Episode 5 - Christian Lundkvist on Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Smart Contracts

It seems like yesterday when we had to get used to Bitcoin, and now new currencies are cropping up all the time - including the crypto-juggernaut Ethereum. To help us keep up and understand what's going on, I have Ethereum developer Christian Lundkvist from ConsenSys on the show. We talk about why Ethereum is separate from Bitcoin, and what the world-changing applications of these cryptocurrencies might be in the next few years. 

For more from Christian Lundkvist, subscribe to his twitter feed and hist articles on Medium. Also check out some of the older articles on What Does the Quant Say.

Here is the original whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto. And also check out the The Book Of Satoshi: The Collected Writings of Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto which contains his other writings and explanations. And here's the equivalent Ethereum whitepaper and the website of Vitalik Buterin.

Christian mentioned the NPR Podcast Planet Money, which has done Bitcoin-related episodes on numerous occasions. Here's a recent one where they track people who have missing coins.

Here's Paul Krugman's origin article which got me interested in Bitcoin.

If you're interesting in the most fair-minded and balanced explanation of the bitcoin/bitcoin-cash divide and the scaling debate, listen to this explanation by economist Bob Murphy. In addition to fairly representing opposing views, Bob Murphy also has a weekly podcast whose sole purpose is to refute Paul Krugman. I'm not kidding.

Here is more information about the Parity incident, where a whole lot of crypto was locked up. The company has hopes that the money is not cryptographically locked forever so I'll continue to watch this story, and hopefully they find a method of recovery!