Charles Hoskinson: Third-Generation Blockchains

Charles Hoskinson, CEO at blockchain research and development company IOHK, will be talking about third-generation blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin was the first generation blockchain; Ethereum was the second. Now we are entering a 3.0 phase, where features such as scalability, interoperability (side chains), treasury systems and on-chain governance play key roles.

Hoskinson is a well-known figure in the blockchain space. One of the original founders and the initial CEO at Ethereum, he eventually went on to establish IOHK with Jeremy Wood, another Ethereum veteran.

IOHK is distinguished by its close ties with academia. Among the company's more than 100 workers are researchers and developers located at universities across the globe.

A special group at IOHK called "the Grothendieck Team" has several developers devoted to Ethereum Classic, a project that resulted from a split in the Ethereum blockchain after the DAO hack.

But a larger portion of the company's efforts goes toward developing Cardano, a cryptocurrency and smart contract platform that launched in October.

Written in Haskell, Cardano emphasizes peer review and formal methods as a way to produce high assurance software. Its core protocol is Ouroboros, a provably secure proof-of-stake algorithm for reaching consensus on the next block in the chain.

Eventually, Cardano will compete with platforms like Ethereum and Tezos.

Background Reading

IOHK Launches Cardano Blockchain; Ada Now Trading on Bittrex (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/iohk-launches-cardano-blockchain-ada-now-trading-bittrex/)

Goodbye Bugs? How Formal Verification Could Fortify Smart Contracts (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/goodbye-bugs-how-formal-verification-could-fortify-smart-contracts/)

Has This Ethereum Classic Developer Solved Proof of Stake? (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/has-ethereum-classic-developer-solved-proof-stake/)

Why We Are Building Cardano (https://whycardano.com/)

Agenda

6:30 - 7PM: Networking and settling in (BYO munchies)

7:00 - 8PM: Presentation followed by Q&A

8:00 - 11PM: Late night conversations at local pub