Kevin Wang: Nervos – Scaling Smart Contact Blokchains With Proof of Work and Generalized UTXO (#326)

While recent blockchain launches seem to leverage various Proof of Stake consensus mechanisms, some believe Satoshi’s consensus mechanism is optimal for distributed protocols. As decentralized ledgers jockey to become the chain of choice for enterprises looking to leverage blockchain technology, projects are looking to offer a solution that maximizes security, decentralization, and transaction throughput.

Kevin Wang, a Co-founder of Nervos, joins us to discuss why Proof of Work was implemented as the consensus mechanism for the network. To enable greater flexibility for application developers, Nervos created a Common Knowledge Base (CKB) to focus on the security of assets, enabling a complementary layer of Virtual Machines (VM) to scale and facilitate computation.

Kevin also discusses the active initiatives underway with the Nervos Grants Program to foster ecosystem development and encourage developers to evolve the permissionless network.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Kevin’s background at IBM, his open source development, and journey to crypto
- What the blockchain scene is like in Hangzhou, China
- What’s unique about Nervos, and the importance of each layer within the network
- Introducing Nervos’ consensus mechanism, NC-Max
- Why Nervos decided to implement Proof of Work
- Explaining the Common Knowledge Base (CKB), and its significance in the Nervos network
- How developer experience is in the Nervos ecosystem
- The economic model of CKB, Nervos’ native token
- Progress of the network, and a call for developers to consider the recently announced Nervos Grants Program

Links mentioned in this episode:
- The Nervos Network homepage: http://bit.ly/382Ixic
- Nervos Network on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2S4BbFo
- Why We Love Nakamoto Consensus - Nervos Blog: http://bit.ly/370oZtv
- Nervos CKB in a Nutshell - Nervos Blog: http://bit.ly/3843hq1
- Nervos developer resources: http://bit.ly/2H0JBY1
- Nervos Telegram channel: http://bit.ly/2tzy8LX
- Nervos grant information: http://bit.ly/375u5Vr

Sponsors:
- Pepo: Meet the people shaping the crypto movement - https://pepo.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/326