Blockchain 2025

Latest Episodes:

Decentralized Exchanges - A long term threat to Coinbase, NASDAQ? Jul 11, 2018

Show notes

Without a doubt, exchanges, or banks, such as San Francisco based Coinbase have onboarded more folk to cryptocurrencies than any other. Ease of use. Frictionless transactions.

At the same time, hacks, flash crashes, government raids and lawsuits are ongoing issues for centralized crypto exchanges.

Bank of America recently admitted to doctoring paperwork on over 16 million market orders from institutional clients, claiming to have immediately executed their orders while actually routing these orders to other firms before executing them.

If P2P decentralized exchanges take over, it could change the world as we know it.

File Storage - Dropbox, Amazon S3, Sia, Storj Jul 04, 2018

Show notes

We are bullish on file storage using the blockchain. The cloud is just someone else's computer. And you are susceptible to others accessing your data (see Dropbox hack)

A blockchain solution would empower decentralized end-users: files are encrypted, distributed, and then distributed in redundancy all around the world.

You're the only person who can access your files. Not even someone hosting your files can get to them, theoretically.

Religion on the Blockchain - Zero Ex Omega Jun 27, 2018

Show notes

Religion has always been very top-down, and for good reason.

We explore the idea of religion without a central authority.

Scripture = Ledger?

Matt Liston and Avery Singer made a blockchain-based religion called Zero Ex Omega.

Their first totemic object is a narwhal with a doge head, and their place of worship is a chat room.

Tying it all together, the Bitcoin world has its own remnants of religious themes and figures.

Prediction Markets Will Change Everything - Augur, Gnosis Jun 20, 2018

Show notes

This is an episode that sounds like a Sci-Fi movie. But it is (eventually) going to happen and that is very exciting!

Imagine a world where anyone can become a market maker; profit from information and knowledge you have.

We have people who call themselves experts and we really don't know … prediction markets will have a radical impact on the way we consume media.

Journalism, global warming, business, politics .. all will be affected.

Real Estate (The largest asset class in the world) - Propy Jun 13, 2018

Show notes

What if we could organize property titles to a blockchain? Tokenize real estate all over the world?

In Haiti, the disastrous earthquake in 2010 had a destructive effect on the land registry: approximately 16,000 civil servants were killed and an unknown number of title deeds and land registry records were destroyed. To this day, land ownership issues are still unsolved.

Very few of us can afford an apartment in San Fran or Hong Kong, but what if we could invest just a few hundred dollars?

Fraud and Cybersecurity Vulnerabiliies

Lack of International Standards

Lack of Liquidity

Lack of Transparency

Black Markets On The Blockchain Jun 06, 2018

Show notes

In 2017, Global Financial Integrity estimated the global drug industry added up to $652 billion of trade per year, making it the second biggest underground market after the $1.13 trillion of activity in the counterfeit and pirated goods market.

When you add in the domestic and household economy of the world's households, the subsistence economy, the barter economy, the volunteer economy, the "under the table" economy, the criminal economy and a few other smaller players, you get something that adds up to 3/4 of the world's total economic activity.

The formal economy – the territory of professional and paid work, of tax statements and GDP – is only 1/4 of the world's total economic activity.

In short, "black markets" make the world go round. What role will anonymous cryptocurrencies and decentralized marketplaces play in our transition to the information age?

Wine - Vineyard Cash Flow, Beverage Fraud - VinX, VeChain May 30, 2018

Show notes

Stuart tells us some stories about Scotland's pride: Buckfast tonic wine, which is prone to causing poor behavior. From there, we tackle:

The traditional wine market: the exporter, the importer, the distributor, the store, the customer ... a long supply chain that can be improved to be more efficient
How feasible is it to move away from in person purchases to online with wine?
Baby boomers and millennials, their impact in the current industry
Avoiding fraud with blockchain technology: the corks and their fingerprint
The potential to decentralize trust in supply chains and bring measurable benefits and value to the public and private sectors.

Projects trying to be the solution:

Vechain and "My story" app, for eliminating counterfeit
VINX, wine futures for giving to consumers a pull or a discount to buy in

Can Blockchain Lower Healthcare Costs? May 23, 2018

Show notes

Today we are talking about a complex, important industry: Healthcare.

It is especially poor in the United States, so we invited an expert: Ryan Kuriakose of the Open Health Exchange.

Ryan and I talk about the challenges of the current ecosystem and examine where blockchain tech may be able to help:

Lowering costs
Data efficiency and control
the Big Pharma industry
Help for the underinsured
Service providers and the middlemen
Regulatory issues
Blockchain opportunities in the industry: peer to peer, logistics, empowerment and control of patient data
The Open Health Exchange, Ryan's platform

Why are prescription drugs so expensive? Why does everyone HAVE to have insurance?

In the future, will Peer to Peer healthcare become a dominating force?

Blockchain Crowdfunding vs Kickstarter and Venture Capital May 16, 2018

Show notes

Crowdfunding emerged after the 2008 financial crisis in response to the difficulties faced by early-stage enterprises attempting to generate marketing traction and funding.

Crowdfunding allows nonprofits, artists, musicians and businesses to form a community of investors and/or fanbase before they launch.

Is blockchain the next level? We have a look at ICOs.

Can we democratize funding for everything?

Special: The Future of Blockchain with Jared Tate of DigiByte May 02, 2018

Show notes

Bonus interview: Matt speaks with Jared Tate, founder of DigiByte. Jared is arguably the world's leading expert on blockchain technology.

Jared talks about blockchain and it's role for the future: