WEBVTT - Inside the Big Plan to Make Ethereum Go Mainstream

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<v Speaker 1>By now, most of you have probably heard of bitcoin.

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<v Speaker 1>Bitcoin has risen more than in the last two months. Certainly,

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<v Speaker 1>bitcoin is the granddaddy. Right now, Bitcoin hits a new

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<v Speaker 1>high briefly touching. Bitcoin is a new kind of currency

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<v Speaker 1>that you can use to pay for things, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>exploded in popularity over the last few years. Bitcoin success

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<v Speaker 1>has spawned tons of other digital currencies that share Bitcoin's

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<v Speaker 1>underlying technology. The Ripple is far ahead off everybody else

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<v Speaker 1>in the space. That has been replaced by Monnero as

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<v Speaker 1>the currency of choice. Charlie Lee is the creator of

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<v Speaker 1>a light coin, which is an alternative, a challenger to Bitcoin.

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<v Speaker 1>Right now, several of these currencies are facing a curious problem.

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<v Speaker 1>They become too popular for their own good. They weren't

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<v Speaker 1>originally designed to support so many users, and their networks

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<v Speaker 1>are struggling to keep up with all the new people

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<v Speaker 1>flooding in. Nowhere is this problem more acute than in

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<v Speaker 1>the clogged networks of what's quickly become the world's number

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<v Speaker 1>two cryptocurrency. The currency is called Ether, and the network

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<v Speaker 1>that powers it is called ethereum. Either's boom is meant

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<v Speaker 1>that its network has been bogged down by long delays,

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<v Speaker 1>which means that many of its users already desperate for

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<v Speaker 1>an overhaul. Leading the charge as a young guy I

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<v Speaker 1>recently met at an Ethereum conference in Cancoon. His name

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<v Speaker 1>Vlad Zampier. Hey everyone, how's it going? Do you have

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<v Speaker 1>a The thing is, if Atherorum were run by a corporation,

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<v Speaker 1>there'd be a CEO who could sign off on the change,

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<v Speaker 1>And if a theory were run by a central bank,

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<v Speaker 1>it would be just a handful of central bankers who

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<v Speaker 1>deliberate and vote yes or no. But Ethereum is run

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<v Speaker 1>by neither of those things. Just like many of its

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<v Speaker 1>other cryptocurrency siblings, including the Bitcoin, Ethereum was created with

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<v Speaker 1>this libertarian, anti corporate ideal of being leaderless. It's Vlad's

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<v Speaker 1>job to navigate the chaos and that unstructured can unity

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<v Speaker 1>to implement the change that he and so many others

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<v Speaker 1>have been dreaming of for years. Hi, I'm Brad Stone

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm Matthew Lising, and this week on Decrypted, we're

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<v Speaker 1>taking you inside Lad's planned upgrade Etheroryum, and is hoped

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<v Speaker 1>to pave the way for this new era of technology

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<v Speaker 1>to go mainstream. Glad has big dreams for Ethereum. He

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<v Speaker 1>sees it as so much more than infrastructure for another currency.

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<v Speaker 1>But to make all of that possible, he's got to

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<v Speaker 1>get everyone to agree to his overhaul. So can Glad

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<v Speaker 1>pull it off? Or will it prove too difficult to

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<v Speaker 1>rally this huge community with competing interests that's spread out

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<v Speaker 1>across the world. By the end of the episode, you

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<v Speaker 1>might even understand what blockchains all about. Stay with us, So, Mad,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm a little jealous. You've got to go to Cancoon

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<v Speaker 1>for the story I did, although I was stuck inside

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<v Speaker 1>this conference hall with about two thousand Ethereum developers the

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<v Speaker 1>whole time, and there was some bo involved. Okay, all right,

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<v Speaker 1>I take it back. I'm not jealous. So this conference

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<v Speaker 1>was where you met our protagonists of Lad. Tell me

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<v Speaker 1>what he was like. So he's twenty seven years old.

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<v Speaker 1>He has shoulder length hair that he plays with a lot.

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<v Speaker 1>He tends to put it in his mouth as he's talking.

