The lack of an explicit governance mechanism has created deep problems for Bitcoin. Ethereum, with the DAO-related soft/hard-fork discussions, may face similar challenges ahead. Yet, already in 2014 Arthur Breitman quietly started working on cryptocurrency network Tezos that has an explicit mechanism to let coinholders vote on protocol upgrades. Our discussion with Breitman centered around how explicit governance could lead to a more secure and evolutionary protocol. We also discussed Tezos’ approach to smart contract that tries to prevent bug-riddled and insecure smart contracts such as the DAO which has thrown Ethereum into a deep crisis. Topics covered in this episode: Why stakeholders voting on forks can prevent consensus attacks The mechanics of Tezos’ governance How an upgrade mechanism could allow Tezos to rapidly and radically evolve Why the programming language in which smart contracts are written is crucial for security Why a functional language that allows formal proofs such as OCaml is more suited for smart contracts than Ethereum’s solidity The road ahead for Tezos Episode links: Tezos website Tezos position paper [PDF] Tezos whitepaper [PDF] This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/136

Raising $150m+ through its toke sale, ‘The DAO’ has become the most notable decentralized application to date. The ambitious goal of the project is to form an decentralized organizations that efficiently makes investment decisions and generates a return for the token holders. Computer Science professor Emin Gün Sirer and researcher Vlad Zamfir joined us to discuss the various security issues with the daring project and why they’ve called for a temporary moratorium on funding proposals. Topics covered in this episode: How the DAO works What the role of the curators is What splits are and how they became a way to withdraw funds Why the DAO has a bias towards approving proposals How attackers could ‘stalk’ token holders when withdrawing their funds How the DAO can be upgraded Episode links: A Call for a Temporary Moratorium on The DAO Blog Post A Call for a Temporary Moratorium on The DAO Full Paper PDF EB132 – Stephan Tual: Building A Universal Sharing Network On Ethereum And A $150M DAO Understanding the DAO Accounting The DAO website Meher's 'split DAO' reward token attack This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/134