Ep. 47 Multiple Universe Consensus Algorithms (feat. Samson Mow)

On this week's episode of the Unhashed Podcast: We've got Samson Mow, CSO of Blockstream to talk about their latest venture into mining. How can we best decentralize mining, even if it is imperfect? How will we keep running the Bitcoin blockchain when human beings are able to live in multiple universes light years away from each other? And...why does Samson love it so much when you sing happy birthday to him?

Last week Thursday, blockchain technology company Blockstream revealed details related to their massive Bitcoin mining data centers in Quebec, Canada and Adel, Georgia. The facilities account for a combined 300 megawatts worth of energy capacity, and they’re currently available for hosting enterprise-level mining activities, in addition to Blockstream’s own mining operations. Blockstream plans to open their facilities to smaller scale miners in the future. For now, two of their active customers include Fidelity Center for Applied Technology and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. We dig in with Samson the rollout, how Blockstream kept the lid on the massive project, surprises along the way, and how it compared with his experience at BTCC, and the local news article that triggered the earlier-than-planned announcement.

Since Samson also works as founder and CEO of Pixelmatic, a Shanghai-based computer game company building out an sci-fi MMO game called Infinite Fleet, we discuss the opportunities and obstacles to using tokens in the video game industry, including NFTs, and Pixelmatic’s approach, which involves “proof of participation” tokens.

Colin aulds