UMA, or Universal Market Access, is an open source financial contracts protocol for building synthetic assets. It allows any two counterparties to design and create their own financial contracts for derivatives. An example of these assets in the traditional finance world, are interest rate derivatives. These are used to hedge against fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Today, interest rate derivatives are commonly used and the contracts to create these are standardized. Similarly, UMA allows anyone to create a derivative on a blockchain. Enforcement of agreement will be enforced by the network and so will settlement. What’s unique about UMA is how it ensures proper collateralization of derivatives. Maker and other platforms based on collateralized positions use a price oracle and will automatically liquidate positions if they go below a certain threshold. UMA is ‘priceless’ and does not use an on-chain price feed as the primary means to determine proper collateralization. Rather, it incentivizes participants to identify improperly collateralized positions. UMA token holders essentially vote on the price. Allison Lu, co-founder of UMA, chats in-depth about the platform and provides a great introduction to the world of financial derivatives. Topics covered in this episode: Allison’s background and how she got into blockchainWhat derivatives are and how they work in the legacy financial systemHow the UMA protocol worksHow synthetic tokens are traded and fungibilityCreating put options on the frameworkHow does this compare to prediction marketsUMA’s liquid mechanismPriceless syntheticsWhat are the incentives on the protocolThe importance of delayed reaction timesHow liquidation work and minting worksHow to prevent scammingThe dispute process and corruptionWhat makes the UMA protocol uniqueThe UMA roadmapEpisode links: UMA WebsiteUMA DocsUMA GithubUMA MediumUMA TwitterAllison Lu TwitterThis episode is hosted by Sunny Aggarwal & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/349

Polkadot is a unique protocol connecting multiple purpose-built blockchains into one scalable network. It's using blockchain technology to make way for new markets and future decentralized economies and has many stand out features. It's a sharded multichain network enabling many transactions on several chains in parallel. It offers interoperability and cross-chain communication. Communities on Polkadot govern their own network, and hold a stake in the future of Polkadot’s network governance as a whole. It also enables forkless upgrades, allowing blockchains to evolve and adapt easily. Over 100 projects have been or are currently being built for the Polkadot ecosystem, in a wide range of services and systems. After being in the development stage for 3 years, Polkadot was launched earlier this year. It's the first project by Web3 Foundation, and Parity are behind the development. Dieter Fishbein, Head of Ecosystem Development at Web3 Foundation, and Joe Petrowski, Research Analyst at Parity Technologies, share an in depth overview on the economics and incentives behind the protocol. Polkadot is designed to take back our digital sovereignty from powerful third-parties who currently control the web. It promises to take blockchain technology to the next level, and we believe it will do just that. Topics covered in this episode: Dieter and Joe’s backgrounds and how they got into the crypto spaceThe Polkadot visionThe key components of the Polkadot protocolKusama - Polkadot's cousinScalability, Security, and InteroperabilityThe stages of the Polkadot launch and what is coming nextBuilding with SubstrateThe parachains being developedLeasing parachain slotsRunning validators on PolkadotEpisode links: Polkadot WebsiteKusama WebsiteThe Polkadot launchPolkadot TwitterDieter Fishbein TwitterJoe Petrowski TwitterThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/347