Conversation

Worthwhile note of caution. In this case, I happen to know a couple of the people driving this, and it's both a fun experiment and driven by the right people for the right reasons, but like all tech, it's definitely a double edged sword.
Quote Tweet
The @ConstitutionDAO sets off so many alarm bells I’m afraid I might go deaf. A 🧵/
Show this thread
4
29
I’m hitting pause on more serious experiments for now. Beginning to understand why gas problem is a rate limiter. It’s not just that it cuts into any profits but that it limits who else can participate in anything you do. Might save them for next crash-slump or Solana/polychain.
3
35
I’m sure bitcoin is technically capable of going most places newer chains are, but my skepticism of it is now primarily cultural. Feels like core community has too much gravitas to do anything besides compete with gold and hold the political line re self-custody etc.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @vgr
I mean, Bitcoin is fun, too. Lightning, statechains and liquid, stacks (I mean I wouldn’t use it but I’m sure it’s fun). And it’s all super cheap. Plus Bitcoin just got a real upgrade, promise fulfilled (taproot). Create the shelling point if you can’t find it, that’s fun, too.
3
33
So an interesting thing that's happening due to Web3 (though the pattern existed before) is that Twitter is turning into the de facto identity verification service. So you're going to see people tweeting addresses etc. to link twitter accounts, like this.
Quote Tweet
EJtxPdbCLugvC2UXBjYfN6PufV2HJHUBMaH6s31Q49EL
2
36
The above is me verifying my solana wallet address so people can send me sol using my twitter handle. This sort of use reminds me of the trajectory of email from pure comms to identity verification loops (verify links in email) and in general, media aging from human to bot use
1
18
Over the years, my email address has gone from primarily human "letter writing" to primarily bot-procedural-transactional + newsletters, as actual human comms have increasingly moved to messaging apps. I really only use email in "human" ways for consulting notes now.
1
19
And interestingly it goes back to paper even. When I was a kid, most paper mail we received was... actual letters and postcards. Transactional letters were rare. Now, the only thing I receive besides junk mail is official communications, automatically mailed.
1
20
True of outgoing too. The only paper I ever mail is stuff that requires official signature and they won't take scans or faxes, like government stuff. Increasingly though, digital signing is killing that... but with weird gaps.
1
10
Interesting example: I have to file taxes in India because I have a bank account there, and the filing is electronic, but they have a verification form called ITR-V. Now normally this too can be done electronically via bank account link, but for it doesn't work for non-residents.
Replying to
So one of the only paper mailings I do is every damn year I have to send the ITR-V form signed to the Indian IT department :D (only worth it because as a non-resident, I can actually claim back all the auto-deducted tax on interest on the bank account...)
1
6
But it's interesting that one of the things that *doesn't* seem to change from paper to web1 to web2 to web3 is a need for identity verification loops, whether official KYC needs, or soft verification of twitter etc
2
15
A bit off topic, but I thought this note I just posted on the discord might be of more general interest to Web3 crowd re: post-Discord social coordination tooling. Poses a "mangrove" UX problem to create something that's somewhere between a stream and garden UX.
Image
11
78
Funny and potentially worrying thing, the superficially inclusive wagmi sensibility does not extend as far as claimed. Web3 has a very definite outgroup: all of tradfi, including hybrid things like coinbase that are centralized and have one foot in crypto world, one in fiat.
3
28
I got a bit of shit for delegating my ENS votes to Coinbase. It seems to be viewed by hardcore Web3ers as something between disappointing gaucherie to tribal betrayal. If you think that might want to reflect on the fragility of ‘wagmi’.
4
22
The presence of Coinbase (and all of Gen 1 crypto scene founded 2009-14) is healthy, should be welcome, and a real first test of wagmi claims. If you can’t even tolerate an older sibling, you’re ngmi with the other 7.4999 billion people on the planet and wagmi would be hypocrisy.
1
26
Not to mention kinda clueless since so much of Web3 investment is from VC firms that also drove the first generation of innovation.
2
20
This is partly why I’m not using the lingo except occasionally ironically. And limping avoiding even the ironic use. This thing has a shot at being genuinely open and inclusive and it would be a pity if it didn’t live up to that.
2
29
Of course doesn’t mean the ethos shouldn’t be defended against hostile takeovers/co-option by old empires striking back, etc. But there’s ways to do that that don’t devolve into tribalism or insularity.
