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Constraining Central Authority: Plasma Analysis

Constraining Central Authority: Plasma Analysis

A key to decentralization is imposing constraints on authority. Constraints are used to limit undesired actions of agents in a system forcing them to engage in constructive behavior. When all agents are constrained such that incentives are aligned, trust can be established. With cryptoeconomics we design decentralized protocols which precisely

Plasma Cash Simple Spec

Plasma Cash Simple Spec

This is first pass at a full specification for a Plasma Cash chain. Super special thanks to Vitalik for making this post possible. And a big thanks to Joseph Poon ❤️ -- plus love to David Knott Overview Plasma Cash is a Plasma construction based around the use of unique identifiers

Blockchanges to Government

Blockchanges to Government

It's unclear how governments will integrate with blockchains. Historically, governments have gained much of their power through land ownership secured by force. However, as humanity ventures further into the virtual, physical land ownership loses importance. With cheap flights, Airbnb, and widespread internet access we will likely see a

Distributing Dividends with Burned Shares

Distributing Dividends with Burned Shares

[Cover Image Source] [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWXhbwSWkAAnaZ5.jpg:large] Distributing dividends via smart contracts is difficult with a large number of shareholders. A naive implementation could look something like this: for s in shareholders: dividend = s.shares/total_shares * total_dividends send(s.address, dividend) This is not

Learning Solidity Part 2: Commit-Reveal Voting

Learning Solidity Part 2: Commit-Reveal Voting

What is "commit-reveal"? To understand how the commit-reveal commitment scheme [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commitment_scheme] works, it is useful to break it down into it's two component parts: 1. Commit: You assert your choice to your peers. 2. Reveal: You reveal your choice, and

Introduction to Ethereum: The Internet's Government

Introduction to Ethereum: The Internet's Government

Bitcoin has catchy slogans like digital gold and internet money, but what is Ethereum? Sometimes it’s called the world computer. But what in the world is a "world computer"? Without having to take a course in computer science, here is a straightforward explanation of what Ethereum really

Learning Solidity Part 1: Contract Dev with MetaMask

Learning Solidity Part 1: Contract Dev with MetaMask

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you will need ✅ 1. The **Chrome** web browser - [Download here](https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/) 2. The **Metamask** Chrome extension - [Download here](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/metamask/nkbihfbeogaeaoehlefnkodbefgpgknn) Metamask allows you to sign Ethereum transactions *without* running a full Geth node.Contract

Solidity's biggest bug: Javascript

Solidity's biggest bug: Javascript

Reliance on Javascript is stunting the growth of the Solidity development ecosystem. It’s why new developers get stuck. It’s why we struggle integrating Solidity into development environments. And it’s why much of our documentation is out of date. We are stuck in our Javascript mindstate because we

An Introduction to Ethereum Testnets

An Introduction to Ethereum Testnets

Understanding how to use testnets is essential for developing smart contracts on Ethereum [https://karl.tech/ethereum-in-101-words/]. Here is a basic introduction to what testnets are and how to use them. What is a testnet? Testnets simulate the Ethereum network and EVM [http://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/142/what-was-the-reason-to-invent-the-evm] . They

5 Essential Ethereum Dapp Tools

5 Essential Ethereum Dapp Tools

Getting started writing dapps is hard. You've got a lot of moving pieces, and half of them are in beta release. It's great because you can make a huge impact as an early adopter, but being a pioneer you sacrifice the convince you'll find

Simple Decentralized App Architecture

Simple Decentralized App Architecture

If you don't know what a Decentralized Application (Dapp) is, check out my previous post Why Build Decentralized Applications [https://karl.tech/why-build-dapps] Two Key Technologies: 1. IPFS: A distributed datastore modeled after BitTorrent and Git. Soon it will have an incentivisation layer in which you pay strangers

Why Build Decentralized Applications

Why Build Decentralized Applications

The shift towards decentralization is happening. With tools like Angular.js, web development moved from thin to thick clients. You can't be hip without at least one SPA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-page_application] under your belt. The reason for this shift is simple: > Computing power

Ethereum in 101 Words

Ethereum in 101 Words

Ethereum's roots stem from Bitcoin. Bitcoin made one major innovation: decentralized trust. Conventionally we trust governments or companies. Bitcoin moved trust to the network. With that, the first decentralized currency was born. But a currency is limited. Now enter Ethereum. Ethereum is a single computer we can trust.