Zero Knowledge goes to Devcon4: Austin E. Alexander from Kraken

Transcript

Hey hello hi Austin what do you do what do you do Austin I work at a Kraken a Bitcoin exchange we got Bitcoin and a bunch of other ones okay five fiat currencies or as some call them slave monies and we're one of the largest most liquid exchanges I believe buy a nice healthy margin the most liquid in Euro okay and yeah so how many copies to do other things oh we don't we don't actually care about sorry okay

definitely I'm reluctant to even answer the question over here Def Con how many def cons have you been - I went to three this is my third one down and skipped one so maybe yeah which one's did you do I think I went to well I went to one last year in Cancun and then I went to London one but not the one in yet must've been that one yeah okay but not the one in China okay I never been to China me neither so tell me what is what's your impression of this one compared to those ones this one's way bigger even than the one last year the the venue is much bigger and it's much more high production value as

well organized a much better organized yeah and maybe that's because of the wonderful Yakko joining the etherion foundation from Craig McCracken a big fan of hers she's cool I don't care what anybody says nice what what what else is different other than the size what's the vibe like actually compared to last year I said that last year there was a lot of them as I heard Vlad described them moon boys maybe a few that were there's probably less presents this year of people like kind of strictly inning for the green there's an underlying current of that always in these things but yeah I think

it's it's it's I think the bear market has probably been relatively healthy for the overall ecosystem the aura here okay and you feel it it's way less but it's less it's there still obviously it's aetherium so there's plenty of hand waving plenty of hype many of uh you know dreams [Music] yeah okay what was the best talk that you saw here I saw the maker Dow one and I liked it because it was a you know you know it was very kind of real world economic focused where he described the the one of the the incentives for him to be doing the project is because the

existing legacy dinosaur grandpa financial system is so perverse and corrupt and has you know they kind of he was describing how you have these debt based assets that are then quadruple quintuple ten times hypothecated on top of each other and so it's a you know massive thing where the tail wags the dog and then the whole economy explodes and no one knows how but it's obvious out and do you feel like move with maker I mean maker has this like kind of I guess I don't know I can't seem to describe it because I'm not an expert on that but it does have some element of like collateralizing and in issuing detonates things on top but at least if at the core you have equity based assets

that are you know the whole thing's very transparent is the key ring so you might have a debt based assets in that system but at least everything is transparent unlike with the legacy system where you know yeah like one of the points that he made which was fantastic he said imagine if you try to go to a bank and you're gonna put this money in there and you say well before I put my money in let me let me see all your books and all your liabilities and all your outstanding everything and they left you out of the room but uh you know theoretically with that system you could you can do that that's good so that was your favorite talk it's like one of the only I saw seen that maybe

all right what was think of the conversations that you've had this week is there one that stands out to you and who was it with and what was it about well I don't want to say who was with probably it was actually somebody I'm really into monetary policy okay you know what aetherium that seems like a lot of people don't care too much about monetary policy that's why they kind of have this uh you know they got conference calls to decide the monetary policy I guess which i think is a big weak point that it's not already but you know it's uh it's good that there's competition of currencies yeah and everything is voluntary and currency competition is the healthiest thing so is there a congressman who I believe I've known for many years

actually and it seems like the needle is moving in this guy's head or or girl as a guy yeah there's a lot of guys yeah likelihood it was the guy is not terrible okay but he was kind of saying how he I guess sees now why how how essentially that can be a potential point of capture resist essentially in his mind was he was kind of saying how he sees now that maybe not having like a fixed monetary policy that from the start might be a threat in the future for uh because wow the etherium ecosystem I would say that's good in

saying wait yeah and that's something I've kind of thought and I camera I mean yeah anyway yeah okay what was the best party well did you go to any part I don't party okay I usually buckle down yeah I go to the event and then I buckled down in the hotel room in clickity-clack yeah a few hours afterwards very good you know ii credit austin's bosses you're hearing this he's working hard getting things going around swear it nice okay so no parties for you we went to this event last night with Amir taki from finance and Amir taki was speaking

with Vlad Zamfir and actually Tyson and uh always loved to hear him you're talking talk you know that guys he's tapped into something else and another vibration I don't know that was a good event then that was very good event nice okay I think I'm here talking should be speaking much more in everywhere and he has also here's a very he's got a novel personal unique perspective about governance and how how our networks and our you know the cryptid decentralized networks interact with the kind of real world in a way that I think a lot of you know a lot of basement dwellers a you know neckbeards

they they they don't they can't really I know he kind of came from that world and has been like thrust himself in some serious life stuff yeah that really I think there's a lot to learn from him in terms of his ideas around the social organization and such cool Austin I want to say thank you for being on here [Laughter]