AMA 08/04/2019

Back on air after a week off for a full body physical, health scores are clean and weight is down from 235 to 205 pounds.

Biggest Daedalus update since launch is landing in August 2019, fixing over a hundred issues plus a wave of usability improvements.

Ouroboros BFT upgrade goes live in August or early September 2019, replacing the old Ouroboros Classic implementation.

Haskell team just gave a very significant demo, and the Haskell wallet backend is coming along well.

Teams are flying into the Colorado office to plan what comes after Shelley, plus a big University of Wyoming hackathon in September.

New Plutus book is out on Amazon and the Plutus courses have already pulled in five to ten thousand students.

Great progress compiling Haskell to WebAssembly through GHCJS, aimed at long term interoperability in the browser.

Plutus off chain code will be a user choice, so smart contract front ends can be written in JavaScript, Java or any language.

Exploring interoperability between Ethereum style accounts and extended UTXO so a Plutus contract could call a Yella contract and back.

Ouroboros Crypsinous and Ouroboros Hydra are close to a Eurocrypt submission, the last two papers closing out the Ouroboros research line.

Sharding research has run since 2015 across nearly a dozen papers, now wrapping up so focus can shift to layer two and zero knowledge work.

A boatload of treasury work is queued up, the design is known, it just has to get built.

The real 2019 to 2020 challenge is bridging the gap after Shelley, with hackathons in Ethiopia, Mongolia, Israel and now Wyoming proving developer demand.

Confident Cardano will beat everyone else to scaling by around September since the theory is largely settled and implementation should not be too hard.

Jokes about doing a reverse AMA and would love to bring Barca the club to Nepal.

Staying mostly in Colorado for the next few months after too much international travel took a toll on his weight and health.

Two paintings in his office, a Waterhouse and a Klimt style piece, that are deeply personal to him.

Clarifies the mask visible on camera is from his own mask collection, not an Anonymous mask.

Compares Vitalik's proposed Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash partnership to storing junk in a neighbor's garage since Ethereum still lacks real scaling and data solutions.

Favorite Pink Floyd album is Wish You Were Here, brings up Syd Barrett's schizophrenia.

Still has and treasures a fan's letter, but asks people not to reach out over public Twitter with personal requests.

A decentralized protocol can still be upgraded after launch through an improvement proposal process and democratic voting, unlike a centralized company.

Uses the low turnout DAO hack vote to discuss representative sampling and how to incentivize participation in on chain governance.

Calls the treasury and voting system the great 2020 challenge, an interdisciplinary problem spanning economics and political science.

Explains why IOTA style claims about IoT, AI and blockchain do not add up, since raw sensor data should live off chain with only compact audit logs on chain.

Pairing trusted hardware attestation with an incentive layer could make IoT sensor data on chain plausible, pointing to Avalanche style protocols.

Argues inflation quietly destroys the middle class while the wealthy stay insulated, citing Venezuela and Zimbabwe as extreme monetary mismanagement.

Lays out a Hayekian view that competing cryptocurrencies will replace trust in a single issuer, moving personal wealth toward a diversified portfolio of assets.

Government protection never saves an industry outpaced by innovation long term, comparing crypto's rise to the fall of the Soviet system and the 2008 crash.

Expects cryptocurrency to be the first practical instrument for delivering universal basic income.

Brushes off ongoing criticism from Chico Crypto, calling him a shock jock.

The exact ADA or Bitcoin supply number is arbitrary, what actually matters long term is real supply, demand and community.

Enjoyed watching the Libra congressional hearings expose politicians defending the dollar's geopolitical monopoly.

Argues unearned power over any system, from reserve currencies to local monopolies, always corrupts, and only competition from new standards keeps it honest.

Believes proof of stake can be more censorship resistant than proof of work over time since stake naturally redistributes while mining consolidates.

Greets Sicily, calling Palermo a dump but praising Marsala as an incredible city.

Marketing will follow if the technology is real, chasing price with hype instead of substance is the wrong business to be in.

Says the work is about changing lives, not personal wealth, and warns that projects promising fast riches usually take money from someone else's pocket.

Open to talking with Richard Heart, recalls almost meeting Bill Gates, knowing Paul Allen, and meeting Steve Wozniak.

Walks through DAG based protocols as a blockchain alternative, covering mempool competition, parallel chains research, and why leader election favors proof of stake sharding instead.

Greets Romania, calling it one of his favorite countries in the world.

Gives a cautiously positive read on Elrond, noting it plans to use Yella and is advised by Grigore Rosu, though full diligence has not been done.

Greets Aurora, Colorado and praises the Aurora Art Center.

Daedalus is a separate front end from the Byron backend, so when Shelley ships the backend swaps out while Daedalus stays.

Phil Wadler's formal methods work continues with Manuel Chakravarty and the Artie collaboration.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett oppose crypto mainly because they openly admit they do not understand it.

Prefers dogs to cats because dogs come when called and show unconditional affection.

Would love to expand into Jamaica but travel has not allowed it, and confirms no active Cardano business in Hong Kong right now.

Confirms his cat is named Shelly, spelled with two Es to avoid confusion.

Greets London UK, joking that it beats London Ontario.

Greets the Philippines and gives no comment on jokes calling ADA the love child of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Plutus already supports smart contracts and points to several public presentations posted on YouTube for more detail.

