Relay Chain

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.