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<v Speaker 1>He's a huge fan of the Twisted cartoon Rick and Morty.

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<v Speaker 1>He likes to snowboard in his off time. You know.

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<v Speaker 1>He reminded me of Fred Armison of SNL and Portlandia fame.

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<v Speaker 1>But there's another interesting thing. You know, he's got this

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<v Speaker 1>very international background. I was born in Prussia for Romania.

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<v Speaker 1>In Romania, yeah, okay, cool? Did you grow up there? Okay?

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<v Speaker 1>And then then where'd you go? Canada? I grew up

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<v Speaker 1>in Ottawa wasting. I noticed the wealth is something you list.

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<v Speaker 1>Are you do you living? Growth? I went to the

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<v Speaker 1>university and golfer I live and growth for a number

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<v Speaker 1>of years. Lad's parents now live in Switzerland, but Lad

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<v Speaker 1>himself more or less doesn't really have a home. He's

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<v Speaker 1>been so busy traveling from conference to conference that he's

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<v Speaker 1>on the road full time. Lad has been interested in

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<v Speaker 1>computers since he was a young boy. That's always been

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<v Speaker 1>my thing. My grandfather was about professor. He taught me

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<v Speaker 1>about Sin Sosa. Yeah. He says he got into programming

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<v Speaker 1>when he was eleven or twelve. I guess the first

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<v Speaker 1>time I got into programming, I was playing around in

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<v Speaker 1>the World Cup three map editor, making the custom games.

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<v Speaker 1>And then we had this great environment where you could

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<v Speaker 1>news drop down lists to program um events and all

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<v Speaker 1>sorts of like actually incredibly complex um things. And soon

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<v Speaker 1>enough that led to a passion for cryptocurrencies. At first,

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<v Speaker 1>he was focused on bitcoin. I actually got into bitcoin,

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<v Speaker 1>um in my I think, which was um the year after,

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<v Speaker 1>like in my first year of grade school. Um and uh,

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<v Speaker 1>but I I kind of dropped out, not with the

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<v Speaker 1>intention of going into cryptocurrency, but in like the following

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<v Speaker 1>months that ended up being when I ended up doing.

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<v Speaker 1>Now enter Batalic buterin a Russian Canadian boy genius programmer

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<v Speaker 1>the years when lad got into bitcoin, And that's when

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<v Speaker 1>Batalic created a new kind of cryptocurrency called ether, powered

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<v Speaker 1>by a network he called ethereum. Metallic was only nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>at the time. And Matt, did you meet Metallic at

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<v Speaker 1>this conference too? I did. I asked him how he

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<v Speaker 1>came up with the name ethereum. I came up with

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<v Speaker 1>it myself. Um, but we I and I remember myself

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<v Speaker 1>reading as a list of elements from science fiction. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And I remember liking ethereum because has this connection to

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<v Speaker 1>this nineti century scientific theory of ether, this medium where

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<v Speaker 1>a gift waterways travel through water, sound ways traveled through

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<v Speaker 1>the air, like the hypothesis will be light We've traveled

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<v Speaker 1>through ether. I just love this name. It's it's geeky,

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<v Speaker 1>it has a hat tip towards a history the sci

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<v Speaker 1>fi connotations. It's kind of just perfect for a cryptocurrency. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and if you met this guy, he's almost like a

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<v Speaker 1>walking computer. He's just incredibly, incredibly smart. So in the

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<v Speaker 1>talk met Vlad at a bitcoin meet up in Toronto.

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<v Speaker 1>The two soon started talking about the seeds of what

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<v Speaker 1>will become the project. The Lad would head up May

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<v Speaker 1>It's play fourteen Italian thinking about it for a few

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<v Speaker 1>months before that, he told me there's like, you know, future,

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<v Speaker 1>and we kind of spent a bunch of time and

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<v Speaker 1>May actually like it's like hashing things out. But at

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<v Speaker 1>the point I was still skeptical, didn't really think it

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<v Speaker 1>would work. But like in September, I became like, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>convinced that it would work. Now in the niche, nerdy

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<v Speaker 1>world of Ethereum, Vlad is nothing short of a celebrity.

