Relay Chain

Latest Episodes:

Jillian York: Censorship, Human Rights, and Activism in the Digital Age Nov 07, 2019

Show notes

Where should digital platforms draw the line between content moderation and censorship? How do company policies shape our culture, and how can we make technology a force for good?

In this episode, writer and activist Jillian York (Director for International Freedom of Expression, Electronic Frontier Foundation) joins Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity Technologies) to discuss freedom of expression, censorship and surveillance by digital platforms, and the role of internet activism in global social movements.

Highlights:

0:45 - What is freedom of expression?
2:41 - What is authority in relation to free speech?
4:05 - Facebook
8:40 - Content moderation vs censorship
22:38 - Governments asking platforms to censor content
25:15 - Algorithmic moderation
29:12 - Is technology a force for democracy?
34:18 - Using platforms for political organization
50:45 - Anonymity, privacy, and safety
58:10 - Hope and optimism for the future

Links:
https://twitter.com/jilliancyork

Key Quotes:

"Censorship always backfires."

"A lot of people think that technology is this ultimate force for democracy. It doesn't pan out that way though."

"I'm not sure that I believe in tech as a force for democracy. I believe in tech as a tool in the same way books are a tool"

"In San Francisco, you have all of these incredibly talented engineers and technologists who, instead of building toilets for the homeless population, which is desparately needed there, are trying to save the world with an app.... It's about making money and white savior complexes rather than about looking locally."

"Liberal society means you need to have a thick skin."

Special Guest: Jillian York.

Mentorship and Values in Open-Source Development Oct 25, 2019

Show notes

How do you create meaningful change with open source software and what role does mentorship play?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks to Ben Kampmann (Core Developer, Parity) about the role of mentorship, learning, and values in the open-source community. They also discuss Open Tech School, a non-profit organization Ben created for open source education, as well as recent Substrate developments, including Substrate LFS (Large File Storage).

For more info on Ben Kampmann and his work, check out his recent People of Parity showcase on the Parity Technologies blog: https://www.parity.io/people-of-parity-benjamin-kampmann/

Highlights:
01:28 - The vast potential impact of these technologies
02:00 - Building for startups vs established teams, how to promote positive change
06:18 - Importance of economic considerations and incentives in blockchain engineering
09:09 - Role and importance of mentorship
15:00 - Dealing with constructive criticism vs negative criticism
18:10 - Importance of not trying to learn too much too fast
22:00 - Open Tech School
26:35 - Most important skills for quick pivoting
29:55 - Substrate and its value for developers
33:30 - Sustainable open source business models and the role of money
40:47 - Status of Polkadot and Substrate
43:37 - Substrate LFS
46:00 - Hacktoberfest

Links:
Hacktoberfest
Ben on Github
Ben on Twitter

Key Quotes:

“Learning itself is a very hard job. You’re asking your brain to rewire itself.”

“Don’t believe that you can’t program because you don’t know logic or math. I didn’t study any of this either. And don’t give up.”

“You need to be willing to throw away what you know in order to learn.”

Special Guest: Ben Kampmann.

Mona El Isa and how Melon Protocol is disrupting asset management Oct 11, 2019

Show notes

Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks to Mona El Isa (Co-Founder Melonport, MAMA) about using Melon Protocol to reduce the barriers in setting up and managing funds. Mona discusses delivering on a two-year roadmap, IRL Melon experiments, and educating the next generation of financial industry disruptors.

Note: Mona has launched a new project called Avantgarde Finance. Avantgarde Finance positions itself as a company devoted towards creating value on the Melon protocol. The longer term Avantgarde vision is to create a better everyday experience for asset managers and their investors by giving them easy access to a new financial infrastructure.

00:27 Mona El Isa’s journey to Melonport
03:19 Why Melon Protocol
06:19 The advantages of tokenizing assets
08:54 Delivering on a two-year roadmap
09:47 Liquidating Melonport
10:14 The Melon Council
12:43 What the Melon protocol allows you to do
17:52 IRL Melon experiments
20:01 Scaling Melon
26:31 MAMA, the Multichain Asset Managers Association
28:08 Engaging with regulators, law makers, and institutions
30:48 Regulatory victories
35:25 Madeeba
38:22 Raising Melon awareness on a global basis

Links:
https://melonprotocol.com/
https://medium.com/melonprotocol
https://twitter.com/melonprotocol

Special Guest: Mona El Isa.

Exploring a Multi-Chain Universe with Polkascan Sep 27, 2019

Show notes

In our fifth episode, Nicole Zhu and Joe Petrowski talk to Emiel Sebastiaan, WEB3SCAN CEO, about Polkascan, an open-source block explorer that allows any Substrate-based blockchain project to have a block explorer. They discuss the Polkadot multi-chain explorer, how a DAO could fund block explorer services, Polkascan vs. Polkadot UI, and the nitty-gritty of how one actually goes about extracting data from a blockchain.

