ukrainians, was using the globally-popular Russian-developed Telegram. Equivalent to the American WhatsApp, communicating through Telegram is touted as totally private and secure. So how did the Russian secret service know her every move?Is Telegram, the supposedly anti-authoritarian app co-founded by the mercurial Saint Petersburg native Pavel Durov, now doing the Kremlin's bidding? Or it is compromised because its servers are located in Dubai, a known friendly nation to Russian oligarchs and expats. Nearly everyone in Ukraine uses Telegram - an app created by a Russian in Russia. Should Ukrainians switch to WhatsApp? Listen to this episode of the Decentralists to learn more.

We came to Ukraine because we felt our mobile app could be incredibly helpful to refugees. Many agreed, so we redesigned it to enable displaced people to securely & privately report details of damage or destruction of their home, land and property (HLP). Ukraine must find an efficient way to document and process the expected millions of rebuilding claims, even from those who may not have a property deed or other formal proof of occupancy. Furthermore, political agreement and precedent must be established to seize Russian assets, leading to a legal mechanism to forfeit them and apply the funds to the rebuilding of Ukraine.No organization exists to confront these political & legal challenges or to manage such a daunting task. Until now: The Peace Coalition. Join the Decentralists to learn how technology and policy can unite to rebuild Ukraine.

It's not easy traveling to Ukraine during wartime with multiple flights and a 24-hour train ride from Warsaw, but it's certainly an adventure. You'll find that Kyiv has every modern conveniece like ride-sharing, food delivery and digital government services. However, it also has daily air raid sirens, and deadly missile & drone attacks courtesy the Russian Federation. Most people speak English, restaurants are full and the bars make awesome cocktails, but a little anxiety is always palpable.Season 5 is all about Ukraine and its brave people so if you want to stay informed, listen to The Decentralists. Mike's now been living in Kyiv for nearly six months. What's life really like in a war zone? Have a listen and find out.

It's been three months since we last released an episode of The Decentralists and for that we apologise. However, we have a pretty good excuse. Mike went to Kyiv for two weeks in early August on a mission for our non-profit, The Peer Social Foundation. He's still there - deeply involved in planning the country's recovery with the brave people of Ukraine. What the heck are the Decentralists doing in Ukraine? How do you even get there? What's life really like in a war zone?Please have a listen – there's much more to come…

Palantir, Clearview A.I., NSO Group, maker of the infamous Pegasus spyware, Anomaly 6 and Zignal are a few examples of private companies that offer to spy on anyone for a price.  Anomaly 6, a mobile phone spyware solution set up by 2 former NSA military intelligence officers, can track roughly 3 billion devices in real time, equivalent to a fifth of the world's population. Zignal Labs, a social media monitoring firm that leverages its access to Twitter's rarely granted “firehose” data stream to sift through hundreds of millions of tweets per day without restriction.With their powers combined, A6 proposed, Zignal's corporate and governmental clients could not only surveil global social media activity, but also determine who exactly sent certain tweets, where they sent them from, who they were with, where they'd been previously, and where they went next. This enormously augmented capability would be an obvious boon to both regimes keeping tabs on their global adversaries and companies keeping tabs on their employees. These firms represent a burgeoning new private military-grade surveillance industry and it is targeted at us!Is this the beginning of surveillance on demand? What can we do to prevent this type of surveillance from happening? Join the Decentralists this week and find out why hacking tools are available to the highest bidder and how anyone can hire their own Private Spy...for a price.

As reported by the BBC, Affinity Credit Union in Iowa has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple regarding its ‘closed' payment system, Apple Pay.The complaint alleges that Apple prevents consumers from using competing mobile wallets capable of offering competing tap and pay solutions. Affinity claims Apple charges banks and credit unions at least $1 billion in excess fees annually for the privilege of using Apple Pay. Is this surprising behaviour from Apple? Will Apple ever open its iOS ecosystem? Join The Decentralists as we discuss recipes for good ol' American Apple Pay.

