Month: February 2018

Jimmy Song, one of the most experienced and respected developers in the field of cryptocurrency, has joined Blockchain Capital in January, as a venture partner, and this month he has already announced a new project: the so-called Platypus Labs for open-source developers.

New Opportunities
Jimmy is known for his detailed and comprehensible analysis of the technical aspects of cryptocurrency. He recently joined Blockchain Capital to render technical assistance in the areas related to investment and research and establish connections between the company and the developers working with crypto.

When describing the new initiative, Jimmy has stated that he wants to reward the developers, because they bring great benefit to the ecosystem, and the company would like to see them compensated for it.

As part of this bridge-building process, Jimmy has announced a new project that aims at providing the open-source developers with a revenue stream and supporting them with a number of fellowships and residencies. The project, informally nicknamed “Platypus Labs”, will first of all focus on those working on Bitcoin Core, which is currently the most widely-used version of bitcoin software.

While the project is still in the early stages of development, some of the Blockchain Capital’s portfolio firms and investors have already shown interest and bought into the funds of the company. This hardly comes as a surprise, considering that the numbers of posted blockchain jobs are skyrocketing; for example, in the U.S., the number has increased by mind-boggling 207% in the course of 2017. Bart Stephens, the co-founder of Blockchain Capital, has confirmed that all the companies in the venture capital’s portfolio (62 in total) are in need of the engineering talent, and gladly welcome Song’s project which comes at just the right time. In the following two months, Song, avidly supported, already plans to launch a residency or fellowship program.

The Labs are located in San Francisco. The first objective is to create the developer ecosystem that is focused on the bitcoin, but in future the project will grow to support other types of cryptocurrency.

Not All Developers Agree
Despite all the enthusiasm and support, convincing the developers to take part in the project might turn out to be a bigger challenge than it seems at first.

Initially, when bitcoin was still a novelty known only to a relatively small number of crypto enthusiasts, the developers who worked with it were either fans working on the code for free, as a hobby, or owners of bitcoin (sometimes, fairly large numbers of it) who were eager to improve the code to protect their assets. Jimmy Song himself belonged to the latter group: he says that is was owing a lot of bitcoin that made him begin contributing to Bitcoin Core.

As bitcoin grew in rate and popularity, the developers started to get hired by various companies, from startups, such as BitPay, to educational institutions (for example, MIT). However, some of the developers declined these job offers, feeling that working for an organization would compromise the concept of altruistic work done autonomously, to contribute to the common good. Those who have chosen to work on bitcoin code for other reasons than monetary reward, are difficult, if not impossible, to catch for the project.

Train, Repair, Hunt for the Best Ones
Another focus of Song’s Platypus Project is to provide support and training for the developers who are interested in the blockchain technology but do not have sufficient resources to get the training on their own.

Jimmy, who has committed a total of fourteen changes to the bitcoin codebase, is first of all known as a tutor. He made himself known to the wider public through the two-day Programming Blockchain seminar that was aimed at teaching Python developers how to write code for the bitcoin apps. He is now planning to continue his educational activities at the Platypus Labs and teach the developers the skills of updating the core infrastructure (something that has been neglected for a while).

Song points out that there are many old open-source bitcoin libraries, such as bitcoin (already old when Mike Hearn, who had created it, stopped working with bitcoin in 2016), that are in a very poor state. These need to be repaired and maintained, for the good of the whole ecosystem, as well as for the sake of Blockchain Capital’s portfolio companies. Currently, Jimmy is contacting every one of these 62 companies to ask them which are the coding libraries that they use, what new instruments they need, and how the Platypus Labs may be of use to them altogether. After these interviews are over, he expects to be able to announce the official criteria for the developers who want to join the Labs.

Additionally, he plans to investigate which companies it would be advisable for Blockchain Capital to invest in. These companies are expected to be run by the business people who can code the basics “really well”. As Jimmy himself says, he likes seeing companies that are “innovating, not rent-seeking”.

Vneshecomombank, (VEB), a development bank that is owned by the Russian government and meant to fund the projects aimed at the development of Russian economy, has recently signed a contract with Kaliningrad regional government to create a pilot version of the new payment system that is going to be based on blockchain technology.

The meeting took place last week and included the governor of Kaliningrad Anton Alkikhanov and the chairman of VEB Sergei Gorkov. Alikhanov and Gorkov met in Sochi, at the Russian Invenstment Forum (an annual event “for pesenting Russia’s inventment” attended, among others, by Dmitry Medvedev, the Prime Minister of Russian Federation). The two officials signed the agreement laying the foundations for testing the new technology. Alikhanov stated that “the competence of the bank’s development lies in the area of the blockchain technology” which is expected to help Kaliningrad, the westernmost region of Russia, to “improve the quality of the administrative decisions”.

Gorkov was also very optimistic about the innovative project. In his statement, he called Kaliningrad “one of the most active subjects of Russian Federation in the area of implementing advanced technologies which support the development of Russia’s digital economy.” He also said that the pilot blockchain project “touches upon the social sphere – the area in which one of the basic functions of the state is actualized. Implementing the new technologies allows to significantly improve the quality of these services – enhance the transparency of the system, get rid of the unnecessary paperwork, simplify the service and make it more comfortable for the citizens.” In addition to these prospective benefits, according to VEB chairman, the integration of the blockchain technology can help Russia save a lot of money: “Blockchain technology will give us the opportunity to save the expenses in this area, which currently comprise trillions of rubles across the country.”

Previously, there have already been attempts to research the potential of blockchain implementation for the public sector, when Russian government decided to test a land registry system based on blockchain, but the agreement signed between VEB and Kaliningrad is a significant new aggregation of public and private interests.

The parties plan to work together to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to Kaliningrad region to enhance the efficiency of the corporate and state management. The expertise to support the project in the area of social payments using blockchain technology will be provided by the Blockchain Technology Research Center, an initiative of VEB that was revealed in the autumn of 2017. VEB has worked together with Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Median, and the Ministry of Finance to “create the first center that focuses on blockchain and quantum technologies at the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS)”, as Sergei Gorkov said in his press release. He also added that there were plans “to create a group on investment funds with external financing from both Russian and foreign investors.”

In recent years, Russia has expressed increasing interest in blockchain and in its possible application in the area of public services. As early as August 2017, Vladimir Demin, advisor to the VEB’s Chairman, said that VEB aims at changing the paradigm of the state’s functions, and that blockchain is likely to completely transform Russia within five years. According to Demin, “I presume that, if someone falls into lethargic sleep today and wakes up in five years, they will not recognize the country.”

 

Read more here – https://www.coindesk.com/regional-government-russia-test-blockchain-payments/