Oct 13
A look at Orchid’s decentralized VPN: What it means for Web3
OSAKA, Japan—Orchid Labs is building a decentralized VPN to provide a new and potentially better way of accessing the Internet anonymously. It’s the first product in a suite of products, that will create a new privacy layer on the Internet, using blockchain technology. And if the plan works, its technology could help replumb and improve the entire Internet. The startup raised $48 million in 2017 through two SAFT token sales to accredited investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capit...
Devcon 5: Building a decentralized revolution at scale
OSAKA, Japan—Enclosed in a dark room, three developers were crowded around a table featuring a dead plant, a yellow clock and a black suitcase, while standing on a pile of crumpled bank notes. This was an immersive experience set up by Elsewhere, and a cryptocurrency called Kong, to get attendees at Devcon 5 this week “to discover for themselves what they think about money,” said Elsewhere’s “head of dream logistics” Greg Crawford. Things were just as trippy outside the conference area, in “Devc...
Oct 12
Orochi: The mysterious DAO powering events at Devcon 5
Osaka, Japan—“This year was the year of the DAO,” Makoto Inoue told us at Devcon 5. But he would say that, being the creator of Orochi DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that was used to organize events at Devcon 5 this week. Including, naturally, events about DAOs themselves. A decentralized autonomous organization functions as if a computer program went rogue and operated all on its own accord. They essentially work as a non-partial arbitrator between multiple individuals or...
Oct 11
Inside EY’s radical plan to get major businesses using Ethereum
OSAKA, Japan—In April this year, accounting firm Ernst & Young released a small advancement in Ethereum technology, called Nightfall, designed for making private Ethereum transactions. But at the time it was unclear why it was developing this technology, and it was unknown how ambitious and radical its overarching plan was. In an interview with Decrypt at Devcon 5, EY’s global blockchain leader Paul Brody explained that Nightfall is the first step in a greater process to get businesses creating...
Oct 10
Bitcoin Cash’s Roger Ver vows to be “lightning rod” for Web3 rule-breakers
OSAKA, Japan—Outspoken libertarian and strong supporter of Bitcoin Cash, Roger Ver is a polarizing figure in the crypto community. But today, he used his notoriety to plead for a decentralized revolution, arguing at Devcon 5 that developers need to break the rules to truly liberate themselves. “This is a protest event,” he said onstage, adding, “We are building tools to empower individuals. That’s the goal that still has me excited today.” His speech was, he said, both a call for action and a “l...
Researcher Vlad Zamfir: Ethereum’s legal question is an inevitable crisis
OSAKA, Japan—Ethereum Foundation researcher Vlad Zamfir gave a clear warning at Devcon 5 yesterday: developers need to start thinking about Ethereum’s legal status, rather than simply hoping it will grow so big that governments will have to accept it. Speaking at the outside amphitheatre, with Osaka Bay behind him, the falling sun reflected in his audience’s eyes, he could have been mistaken for a Grecian orator discoursing on law and politics. But he was here to tackle a tricky crypto question:...
Oct 9
Plasma Group and Uniswap release new Ethereum scaling solution at Devcon
“The Ethereum blockchain is almost full,” said Vitalik Buterin in an interview with Canadian newspaper The Star earlier last month. He told no lie; Ethereum’s network utilization has been ominously bubbling north of 90 percent over the past couple months, according to tracker Etherscan.io. That’s a big problem—if there’s no more space on the Ethereum blockchain, the network could become too slow for people to build on it, or force people to rely on solutions that compromise on security or decent...
Vitalik Buterin: Proof of stake will make Ethereum safer
OSAKA, Japan—Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin claimed today that Ethereum will run on a more secure consensus mechanism than Bitcoin when it moves to proof of stake over the next few years. In his keynote address at Devon 5 here, he said that the new consensus mechanism will make it safer, by making attacks against the network more costly to run. Ethereum, one of the most ambitious blockchain platforms, is undergoing huge changes over the next few years that should make it scalable, and able t...
Taking Ethereum mainstream: Social media app Pepo goes live at Devcon 5
OSAKA, Japan—Pepo, a Tencent-funded social media app that pays you when people upvote your 30-second videos, launched at Devcon 5 today. It’s live on Android devices, and is coming to iOS shortly. Pepo has already attracted attention. In beta, over the last six days, 500 Devcon users have already made 11,500 transactions, using it to connect and collaborate. But it's set to attract a much wider audience. The app is a kind of crossover between TikTok and Instagram, but enhanced by—and shockingly,...