The largest data breach in history just occurred in China. According to Reuters the "Databases contain information on one billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records, including: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details.”Apparently, the hacker “China Dan” is willing to sell the database for the relatively low sum of $200,000. At that price, many people and numerous governments could very soon own information on nearly every person in China.State censorship is working overtime to remove all mentions of the hack from the Chinese Internet, and the government is warning people and business to pay more attention to security. Is this hack legitimate? What happens next? What will China do? There's lots to discuss on this week's episode of The Decentralists!

As we mused back in April on The Musk Stops Here, Elon Musk has not followed through on his promise to buy Twitter. Three months later, Musk has rescinded his purchase offer for the agreed upon $44 billion. Musk and Twitter are gearing up for a colossal legal battle in the Chancery Court of Delaware.What happened? Can Elon just change his mind like a pair of socks? What about the fallout for shareholders of Twitter and Tesla? We have lots to unpack regarding the latest Musk drama on this week's episode of The Decentralists.

research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum. Our special guest is Yuliya Panfil, a senior fellow and director of New America's Future of Land and Housing program.Two billion people—over a quarter of the world's population—lack a fundamental human right: the right to property. This isn't solely a problem in the developing world; nearly five million Americans lose their homes through eviction and mortgage foreclosure every year.How can decentralized technology help document HLP claims, and could this reduce future conflicts? Join the Decentralists with special guest Yuliya Panfil to find out.

To paraphrase Jonathan Haight from his recent article in the Atlantic, WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID, the proverbial tower of Babel has fallen and we barely noticed. Social Media has fragmented our societies, effected our mental health, and undermined our democracies.The switch to an algorithm-based advertising model and the billions of daily ‘likes' and ‘retweets' have caused the collapse of our previously fairly civil society in just ten short years.On this episode, the Decentralists discuss Johnathan Haight's undeniable evidence that social media is responsible for the decline of our society and democracy since 2012. However, we believe there's a solution: Decentralization.

Human-rights rights group Global Witness recently revealed that Facebook pushes climate sceptics towards increasingly extreme disinformation and conspiracy groups. The researchers created two users - climate sceptic "Jane", and "John" who followed established scientific information. They then tracked what Facebook's algorithm suggested to both accounts.Jane soon saw content denying man-made climate change, including pages calling it a "hoax" and attacking measures to mitigate its effects. Meanwhile, John's account began by liking the page of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations scientific body. In stark contrast to Jane, John was consistently shown reliable science-based content.Why are algorithms so important to Social Media companies? Is there anyone in control of them?On this episode, the Decentralists discuss the yin & yang of algorithms including why they are so powerful and important for both social media companies and users.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps are increasingly popular in countries like Russia and China. Clearly there are millions interested in circumventing their government's efforts to censor and control free speech on the Internet. This is certainly admirable, but at what cost?The Internet is actually surprisingly easy to filter and block, so censoring citizens is a breeze. We see the truth regarding the unjust war in Ukraine, yet Russian newsfeeds present a completely different story to every person connected in Russia.  Why is it so easy to filter and block the Internet, and are VPNs a safe way to avoid cyber censorship? Join The Decentralists this week to find out.

Last week Elon Musk purchased 9% of Twitter's stock for $3 billion. This makes him the company's largest single shareholder. Then he announced his intention to take a seat on Twitter's board of directors - and then he changed his mind. Electric cars, satellites, hyperloops, rockets, and now Elon Musk can count social media as one of his expensive hobbies. What does this mean for the future of Twitter and social media in general?Why does Elon Musk want to own Twitter? Join us this week as The Decentralists try to understand his motivation to control what manybelieve is the world's most powerful social media network.

