Tal Moran: Spacemesh – The Space-Time Consensus Blockchain (#291)

We're joined by Tal Mogan, Chief Scientist at Spacemesh. This new consensus protocol is designed to run on home desktop PCs, filling free space on users' hard drives to create a Proof of Space-Time. The goal of this new blockchain protocol is to solve the issues with Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, that is, energy inefficiency on the one hand, and possible centralized plutarchy of rich validators on the other.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Tal's background as an academic and researcher
- The problems with Proof of Stake and Proof of Work
- What is Proof of Space-Time and how it works
- How miners use their hard drive space to establish proofs
- How randomness is generated in Spacemesh
- Spacemesh's DAG architecture and how blocks are added to the chain
- The tortoise and hare protocols proposed by Spacemesh
- The Spacemesh team and recent funding round
- The project's business model and roadmap

Links mentioned in this episode:
- Spacemesh: http://bit.ly/2X4a3d1
- Spacemesh white paper: http://bit.ly/2X4aFzl
- Tal's CESC18 talk in San Fransisco: http://bit.ly/2X1pkLD
- Spacemesh on GitHub: http://bit.ly/2X5psKa
- Spacemesh on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2X1z6gD
- Spacemesh on Medium: http://bit.ly/2X7hDU0
- Interchain Conversations Berlin event – use code EPICENTER for discounted tickets: http://bit.ly/2HGztVG
- Cosmos Hackatom Berlin: http://bit.ly/30YQGkO

Sponsors:
- Vaultoro: Trade gold to Bitcoin instantly and securely starting at just 1mg - http://vaultoro.com
- Cosmos: Join the most interoperable ecosystem of connected blockchains - http://cosmos.network/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/291