As is the case with most luxury goods, the diamond industry is faced with the issues of theft, fraud, and counterfeiting. Illegal activity is present at every level of the supply chain, which collectively costs the industry and its insurers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In recent years, international treaties and regulation have been put in place in an attempt to combat illegal activity, but criminals are most often a step ahead. Leanne Kemp, CEO of Everledger, joins us to explain how her company is using advanced geological techniques, and blockchains, to bring more traceability to the diamond industry. Everledger, whose clients include many of the largest insurance companies, builds software which allows for a diamond’s unique characteristics to be hashed and notarized in the blockchain. Hence, a stone’s provenance, and the trail of ownership can be traced, therefore limiting the opportunities for fraud and making it difficult for stolen diamonds to re-enter the market. Topics covered in this episode: Leanne’s background as a technologist A broad overview of the diamond industry A look at the diamond supply chain What roles banks and insurance companies play in the supply chain How diamonds are uniquely fingerprinted The Kimberly process and other regulations Everledger’s technology stack and business model Other sectors which can also benefit from increased traceability Episode links: Everledger Kimberley Process This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/156

As content becomes more and more abundant and immediately available at our fingertips, our limited attention is a barrier for those whose business it is to attract and harness it. In this context, large (social) media companies understand that attention is a scarce commodity, and, as has been demonstrated, those who control attention wield enormous power over our society. We’re joined by Greg Meredith, CTO of Synereo, to talk about how this new Blockchain platform rebuild the attention economy. In a sense, Synereo is to attention, what Bitcoin is to money, in effect, removing intermediaries from the transaction between those who have attention, and those who wish to attract it. Greg, also gives his insights on how functional programming languages could allow for verifiable computational smart contracts. Topics covered in this episode: Greg’s background as a mathematician and his work on Microsoft’s BizTalk Process Orchestration How he transitioned into the crypto-currency space What is Synereo and what the project is trying to achieve Greg’s thoughts on the attention economy and how it is fundamentally broken Synereo’s technology stack How Vlad Zamfir’s Casper consensus algorithm influenced Synereo Rholang, Synereo’s functional smart-contracting language Synereo’s economic model and product roadmap Episode links: Synereo Synereo White Paper Logic as a distributive law Quit social media by Dr. Cal Newport Deep Work by Dr. Cal Newport This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/154