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<v Speaker 1>I followed him around at the DevCon conference and people

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<v Speaker 1>were hurling questions at him left and right as he

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<v Speaker 1>walked down the hall. But the signature is, I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>may not be enough. I mean it sounds like fun. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's pretty hectic. But you know, even before he was

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<v Speaker 1>scheduled to make his big speech about his project, people

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<v Speaker 1>are jostling to talk to him. So this is the

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<v Speaker 1>project that's going to unclogged the ethereum network. That's the hope.

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<v Speaker 1>He's named the project Casper because it's related to an

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<v Speaker 1>earlier type of consensus system known as Ghost or ghost

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<v Speaker 1>protocols with a friendly ghost correct by Construction Filtre. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the introduction for lad rallying the crowd. There must

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<v Speaker 1>have been about two thousand people in the conference hall

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<v Speaker 1>and they were getting excited. But then he ran into

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<v Speaker 1>a power Point Snaphew, as we all do, even math

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<v Speaker 1>wonder kids struggle with power Point. You would have thought

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<v Speaker 1>they were chanting for a rock star. Really sorry, guys,

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<v Speaker 1>but you know I swear to God's gonna happen and

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<v Speaker 1>you'll be impress. So did it happen? Yeah, he eventually

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<v Speaker 1>got it to work. And were you impressed with those ideas? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 1>It was mostly a ton of crazy math that I

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<v Speaker 1>didn't understand, but from what I could tell, it went

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<v Speaker 1>very well. Part of Glad's job is to figure out

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<v Speaker 1>the super complicated math behind his project, but another part

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<v Speaker 1>is evangelizing the project itself, trying to get everyone to

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<v Speaker 1>come aboard, and that's a steep challenge. Just as the

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<v Speaker 1>more technical problems he's trying to solve. Vlad is kind

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<v Speaker 1>of like a politician. Yeah, he'd probably cringe at that,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's true because then just his name veragely difficult

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<v Speaker 1>and extraordinarily difficult systems from a distributed systems problem. What

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<v Speaker 1>does that mean. That's a very technical way of saying that,

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<v Speaker 1>just like our own messy democracy, it's really hard to

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<v Speaker 1>get a large group to all get behind Casper. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>these are people spread all around the world, most of

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<v Speaker 1>whom don't know each other, So how would they actually

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<v Speaker 1>implement lads change? Well, once lads done figuring out the math,

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<v Speaker 1>then there are going to be these other developers who

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<v Speaker 1>come in and turn lads math into code, and that

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<v Speaker 1>code goes into an updated version of the software that

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<v Speaker 1>people use to navigate the Ethereum universe. So then people

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<v Speaker 1>either decide to adopt that update or not. It's kind

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<v Speaker 1>of like when Apple pushes a new iOS update on

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<v Speaker 1>you and you decide whether to download it. So was

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<v Speaker 1>this like a vote. It's not a formal vote now,

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<v Speaker 1>but you could think of it like the people who

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<v Speaker 1>adopt the new software or voting yes, and the people

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<v Speaker 1>who keep using the old software or voting no. And

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<v Speaker 1>as long as enough computers adopt the update with lads changes,

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<v Speaker 1>Ethereum will have effectively moved on to the new system.

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<v Speaker 1>And what happens if that fails, If not enough people

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<v Speaker 1>adopt the new system, well, it would basically give birth

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<v Speaker 1>to a new version of Ethereum. So there would be

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<v Speaker 1>the Ethereum based off of the old software and the

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<v Speaker 1>Ethereum based off the new software. That kind of split

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<v Speaker 1>has happened to Bitcoin and to Ethereum before it gets

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<v Speaker 1>really messy, though, and Vlad wants to avoid that at

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<v Speaker 1>all costs. Yeah, okay, so I think I understand enough

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<v Speaker 1>to know that that is a bad outcome. And a

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<v Speaker 1>lot is writing on Glad to convince everyone to take

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<v Speaker 1>of changes. Yeah, yeah, for sure, and he knows that

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<v Speaker 1>he knows the pressure he's under. But here's the thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Even after three years, Casper is not ready. There's been delays,

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<v Speaker 1>and the people who regularly use Ethereum are starting to

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<v Speaker 1>get impatient. So what exactly Laddin Vitallic are trying to

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<v Speaker 1>do in the world's first explanation of blockchain that won't

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<v Speaker 1>put you to sleep? We promise that is coming up.

