Bill Laboon

Web3 Summit 2024 · Aug 19, 2024

In this talk, we will go over the prehistory of blockchain - the ideas and projects that inspired and guided Satoshi in creating Bitcoin. There were several earlier attempts at a digital currency, such as David Chaum's eCash, Nick Szabo's Bit Gold, and Wei Dai's b-Money.  Proof of work was used in Adam Back's hashcash. And all of these rested on more fundamental ideas, like the very concepts of a blockchain data structure and digital signatures. This talk will cover the groundwork laid by these pioneers that eventually led to Bitcoin and modern blockchain technology. The video features Bill Laboon from the Web3 Foundation discussing the history and development of technologies that preceded Bitcoin. He explains that Bitcoin's creation was influenced by previous attempts at electronic cash, trustlessness, and decentralization. The talk covers four key areas: the blockchain data structure, proof of work, public key cryptography, and the concept of digital cash. Laboon delves into the origins of blockchain as a decentralized timestamping tool, citing a paper by Haber and Stornetta from the 90s and their company Surety's innovative use of publishing hashes in the New York Times to ensure verifiability. He highlights that these concepts and technologies existed well before Bitcoin's first block was mined, emphasizing that blockchain has a longer history than commonly known and has evolved significantly over time.

Illia Polosukhin

Ethereum Denver · Oct 9, 2023

Decentralized frontends are the future of building on the open web. NEAR Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin explains why in this talk aimed at Ethereum developers as well as JavaScript and Rust developers. Demonstrating how to onboard users in seconds without crypto wallets, access a ready-made user base with built-in network effects, and collaborate with other app builders on reusable components, this talk includes a demo of live tech that lets builders get started in minutes. This is the fastest path to building the next great app in a more censorship-resistant way, on a truly composable Web3-native platform. Welcome to our video where we delve into the fascinating world of blockchain operating systems and explore the vision of an open web3. In this thought-provoking discussion, we'll be exploring how individuals can truly own their identity, assets, and data in a decentralized manner. We start by examining the limitations of web2 and its centralized control by corporations, banks, and other platforms. It becomes evident that there is a pressing need for a more inclusive and transparent system that empowers individuals. Throughout the video, we'll dive deep into the concept of a blockchain operating system and unravel its potential to revolutionize our digital landscape. We'll also shed light on the challenges faced in achieving this ambitious vision. Join us as we navigate through this complex topic with clarity and provide you with valuable insights along the way. Get ready to expand your understanding of blockchain technology and discover how it can shape our future. #BlockchainRevolution #DecentralizedWeb #buidl TLDR: The key idea of the video is that a blockchain operating system is being developed to provide individuals with ownership and control over their identity, assets, data, and decisions in an open web3, enabling a unified and connected web experience across different blockchains. 00:00 🔑 Individuals should have ownership and control over their identity, assets, data, and decisions in an open web3, as current centralized systems lead to fragmented identities, limited control over money, and hinder mass adoption of blockchain technology. 03:03 💡 A blockchain operating system is being introduced to create a unified and connected web experience, allowing users to access their own data and identity assets across different blockchains without needing to understand the underlying technology. 04:40 💡 The blockchain operating system introduces composable apps that unite various blockchain experiences into one place, allowing for flexible capabilities, social interactions, and notifications. 06:13 🔗 Near protocol is developing a blockchain operating system that enables users to access and interact with multiple blockchains, offering features like sharding, meta transactions, guest accounts, and fast authentication with biometrics, while eliminating the need for centralized infrastructure. 08:28 📱 Illia discusses the launch of a developer Social Network called near, which already has social features, games, and news experiences, with over 2,000 people joining and over 1,800 components built, giving users and developers control over the blockchain operating system. 10:47 📱 The blockchain operating system aims to create a synchronized platform for developers and users to create and experience various applications, providing access to finance, micro tasks, commerce, complex apps, unstoppable chats, and games. 13:15 📱 You can build and interact with blockchain apps on Lido using platforms like Metamask, with the ability to switch between different blockchains, and there is a hackathon for developers to build front-end components for an Ethereum project. 14:56 💡 The blockchain operating system combines blockchain technology with web3 identity, developer tooling, multi-chain interoperability, fast onboarding, social graph, and composable front ends to create a powerful and efficient platform.