Human beings have a penchant for creating lists. We make lists for things like the top music artists at any given time, the best restaurants in the world, companies which people can trust, and the most wanted criminals. Lists take many forms. They can be maintained by a single authority, or curated by a crowd. But almost always, they remain in the custody of a central party. Token Curated Lists propose a model by which a) the content of lists are decentralized, and b) contributors are incentivized to curate their content according to social consensus. We’re joined by Simon de la Rouviere, an independent researcher and blogger. Previously, Simon was one of the first employees at ConsenSys and founded Ujo Music. He also contributed to the ERC20 token specification and has written about blockchain and token economics since 2014. In recent months, Simon’s research has focused on Token Curated Registries (or TCRs), and the economics of curation markets. Topics covered in this episode: Simon’s background and interest in blockchain, music, and economics Bonding curves as a mechanism for continuous token issuance Curation markets and how they relate to bonding curves Practical applications of curation markets The connection between curation markets and cultural memes Token Curated Registries and their applications The role of TCRs as a crypto economic primitive The economics and game theory of TCRs Simon’s recent project “This Artwork is Always for Sale” Episode links: Simon de la Rouviere – Medium Bancor’s Smart Tokens vs Token Bonding Curves – Medium Introducing Curation Markets: Trade Popularity of Memes & Information (with code)! – Medium Ujo Music This Artwork Is Always On Sale – Medium This Artwork Is Always On Sale Simon de la Rouviere – Twitter This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture and Meher Roy . Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/282

Dogecoin was born from the association of two browser tabs: one was an article about the popularity of the doge meme, and the other, CoinMarketCap. The idea quickly gained traction on Twitter, and before long, a new cryptocurrency was born. Dogecoin gained adoption as a tipping currency, the community took part fundraising for charities and other causes, perhaps most notably sending the Jamaican bobsled team to the Sochi Winter Olympics. We’re joined by Jackson Palmer, co-creator of Dogecoin. Though he has left the project, Jackson shares the story of how he created the most popular meme cryptocurrency as a joke. Topics covered in this episode: Jackson’s background and early interest in cryptocurrency The Dogecoin origin story The uniquely charitable nature of the community and The Dogecoin Foundation How the currency became widely used for tipping The NASCAR sponsorship and Moolah exchange scam The technological choices which went into early versions of Dogecoin Dogecoin’s unique monetary policy and economics Jackson’s thoughts on Doge Ethereum and the state of the project Why Jackson stepped away from the project and his thoughts on the crypto space Jackson’s other projects and YouTube channel Episode links: Jackson Palmer's website Dogecoin Github “Not actually capped at 100 billion?” GitHub issue Moolah, The Divisive Startup Heavily Involved In The Dogecoin Community, Is Closing Down – TechCrunch Excerpts from the Moolah Scam - YouTube Complete conversation with Mintpal/Moolah's ""Alex Green"" AKA Ryan Gentle AKA Ryan Kennedy - YouTube Epicenter episode 5 Jackson Palmer - Twitter Jackson Palmer - YouTube Thank you to our sponsors for their support: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks. More at aka.ms/epicenter. Join the most interoperable ecosystem of connected blockchains. Learn more at cosmos.network/epicenter. This episode is hosted by Sébastien Couture and Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/280