From DevCon 5 in Osaka, Japan, Deborah Simpier, COO and cofounder of Althea Network, describes how this decentralized internet service provider works, what problem it’s trying to solve, and how it uses Ethereum. She describes how neighbors provide each other with internet access, and how they pay each other automatically on pay-as-you-go plans using a stablecoin. She also covers how she came to found Althea, what challenges she faced in explaining how it worked to her non-crypto neighbors,  and Althea’s plans to expand to other areas, including urban areas and Nigeria.

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Episode links: 

Althea Network: https://althea.net/

Deborah Simpier: https://twitter.com/DeborahSimpier

Case study on Clatskanie: https://althea.net/clatskanie-case-study

Deborah’s talk at ETH Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1tB0UFx78 https://breakermag.com/how-mesh-networks-and-crypto-can-fill-the-rural-broadband-gap/

Weekly news recap links:

IRS Guidance

IRS press release: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/virtual-currency-irs-issues-additional-guidance-on-tax-treatment-and-reminds-taxpayers-of-reporting-obligations

Guidance on hard forks and airdrops: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-19-24.pdf

Coin Center response: https://coincenter.org/entry/irs-cryptocurrency-guidance-answers-some-questions-while-raising-messy-new-ones

IRS scenario that never happened: https://twitter.com/valkenburgh/status/1182022188343418880?s=20

Marco Santori take: https://twitter.com/msantoriESQ/status/1181975909567475713?s=20

Patrick Murck take: https://twitter.com/virtuallylaw/status/1181997761811628038?s=20

Ethereum 2.0

The transition from Ethereum 1.0 to 2.0: https://ethresear.ch/t/the-eth1-eth2-transition/6265

Ethereum 2.0 cross-sharding composability: https://ethresear.ch/t/cross-shard-defi-composability/6268

Wired article on Facebook/Libra connections: https://www.wired.com/story/ties-bind-facebooks-libra/

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Rejection:https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/42711/bitwises-bitcoin-etf-the-last-hope-has-been-denied
https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/nysearca/2019/34-87267.pdf https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitwise-comments-on-the-secs-order-regarding-the-bitwise-bitcoin-etf-trust-300935107.html https://twitter.com/BitwiseInvest/status/1182115344510402560?s=20 https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1182149164177608704?s=20

MakerDAO: https://blog.makerdao.com/breaking-launch-date-of-multi-collateral-dai-announced-at-devcon-5/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-10-05/crypto-rebels-trip-over-each-other-en-route-to-financial-utopia

https://unchainedpodcast.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-part-1-how-to-keep-a-crypto-collateralized-stablecoin-afloat/

https://unchainedpodcast.com/rune-christensen-of-makerdao-part-2-how-dai-stayed-at-1-while-eth-crashed-from-1400-to-85/

Placeholder on protocols: https://www.placeholder.vc/blog/2019/10/6/protocols-as-minimally-extractive-coordinators

Ali Yahya on why there will be multiple dominant blockchains: https://twitter.com/ali01/status/1181161407406071808?s=20

QuadrigaCX widow to pay $9 million to affected users: https://www.coindesk.com/quadrigacx-founders-widow-will-cough-up-9-million-to-repay-users