As readers of this blog can tell, I've been spending a lot of my time recently focused on cryptonetworks and blockchains, and in particular, working through the complex legal and regulatory issues involved. Explaining what cryptocurrencies, cryptonetworks and blockchains are is hard to do. As Naval recently said on twitter:
It is the mark of a genius to explain a complex topic in a simple way. https://t.co/17vfhQB9uK
— Naval (@naval) March 12, 2017
One person who is able to describe this complex topic remarkably simply is Peter van Valkenburgh from Coin Center. A few weeks ago Peter testified in the House on a committee exploring cryptocurrencies and so-called ICOs. His 5-minute description of the "true innovation" here is crystal clear and worth watching:
On Tuesday we announced our investment in Cryptokitties, and, as you might expect, received a combination of enthusiasm and skepticism in response. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies already sound ridiculous to most people, and virtual "real" kittens made out of cryptocurrency take it a step further. But, as with many new technologies, these first use cases just scratch the surface of a broader potential. There are lots of things to be excited about here, but for now I'll just focus on one of them: interoperability. Cryptokitties are a specific type of cryptoasset, known as a "non-fungible token" (in this case, based on the ERC-721 standard). Non-fungible means that each one is unique. So, when a kitty is "born", it is a one-of-a-kind digital asset, as opposed to other types of currencies or tokens that are completely interchangeable. So, they are different than other tokens in that way, but are similar in that each NFT is "scarce" or "real" in that is secured by the blockchain - in this case the Ethereum blockchain. So, what we have are unique, scarce, public digital assets. The public part is particularly interesting. Because each kitty is a token on Ethereum, that means that anyone else (aside from the original developers of Cryptokitties) can view that asset and integrate it into other systems, without anyone's permission. For example, on Kittyhats -- developed independently from CryptoKitties -- you can buy a hat for your kitty. Here's the one I bought:
(There are now 899 flat brim hats still available if anyone is interested) What's particularly interesting is that I don't own the hat, my kitty does -- from the KittyHats whitepaper:
"When you sell a kitty, the sticker remains applied to the kitty. The new owner can choose to remove the sticker or leave it attached."
Or, put another way:
You own the cat. But the cat owns the hat.
Cascading unique digital good ownership. Super interesting. https://t.co/iGqaWics2E — Liad Shababo (@L1AD) March 22, 2018
So neat! So what we have the beginnings of is a world where digital assets that are created in one place can be freely integrated into other places. If hats are too tame, you can also race your kitty at KittyRace: (updated, via @sidkal)
Or, when you've had enough of your kitty, you can head over to CryptoZombies (hat tip to Aaron), which teaches Ethereum programming via online game development. As you create a zombie, it can start to do things. One of the things it can do is eat CryptoKitties:
The (original) internet brought us a world where any site could link to any other site, and they could all be accessed from anywhere in the world. This was the first interoperability revolution. The next one will be with data and digital assets. For a long time, data has been the property of platforms -- with cryptonetworks and cryptoassets, data can live outside of anyone platform, under the control of users. This has the potential to open up a lot of innovation.
An idea I like from Zen Buddhism is becoming a Bigger Container. My understanding of the idea is this: There are a lot of difficult/bad/sad/scary things going on in the world, ranging from serious global issues, war, famine, terrorism, etc; to things in your city like homelessness or joblessnes; to things in your family, like difficult relationships or substance abuse; to tiny things in your life like a daunting project at work, or your inbox, or going through bills or cleaning your desk. It's hard to open yourself up to all of these things, because the are overwhelming and scary. So the easy thing to do is turn away - to avoid. Becoming a bigger container means making space within yourself to face an increasing number of these things, with compassion and without fear. Being able to hold them and look them in the eye without any one of them grabbing control of you, carrying you away or breaking you. From the reading linked above:
"What is created, what grows, is the amount of life I can hold without it upsetting me, dominating me. At first this space is quite restricted, then it’s a bit bigger, and then it’s bigger still. It need never cease to grow. And the enlightened state is that enormous and compassionate space. But as long as we live we find there is a limit to our container’s size and it is at that point that we must practice. And how do we know where this cut-off point is? We are at that point when we feel any degree of upset, of anger. It’s no mystery at all. And the strength of our practice is how big that container gets."
When am most proud of myself, I am able to make space within myself to deal with hard things. To look them in the eye, be with them, and not look away. When I'm frustrated with myself, it's often because I'm avoiding doing this. The visualization that works for me is that when you become a bigger container -- when you can generate some perspective -- each of these individual things becomes smaller by comparison; less dominant. It can be hard to do sometimes but I find it to be a really useful construct.