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<v Speaker 1>So Matt, what exactly is Casper trying to do? Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>to understand it, we need to explain how the underlying

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<v Speaker 1>technology works. This is the technology that we've been referring

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<v Speaker 1>to as blockchain. Oh God, okay, I'm gonna prepare myself here. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>are you ready go for it? So imagine you want

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<v Speaker 1>to send me a hundred bucks to thank me for

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<v Speaker 1>being such a great guest host on DECRYPTI okay, I

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<v Speaker 1>can see where this is going now. Traditionally, what would

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<v Speaker 1>happen is your bank would check your balance right to

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<v Speaker 1>make sure you actually have that one hundred bucks to

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<v Speaker 1>give me, right, But then if you were to give

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<v Speaker 1>me a hundred dollars worth of bitcoin or ether, it

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<v Speaker 1>works differently. So it's not a bank that checks anything

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<v Speaker 1>or verifies that you have a hundred dollars to give.

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<v Speaker 1>It's these other people in the community that perform the verification.

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<v Speaker 1>These are the people we call miners, okay, like gold miners,

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<v Speaker 1>yeah kind of. I presume they're not wearing hard hats

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<v Speaker 1>and carrying picks, So how how do they verify what

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<v Speaker 1>they need to verify? The first thing to understand is

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<v Speaker 1>how important the history of the ledger is here every

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<v Speaker 1>transaction and a blockchain is recorded in time stand so

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<v Speaker 1>when the network checks for your one bucks, there it is.

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<v Speaker 1>Miners are using these really powerful computers that do tons

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<v Speaker 1>and tons of trial and error calculations, and the first

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<v Speaker 1>one to get it right gets rewarded with bitcoin or

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<v Speaker 1>ether or whatever other cryptocurrency you're working at. So think

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<v Speaker 1>about it right now. That's a free seventeen tho dollars

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<v Speaker 1>for one bitcoin right now. So there's a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>money here at stake. And this is how all cryptocurrencies work. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>basically except for a few very minor ones. But you know,

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<v Speaker 1>it's also a process that's led to a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>problems like what, well, it's become expensive to be a miner.

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<v Speaker 1>You're competing against everyone else to be the first to crack,

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<v Speaker 1>you know the problem. That means you have to invest

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<v Speaker 1>in really powerful computers to run these calculations. You need

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<v Speaker 1>to pay for a lot of electricity to run those computers.

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<v Speaker 1>That all means that it's mostly big companies and big

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<v Speaker 1>groups of miners that have all banded together who are

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<v Speaker 1>dominating the mining of these cryptocurrencies. And there's been a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of talk recently about all the electricity that these

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<v Speaker 1>miners are wasting to perform these calculations. Yeah, I don't

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<v Speaker 1>know if they would say it's wasting, but it's a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of usage. So like a recent report estimated that

0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.240
<v Speaker 1>the electricity used to mind the world's bitcoin is equal

0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.959
<v Speaker 1>to the electricity used by Ecuador in an entire year.

0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.600
<v Speaker 1>And Ecuador is a country with sixteen million people. That

0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.160
<v Speaker 1>is absolutely crazy, particularly now when you know C two

0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.720
<v Speaker 1>emissions and global warming have become such a big problem. Yep,

0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.640
<v Speaker 1>there's another problem too. You know, when you're relying on

0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:35.560
<v Speaker 1>this time consuming trial and error process to verify transactions,

0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.880
<v Speaker 1>it also means you have a pretty slow network. Okay,

0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.680
<v Speaker 1>how slow are we talking about? At the conference, I

0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.920
<v Speaker 1>spoke to someone named Andrew Keys. He works for an