Basho and Voltaire will not land before Shelley since Shelley is nearly ready, and the 2020 timeline still holds.

Chats with a retired Colorado firefighter and medic offering to help out on the ranch.

Mocks Justin Sun's cancelled five million dollar charity lunch with Warren Buffett as a marketing stunt, contrasting it with a year of smart contract research for the same budget.

Looking inward through isolation tank float therapy and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.

Greets a Manila based developer and jokes about the old Manila airport terminal transfers.

Fields a question about rescuing John McAfee from Barbados, admitting he has no idea of McAfee's current whereabouts.

Addresses ADA slipping to around 13th in market cap ranking, brushing off the framing right after a health related week off.

Shelley is the top priority, and the rest of the company is effectively on hold on other announcements until it ships.

Has not personally received an IRS letter, tells everyone to just pay their taxes.

Likes physical gold in principle but says custody risk undermines it, arguing Bitcoin now works as more secure digital gold with multisig storage.

A recent wow moment noticing a gladiator painting where the fighter defiantly looks to the crowd instead of the emperor.

Shares a Japan itinerary suggestion covering Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Hokkaido.

Plans to celebrate Shelley's launch by ice climbing and paragliding in Antarctica with Wim Hof, drinking thirty year old Macallan on Mount Erebus.

Practical BFT protocols achieve irreversible finality, once a block is settled there are no rollbacks.

Would consider a Joe Rogan podcast appearance after Shelley and Goguen ship, once there is real substance to discuss.

Confidence, not fear, drives him after near death experiences, citing Elon Musk's brush with bankruptcy as proof recovery is always possible with first principles thinking.

Never had kids, jokes he will end up like Niander Wallace from Blade Runner 2049.

Excited for the Dune remake and praises director Denis Villeneuve.

Does not personally hunt but eats what close friends bring back from bow hunting.

Uses belief in Bigfoot as an example of poor critical thinking, since a breeding population would leave findable remains.

The story of running a bot mining fleet in EVE Online until he realized it was becoming an unhealthy obsession and quit.

Hyped for The Irishman reuniting Pacino, De Niro and Pesci.

Declines to promise less interview interruption from hosts trying to squeeze in more questions.

Ethiopia work is running under Ala plus ADA with ongoing negotiations moving on Africa time.

Declines to weigh in on Israel and Palestine as outside his lane, but says China's social credit system and Uyghur camps are among the world's great human rights violations.

Predicts Trump wins re-election if Democrats keep nominating far left candidates pushing steep taxes and full healthcare socialization.

Quips that he dislikes anyone who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, needling Bernie Sanders comparisons.

Rapid fire jokes about SolarWinds and whether he has ever lost a dream.

Clarifies he is Italian Catholic and Norwegian, not Jewish, despite persistent online rumors, and once posted his 23andMe results.

Confirms staking should work from the Yoroi style light wallet.

Jokes that what is behind his office doors stays left to the imagination, like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka.

Enjoys karaoke whenever he visits Japan.

The rest of the team is not waiting on the Haskell team, they are running ahead and will launch testnet phases as each part is ready.

Confirms he has read Asimov's The Last Question and jokes about eventually buying and tweeting a Lamborghini tractor.

Dismisses explaining Rust and Haskell's advantages over C plus plus, quipping the explanation would be lost on a non technical audience.

Confirms he is a workaholic and believes in God.

He would have no issue with any group, including a non US military, developing on Cardano since it is an open protocol like the internet.

Rapid fire favorite song depends on mood, ranging from Trent Reznor to Pink Floyd.

Addresses key man risk by naming that three people are being groomed within the company to be able to replace him.

The story of how Ferruccio Lamborghini started building supercars after Enzo Ferrari dismissed his suggestions.

Confirms he does not really listen to Tupac, sides with the West Coast over Biggie in the old rivalry.

Takes up an invite to play a free round of golf if ever passing through Louisiana.

He does not hate Dan Larimer personally but cannot forgive his claim that Cardano plagiarized EOS.

Recounts a recent Norway trip chasing the Northern Lights and attempting dog sledding despite washed out trails.

Enjoys watching rugby and cricket even though he does not play either sport.

Rapid fire car opinions, prefers Cadillacs domestically and rates the Audi R8 a great starter supercar.

Pushes back on the idea he is not in a rush on Shelley, noting his own ADA cannot be staked until it ships.

Likes the Audi TT but would pick a Corvette or Shelby GT500 over it.

Brushes off a long running impersonator account, saying more power to them.

Admires the engineering in the Porsche 918 and 911 but has never liked the design given the price point.

Not a Tesla or Elon Musk fan despite admiring engineering elsewhere.

Would buy a Kia before ever buying a Mercedes Benz.

Repeats that Craig Wright is like molten tar, impossible to touch without getting burned.

Debates favorite supercars, weighing Koenigsegg engineering against Aventador reliability and an easier repair network.

A fine, low key relationship with Andreas Antonopoulos even though their paths rarely cross.

Favorite math areas are number theory, logic and reverse mathematics rather than statistics or calculus.

Promises a fan a custom paint job callout on his future Lamborghini.

A long story about buying homemade hot sauce in a bizarre bottle from a stranger at a Louisiana gas station and testing it on chili.

Signs off, thanking everyone and promising more updates soon including a Kraken related appearance.