Consensus Interviews Cover Agent Ledgers, Stablecoins and Proof of Location

At Consensus, Ledger Cast co-host Derek Waltchack sat down with three projects working on very different parts of blockchain infrastructure. Host Brian Krogsgard compiled the conversations into a single episode. The talk ranged wider than the hosts expected, and security tokens and stablecoins emerged as themes they expect to carry through 2018 and into 2019. The discussion also touched on EOS and its mainnet launch, plus a large fund designed to encourage dApp development, and how that push compares with Ethereum's dominance of the developer landscape.

Fetch.ai is the most ambitious of the three. CTO and co-founder Toby Simpson described a network built to handle billions of autonomous agents making transactions. To get there, the team is pursuing what it calls "Useful Proof of Work," a consensus approach that puts computational effort toward useful tasks. The private test net is already running, and the project is targeting a public test net release in the summer. A token is planned, and Simpson said the project has been self-funded so far. He also has an unusual background: he produced the Creatures game series in the 1990s and was an original member of DeepMind, the AI company Google acquired for roughly $500 million in 2014.

Havven represents the stablecoin side of the conversation. Waltchack spoke with Kain about the three general approaches to building a stable token and why Havven stabilizes its unit of account using multiple tokens. The core problem is that bitcoin's volatility makes it a poor measuring stick for prices. Stability and scalability, the interview suggests, are the central challenges for nearly every project in this category.

Platin takes a different angle with a platform for putting proof of location on the blockchain. Waltchack interviewed co-founders Allon Mason and Dr. Lionel Wolberger, who pitched use cases ranging from proximity-based gamification to humanitarian relief distributed through crypto airdrops.

Each of the three interviews is also available on the Ledger Cast YouTube channel. The hosts reminded listeners that nothing in the episode should be taken as investment advice, and that they should do their own research before buying anything.