0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.720
<v Speaker 1>ethereum startup in Brooklyn called Consensus, and he compared it

0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.000
<v Speaker 1>to credit card transactions. American Express, Visa, master Card all

0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.360
<v Speaker 1>average around thirty thousand transactions per second. But if you

0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:01.000
<v Speaker 1>compare that with etherium, the public ethereum main net average

0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.320
<v Speaker 1>it about seven. So if Ethereum can process seven transactions

0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.400
<v Speaker 1>per second and there's demand for a hundred, what happens, Well,

0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.480
<v Speaker 1>you get a backlog Uh, there's transactions that are just

0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.440
<v Speaker 1>waiting to get verified, which leads to long delays. That's

0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.920
<v Speaker 1>exactly what's happening now. Recently, it's gotten really bad to

0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.880
<v Speaker 1>some transactions have taken as long as twenty minutes and

0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.920
<v Speaker 1>glad you know he's out there saying, Hey, my proposal

0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:32.760
<v Speaker 1>is going to fix this, good old Lad. Okay, so

0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.800
<v Speaker 1>what would lads changes actually do. Here's the gist. In

0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.240
<v Speaker 1>the current system, miners are the ones who verify transactions,

0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.960
<v Speaker 1>but Lad and Metallic wanted to move that responsibility to

0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:49.600
<v Speaker 1>these people that they're calling stakeholders stakeholders. Okay, the metaphors

0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:53.960
<v Speaker 1>aren't quite consistent, but tell us who are the stakeholders? Okay,

0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.360
<v Speaker 1>A stakeholder is anyone who owns ether. That's the currency

0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:02.200
<v Speaker 1>remember for ethereum. Here's the catch. You have to lock

0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.280
<v Speaker 1>it up and like an escrow account or for a

0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.640
<v Speaker 1>short period of time. It's sort of like in a

0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:13.240
<v Speaker 1>security deposit box. And as they're working on verifying other

0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:19.160
<v Speaker 1>people's transactions, they get rewarded if they verify legitimate trades. Uh,

0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.040
<v Speaker 1>if they verify bad ones, or if they try to

0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:26.160
<v Speaker 1>mess with the system, they can lose those security deposits. Okay,

0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.520
<v Speaker 1>so I get it. It's against their interest to try

0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.080
<v Speaker 1>to do anything bad exactly. And in this new system

0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.520
<v Speaker 1>to verify transactions, um, you don't need an army of

0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.840
<v Speaker 1>computers to be running those energy consuming, time consuming trial

0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:46.680
<v Speaker 1>and error calculations. The verifications here would happen much faster,

0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:49.080
<v Speaker 1>so the network would be able to take on a

0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.920
<v Speaker 1>lot more volume. It would also be more energy efficient

0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.320
<v Speaker 1>and less expensive. Proponents hope that would have the benefits

0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.440
<v Speaker 1>of allowing more people, ordinary people to earn more Ether

0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.720
<v Speaker 1>and also keep the cryptocurrency from getting concentrated in the

0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.359
<v Speaker 1>hands of just a few rich people and those mining

0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.800
<v Speaker 1>groups that we've been talking about. Yeah, but Matt, it

0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.359
<v Speaker 1>does sound like this is a system that benefits people

0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.400
<v Speaker 1>who already own a ton of Ether, these so called stakeholders.

0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.640
<v Speaker 1>Wouldn't they just go on to earn more. Yeah, that's

0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.040
<v Speaker 1>definitely an argument against it. But they also feel that

0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.359
<v Speaker 1>think about the barrier to entry of mining. You have

0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:29.760
<v Speaker 1>to have all the equipment, you have to know what

0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.160
<v Speaker 1>you're doing here, you just have to own the currency,

0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.919
<v Speaker 1>which is a lot easier to get into it. So

0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:39.800
<v Speaker 1>they hope that it kind of democratizes it So remember

0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:41.919
<v Speaker 1>how I told you earlier that people are getting anty

0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.320
<v Speaker 1>for this upgrade. They're getting so anty now that Vitalic