The EU has recently proposed a new law to increase competition in cyberspace. Called the "Digital Markets Act" or "DMA", it applies to the world's largest tech companies providing what are called "core platform services", such as social networks and search engines. Companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and even that darling of Europe, Spotify.While the EU has pretty strict privacy laws, their enforcement and fines have been pretty toothless. In many cases companies like Facebook have simply paid the fines with money they've found under their lunchroom couch cushions and just carried on.This new law proposes sanctions that are far more painful. Fines as high as 10% of global annual sales, or even 20% for repeat offenders.The DMA sounds great on paper but could it actually pass, or even impact Internet users in North America? The DMA is a big deal, and The Decentralists explain why in this episode.

Incredibly and unjustifiably, Ukraine is being destroyed by Russian soldiers, artillery and tanks that look more like a 1942 newsreel than a 2022 newsfeed. However, today both sides are also armed with instant messaging and social media.Please join us as Mike & Henry discuss Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mastery of digital media, Vladimir Putin's reaction, and how this affects the ten million displaced Ukrainians and global perceptions.Is there hope for the millions of brand-new refugees who've lost absolutely everything? The Decentralists believe that cutting-edge technology and mobile phones can create a digital resurrection for refugees and help them reclaim their Home, Land & Property (HLP).

This week on The Decentralists we have a very special guest: Dr. Victoria Lemieux, Associate Professor of Archival Science, and Founder of the Blockchain Faculty at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Vicki's research is focused the availability of trustworthy records. In particular, blockchain record keeping systems, and how these risks impact transparency, financial stability, public accountability and even human rights.Join us as The Decentralists discuss Data Unions with Dr. Lemieux and learn what they really are, and why they're such an important component of the blockchain ecosystem.

Who knew a 15 second video of someone doing a goofy dance move would be such a popular way to ‘get social' online? From these humble beginnings, TikTok has grown into a a bona-fide global social media phenomenon. To put the TikTok phenomenon in perspective, TikTok got more Internet traffic than Google in 2021 and Google handles almost every Internet search!But this success comes at a very high price.How can any social media company like TikTok or the ‘next TikTok' even consider getting into a business where moderation is a necessity for every post? Join the Decentralists this week as we talk TikTok

The Chinese government has been getting tough with Tech lately, especially Chinese tech firms. Starting with the effective neutering of Alibaba founder Jack Ma a few years back, the Chinese government has been putting increased regulations in place and issuing vague guidelines in an effort to assert more control over the population.Kids are limited in how much time they are allowed to play on-line games like Fortnite, social media companies need to ensure nothing is said against the Communist Party and online tutoring companies have even bid forbidden to make money! The Chinese Uber, Didi is even being forced to de-list from the NASDAQ just a few months after their much anticipated Public listing just to get their App back in the App Store.Government intervention in China has lost Chinese tech companies and their investors over $1 Trillion.In one of the most dangerous moves yet, recently, the government announced that they were stepping in to take control of the mobile app approval and listing process for Tencent.Join us as the Decentralists talk about the 'other' Great Wall of China!

We have been ringing alarm bells about invasive surveillance technologies like facial recognition and electronic surveillance in multiple blog posts and podcast episodes over the years. Two of the biggest offenders, Clearview AI and NSO Group have come under a lot of fire recently and are getting banned and sued as a result.Clearview AI and NSO Group's technology was allegedly built to enable legitimate law-enforcement and government to do their jobs, what happened?Should hackers be allowed to create private companies out of their technology and market to the highest bidder?Join us on this episode of The Decentralists as we discuss hacker technology and how our governments and law enforcement makes them legit.

