#like. idk. blockchain startup

[adamsvanrhijn]

i think oscar would be an idiot about crypto and crypto-related things tbh! like he'd hear there was magic internet money and he'd immediately buy 15 ugly ape nft's and bankrupt himself. john would come home to find him sobbing on the floor because his special $25k jpeg of a monkey dressed like vogue-era madonna is now only worth 37 cents.

oh no he is totally stupid about it but he has to have enough knowledge to be confident that he isn't. like i think oscar is clever enough and he certainly likes to think he knows better than others, but he doesn't know what he doesn't know — he does know what he DOES know and basically once he hits a certain knowledge threshold he thinks that he is up to date on the span of knowledge it is possible to have, so if he is less tech savvy than others in a way he could realize and be aware of, i think he would be more likely to steer clear of stuff like crypto because of his risk aversion

if you think about the maud situation, oscar goes into that whole thing under the impression that he is the more knowledgeable person with relevant experience, and he thinks he's making an informed decision based on his new and preexisting knowledge

i don't think he'd get caught up in something he doesn't think he knows much about — if he is not at all tech savvy i see him probably being closer to claiming that this is a dumb fad that is going to die out and then three years later one of his college frenemies makes millions from selling off bitcoin and he wants to show this guy and also he wants to be right about bitcoin so he goes all in and loses a bunch of money on a more traditional investment scheme that he thinks he knows more about. you know

[literallymechanical]

NFT’s Are Stupider Than You Think

tl;dr if you want the full-res, 21,000 x 21,000 pixel, 300 MB image from the 69 million dollar Beeple NFT, skip to the bottom for the download link. It’s not piracy or hackery, it’s just a feature of how NFT’s work. 

[Image ID: The low-resolution preview image for Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, as posted on the Christie’s auction website]

Okay so we’ve all know that NFT’s—and crypto mining in general—are an environmental nightmare, in terms of ridiculous energy costs. Also, most people are aware that the digital asset itself (often artwork) that corresponds to the NFT isn’t stored on the blockchain.  But there are a few more issues that aren’t as widely understood, judging by the reporting I’m seeing.

Let’s use the 69 million dollar Beeple NFT as an example. Before anything else, here’s the auction house where Beeple sold it.  (I’m using bare URL’s in this post, to make it more clear where each link leads)

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924

This is a screenshot from that page.  I’ve highlighted the smart contract address, 0x2a46f2ffd99e19a89476e2f62270e0a35bbf0756. That’s the address of the NFT itself on the Ethereum blockchain.  Also note the Token ID, 40913.  Without listing these data so you can verify what you’re buying, the auction is meaningless. This appears to be an older token protocol, I think? Usually you can just get the Token ID from the smart contract without having to list it separately. I’m not an expert, idk.

Also, a very very quick primer: A blockchain (in this case, the Ethereum blockchain) is basically a verifiable, unforgeable, secure, publicly-viewable ledger, where you provably say “I have sole control over this piece of data.”

Anyway, the typical way to interact with the Ethereum blockchain is a website like etherscan.io, like so:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x2a46f2ffd99e19a89476e2f62270e0a35bbf0756

That’s the Beeple’s Everydays smart contract. Remember all this for later. Let’s move on to the stupidity. First...

The artwork isn’t stored on the blockchain. But neither is the metadata you own.

Most people are aware of this, to some extent.  The artwork itself isn’t on the blockchain, just a piece of metadata, right?

Well, no, it’s actually stupider. The metadata isn’t on the blockchain.  The only thing that’s actually stored on the blockchain is a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), which in practice is almost always either a URL (web address) or an IPFS hash (InterPlanetary File System address), but it could be any kind of address. Hell, it could literally be GPS coordinates, if you want. Usually it’s an IPFS hash, though.

Here’s the URI that’s stored in the Beeple NFT. You can get it from that etherscan.io link by going to the “contract” tab and entering “40913″ into the tokenURI query.

ipfs://ipfs/QmPAg1mjxcEQPPtqsLoEcauVedaeMH81WXDPvPx3VC5zUz

For most NFT’s it’s easier than that, you can get the TokenID from the contract? Again, I’m not an expert, but I think this is an outdated token protocol called “Erc20.” 

