social media protocols
Centralized social media networks are not ideal, but also hard to avoid. Twitter is an obvious example of a wholly centralized network. Whoever owns the company owns the namespace, network, protocol, platform, and ruleset. This has been painfully obvious in the last few days, with Elon Musk able to make sweeping changes to the network on a whim despite widespread user backlash. Understandably, a lot of users who have come to rely on Twitter as a communication channel are now looking for an es...
social media protocols
Centralized social media networks are not ideal, but also hard to avoid. Twitter is an obvious example of a wholly centralized network. Whoever owns the company owns the namespace, network, protocol, platform, and ruleset. This has been painfully obvious in the last few days, with Elon Musk able to make sweeping changes to the network on a whim despite widespread user backlash. Understandably, a lot of users who have come to rely on Twitter as a communication channel are now looking for an es...
on crypto art and NFTs
This post is a broad overview of the recently emerging “crypto art” space, including the use of “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFTs) as a digital art distribution mechanism.Limited-Edition TokensNFTs, or tokens as I’ll refer to them, can be understood as unique digital objects that can be collected and transferred from one user to another in a cryptocurrency network. Under the umbrella label of crypto art, they often represent a media file, a piece of software, or some artistic concept. These can be ...
on crypto art and NFTs
This post is a broad overview of the recently emerging “crypto art” space, including the use of “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFTs) as a digital art distribution mechanism.Limited-Edition TokensNFTs, or tokens as I’ll refer to them, can be understood as unique digital objects that can be collected and transferred from one user to another in a cryptocurrency network. Under the umbrella label of crypto art, they often represent a media file, a piece of software, or some artistic concept. These can be ...
ERC-721
In this post, I’d like to touch on the ERC-721 protocol standard, which is the basis for many “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFTs) that we see on Ethereum and other blockchains. This will be a technical post, and I’ll assume you’ve already read my previous post on the distributed ledger to better understand the groundwork for some of these ideas.FungibilityIn the last post, we talked about how tokens can carry value in these networks, such as Alice paying Bob 2.5 tokens. These tokens are also used to...
ERC-721
In this post, I’d like to touch on the ERC-721 protocol standard, which is the basis for many “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFTs) that we see on Ethereum and other blockchains. This will be a technical post, and I’ll assume you’ve already read my previous post on the distributed ledger to better understand the groundwork for some of these ideas.FungibilityIn the last post, we talked about how tokens can carry value in these networks, such as Alice paying Bob 2.5 tokens. These tokens are also used to...
why the distributed ledger?
I often see the question “what does a blockchain solve?” Other times, blockchains are presented by critics as solutions in search of a problem, or that the ideas that blockchains aim to solve are simpler to achieve with a typical private database. I think it’s worth analyzing this, to understand the fundamental properties of a blockchain that distinguish it from other solutions. At its core, you can imagine a blockchain as a list of records; a ledger that is append-only and, once written to, ...
why the distributed ledger?
I often see the question “what does a blockchain solve?” Other times, blockchains are presented by critics as solutions in search of a problem, or that the ideas that blockchains aim to solve are simpler to achieve with a typical private database. I think it’s worth analyzing this, to understand the fundamental properties of a blockchain that distinguish it from other solutions. At its core, you can imagine a blockchain as a list of records; a ledger that is append-only and, once written to, ...
small steps
I’m thinking of testing out mirror.xyz specifically to write about my findings with blockchain, NFT, cryptocurrency, DeFi, smart contracts, zero-knowledge proofs, and other subjects as I learn about them. I have several other blogs, most of them gathering dust, but I enjoy the process of jumping from one blog platform to the next. Each one provides a different space and context for my writing, allowing me to explore different tones, subjects, and writing styles. I haven’t yet had the desire t...
small steps
I’m thinking of testing out mirror.xyz specifically to write about my findings with blockchain, NFT, cryptocurrency, DeFi, smart contracts, zero-knowledge proofs, and other subjects as I learn about them. I have several other blogs, most of them gathering dust, but I enjoy the process of jumping from one blog platform to the next. Each one provides a different space and context for my writing, allowing me to explore different tones, subjects, and writing styles. I haven’t yet had the desire t...
