In this episode of Ventures we dive into all-things blockchains, the state of the crypto ecosystem, the evolution of the industry (especially since 2017), the nuances between Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-State, and the suite of services that Figment Networks provides. Guests: Lorien Gabel, Andrew Cronk, and Tony Little.
You can watch the video of this episode here.
This episode is both an introduction to the blockchain space (for those new), and a deep-dive into nuanced blockchain topics if you are an industry expert.
Below is a condensed overview of the topics covered, visit the episode page for the full notes.
8:47 - Question: Tell us more about Figment Networks. What is the story and what is the company up to?
11:20 - Backing up and getting more high-level, what is a blockchain?
16:20 - Lorien’s comment regarding blockchains as creating digital scarcity, and Tony’s followup comment regarding blockchains providing a source of truth, and who to “reward”.
17:06 - Will’s recollection of Tony’s Harry-Potter-esque description of blockchains replicating information across nodes.
18:14 - What is Proof-of-Work? Proof-of-Stake? Why do these matter in the blockchain ecosystem?
22:02 - The three layers of blockchains: networking, consensus, and changing application state.
22:49 - Blockchains can track other state changes besides payment transactions
21:20 - Tony’s comment regarding Proof-of-Work really being Proof-of-Stake indirectly within Proof-of-Work
25:40 - Is “decentralization” destined to simply recreate a different form of centralization again? How important is decentralization?
28:01 - What are the different components/players within the blockchain ecosystem today?
32:48 - Where does Figment Networks specifically contribute within the overall blockchain ecosystem?
36:19 - When starting up a new blockchain network, at what point should founders talk to Figment about helping out? How should founders think about the steps of building their networks?
37:40 - Staking Hub, a group for the validator community, and a place for network founders to recruit validators
38:22 - Figment has been up close and personal with 15+ network launches, what are best practices for launching a network?
40:35 - Problems with so many new networks coming out of academia and theory/research backgrounds.
41:18 - What has Tony seen on this topic with regard to enterprises bringing blockchains to market (built on technology like Hyperledger)?
45:05 - Enterprise consortiums vs. projects like Libra. How do they compare? How do token economics come into play, if at all?
46:59 - What are the big problems in the blockchain space?
49:59 - Why is governance participation so hard to encourage? Is there maybe not enough economic or social incentive at play in most networks?
54:38 - What problems exist currently in the blockchain ecosystem for decentralized application (dApp) developers?
58:04 - What is the Ethereum 1 to Ethereum 2 transition, and why is that important for the blockchain community?
1:11:20 - Where do you see the blockchain ecosystem heading? What sorts of things should we be looking out for in the future? How do you see Figment Networks playing a role?
1:17:40 - Livepeer as an example of how to create a utility at a lower cost using blockchains
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