Blockchains past
Having created content about Bitcoin for a number of years now it is with great pleasure to have a man who has played such a key role in the creation of what has become a household name, Bitcoin, join us in this video. That man is Scott Stornetta. Stornetta is presently the Chief Scientist at Yugen Partners. I first saw Stornetta interviewed when a well known commentator and Bitcoin maximalist did a short interview with him at a Bitcoin conference. What struck me was that this Bitcoin Maximalist had not taken the time to look into the people Satoshi had referenced in the white paper. In Stornetta’s case, Satoshi references his work in three of the eight references in the Bitcoin white paper. A fourth reference is also to his work but hes not personally named. Along with his colleague Stuart Saber, Stornetta pioneered work on Blockchain, the cryptographic linking of digital records giving them an immutable record. Stornetta has already earned a place in history, an immutable record and I’m sure there is more to come. We will certainly be following who his investment firm fund in the hopes of picking a few winners as the use of Blockchain ramps up in the coming years.
Stornetta has studied at some of the best places of higher learning in the United States, MIT, Harvard, Brigham Young and Stanford. He spent two years in Japan as a missionary, learning fluent Japanese. Speculation that he is in fact Satoshi has been around, especially among those doing a deep dive into who is behind the authoring of the Bitcoin whitepaper . He has made it clear he did not author the whitepaper and it is clear when you understand some of his views on Bitcoin. While he sees it as a ‘Tour de Force’ he also says Satoshi got the ball over the net but that he sees Bitcoin as a beginning not the all encompassing solution that Bitcoin maximalists propose. Stornetta has played a role in Bitcoins creation and his commentary on how he sees the evolution of Blockchain taking place is something anyone with interest in this space should take note of. In our interview we look at the phases he proposes they are taking place as the adoption of blockchain gathers monentum. We discuss the transparency and integrity of records, the use of blockchain in voting, information asymmetry (privacy), and a free market of currencies and of course we hear his thoughts on Bitcoin.
Why understanding Blockchain is important
The term blockchain has been grossly abused in the marketing of ICO’s and in many cases in straight out fraud. I have written on the topic on numerous occasions. We have witnessed companies using the term Blockchain in name changes and this it could be argued resulted in massive spikes in their valuations. Examples of this are New York Long Island Ice Tea Corp, changing to Long Blockchain Corp., and seeing an instant 200% gain in the value of its shares. On May 25th of 2018, the Nasdaq decided to delist the company. I guess they know what a Blockchain is.
The purpose of this new series that myself and co host Lawrence Grinceri of Skyhook capital have conceived is to demystify what is happening in Blockchain and to try and predict how legacy systems both financial, government and societal will be influenced. We concluded that speaking with Stornetta would be the ideal starting point and we hope you find this episode and the subsequent series useful and entertaining. A theme of the show is to have each guest involved in the selection of subsequent guests and it is with great anticipation to hear who Stornetta feels would make a good guest for episode two. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and please give us your comments of what you like about the show and who you think would make good guests also.
W, Scott Stornetta https://www.yugenpartners.com/
Lawrence Grinceri https://skyhookcapital.io/
*This is not financial advice. You must do your own research before making any financial investment. No paid promotion is present.