To open Season 4 of The Decentralists we are joined by a very special guest, Dr. Agnieszka Rychwalska, Assistant Professor of Psychology and researcher at the Center for Complex Systems and New Technologies at The Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw. Among other things, Dr. Rychwalska studies the application of complex systems in psychological and social processes (modelling and analysis of social networks, experimental study of social impact mechanisms, analysis of large data sets from social networks mediated by new technologies), in particular to study the impact of new information technologies on social processes. Data accumulation by a few global actors, surveillance capitalism and manipulation of public opinion – all leading to greater social inequalities – are, in a way, a result of the fact that individuals share so much about themselves online. Is this a result of some unchangeable human trait? Or is Big Tech, forcing their users to divulge too much about themselves in order to make money from advertising? Why do people seem so willing to share so much of their identity online, especially on social media platforms? What are the dangers of creating multiple identity profiles online in order to be social with friends and family? Join us this week for part one of a discussion about the psychology of identity and why it is important for all of us to understand who we are and how we identify ourselves online.

2021 was a good year but also a bad year for cryptocurrencies.On January 1st 2021, Bitcoin was trading for approximately USD $29000 per coin and its value has more than doubled over the year reaching USD $66000 at one point. Bitcoin's largest ‘competitor' , Ethereum, has been on an even better run in '21 starting the year at USD $737 per token and hitting a high of USD $4800 - a 6.5x increase.These types of returns would make any investment manager blush yet crypto still struggles to go mainstream, why?Join the Decentralists as we explain why cryptocurrencies could be a risk for everyone!

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter recently announced that he was resigning as CEO of Twitter - again. This is not the first time Jack has departed Twitter's CEO role, but at least this time it was his choice, apparently.Just like Steve Jobs when he was ousted as the CEO at Apple, Jack again proved his tech visionary credentials by forming the online payments firm, Square (now named Block).Unlike Steve Jobs however, Jack Dorsey will not oversee the potential renaissance of Twitter…but maybe that's a good thing.Why did Jack Dorsey resign from Twitter? Will this time be the last time? Henry, Mike and Geoff have a few ideas.

Great ideas can be Game Changers and we talk to the people who made them great!On this episode of The Decentralists we speak with Scott Chu, a 2nd year Masters student in Management Information Systems at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. Scott's research interests are focused on investigating how organizations can harness advances in technology to realize certain business benefits. His research as an intern with Manyone this past summer, involved comparing annual financial performance measures between firms that experienced different types of data breaches, to highlight problems that blockchain technology could solve. How much could a credential-based data breach cost your company? and how decentralized, user-centric identity and access could reduce your risk?Scott's final research report, Evaluating the Financial Impact of Data Breaches Involving Account Credentials, is available for viewing from the Peer Social and Manyone websites under a new content category we call  Game Changers.

Great ideas can be Game Changers and we talk to the people who made them great!On this episode of The Decentralists we speak with Sadaf Ahmadbeigi, a candidate for Dual Master of Archival Studies and Library and Information Studies, class of 2022. Sadaf is a recipient of the current Association of Research Libraries/Society of American Archivist - Mosaic Award, for their leadership role in gathering and processing oral history accounts from queer Iranian communities.As a member of the Blockchain Faculty at UBC, Sadaf is exploring ways to guarantee safety and transparency of personal identities and records in an ever-rising number of unstable states and economies worldwide.Many human rights organizations including the UN, are searching for a way to document identity, possessions and return a sense of dignity and stability to refugees after they've fled a broken homeland. Sadaf and The Peer Social Foundation believe this can be accomplished by utilizing the inherent trust, traceability and immutability of blockchain technology. Sadaf's whitepaper, Trusted Records in Tapestry Approach: A Background Study to Inform System Design is available for viewing and download from the Peer Social and Manyone websites under a new content category we call Game Changers.

The Decentralists are introducing a new segment called Game Changers. Great ideas can be Game Changers and we will talk to the people who made them great!On this episode we talk with Ali Farahbakhsh, Master of Applied Science student at the University of British Columbia. Ali has dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, with a broad range of research interests including: Communication networks, information theory, and distributed systems. This past summer, Ali was a research Intern with the Peer Social Foundation, designing a purpose-built blockchain for digital identity using a new, self-sovereign consensus model.   Ali's whitepaper, Self-Sovereign Identity Based on Blockchain -  A Design Roadmap is available for viewing from the Peer Social and Manyone websites, under a new content category, Game Changers.