0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.520
<v Speaker 1>is pushing another version of Casper, another version, so there's

0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:54.200
<v Speaker 1>Casper two point. Oh yeah, they're not necessarily competing proposals though,

0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.680
<v Speaker 1>Laden Vitalic on good terms, and Thetalic plan is more

0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.679
<v Speaker 1>like a stop gap aragement for Ethereum developers as they

0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.240
<v Speaker 1>wait for lads more permanent fix to be ready. Why

0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.399
<v Speaker 1>it definitely has his own ideas that he wants to

0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.120
<v Speaker 1>fully flesh out, whereas I'm more concerned about let's get

0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.600
<v Speaker 1>something out there and now because they know people are

0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.960
<v Speaker 1>demanding some kind of crocustique to be out there. When

0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.000
<v Speaker 1>the talent created Ethereum, in from the very beginning, he

0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.200
<v Speaker 1>intended it to be so much more than Bitcoin, so

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.520
<v Speaker 1>much more than a network that powers just another currency.

0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.720
<v Speaker 1>Like what all right, you remember crypto Kitties from a

0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.160
<v Speaker 1>few weeks ago. That's exactly what happened to the Ethereum

0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.520
<v Speaker 1>network this week, an application called crypto Kities clogged the

0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:44.520
<v Speaker 1>entire network. Crypto Kitties is a great example of an

0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:51.160
<v Speaker 1>application that's built on the Ethereum network, and it's a game, right, Yeah. Essentially,

0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.399
<v Speaker 1>so you purchased these virtual cats and they have their

0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:59.280
<v Speaker 1>own unique digital DNA. You can breed them, and you

0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.960
<v Speaker 1>can collect more war cats and sell those cats to

0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.240
<v Speaker 1>other people. It's kind of like Beanie babies, remember, but

0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:09.840
<v Speaker 1>if beanie babies could have their own babies. But it's

0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.760
<v Speaker 1>not just that the payments in this game happen in Ether.

0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.560
<v Speaker 1>The blockchain technology is keeping a record of the exact

0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.440
<v Speaker 1>kind of cats everyone owns. So when it comes time

0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.800
<v Speaker 1>to sell your aqua marine kitty, it verifies that you

0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.760
<v Speaker 1>actually have an Aqua marine kitty. And I know you

0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.960
<v Speaker 1>have one, brat I have two of them, so you know.

0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.440
<v Speaker 1>Basically this is all being based on Ethereum, and it

0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.760
<v Speaker 1>keeps track of how much Ether is going in and out,

0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:39.360
<v Speaker 1>and cats are why lad has been working so hard

0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.440
<v Speaker 1>on this. Let me give you a less weird example.

0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.040
<v Speaker 1>So the other week I bought a record on the

0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.840
<v Speaker 1>Ethereum blockchain. I had to pay for it with Ether.

0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.560
<v Speaker 1>It was about ten bucks, and I spent and I

0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.000
<v Speaker 1>went directly to the artists who wrote the music, so

0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.720
<v Speaker 1>there was no record company in the middle, no music

0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.679
<v Speaker 1>busher taking a cut. My ten bucks was split up

0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.919
<v Speaker 1>exactly as the band wanted it to be. So maybe

0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.160
<v Speaker 1>five bucks went to the singer, three bucks to the guitarists,

0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.200
<v Speaker 1>that kind of thing. So it's cutting out the middleman exactly,

0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.320
<v Speaker 1>and it's making it possible to do all of this

0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:22.720
<v Speaker 1>in an automated way. So imagine how it would have

0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.520
<v Speaker 1>implications for all these other kinds of services that connect

0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.800
<v Speaker 1>people who need each other, like how Uber makes it

0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.560
<v Speaker 1>possible for a rider to get a car and a driver,

0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.399
<v Speaker 1>or how Airbnb makes it possible for a traveler to

0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.920
<v Speaker 1>find a room at someone's apartment. If it's all automated,

0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.199
<v Speaker 1>if it's all code, all of these services would be

0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.919
<v Speaker 1>a lot cheaper for consumers. There's a picture that I

0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:54.080
<v Speaker 1>love to show people about Apple's evolution because because I'm

0:20:54.119 --> 0:21:00.680
<v Speaker 1>I'm always trying to basically parallel this way. Three point

0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.840
<v Speaker 1>oh two Web two point oh. This is Andrew Keys,

0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.840
<v Speaker 1>the Ethereum startup guy who I met at the conference.

