Much of the digital world now operates in the cloud. A handful of companies are responsible for the massive market, and the centralization makes many people worry about censorship, privacy, and network resilience. David Vorick’s passion for distributed file storage had him start Sia in 2014. He’s been working fervently ever since to develop a viable competitor to the centralized solutions that are responsible for much of the content on the internet today. David aim’s to create a more private, resilient, and secure alternative to Amazon Web Services while also outperforming it. Topics covered in this episode: Why David started Sia rather than taking a job in big-techThe Sia launch in 2015Why Sia has prioritized development over marketing in the beginningThe importance of decentralized storage solutionsHow decentralized storage can be cheaper than AWSWhy Sia needs its own blockchain and protocol's tech stackDavid's views on Proof of Work how that lead him to start a mining companyThe circumstances around the Sia blockchain fork of 2018Where David envisions decentralized storage in the next few yearsEpisode links: Sia API DocumentationSia BlogDecentralization & Cutting-Edge Cryptography - Starkware Sessions TalkBusted Setup - MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 TalkRecovering Payment Channel Midstates Using only The User's Seed - Scaling Bitcoin TalkThe Sia Ethos (Sia Blog)Blockchains of the Sia familyObeliskSiaStatsDavid Vorick on TwitterSia on TwitterSponsors: Pepo: - eToro: Automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real-time - https://www.etoro.com/This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/318

We were joined by Luka Mueller, who played a key role in establishing Switzerland as a cryptocurrency center and in laying the legal groundwork for the ICO boom. In 2014, his law firm MME worked with the Ethereum team to set up the Ethereum Foundation and run its public fundraiser. A model that was later copied by countless other projects and led MME to work with many other leading protocols like Cosmos and Tezos. We also discussed his new project Sygnum, a cryptocurrency-focused bank. Nearly every company that works in the cryptocurrency space has had problems with its banking partner. Legal uncertainty, lack of knowledge, or simple unwillingness to work with cryptocurrency companies has made this a frequent nightmare for companies in this emerging sector. With a presence in both Switzerland and Singapore, Sygnum aims to fill a piece of missing infrastructure in the crypto-ecosystem: a bank that is able to receive, hold and transfer protocol tokens while offering a secure fiat gateway to easily transfer from the old world of finance to the new. We also discussed Switzerland’s regulatory environment and why it is able to provide more regulatory clarity. Topics covered in this episode: What life was like for Luka before blockchainHow Luka met Vitalik and went on to set up the Ethereum Foundation and run their fundraiserWhat protocols his law firm, MME, helped launchThe lessons learned over the years, and how he would do it differentlyWhy Switzerland is a great jurisdiction for crypto projectsWhat Luka thinks of asset-backed tokensWhat is Sygum, and why did he decide to start a crypto bankWhat Luke believes will happen when the tech giants release their own currenciesThe difference between Sygnum and similar banksWhat Luka's fears are in the space, and what he is hopeful forEpisode links: MME Law FirmSygnum WebsiteInstitutional Custody: A Portal to the Digital Asset Economy (Sygnum Blog)How Tokenization is Closing the Gap Between Public and Private Markets (Sygnum Blog)Sygnum gets green light to operate in Singapore (SwissInfo)Switzerland’s first crypto bank reports “overwhelming” demand (Decrypt)Sygnum on TwitterSponsors: eToro: Automatically copy every trade of eToro's top crypto traders at the exact price in real-time - https://www.etoro.com/Cosmos: Compete to win 100,000 ATOM by building and running Cosmos Zones - https://cosmos.network/goz/This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/316