This week on The Decentralists we have a very special guest, Dr. Jon Unruh, Transitional Justice advocate and Associate Professor of Geography at McGill University in Montreal. Dr. Unruh has over 25 years' experience in developing and implementing research, policy and practice on war-affected land and property rights in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia - and has published widely on these topics. His specialty is housing, land and property (or HLP) restitution claims in war-affected scenarios. Most recently, he has assisted the UN in HLP restitution programs in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Syria and Yemen; and he's currently working on a digital media approach for mass HLP restitution claims for refugees and internally dislocated persons in Syria and Iraq.What Transitional Justice and what role does it play in helping displaced people and refugees?What is Home Land and Property data? and why is documenting it so critical to refugees and displaced people? Join us the week for an engaging and illuminating discussion about Transitional Justice and why it is important to healing the wounds of war.* in this episode we call it Home LIFE and Property data, our apologies but after listening to this episode you might agree with us that HLP is more about life than just land.

Dr. Nigel Dodd is Professor in the Sociology Department at the London School of Economics. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1991 on the topic of Money in Social Theory, and lectured at the University of Liverpool before joining the LSE in 1995. Nigel's main interests are the sociology of money, economic sociology, and classical and contemporary social thought. He's the author of The Sociology of Money and Social Theory and Modernity. His most recent book, The Social Life of Money, was published by Princeton University Press in September of 2014. Professor Dodd currently teaches courses at the LSE at the Masters level in Classical, Modern and Contemporary Social Thought, and co-founded the MSc in Economy, Risk and Society.How can Sociology help us better understand traditional money, and its digital counterpart, Cryptocurrency? Join us on this episode of The Decentralists as we explore what money means to society - and what cryptocurrencies mean to money.

A little over a year ago on The Decentralists - Store Wars, we talked about the looming legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, maker of Fortnite.  In a high profile trial, Epic Games had challenged the up-to-30% cut Apple takes from purchases - and argued that the App Store was monopolistic. Epic games declared victory when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers Issued a permanent injunction, stating that Apple could no longer prohibit developers linking to their own purchasing mechanisms.Apple also claimed victory when the Judge ruled that with the evidence provided, the court could not consider Apple a monopolistEpic is appealing the decision.What does this decision mean for iPhone users and for Epic?  In this episode The Decentralists will unpack this decision and explain why it might be the beginning of the end of the App Store monopolies.

ProtonMail is a a secure, end-to-end encrypted email service developed by a group of scientists working at CERN in Switzerland. On their website, ProtonMail touts that their servers are located in Switzerland, and therefore subject to very strict Swiss privacy laws, as the primary reason to pay for the service.ProtonMail is used by journalists, whistle blowers and activists all over the world precisely because its is secure, private and untraceable.Until recently that is.Russell Brandom from the Verge recently exposed a flaw in the ProtonMail business model and it was those same pesky Swiss privacy laws that supposedly guaranteed their privacy. Why is this such a big deal for Proton Mail users?  The Decentralists will explain on this week's episode.

This week we are joined by Julian Zawstowski, a decentralized systems visionary and entrepreneur, and founder of the Golem Foundation. Located in Warsaw, Poland, Julian and his colleagues at the Golem Foundation are engaged in a number of projects that democratize access to computing, breakdown corporate data silos, and strengthen the position of individual users vis-à-vis service providers.  Julian and his colleagues at the Golem Foundation are cutting edge Decentralists advocating for a new proof of use model call the User Defined Organization. Their first practical application, Wildland, is a distributed file sharing protocol currently in Proof of Concept.Please join us on this episode of The Decentralists as we explore making decentralization a practical reality for everyone.

