Oracles are a fundamental conduit for moving data from the real world into the Ethereum blockchain. Without great real world data Ethereum would lose much of its utility. I talk to Thomas Bertani, who is building a provably honest centralised oracle service for Ethereum. This design really caught my eye as it combines the cheapness of a centralised oracle with excellent security guarantees that we have grown to love about decentralised technologies. The conversation covered themes such as: What is a provably honest oracle? How is Oraclize provably honest? What is TLS Notary technology? Current state and applications of Oraclize. Check out the video for understanding a really cool and potentially transformative oracle design. Links: Website for Oraclize: http://www.oraclize.it/home/features - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to the podcast: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/ - Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

Support the show, consider donating: 3AeNuuRrnaSptjhmCAUSZ972rh7ng87F1S (http://bit.ly/1MPemLT) Levin Keller is known to many in Berlin as the man who warned everyone about the dark scenario where buying Bitcoins in Europe would be subject to VAT. As with the VAT issue, Levin was also concerned with the complexity of filing tax returns. For merchants and companies dealing in Bitcoin, keeping track of gains and losses makes proper accounting a messy ordeal. His startups, Coyno, hopes to solve that by providing standalone, read-only bookkeeping for your existing wallets. Coyno allows you to import the public seed from your HD wallet and keeps track of transactions. The service, currently in beta, reads your wallets' public addresses and stores bookkeeping information whenever a transaction occurs. By recording the exchange rate at the time of transaction, Coyno can generate reports of taxable events, allowing users to more easily file their taxes. By allowing Coyno to read all your wallets, it's able to differentiate incoming and outgoing transaction from funds being moved within your organization, a feature lacking from other reporting tools. Levin also talks about his journey of being incubated at the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator in Berlin. He also weighs in on some of the challenges of building a Bitcoin startup and attracting investors in Europe. Links mentioned in this episode: - Coyno Beta: http://beta.coyno.com - Coyno announcement: https://medium.com/@Coyno/introducing-coyno-the-watch-only-bitcoin-bookkeeper-852d53b6fbb - Axel Springer Plug and Play: http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/about Sponsors: - ShapeShift: http://shapeshift.io Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/066 SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-066 Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc

Support the show, consider donating: 1HK9HmWCTVvA6hH6nVQ33fycbU5ZrEFgwf (http://bit.ly/2huTEdi) Few crypto projects have gotten as much attention and caused as much controversy as Steem. The blockchain-based social media platform launched early this year and managed to gain real user traction building up a vibrant community of contributors. The Steem token quickly entered bubble territory reaching a market cap of almost $400m and losing 90% of its value since. Steem Co-Founder and CEO Ned Scott joined us to discuss the ambition of the project and its short tumultous history. We also discussed some of the accusations against Steem and its unorthodox launch. Topics discussed in this episode: - How Steem was launched out of the BitShares community - The different components and tokens of the Steem system - How Steem rewards content contributors - The controversial Steem launch and criticisms of the project - Why Steem transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake - The potential disbalance of power due to the Steem distribution - How Steem managed to build a vibrant user community Links mentioned in this episode: - Steem Website: https://steem.io/ - Steemit.com: https://steemit.com/ - Why Every Blockchain Needs a Constitution: https://steemit.com/blockchain/@dan/why-every-blockchain-needs-a-constitution - Charlie Shrem Article on Steem Launch: https://steemit.com/steem/@charlieshrem/was-the-launch-of-steem-a-scam-or-the-only-legal-way-thoughts-on-steem-by-charlie-shrem-a-week-later - The History of Steem Launch in Words of Dan Larimer: https://steemit.com/steem/@joseph/the-history-of-steem-steemit-launch-in-the-words-of-dan-larimer-from-the-early-launch-days - Bitcoin Talk Thread on Steem Launch: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1427230.0 - Bitcoin Stackexchange: What is Steem?: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/46007/what-is-steem-and-steemit Sponsors: - Ledger: Smart card security for your Bitcoins - Get 10% off your first order when you use the code EPICENTER - http://ledgerwallet.com - Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io This episode is also available on : - Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/162 - YouTube: http://youtu.be/gg_MHqXa4yI - Souncloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-162 Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts. Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.

Support the show, consider donating: 3B9A9LPxu4VACuobjcqqQBGEng4YseW8SB (http://bit.ly/1CJK4GE) Creating a new token and selling it to fund the development of software has become a preferred way of fundraising for cryptocurrency entrepreneurs. It’s a tempting tool, allowing startups to avoid traditional investors, build a community and allow anyone anywhere to own a stake in the project. For participants, there is the promise of big financial upside and being part of novel undertakings. Lisa Cheng, whose consulting firm Vanbex has accompanied many crowdsales, joined us for a discussion of this revolutionary way to fund and monetize open source software. Topics covered included: - Why crowdfunding and cryptocurrency are a natural fit - A brief history of crowdsales in the cryptocurrency space - US securities law and the questionable legality of token sales - The value of writing a solid white paper before launching a sale - Elements of a successful coin launch - The role of companies like Swarm and Koinify in conducting crowdsales Links mentioned in this episode: - An Interview with Lisa Cheng http://bit.ly/1xUYXjJ - Tokenizing the User Experience http://tcrn.ch/1DOEXGE - Token Sales and the US Securities Law: http://bit.ly/1BIqogP - David Johnston DApps Whitepaper: http://bit.ly/1uhF7BL - Vanbex Group: http://bit.ly/1xrQolR Sponsors: - Buy and sell alt coins instantly with http://ShapeShift.io Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/071 YouTube: http://youtu.be/wAvcc2IbNTU SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-071 Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture. - Visit our website: http://epicenterbitcoin.com - Subscribe to our newsletter: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/newsletter - Twitter: http://twitter.com/epicenterbtc