Since this is an IPFS hash, not a url, you can’t quite just type it into a typical web browser. First you should turn it into a web address by using an IPFS gateway, such as ipfs.io:

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmPAg1mjxcEQPPtqsLoEcauVedaeMH81WXDPvPx3VC5zUz

If you’re on tumblr mobile and clicking links is annoying, here’s a screenshot of what you’ll find at that address.

[Image ID: A screenshot of the JSON text file linked by the expensive Beeple NFT. It lists metadata for the artwork.]

The URI you own can die at any time

The point of storing things on a blockchain is that they are immutable, and verifiable, and can’t be forged.  "ipfs://ipfs/QmPAg1... etc.” isn’t going anywhere, and is provably yours.

However, the text file that lives at that URI? That screenshot? That’s not stored on the blockchain, and it can disappear.  You own the GPS coordinates of a storage locker full of paintings, but that doesn’t help you if the metaphorical storage facility burns down.  Or if whoever has the key to the storage locker (often the original artist, and/or the auction website) comes in and replaces everything with pictures of rugs. 

[Image ID: A tweet where an artist explains that they replaced their NFT artwork with pictures of carpets, “pulling the rug” on their auctions.]

Both of these things are already happening.  A lot of NFT’s are already “abandoned,” asserting ownership over a dead URI. IPFS storage is supposed to take care of that, but in practice it’s poorly implemented, and even when done right it isn’t as failsafe as they’d have you believe. IPFS peer-to-peer storage is slightly less fragile that just storing a file on a website, but not by much. If the IPFS node goes down, the file is lost.

Does this sound like it wildly defeats the purpose of using decentralized blockchain storage in the first place? You’re right! It does.

If the auction website you bought your NFT on goes out of business, you will almost certainly lose the NFT you bought. And we all know how stable web startups are lol. Anyway, next up...

You don’t have exclusive access to anything

A lot of people think of owning an NFT like they own a painting. They have the artwork. They can keep it to themselves, or they can display it in a gallery with their name next to it, but everybody knows it’s theirs!  NFT startups use this as a selling point. They say anybody can have a print of the Mona Lisa, but only you own the original.

This is dumb, because in the case of digital art, the print and the original are identical in every way.  Every single 1 and 0 is the same, and if URI goes down, who cares who bought it? The NFT says you just own a URI that points to a text file. And by design, that URI is public. This isn’t a hack, or a bug. This is the entire point. But the people who run auction sites can be hella disingenuous about that.

Here’s that text file again.  Notice this bit I just highlighted at the bottom? 

That’s a separate IPFS hash for the actual image file.  MakersPlace wrote this NFT incorrectly by using their own makersplace.com IPFS gateway instead of just posting the highlighted bit on its own—if MakersPlace goes out of business, that link will die—so instead I’ll link to that hash through the ipfs.io gateway, which is probably less likely to break any time soon.

But if it does, there are plenty more... until the MakersPlace IPFS node goes down, in which case it’s just gone forever no matter what lol.

So, without further ado...

WARNING: THIS IS A DIRECT LINK TO A 319 MEGABYTE JPEG. IF YOU’RE ON MOBILE, THAT MIGHT MAKE YOUR PHONE SAD IDK.

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXkxpwAHCtDXbbZHUwqtFucG1RMS6T87vi1CdvadfL7qA

You’re welcome.

[jacobhinkley]

NSFW: After The Corporate Hype, Porn Gets Into Blockchain

Porn star Brenna Sparks is not the only one warming up to blockchain tech. Startups such as Spankchain as well as Vice Industries are attempting to fuse intimate desires with software undergirding cryptocurrencies such as ether. Maybe the long search for a real-world, ready-now blockchain technology use case is finally over. Then again, both user and performer could simply download wallets and exchange peer-to-peer electronic money, say bitcoin cash, without any startup companies between them. 