We talk a lot about digital identity on The Decentralists. What is Identity? What makes Identity self-sovereign? Why is decentralized identity better than centralized like that offered by Single Sign-On? This week we talk about another important risk of centralized identity, the linking of personally identifiable data (PII). To put this important issue in context we have a couple of interesting examples in the news just this week Brian Barrett from WIRED reported on new dangers resulting from a breach of up to 100 Million user records at T-Mobile. Kim Lyons from The Verge reported that Tinder is going to start offering Identity verification to all it's users. These two reports may not appear to be similar, but Henry, Mike and Geoff do their best to explain .

This episode, we define Single sign-on (SSO) solutions for identity management, and we're thrilled to get some help from a very special guest. Dr. Geoffrey Goodell is a senior research associate in the financial computing and analytics group at the department of computer science at University College London. Furthermore, Dr. Goodell is the lead researcher at the Peer Social Foundation, our non-profit partner focused on education, research and open-source initiatives aimed at decentralizing identity and access for people, business and government.What exactly is Single sign-on and why do people use it?

This episode is all about Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), a topic that is near and dear to our hearts. Dr. Geoffrey Goodell, associate professor at UCL and research lead at The Peer Social Foundation join us to break down a difficult concept into something we can all understand.What is Self-Sovereign Identity and how is it different from traditional identity documents?

This episode of The Decentralists tackles a really popular topic, Blockchain.  Henry, Mike and Chris will break down blockchain into something that everyone can understand. It seems like everyone is talking about blockchain but do you really know what they are talking about?What is a blockchain and why is everyone freaking out about it?

Apple recently announced a new feature to be released in iOS 15 that would allow all photos stored on an iPhone and in iCloud to be scanned for child specific abusive material (CSAM). Theoretically Apple would be able to compare every iPhone photo to known CSAM material and identify people who create and share such villainous content.What's the big deal?  Why is Apple getting so much flack over this decision? On this episode of The Decentralists Henry, Mike and Geoff talk about Apple and their decision to join the rest of Big Tech in readily violating their user's privacy.Is this technology the back-door into iOS the swore they would never make?

Join us as Henry Mike and Chris chat about the Cloud. What exactly is the Cloud and why has it been such a great innovation to help the Internet grow?  Without the Cloud, the Internet would be much smaller and less accessible to people without computers but that conveniences comes at a cost.The Cloud is synonymous with using someone else's computer to host a service and the cost of using that computer is your data. Cloud services are not software, you don't own a Cloud-based service you rent it and in return for the convenience of accessing these services you may be giving up your identity and the ownership of your data.It's time we all understood the Cloud a bit better and The Decentralists will try our best to help explain. 

Bill C-10 is a proposed amendment to the Canadian Broadcasting Act, introduced on November 3, 2020 by Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault during the second session of the 43rd Canadian Parliament. The bill seeks to amend the Broadcasting Act to account for the increased prominence of internet video and digital media, by adding undertakings that conduct "broadcasting" over the internet to the regulatory scope of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Bill C-10 has faced criticism for granting a large amount of power to the CRTC, who are unelected regulators and receive very little guidance from Parliament or the government. Its unclear applicability to user-generated content on social media services has also faced concerns that it infringes freedom of expression. 

Over the past few weeks, we've heard a lot about malware. But what exactly is it? For example, major gasoline supplier Colonial Pipeline was shut down after it suffered a ransomware attack. Colonial reportedly paid $5 million in Bitcoin to a Russian hacker group called DarkSide.Why has there been so much malware lately? Hacking, phishing, ransomware, viruses: they're all different forms of malware, and they're all increasing. Businesses, governments, hospitals, and schools are being attacked with more victims each week.How do hackers turn our own data against us? What can we do about it?To fight malware, you must understand what it is, and what exactly is at risk.

As the Internet has grown and society has shifted from document-based identity to digital, social media has changed everything. Identity now equals influence.Many of us may not know our neighbours, but we know our status as social media tastemakers. We're foodies, fashionistas and technophiles. You can have any hobby and all of the sudden you have a community, and you may have incredible influence.