Relay Chain

Innovating Blockchain-Based Accounting with Totem

March 12th, 2020  |  48 mins 47 secs

blockchain, polkadot, substrate, web3

Why is the “black art” of accounting still stuck in the 20th century, and how can blockchain technology make it more efficient?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (research analyst, Parity Technologies) speaks with Chris D’Costa and and Toufiqur Chowdhury of Totem Live Accounting, a blockchain-based accounting system. They discuss why today’s accounting practices are so inefficient and how blockchain technology can improve them. Find out how Totem is innovating accounting for the 21st century, how the project fits into the Polkadot ecosystem, and why the team decided to build on the Substrate blockchain framework.

Chainlink: Oracles, DeFi, and Social Impact with Sergey Nazarov

February 27th, 2020  |  46 mins 17 secs

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, web3

What are the challenges in integrating off-chain data into blockchain smart contracts with oracle systems, and how might secure, oracle-powered DeFi create meaningful social impact?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks with Sergey Nazarov from Chainlink, a decentralized oracle system bringing external, real-world data to blockchain-based smart contracts. Oracle systems like Chainlink are a necessary part of decentralized finance (DeFi), for which off-chain data such as market prices are used to trigger smart contract functions. We discuss the inherent challenges in integrating off-chain data with end-to-end security guarantees, the barriers to building smart contracts that go beyond tokenization, Chainlink use cases, the promise of blockchain for social impact, and how Chainlink is planning a Polkadot integration.

Privacy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism, with Nym's Claudia Diaz

February 13th, 2020  |  42 mins 40 secs

blockchain, web3

What is the role of privacy in the modern age, and how do we go about protecting it? How can new technologies help shield us from the rise of surveillance capitalism?

In this episode, host Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) speaks with Claudia Diaz, Associate Professor and researcher at K.U. Leuven and Chief Scientist at Nym, an open-source, decentralized, permissionless protocol providing full-stack privacy infrastructure. We discuss the recent history of public perception on privacy, how to balance the trade offs between technology’s benefits and its use for mass surveillance, and how Nym is building infrastructure that protects our privacy rights by default.

Designing Universal Basic Income and Trusted Execution Environments

January 30th, 2020  |  41 mins 40 secs

blockchain, polkadot, substrate, web3

How do you design an effective universal basic income scheme on the blockchain? What are trusted execution environments, and how can they be used to enhance privacy?

In this episode, host Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) speaks with Alain Brenzikofer of encointer, a blockchain-based universal basic income (UBI) system, and Supercomputing Systems, which is developing the SubstraTEE trusted execution environment (TEE) framework.

Ethereum: Past, Present, and Future with Parity Core-Developer Wei Tang

January 16th, 2020  |  43 mins 50 secs

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, web3

In this episode, hosts Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) and Phil Lucsok (Product Communications Manager, Parity) speak with Wei Tang (Core Developer, Parity) about his work on several Ethereum- and Substrate-related projects. They discuss Tang’s experience working on Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Substrate, including innovative proposals for account versioning, backwards compatibility, and bridging and merging different Ethereum chains, as well as the future of ETH 2.0 and the broader Ethereum community.

Tang is known among his peers as an exceptionally gifted and prolific developer, having built the SputnikVM Rust implementation of Ethereum from scratch just by reading the Ethereum yellow paper (without looking at other clients), and having created the Substrate EVM implementation in just a few days.

Democratizing Access to Wealth Creation: Tokenized Securities on Polymesh

December 19th, 2019  |  49 mins 50 secs

blockchain, ethereum, substrate, web3

What are the benefits of tokenizing regulated assets, and how might it revolutionize the world of finance?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (Research, Parity) is joined by Adam Dossa, Head of Blockchain at Polymath, a security token platform currently building a custom blockchain on Substrate called Polymesh. They discuss the world of tokenized securities and the promise this area of decentralized finance holds for democratizing global wealth creation. Dossa also explains Polymath’s reasoning for moving from Ethereum to the Substrate blockchain building framework.

Building a Custom Blockchain with Substrate

December 5th, 2019  |  37 mins 38 secs

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, substrate, web3

What is it like to develop on the Substrate blockchain building framework, and what resources are available to developers? How different is it from developing Ethereum smart contracts?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (Research, Parity) is joined by Shawn Tabrizi and Joshy Orndorff from the Developer Experience team at Parity Technologies, where they help developers building or interested in building on Substrate, regardless of experience level.

On-Chain Trust with KILT Protocol

November 21st, 2019  |  45 mins 44 secs

blockchain, polkadot, substrate, web3

How do trust and identity work in decentralized systems, and how can we help ensure our data isn't abused by centralized authorities?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski is joined by Ingo Rübe (Founder and CEO, BOTlabs) and Timo Welde (Product Owner and Technical Lead, KILT Protocol) of KILT Protocol, a built-on-Substrate project providing credentialing and authentication for web 3.0. Learn the difference between identity and attribution, and how KILT is building the future of decentralized trust.

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

November 7th, 2019  |  1 hr 3 mins

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, web3

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.

Mentorship and Values in Open-Source Development

October 25th, 2019  |  48 mins 1 sec

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, substrate, web3

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).

Mona El Isa and how Melon Protocol is disrupting asset management

October 11th, 2019  |  42 mins 36 secs

blockchain, ethereum, melon protocol, melonport, web3

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.

Exploring a Multi-Chain Universe with Polkascan

September 27th, 2019  |  1 hr 1 min

block explorer, blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, substrate, web3

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.

Zcash’s Anna and Deirdre on Zebra and quantum-resistant cryptography

September 13th, 2019  |  48 mins 25 secs

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, web3

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.

Staking and Validating on Kusama and Polkadot

August 29th, 2019  |  51 mins 18 secs

blockchain, kusama, nominating, npos, polkadot, staking, validating, validator

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/.

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.

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

August 23rd, 2019  |  49 mins 39 secs

blockchain, blockchain development, clovyr, web3

Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen from Clovyr discuss building simple, easy-to-use tools for a far wider reach, customizability vs. ease-of-use, non-surveillance business models, targeting developers who so far have not cared about blockchain, decentralization as an ongoing process, and why working for large corporations has its value.

Gavin Wood: Building Tech That Protects Our Interests

August 6th, 2019  |  41 mins 9 secs

blockchain, ethereum, polkadot, web3

Dr. Gavin Wood, Ethereum Cofounder and Founder Polkadot & Parity Technologies, discusses nation states vs. protocols, building technology that fundamentally protects our interests, and the most important skills for those looking to get into the blockchain industry.