1
15
Okay this thing is too heavy for my poor old 2015 dual core MBP, and fan came on loudly, so I'm gonna wait for my powerful new 16" MBP with M1Pro to arrive before doing any metaversy shit. Checked it out and created avatar though.
3
11
Parking a thought here, cf my earlier point about deep play and shallow play. An orthogonal axis is high-roller vs. low-roller. Normally, high-rollers are also deep players, but I suspect there's an inversion of sorts going on here. Big spending != deep playing.
2
11
Ideas for nonfungible things are nonfungible. Ripoffs with only cosmetic differentiation are low value.
Quote Tweet
Another ape ripoff, this one is a part of ApesOfSpace, 10,000 space monkeys that are now largely worthless opensea.io/collection/ape
Show this thread
Image
2
19
Does transaction volume on ethereum generally go down with price? Ie does gas price go down with price in ether terms (not dollar terms)?
7
9
I've been mulling perhaps the most common first question people ask about NFTs. What rights do you get? The copyright for any artwork associated with the NFT, whether it is a mutable URL or an immutable IPFS object, remain with the original maker. So the NFT grants nothing.
6
14
The scam side potential of this is obvious. Now you *could* assign rights along with the minting, in which case what you're really doing is putting a regular copyright assignment contract on the blockchain, but this seems somehow underwhelming. Just... use a paper contract?
2
10
I also don't like analogies like collectibles, autographs, maing-a-star etc. I think that's selling the concept short. I think what an NFT is, is a "right to future rights."
3
31
Viewed as a verifiable n/m pointer to an object, you now have a way to reference and work with everything derived from the thing being pointed to. Say I create a set of characters and sell as NFTs. Later, I create a game where those characters are live action playables...
2
13
In regular work-for-hire copyright, if derivative works are of value, the maker will, for the agreed compensation, blanket assign *all* rights to the buyer/commissioner, including reproduction, new media, derivatives, blah blah blah. It's a nuclear option.
1
8
But NFTs create a mechanism for fine-grained rights *optionality.* If I make a game with my characters for example, then perhaps the holder of the NFT is suddenly granted airdropped the right to pick game characteristics of the character. You don't have to know ahead of time.
2
19
This is kinda like how land rights evolved. Until there were airplanes, airspace rights above land were meaningless. Buying land doesn't give you limitless rights to pump groundwater, but might grant you *some* rights. Mineral deposit rights may or may not go with the land
1
16
The ability to define and sell pointers to future rights I think is a powerful programming mechanism for rights management. Right now, this is based on trust of the creator, but I think norms will emerge.
2
20
I think answers like "it's an autograph" or my own first metaphor "it's like the scam companies that allow you to name a star but it isn't recognized by astronomers" are... kinda wrong. They don't really exploit the fact that the NFT is a uniquely identifiable pointer to a thing
2
16
Another way to think of it comes from TradFi... the popular (and also perceived-scammy) mechanism of SPACs. You're buying a pointer to a future undefined company when you buy into a SPAC.
2
9
This btw, makes 1/1 NFTs less interesting to me than 1/n. Because limited editions allow you to create undefined *communities* of pointer holders. For eg. the next NFT experiment I'm thinking through relates to this playable maze created by and me.
Image
2
22
Now this thing is more than just a nice graphic. It's also the base map for a 3d maze we tried to create with (project is on backburner). It provides some of the scaffolding for my next book. I've written a whole series of articles exploring the symbolic logic of it.
1
8
There's many places to take this. For eg. if we mint a 500, we could later mark 500 locations on a metaverse-navigable version, and the buyers get naming rights (like "John Doe junction"). If there's a video game, maybe you get an in-world persona in the story etc. etc.
1
10
But all these are speculative *potential* projects. They may or may not happen, so the NFT has to be priced like any option, based in part of likelihood of various interesting things of value happening.
1
17
If the game or navigable virtual world already existed, I would just sell that directly, and charge an undiscounted-for-risk access price. So if it cost 0.01E to collect this map now, perhaps access to the game would be worth much more...if it happens.
1
6
Setting aside goodwill/support/patronage aspects, there's probably a way to price an NFT as a sort of hyperlocal option, based on what you know of the creator. For this map for eg. it would be worth much more if Dan and I had a history and track record of making 3d video games.
2
15
Show replies