Also read: Coinbase Flexes Muscle, Creates Political Action Committee

Blockchain Tech Goes Porno

Favorite ecosystem pornographer, Brenna Sparks, recently tweeted “I’m going to be shoving a dildo in my vagina on the Blockchain tomorrow. If that’s not the coolest thing ever, idk what is!”

For sure, the Laotian triple x-rated social media influencer has more or less cornered the crypto market. Her adventurism extends from between the sheets and on camera into the financial world, where she is known to give digital asset education videos topless. And she’s not half bad … in terms of her decentralized money knowledge.

“I’m going to trademark all of my crypto camshow games,” Ms. Sparks cheekily tweeted on the eve of stuffing herself with plastic, “I’m going to trademark-troll anyone who tries to profit off my genius. I’m going to be a Pablo Escobar of camshows, taking cuts off of other camshows. This is my town!”

Ms. Sparks is also something mildly deeper. She’s helping to fire up discussion, debate about blockchain usage. Corporate hype, the drug in fashion, is attaching any project to “blockchain.” Name it, and the two have been associated: blockchain and ice tea, blockchain and medical records, blockchain and ending refugee crises around the world, blockchain and religion. It’s endless. There’s just one problem. None of these dreamy projects have gotten off the ground and proven themselves to be anything more than slick marketing to venture capitalists who appear ever-more credulous.

Pornography could be a real-life, honest-to-goodness use case. Sort of. Ms. Sparks is also a savvy businesswoman, and she’s teamed up with the smile-inducing project titled, Spankchain. The idea is to perhaps end embarrassing credit card charges for late night indulgences while an in-the-flesh partner is unavailable, for example. Spankchain is essentially a micropayment processor for the masturbatory universe, client and talent.

Digital Equivalent of Anonymous Tipping

Last year, the company was thought highly enough to have gobbled up close to twenty thousand ether, over five million dollars, after trading its proprietary payment token, spankcoin, during an initial coin offering. That money reportedly has gone to develop the streaming system Ms. Sparks would eventually use to fulfill the promise of her tweets.

Vice Industry Token Inc. is yet another variation on the blockchain porn entertainment idea, and it too raised a boatload of cash, something like $20mil worth of ether in about a day. It’s Vice Industry Token (VIT) “can be used to create a resilient global utility token economy in which goods and services can be earned and traded internationally without any barriers whatsoever,” its quite lavish website boasts.

“People will be free to earn VIT, to buy VIT and consume with VIT as a cryptocurrency,” they continue. “VIT enables people to get paid to watch and consume content. VIT is an important disrupter of status quo systems and networks and is a vital link for interconnected global human prosperity.”

What it all basically comes down to is an ability for a performer to be paid well, timely, transparently without the usual minders. For users, confidence in quality talent attracted by the arrangement, plus a kind of financial anonymity, makes for a smoother experience. And so these types of platforms are developing tipping mechanisms with dancers much in the same way dollars would be slid behind garters of yore during a semi-private dance back in the day. That can happen again digitally thanks to on-chain solutions. Still, there’s also nothing stopping these same performers from operating their own cam and accepting bitcoin cash, for example, directly peer-to-peer, from an admirers’ electronic wallet to theirs, without participating in a blockchain startup. Go figure.  

Is this a use case for blockchain? Let us know in the comments section below. 

Images via Pixabay, Twitter, Brenna Sparks. 

Be sure to check out the podcast, Blockchain 2025; latest episode here. 

The post NSFW: After The Corporate Hype, Porn Gets Into Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News.

NSFW: After The Corporate Hype, Porn Gets Into Blockchain published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

[bowsetter]

NSFW: After The Corporate Hype, Porn Gets Into Blockchain

Porn star Brenna Sparks is not the only one warming up to blockchain tech. Startups such as Spankchain as well as Vice Industries are attempting to fuse intimate desires with software undergirding cryptocurrencies such as ether. Maybe the long search for a real-world, ready-now blockchain technology use case is finally over. Then again, both user and performer could simply download wallets and exchange peer-to-peer electronic money, say bitcoin cash, without any startup companies between them. 

