The Control - Issue #16
Satoshi disappeared from the community in 2011 and the lack of a leader is hurting Bitcoin currently. Protocol improvements like Segwit are not getting approved by miners and there is a power struggle going on between various factions that appears to be tearing apart Bitcoin.
The best path forward is cooler heads prevailing and the two sides coming together and agreeing on a roadmap that allows innovation on top of Bitcoin (though that is not the only path forward and a hard fork is another viable route). I shared some thoughts on how that could happen in The Bitcoin Compromise
Required reading this week
Forget Bitcoin. The Blockchain Could Reveal What’s True Today and Tomorrow — www.wired.com
Augur is one of the most exciting Ethereum-based projects this year. The prediction-market platform is targeting a public launch later this year and co-founder Joey Krug will be speaking at the Token Summit on May 25th.
Hard Forks, Soft Forks, Defaults and Coercion — vitalik.ca
Vitalik shares some thoughts on protocol upgrade mechanisms and the somewhat contrarian perspective that hard forks are preferable to soft forks.
Lightning network in action — medium.com
Good overview of the Lightning Network, a payment layer on top of Bitcoin. The Lightning Network requires Segwit to be added to the protocol, which Bitcoin miners have not yet approved.
Web pioneer plans blockchain-based digital ad platform — www.americanbanker.com
Brave announced that it intends to issue an Ethereum-based token called the Brave Attention Token. Founder Brendan Eich will also be speaking at the Token Summit on May 25th.
Migration from Counterparty to Ethereum
Decentralized storage project Storj issued its token on top of Bitcoin-based Counterparty in 2014. This week it announced transitioning to Ethereum because of the more active development. ERC20 tokens are becoming a standard building block for token-based projects and I expect this trend to continue.