The document discusses Ethereum, a decentralized platform that allows distributed applications and smart contracts to operate without downtime, censorship, fraud, or third party interference. It describes how Ethereum differs from Bitcoin in supporting more general applications through a global virtual machine. It then discusses several applications built on Ethereum, including decentralized prediction markets and autonomous organizations. However, it notes that The DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, was attacked, draining Ether rapidly. Potential solutions like doing nothing or rolling back the blockchain are discussed. Lessons focus on the need for more rigorous coding and testing standards when building on blockchains.

1. Ethereum
And
The $50m Heist

2. The peer to peer network gives us a distributed, censorship resistant platform
Cryptography gives us secure, tamper proof transactions
The blockchain gives us transparency,verifiable consistency and consensus
The Ethereum platform lets people who have no particular confidence in each other
collaborate without having to go through a neutral central authority.
What is Ethereum ?
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that
run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud
or third party interference.

3. More general, not just a currency, though it has its own currency -
Ether
Each node on the network has a virtual machine forming a
planetary scale computer
Users send transactions to interact with the smart contract
How is Ethereum different from Bitcoin ?

4. Who is using Ethereum now ?

5. Decentralised Prediction Market Based on Ethereum
Autonomous bank & market maker
Decentralised Prediction Market
Digix - gold backed assets
DYNAMIS P2P Insurance

6. The DAO contains some kind of internal property that is valuable in some way, and it
has the ability to use that property as a mechanism for rewarding certain activities.
● Outsiders can see the governance algorithm
● It may use voting or prediction markets to choose policy
Decentralised Autonomous Organisations
(DAO)
A Business organisation run according to rules specified in a smart contract

8. But…
A Call for a Temporary Moratorium on The DAO over security concerns
http://hackingdistributed.com/2016/05/27/dao-call-for-moratorium/

9. The DAO is being
attacked.
It has been going on for 3-4 hours, it
is draining ETH at a rapid rate.
This is not a drill…

10. Solutions ?
● Do nothing - the blockchain remains immutable
● Interfere - rollback the blockchain

11. Lessons
The blockchain is an unforgiving environment and needs more
rigorous coding and testing standards.
Build applications out of tried and tested components

12. Oxford Ethereum Links
Ethereum Oxford Meetup
Oxford University Blockchain Society
We are looking for speakers and sponsors
Slack Team - email laurence@extropy.io for an invite