Hash Power – Ep. 1 – Understanding Blockchains
Welcome to the first episode of Hash Power, an audio documentary that explores the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies with leaders in the field including Naval Ravikant, Olaf Carlson-Wee, Fred Ehrsam, & Ari Paul.
PRESENTED BY
Hash Power is meant to be an introduction, but really, it is an invitation to explore this emerging world on your own. In the coming weeks, we will cover the technology, the power of decentralization, Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, cryptography, and hashing. We will spend time with the leading active hedge fund managers in the field, and with outside investors who are both optimistic and skeptical. Episode one covers the big picture, and answers the question: what is blockchain and why might it significantly affect our world?
If you enjoy what follows, you’ll still be very early in understanding this field. Most don’t. So help me spread it like wildfire, because the more people that understand blockchain, the better its impact might become. Please enjoy episode one, and stay tuned next week for episode 2, which explores investing in cryptocurrencies. Welcome to Hash Power.
This experiment has led to many relationships within the field, which is growing fast. If you are a full-stack generalist engineer looking to work for well-funded companies developing decentralized apps, email me at hashpowerdocumentary@gmail.com. Please write [Developer] in the subject line, and include a link to your Github account, please also include a short summary of your skills. You do not need previous experience with blockchains, but a couple of pluses are: Experience with React, Redux, Swift and Objective-C, Commits to a top open source project, or an open source project on GitHub with 25+ stars. Remote work is fine.
Books Referenced
The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
Links Referenced
Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding
Show Notes
0:05 – Introduction
CHAPTER 1 – Understanding the Concept of Blockchain (2:42)
3:46 – Jeremiah Lowin explains how blockchain is like a database
4:34 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
5:01 – Owning a digital asset
6:31 – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angelist on how blockchains can help to create personal networks and organize humans
10:16 – How blockchains represent a way to coordinate global activity through tokens
12:47 – New coins popping up around data storage and utility needs like solar panels
14:13 – Permission vs permissionless networks
15:53 – Protocols and the introduction of scarcity
17:26 – Keeping track of scarcity and the introduction of tokens
18:05 – Societal structures and how blockchains will change them again
18:08 – The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
21:10 – The role of blockchains in the informational age and the rise of more individual sovereignty
22:46 – Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on the increasing shift to digital worlds led by incentive structures
CHAPTER 2 – Blockchain Technology (27:05)
28:32 – Reddit User jav_rddt
30:04 – SHA-256 Calculator
31:08 – Charlie Noyes, Pantera Capital, explains how SHA-256 was developed and what make its so special
35:03 – How miners create new blocks and the incentives to do so
39:38 – The nonce field
42:53 – The incentives that exist for miners and the arms race to build more powerful systems to mine
44:50 – The development of mining pools
46:03 – Ethereum, the “spiritual successor” to bitcoin
47:49 – How the Ether network is an ecosystem in which other tokens can sit
50:15 – Naval Ravikant on alternative coins or tokens
50:50 – The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding
51:10 – How the protocol creators are the ones getting wealthy
52:08 – Fat Protocols
52:43 – Blockchain as an experiment in distributed government
54:10 – How cryptocurrency is more than just technology, it’s a movement
54:23 – Nostalgia for the Absolute
57:01 – #cryptotwitter
1:00:07 – Peter Jubber, of Fidelity, on how huge institutions, like theirs, are getting into the cryptocurrency game
1:03:34 –The notion of cooperation in an open source project or protocol
1:04:39 – Olaf Carlson-Wee, first employee at Coinbase and the founder of Polychain, on the early excitement for cryptocurrency
