Emin Gun Sirer on the SEC/EtherDelta Settlement and Why Code Is Speech

Emin Gun Sirer, Cornell professor, co-director at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts (IC3) and the founder of Ava, talks about the settlement the SEC reached with the founder of EtherDelta, and what that could mean for the coders of decentralized systems.  He also puts this action in the context of the history of peer-to-peer sharing and how the government used to prohibit encryption. We also discuss his main takeaway from DevCon4 last week -- hint, maximalism is probably not the future -- and he explains a new consensus algorithm called Avalanche, and how that differs from previous ways to achieve consensus. Then, he gives us a sneak preview of a new coin he is launching, Ava. Thank you to our sponsors! Abra: Click this special link for a free $25 in Bitcoin! https://www.abra.com/unconfirmed Onramp: http://www.thinkonramp.com Episode links: Emin Gun Sirer: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/ IC3: https://www.initc3.org SEC/EtherDelta settlement press release: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-258 SEC order: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2018/34-84553.pdf CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz's speech discussing how they would prosecute illegal prediction markets and how coders could be liable: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opaquintenz16 Unchained episode discussing whether coders would be liable: http://unchainedpodcast.co/reflections-on-the-10-year-anniversary-of-the-bitcoin-white-paper-ep90 DevCon4: https://devcon4.ethereum.org Avalanche white paper: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmUy4jh5mGNZvLkjies1RWM4YuvJh5o2FYopNPVYwrRVGV Ava: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2629017553989259&id=1801780960046260