Talking blockchain, functional programming, and the future with Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman

Talking blockchain, functional programming, and the future with Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman

While blockchains are huge right now, finding one to build on that doesn’t use a ton of energy, has good privacy protections, and operates efficiently is harder than it looks. The original breakout blockchain, Bitcoin, was slow to adopt any innovations coming out of research. Other blockchains use the electricity of a small country to play elaborate gambling games. For someone looking to build the future of Web3, what are your options?

On this sponsored episode of the podcast, we talk to Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman. After finding out that the Bitcoin blockchain wouldn’t incorporate all the good ideas generated around it—proof of stake, privacy improvements, and smart contracts to name a few—he decided to build his own.

Arthur has a background in machine learning and statistics but spent his early 20s teaching self-driving cars how to turn left and working in quantitative finance for high-frequency trading. High-frequency trading was data-driven, but there was so much noise that machine learning didn’t do very well. Self-driving cars, meanwhile, presented a more structured problem, so neural networks could yield good results.

Around that time, Arthur got bit by the crypto bug. It lived at the intersection of a lot of his interests: Cryptography touched on computer science and math, but his time in finance got him wondering about banks and money work. The idea of individual sovereignty scratched a personal philosophical itch.

Naturally, Arthur decided to try some mining software. It took all of his computer’s resources, so he uninstalled it. But after seeing the price of Bitcoin break a dollar and other news items about it, he looked closer. He started to think about what a company could do if it didn’t have to maintain banking relationships. He thought about possible applications, like decentralized poker.

When Bitcoin refused to adopt the improvements developed by competing alt coins, Arthur started thinking about a new blockchain that would respond to new developments and focus on efficient processing, security, and a good smart contract system. Forking the code wasn’t enough; he needed a new ledger.

That’s when Tezos was born. It was initially built by a small team of OCaml programmers using that language’s functional subset. Arthur was inspired by the example of WhatsApp, which was built by a small team of senior Erlang engineers. While OCaml would limit the talent he could hire, it would be a very efficient way to build an error-free transaction system. He could have built the whole thing in Java, sure, but Arthur estimates that it would have cost a whole lot more.

If you’re interested in learning more about what an engineer’s blockchain ecosystem looks like, check out the Tezos home page. Discover building on Tezos: https://tezos.com/build/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episoder(889)

Stack Overflow Podcast #97 - Where did you get that hat?!

Stack Overflow Podcast #97 - Where did you get that hat?!

On this week's episode, the gang talks about their favorite hats... for Winter Bash 2016! Developer Dan Luu comes by to tell Joel why he's wrong, and Joel talks about awful airports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Des 201658min

Stack Overflow Podcast #96 - A Face Full of Code

Stack Overflow Podcast #96 - A Face Full of Code

In this week’s podcast, Anil Dash - new CEO of Fog Creek and old friend of ours - stops by, as does Dr. Dave Robinson for our new segment, Dr Dave’s Data Desk with Dr. Dave Robinson. Because alliteration. And this week’s Stack Overflow Constitution question has the potential to destroy us all: Is it pronounced GIF with a hard G /ɡif/ or GIF with a J /jif/?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Des 20161h 6min

Stack Overflow Podcast #95 - Shakespearian SQL Server

Stack Overflow Podcast #95 - Shakespearian SQL Server

In this week's episode... Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! Microsoft has now joined the Linux Foundation; Google has joined the .Net steering committee; and Visual Studio is available for Mac. The end times are here. Luckily, our good friend and Jewelbots founder Sara Rey Chipps stops by to make us feel better about the world.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

21 Nov 20161h 3min

Stack Overflow Podcast #94 - We Don't Care If Bret Is Famous

Stack Overflow Podcast #94 - We Don't Care If Bret Is Famous

In this week's episode, we chat about our annual company meetup, which took place this year in the sometimes sunny Philadelphia, and featured a now-viral talk. Our very special guest this week is Fereshteh Forough, the founder and executive director of Code to Inspire, which is celebrating its one year anniversary this week. Code to Inspire uses technology, education and outreach to support Afghan women in their fight for social, political, and economic equality.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

14 Nov 201652min

Stack Overflow Podcast #93 - A Very Spolsky Halloween Special

Stack Overflow Podcast #93 - A Very Spolsky Halloween Special

In this week’s frightening episode, Joel gets a visit from his very own Annie Wilkes, er, number one fan: Genius.com CEO Tom Lehman. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be a Halloween show without something dying: This year, it’s the Experts Exchange paywall. Finally, David forgets to turn off his phone and gets called mid-recording by a recruiter, and we decide to tape their increasingly odd conversation so we can share it with you, our listeners.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

31 Okt 20161h

Stack Overflow Podcast #92 - The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing

Stack Overflow Podcast #92 - The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing

In this week's episode, the gang talks about terrible, awful, no good, very bad recruiter questions, and how to actually interview developers. Additionally, the gang plays our new game, Startup or Shut Up. Jay doesn't do very well.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

24 Okt 201652min

Stack Overflow Podcast #91 - Can You Stump Nick Craver?

Stack Overflow Podcast #91 - Can You Stump Nick Craver?

In this week's episode, everyone tries to stump Nick Craver. Today's episode also stars Dr. Omoju Miller, data scientist extraordinaire, talking about media representations of developers and how the evil or geeky hacker stereotype hurts us.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

17 Okt 201655min

Stack Overflow Podcast #90 - Developer Stories, Charger Butts, and Joel's Tiny Hands

Stack Overflow Podcast #90 - Developer Stories, Charger Butts, and Joel's Tiny Hands

In this week's episode, the hosts talk about the launch of Stack Overflow's latest product, Developer Story. They also talk about Jay's unique vernacular, and what angers programmers the most.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

11 Okt 201648min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
finansredaksjonen
rss-vass-knepp-show
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
pengepodden-2
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
okonomiamatorene
utbytte
rss-markedspuls-2
lederpodden
rss-sunn-okonomi
rss-fri-kontantstrom
rss-impressions-2
aksjepodden