Consensus 2016 bitcoin
Rising in search rankings. Talking about what makes Ethereum special and how smart contracts are killer app of blockchain. Usess example of automatic payment to dogwalker via a leash…. Current slide shows Linus Torvalds, Vitalik Buterin, and a question mark for Satoshi Nakamoto, talking about open source projects, painting Bitcoin as more troubled for lack of leader.
Compares blockchain to a Rorsarch test, people see different things within it. Noting diference between permissioned blockchains and permissionless ones. Showing slide of a matrix showing how some blockchains are platforms vs software vs public vs private.
Marco Santori on stage. Notes Delaware was very savvy as to how blockchains work very early on. Introduces Jack Markell, Delaware governor.
Jack joke-announces that he is Satoshi. Delaware is gold standard for company formation. Blockchain can eliminate counterparty risk and decrease costs, speed settlement and exchange more inexpensively. Regulation — Reflecting a regulatory reform effort. First state to create LLC. No immediate plans to regulate licensing of Blockchain businesses, they will observe to determine best practices.
Practical Needs of Businesses — Delaware blockchain will support new category of corporate shares: Allows immediate transactions of shares. Keep track of shareholder rights is normally frustrating and expensive.
They see their ledger a great answer. Aiding Companies to take advantage of all Delaware has to offer — Generally noting reason why Delaware is a good place for businesses. Just finished a little pow-wow with various Core devs as they assess the day so far and get on the same page on dealing with media and the upcoming panel with Gavin. Buterin is rocking his purple cat bag like a champ.
The event has begun. Moderation by Pindar Wong of VeriFi. I believe is without a reasonable doubt Satoshi Nakamoto. Vitalik says blockchains not like any other system.
Use analogy like English language required consensus or were developed by an institute, requiring agreement for new words, and then rvial insititutes forming. What is Bitcoin Core? Eric says, the open source softwar project that builds the backbone of the Bitcoin network.
Core trying to make a decentralized and compatible process to add new features without pushing people off network. Explaining benefits of segregated witness update that is coming soon.
Gavin notes there are roughly nodes not al running same software. Agrees with Eric that we need to get more serious about nailing down protocol definition.
She notes consensus alogrithms are not new, but using currency to secure open protocol is new and exciting. Buterin says their spec is in English, not code. Discussing interoperability of open and closed ledgers. Vitalik announces a smart contract that has some interoperability with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Can be done with any chain. Surprised how many alternatives exist to Bitcoin. Not surprised if tech from other chains ends up on Bitcoin anyway.
Pindar asking what community is doing to onboard new devs and people. Makes some digs about some efforts being controlled by boards and companies. I missed some of his comments, sry.
Vitalik says it expresses the difficulty of collusion. Jokes that Bitcoin mining is miners in china, almost like a chamber or House, with Core acting as another chamber.
Is anonymity worth sacrificing for convenience. A longer answer from Eric, noting how there are certain aspects you may want to reveal but should always be their own choice. What is downside of immutability. Gavin says it makes things easier for law enforcement. Vitalike says overseas that Mexico atm was able to tell him balance in pesos and realized that his canadian bank had to share that info to them and being surprised.
Future is bright, Gavin. Has huge faith in open process. Innovating is the key. Vitalik makes dogecoin joke. He notes there are many different processes, antifragility comes from the whole ecosystem. The more people we have doing different things the better progress wil be had.
Neha notes we are still early in these processes, but crypto and databases are old. We are making it cutting edge. There is a lot of excitment about closed blockchains, but they are missing the point Yes! We need to find ways to improve communications and do a better job getting everyone on same page, curing misinformation. We need to figure how we can find more services to build a more decentralized internet with proper incentives.
He feels like Wright is Satoshi. Says Craig had an opportunity to prove himself properly but instead he chose to take a blog post path and only show sig to selected people.
He said this fails signaling theory. Sorry for the break, had a long lunch various conversations about Bitcoin and Core, etc. Commenting on how Central Banks may issue digital currencies in the future as a tool to manage economy.
The industry today is full of young start-ups and enterprise experiments. Many are prototypes, and some have working proofs of concept that have performed well in particular conditions, at small scales, with limited markets. Bringing these to scale is going to take hard work. Bringing POCs to scale will also require hybrid blockchain solutions. Not enough people have hybrid solutions for that interim period.
Underlying many of these questions is whether start-ups can truly be disruptive. Meltem Demirors of DCG said they advise their companies to go talk to enterprise regulatory teams, because many of the giants in finance one of the most heavily regulated industries have entire divisions devoted to understanding the law. However, Catheryn Nicholson of BlockCypher warned and Meltem agreed against the danger of shoe-horning start-ups into existing enterprise processes.
Identity in modern society is a mess. We trust a variety of institutions to provide markers of our identity, including companies and government entities.
In some countries, government-issued passports are acceptable, while in others, such as South Africa, they are considered insecure and easy to forge. What we are required to disclose and what we are trying to prove about ourselves is also inconsistent.
An alcohol-serving establishment needs to know whether you are older than 18 or 21 , but they get access to an ID that includes an address, a unique identifier, an exact age, and a photo. Some websites ask for a social security number when they really just need proof you are a US citizen.
At the heart of modern market identity is trust: The blockchain clearly has many applications in commerce where lack of trust between parties leads to friction. Removing trust between counterparties in unregulated financial transactions was quite a feat; replacing the modern apparatus that provides trust in regulated financial transactions will be another matter entirely.
The question that lay behind these discussions was whether a blockchain would help us meet modern identity requirements more efficiently — or rethink them altogether. What is the killer app for digital currencies? How can we make them more user-friendly? Does anyone actually use Bitcoin?
These questions were prevalent. User experience is a 1. We need more UI people to drive consumer adoption. Even for bitcoin users, private key management remains an issue. David Birch delivered one of the most memorable quotes of the event. There are solutions to this problem, but today, many are aimed at advanced users who are familiar with two- or three-factor authentication. The modern banking consumer often needs to remember only a debit pin code that can be used in financial transactions across the world.
Is it possible to get there with digital currencies? Bitcoin began in large part as an anti-government movement, but the prevailing mood was that in order to become more widely adopted, it needed to accept regulations.
The time of lawlessness was coming to an end. Larry Summers was emphatic that the time of lawlessness was coming to an end: On the opening day, Delaware Governor announced the Delaware Block Initiative , a set of public investments in cryptocurrencies that includes an ombudsman, A new category of corporate shares that would let companies take advantage of the instant settlement possibilities opened by digital currencies, and adoption of blockchain technology for Delaware public services, starting with public archiving.
Others echoed his excitement. However, there was not widespread agreement on which regulations, where, and how fast. The industry broadly is moving to comply with standard KYC Know-your customer and AML anti-money laundering regulation, which require entities that hold and move customer money to collect identifying information on them.