Welcome to the first episode of Hash Power, an audio documentary that explores the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies with leaders in the field like Naval Ravikant, Olaf Carlson-Wee, Fred Ehrsam, & Ari Paul. Hash Power is meant to be an introduction, but really, it is an invitation to explore this emerging world on your own.  In the coming weeks, we will cover the technology, the power of decentralization, bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, cryptography and hashing. We will spend time with the leading active hedge fund managers in the field, and with outside investors who are both optimistic and skeptical. Episode one covers the big picture, and answers the question: what is blockchain and why might it significantly affect our world? If you enjoy what follows, you’ll still be very early in understanding this field. Most don’t. So help me spread it like wildfire, because the more people that understand blockchain, the better its impact might become. Please enjoy episode one, and stay tuned next week for episode 2, which explores investing in cryptocurrencies. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Books Referenced The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Nostalgia for the Absolute   Links Referenced Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Reddit User jav_rddt SHA-256 Calculator The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding Fat Protocols #cryptotwitter   Show Notes 0:05 – Introduction    CHAPTER 1 – Understanding the Concept of Blockchain (3:25) 4:30 – Jeremiah Lowin explains how blockchain is like a database             5:14 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System 5:46 – Owning a digital asset 7:14 – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angelist on how blockchains can help to create personal networks and organize humans 11:01 – How blockchains represent a way to coordinate global activity through tokens 13:33 – New coins popping up around data storage and utility needs like solar panels 14:57 – Permission vs permissionless networks 16:37 – Protocols and the introduction of scarcity 18:13 – Keeping track of scarcity and the introduction of tokens 18:49 – Societal structures and how blockchains will change them again             18:51 – The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age 21:55 – The role of blockchains in the informational age and the rise of more individual sovereignty 23:29 - Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on the increasing shift to digital worlds led by incentive structures   CHAPTER 2 – Blockchain Technology (27:48)             29:09 - Reddit User jav_rddt             30:43 - SHA-256 Calculator 31:53 - Charlie Noyes, Pantera Capital, explains how SHA-256 was developed and what make its so special 35:48 – How miners create new blocks and the incentives to do so 40:22 – The nonce field 43:48 – The incentives that exist for miners and the arms race to build more powerful systems to mine 45:20 – The development of mining pools 46:54 – Ethereum, the “spiritual successor” to bitcoin 48:36 – How the Ether network is an ecosystem in which other tokens can sit 50:51 - Naval Ravikant on alternative coins or tokens             50:50 - The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding 51:37 – How the protocol creators are the ones getting wealthy             52:35 – Fat Protocols 53:22 – Blockchain as an experiment in distributed government 54:47 – How cryptocurrency is more than just technology, it’s a movement             54:50 – Nostalgia for the Absolute             57:27 - #cryptotwitter 1:00:58 - Peter Jubber, of Fidelity, on how huge institutions,