Also read: Coinbase Flexes Muscle, Creates Political Action Committee

Blockchain Tech Goes Porno

Favorite ecosystem pornographer, Brenna Sparks, recently tweeted “I’m going to be shoving a dildo in my vagina on the Blockchain tomorrow. If that’s not the coolest thing ever, idk what is!”

For sure, the Laotian triple x-rated social media influencer has more or less cornered the crypto market. Her adventurism extends from between the sheets and on camera into the financial world, where she is known to give digital asset education videos topless. And she’s not half bad … in terms of her decentralized money knowledge.

“I’m going to trademark all of my crypto camshow games,” Ms. Sparks cheekily tweeted on the eve of stuffing herself with plastic, “I’m going to trademark-troll anyone who tries to profit off my genius. I’m going to be a Pablo Escobar of camshows, taking cuts off of other camshows. This is my town!”

Ms. Sparks is also something mildly deeper. She’s helping to fire up discussion, debate about blockchain usage. Corporate hype, the drug in fashion, is attaching any project to “blockchain.” Name it, and the two have been associated: blockchain and ice tea, blockchain and medical records, blockchain and ending refugee crises around the world, blockchain and religion. It’s endless. There’s just one problem. None of these dreamy projects have gotten off the ground and proven themselves to be anything more than slick marketing to venture capitalists who appear ever-more credulous.

Pornography could be a real-life, honest-to-goodness use case. Sort of. Ms. Sparks is also a savvy businesswoman, and she’s teamed up with the smile-inducing project titled, Spankchain. The idea is to perhaps end embarrassing credit card charges for late night indulgences while an in-the-flesh partner is unavailable, for example. Spankchain is essentially a micropayment processor for the masturbatory universe, client and talent.

Digital Equivalent of Anonymous Tipping

Last year, the company was thought highly enough to have gobbled up close to twenty thousand ether, over five million dollars, after trading its proprietary payment token, spankcoin, during an initial coin offering. That money reportedly has gone to develop the streaming system Ms. Sparks would eventually use to fulfill the promise of her tweets.

Vice Industry Token Inc. is yet another variation on the blockchain porn entertainment idea, and it too raised a boatload of cash, something like $20mil worth of ether in about a day. It’s Vice Industry Token (VIT) “can be used to create a resilient global utility token economy in which goods and services can be earned and traded internationally without any barriers whatsoever,” its quite lavish website boasts.

“People will be free to earn VIT, to buy VIT and consume with VIT as a cryptocurrency,” they continue. “VIT enables people to get paid to watch and consume content. VIT is an important disrupter of status quo systems and networks and is a vital link for interconnected global human prosperity.”

What it all basically comes down to is an ability for a performer to be paid well, timely, transparently without the usual minders. For users, confidence in quality talent attracted by the arrangement, plus a kind of financial anonymity, makes for a smoother experience. And so these types of platforms are developing tipping mechanisms with dancers much in the same way dollars would be slid behind garters of yore during a semi-private dance back in the day. That can happen again digitally thanks to on-chain solutions. Still, there’s also nothing stopping these same performers from operating their own cam and accepting bitcoin cash, for example, directly peer-to-peer, from an admirers’ electronic wallet to theirs, without participating in a blockchain startup. Go figure.  

Is this a use case for blockchain? Let us know in the comments section below. 

Images via Pixabay, Twitter, Brenna Sparks. 

Be sure to check out the podcast, Blockchain 2025; latest episode here. 

The post NSFW: After The Corporate Hype, Porn Gets Into Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News.

READ MORE http://bit.ly/2vv8yow

[coin-news-blog]

Altcoins, Seasons, and 20 Crypto Jokes

New Post has been published on https://coinmakers.tech/markets/altcoins-seasons-and-20-crypto-jokes

Altcoins, Seasons, and 20 Crypto Jokes

In the "everything’s connected" news: BTC has been going below and above USD 10K again. Speaking of BTC, while it may be more dependent on the governments than many people think, ETH, which has climbed above USD 200, may surpass BTC daily transaction fees. Speaking of ETH, BitPay will start supporting payments in ETH. Speaking of BitPay, it will announce additional coins soon, with LTC and XRP being evaluated. Speaking of XRP, Ripple wants its lawsuit gone. And speaking of alts rallying, is it alt season yet?

