April Meetup: Tapping Ethereum - A Blockchain Discussion in Missoula

The developers of Amber Contracts, a contract factory for the Ethereum blockchain, will give us an overview of blockchain and show how they built Amber Contracts using React, MongoDB, web3, MetaMask, Remix and Ethereum for their Montana Code School final project. Finally, they'll discuss trends in the blockchain area and what the future of blockchain might hold.

Lightning Talk Presentation : TBA

IF YOU WANT MORE DETAIL on what Amber Contracts will present, read on :)

"When we started this project we were really just interested in learning about blockchain. What we ended up with is a dashboard that lets anyone deploy a smart contract, to the Ethereum blockchain. Theses contracts hold escrow, can be interacted with, or exist in completely dry space.

We had to dive into tech that, when we were researching it, we realized that information or examples even eight months old were woefully out of date. We tried working with the Truffle suite and other tools. Ultimately, using web3, Solidity’s Remix, MetaMask as a wallet provider, and learning Solidity we were able to create a contract factory that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. We then used mondgoDB and a React based site to tie the Ethereum back end, to Amber Contracts back end, to the UI."

Presenters: Jamie Iguchi, Kristin Joy, Zack Viente, Joel Wilson

History of Blockchain
*Origins
*Industry disruption
*Current state is analogous to being in year 1992 of the world wide web

Why Blockchain
*Time and security vs. Speed and insecurity
**The concept of decentralization and a public ledger
**Immutable: cannot change/tamper with existing data or blocks of data
**Fly-in-the-amber analogy
*Direct exchange
**Why this is good for general public
**Why this is good for businesses
*Future Possibilities
**Medical records
**Inflation proof currency
**Voting, etc

Our Dashboard
*What is a “contract"
*Full walk-through
**How it works
**Why it works / underlying tech (React.js, Web3, MetaMask, Solidity)
**Proof it works (Etherscan)
*Our vision for public use
*What’s next

Meta conversations about Blockchain
*What are the fears
*What does this mean for the future of: Banking, Wall Street, government, taxes

Questions
*Let’s have a conversation.