Links:
https://www.web3scan.com
https://polkascan.io
https://medium.com/polkascan
https://github.com/polkascan
https://twitter.com/polkascan

Highlights:
01:32 - How Emiel got into block explorers
04:38 - Block explorer use cases
06:26 - Getting meaningful data out of Substrate vs. Bitcoin and Ethereum
08:54 - Specialized and upgradable runtimes with Substrate
13:01 - Out-of-the-box block explorer support for parachains
16:00 - Polkascan PRE and Polkascan MC
19:38 - How Polkascan uses archive nodes
21:51 - Tools Polkascan uses
26:40 - Performance benchmarks for block explorers
31:40 - Scalability, roadmap, and managing 10-terabyte databases
37:58 - The roadmap to paid services
45:34 - DAOs as customers
52:18 - Polkascan vs. Polkadot UI
57:34 - A multi-chain universe

Special Guest: Emiel Sebastiaan.

Zcash’s Anna and Deirdre on Zebra and quantum-resistant cryptography Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Joe talks to Deirdre Connolly and Anna Kaplan from Zcash Foundation on the state of the Rust Zcash client, “Zebra,” originally developed by Parity Technologies and now maintained by Zcash Foundation. They also discuss integrating cryptography into our day-to-day lives, quantum-resistant cryptography, and what baby zebras are called.

Highlights
00:28 - How Anna and Deirdre got to the Zcash Foundation
02:08 - Why have multiple Zcash clients?
06:54 - The state of Zebra now and future plans.
11:38 - Build-test-deploy benchmark pipeline
20:53 - Blossom features
22:03 - Integrating cryptography into our day-to-day lives
33:33 - Quantum security

Links
Zebra repo
Parity’s Zebra release announcement
Deirdre Connolly on Twitter
Anna Kaplan on Twitter
Zcash Rocket Chat
Zcash Community dev room
Zcash Wizards chat

Subscribe and follow us at @relaychain to stay tuned for more episodes.

Special Guests: Anna Kaplan and Deirdre Connolly.

Staking and Validating on Kusama and Polkadot Aug 29, 2019

Show notes

Gautam Dhameja (Solutions Architect, Parity) talks to Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) about staking, validating, and nominating on Kusama and Polkadot. If you want to learn more about how Kusama's and Polkadot's nominated proof-of-stake system works, or if you're interested in staking or validating, this episode is a great place to start.

To get more information on staking, validating, and validator setup on Kusama, check out the Kusama network guide at https://guide.kusama.network/.

Highlights:
01:43 - What is consensus?
02:48 - Polkadot and Kusama’s block production and finalization algorithms, BABE and GRANDPA
06:35 - Polkadot’s two types of accounts: stash and controller
09:11 - Session keys
15:41 - Key management
20:19 - Understanding nominated proof-of-stake
23:50 - How to nominate
25:30 - Rewards
28:35 - Slashing
36:05 - Validator setup
41:40 - Step-by-step validator process review
44:30 - How to upgrade/maintain
47:40 - Common misconceptions
49:18 - Validator DOs and DON’Ts

NOTE: At 8:00, Joe mistakenly mentions that the controller account can be used to vote on governance proposals. Actually, the stash account can set a proxy account to vote on its behalf. It could be the same as the controller but does not have to be.

Special Guest: Gautam Dhameja.

Clovyr’s Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen on Building Simple Tools for a Wider Reach Aug 23, 2019

Show notes

In Relay Chain’s second episode, Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks to Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen from Clovyr. They discuss connecting app devs with tools to easily plug into blockchains, non-surveillance business models, why working for large corporations has its value, and more. Check it out and subscribe for more episodes of Relay Chain.

Highlights:
(00:22) How Clovyr is connecting application developers with tools to easily plug into blockchains.
(05:44) Customizability versus ease of use.
(11:16) The dream of the Internet as its own jurisdiction.
(17:27) Non-surveillance business models.
(23:49) Targeting developers who so far have not cared about blockchain.
(25:33) Building APIs in a changing protocol landscape.
(33:42) Decentralization as an ongoing process.
(42:28) The value (and challenges) of working for a large corporation.

Special Guests: Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen.

Gavin Wood: Building Tech That Protects Our Interests Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

In Relay Chain’s inaugural episode, Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks to Dr. Gavin Wood, Ethereum Cofounder and Founder Polkadot and Parity Technologies. They discuss nation states vs. protocols, building technology that fundamentally protects our interests, the most important skills for those looking to get into the blockchain industry, and more.

Topics covered:
(03:49) Web3 as a meta-platform
(04:42) Nation states vs. protocols
(08:27) Building technology that fundamentally protects our interests
(16:06) Can we expect Web3 to be better than our current web?
(16:27) Nation state law vs. blockchain law
(22:07) Coin holder voting vs. on-chain governance
(24:50) Governance in Polkadot
(36:54) The most important skills for those looking to get into the blockchain industry

Special Guest: Dr. Gavin Wood.

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