Hard Problems with Bram Cohen

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Latest Episodes:

Ransomware, Sandboxes and Security May 30, 2021

American Hacker Jeffrey "Sneak" Paul joins Bram for a deep-dive into the hard problems behind the growing rash of ransomware attacks, what it means and what we can do about it.

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Bitstamp.

On this episode we’re digging into, not a new problem, but an old problem that seems to be getting worse as a growing proportion of our lives are spent connected, to each other, to the internet and inadvertently to criminals who use technology to extort money, often in the form of cryptocurrencies. It’s called ransomware, and to help us understand and sort through today’s topic, Hard Problems host and Chia CEO Bram Cohen is joined by special guest Jeffrey Paul, better known as Sneak.

On May 7th, an employee of Colonial Pipeline Company found a ransom note on one of their computers. The pipeline provides nearly half of the fuel for the east coast and they were locked out. Days later, they’d admit to paying 4.4 million dollars in bitcoin to the group who did it. It’s the most recent high profile example, but it’s certainly not the only one. Going back through CoinDesk’s archive, I found nearly a hundred articles written over the years. We’ve seen hospital systems and industrial players extorted along with lots of normal people. And those are the ones that we hear about, it’s assumed that many victims of extortion simply pay the ransom and keep it to themselves.

This episode was recorded live over the audio only social network known as Clubhouse. If you'd like to join our live audience, our next recording session is Wednesday June 2nd, 2021 at Noon Pacific/3pm Eastern time where we'll be discussing modern music, it's eccentricities and how it's changing as technology plays an ever-larger role with grammy nominated composer and musical pioneer BT. If you're not already on Clubhouse, you can use this link to get around the invitation requirement, set up your account and RSVP for the event.

Nexo.iolets you borrow against your crypto at 6.9% APR, earn up to 12% on your idle assets, and exchange instantly between 100+ market pairs with the tap of a button. Get started at nexo.io.

Bitstamp is the world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, supporting investors, traders and leading financial institutions since 2011. With a proven track record and dedication to personal customer service with a human touch, Bitstamp’s fast, secure and reliable crypto investing platform is trusted by over four million people worldwide. To learn more, visit www.bitstamp.net.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Inside Bram Cohen's Proof-of-Work Reinvention May 16, 2021

Bitcoin's 'Nakamoto Consensus' changed the world. For the first time ever, strangers on the internet were empowered by a system that allowed them to individually and jointly track who owned which internet-native items... First money, then early stage (and often illegal) investments, followed by digital cats, multi-million dollar art, viral memes and soon enough, well, everything.

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Bitstamp.

If there's one complaint (whether right or wrong) about Satoshi's breakthrough, it's the energy cost it comes at.

Whether you're talking about Bitcoin or the myriad other proof of work systems, 'Nakamoto Consensus' is a "competitive money burning process." Each time transactions are added to the permanent history it's a race to see who can prove their commitment to the network by finding the winning raffle ticket the fastest. Everyone races but only one wins and when each block is found, the process starts over. It's not a perfect system, but it works and it's the best one we've found... So far.

In this premiere episode of "Hard Problems", join BitTorrent inventor and Chia CEO Bram Cohen, CoinDesk's Adam B. Levine, community members JMHands and Michel Erb for a lively discussion of Bram's newly launched reinvention of distributed, proof of work consensus known as Proofs of Space and Time.

In it, we discuss

The challenges Bram believes his new system resolves
How 'Proofs of Space and Time' works compared to traditional 'Nakamoto Consensus'
The differences between Bitcoin mining and Chia farming
Why improving proof-of-work is the better choice than proof-of-stake or other consensus systems
Plus many questions from the live Clubhouse audience, with a special line of questioning from Tuur Demeester

If you'd like to join the live audience for our next Clubhouse recording where Jeffrey "Sneak" Paul joins Bram to dig into the hard and growing problems behind Ransomware, follow 'bramcohen' and 'adamblevine' on Clubhouse.

Nexo.iolets you borrow against your crypto at 5.9% APR, earn up to 12% on your idle assets, and exchange instantly between 75+ market pairs with the tap of a button. Get started at nexo.io.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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