0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.760
<v Speaker 1>He pulled up a chart on his phone that showed

0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.840
<v Speaker 1>the growth in the number of iOS apps, and it

0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.240
<v Speaker 1>starts out in two thousand seven where there were zero,

0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:17.560
<v Speaker 1>and then in two thousand and eight there were hundred.

0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.640
<v Speaker 1>Then there were a thousand up to two eighteen, where

0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:24.000
<v Speaker 1>they were a billion. So Andrew thinks there will be

0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.280
<v Speaker 1>a lot more Crypto Kitties in the future. Yeah, but

0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.639
<v Speaker 1>only if the Ethereum network gets the upgrade it needs,

0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.639
<v Speaker 1>the kind of upgrade that lads working on. When people

0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.160
<v Speaker 1>rushed into the Crypto Kitties game, those Crypto Kitty users

0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.600
<v Speaker 1>made up of all Ethereum transactions. And that's all for

0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.480
<v Speaker 1>a relatively simple game about collectible cats. Yeah, so imagine

0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:50.120
<v Speaker 1>how much worse it would be to run a huge,

0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:56.200
<v Speaker 1>complicated business like Uber or eBay on Ethereum. Okay, so

0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:58.879
<v Speaker 1>the Ethereum developers have some big dreams for where this

0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.840
<v Speaker 1>technology could go, but they can't do any of it

0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.840
<v Speaker 1>unless they can increase the number of transactions happening at

0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.800
<v Speaker 1>a time, and that means it's all up to Casper.

0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.920
<v Speaker 1>So what's the timeline for its rollout? I asked Metalic

0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.560
<v Speaker 1>about this uh and his temporary kind of stop gap measure,

0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:16.879
<v Speaker 1>and he said he was aiming for the end of

0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.880
<v Speaker 1>the year. This was in early November and there aren't

0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:22.320
<v Speaker 1>many days left in the year. And I haven't heard

0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.440
<v Speaker 1>anything yet about it being rolled out. And what about

0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.960
<v Speaker 1>Vlad and his big overhaul, so he said was very likely,

0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.600
<v Speaker 1>though he doesn't have a hard deadline at this point.

0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.240
<v Speaker 1>I see, but once Casper has been rolled out, can

0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:40.399
<v Speaker 1>we expect Ethereum to start really going mainstream. That's certainly

0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.520
<v Speaker 1>the hope, although Vlad was cautious when I asked him

0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.040
<v Speaker 1>that same question about how long it would take to

0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.760
<v Speaker 1>bring Ethereum to the masses. He said, you know, even

0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:53.320
<v Speaker 1>beyond Casper, Ethereum developers still have a lot more work

0:22:53.359 --> 0:23:05.879
<v Speaker 1>to do. And that's it for this week's episode of Decrypted.

0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.679
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening. Hey, do you use Ethereum and have

0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.639
<v Speaker 1>a story to share, Send us an email at Decrypted

0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:14.879
<v Speaker 1>at Bloomberg dot net, or you can reach out to

0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:19.120
<v Speaker 1>us on Twitter. I'm at Matt Licening and I'm at

0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.400
<v Speaker 1>brad Stone. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our

0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.280
<v Speaker 1>show wherever you get your podcasts, and while you're there,

0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:27.040
<v Speaker 1>I hope you'll take a minute to leave us a

0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:29.680
<v Speaker 1>rating and a review. It does so much to get

0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.800
<v Speaker 1>us in front of more listeners. This episode was produced

0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:38.040
<v Speaker 1>by Pierre Gadkari, Liz Smith, and Magnus Henrikson. Fancesca Levi

0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.840
<v Speaker 1>is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. We'll see you next week.