Meanwhile, Germany ‘rejected’ stablecoins, urging the world to follow suit, while the South Korean branch of OKEx decided to delist five privacy coins. Nonetheless, some of the country’s biggest companies are investing in domestic blockchain and crypto startups, with the Seoul government looking to get in on the action.

In other relevant news, Binance made its first strategic investment in China, while Binance.US officially added BNB to its markets. LG has confirmed that it’s considering the release of a blockchain-powered smartphone, and Wells Fargo plans to pilot its Wells Fargo Digital Cash in 2020. However, there might be no space for more than four blockchain standards until 2022.

And now – introducing Their Blockchainess, the Crypto Jokes.

Watch the latest reports by Block TV.

__________

When you wish to hear the sweetest of words…

Altseason https://t.co/94Y9kRE850

— Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) September 18, 2019

__

Finding hope in the smallest of details.

#ALTSEASON pic.twitter.com/yRrpTf0mel

— Bulldog (@CryptoBulld0g) September 17, 2019

__

As a precise of an estimate as it gets.

“When is altseason coming?”

-sound on- pic.twitter.com/lcg95R7BKG

— Panama ₿ (@Panama_TJ) September 16, 2019

__

When you see it all clearly.

The state of things ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) pic.twitter.com/lmUcZqNb0d

— The Crypto Monk ⛩ (@thecryptomonk) September 11, 2019

__

Loading. Please wait. Estimated time: IDK.

Upgrading the global monetary system to Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/pRzdpZmb1p

— Pierre Rochard (@pierre_rochard) September 13, 2019

__

Well, look, you know, sometimes it’s oops…

Helping people get into crypto like pic.twitter.com/NW2DPcxTMd

— ⛏Crypto Christopher Walken🥃 (@cryptochrisw) September 16, 2019

__

But other times… Cue ‘The Avengers’ theme song.

__

When they ask you what it’s like, show ’em this.

Cryptocurrency trading be like#BTC #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/UIC53yH9lp

— Boxmining (@boxmining) September 10, 2019

__

This week agrees.

10k support$BTC pic.twitter.com/IElbFnBbjl

— TEDDY ⛓️🌐 (@teddycleps) September 10, 2019

__

It seems like a painful experience.

Market reaction when I buy altcoins. pic.twitter.com/kM7kSvC4MW

— ₿lackbeard (@crypto_blkbeard) September 6, 2019

__

(-_-)

__

The moment you age in a single second.

Me: I'm quitting my job to become a trader.

My finances: pic.twitter.com/mIIAPvy6Tz

— Ry Carr (@RyRy_Carr) September 14, 2019

__

[ •́ ‸ •̀ ]

altcoin bulls so far pic.twitter.com/IKakq202pa

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) September 9, 2019

__

Hodl it for me, I’ll be right back.

__

Get this man a dictionary! Google it for him!

Jamie you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. from r/Bitcoin

__

Looks about right.

Catching a pump like pic.twitter.com/oKnFSTHmMy

— HASHR8 (@h4shr8) September 5, 2019

__

Kids these days…

__

There’s just no impressing them.

My alts on 2019… judges are Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/XUBsgmF5iO

— Panama ₿ (@Panama_TJ) September 6, 2019

__

Call everybody you know.

That moment when your altcoin is still down by 50% but it pumped 6% today pic.twitter.com/svSzrqzsVp

— Squeeze (@cryptoSqueeze) September 17, 2019

__

And for the end, here’s your weekend crypto anthem.

Source: cryptonews.com

[coin-river-blog]

Blockchain

Porn star Brenna Sparks is not the only one warming up to blockchain tech. Startups such as Spankchain as well as Vice Industries are attempting to fuse intimate desires with software undergirding cryptocurrencies such as ether. Maybe the long search for a real-world, ready-now blockchain technology use case is finally over. Then again, both user and performer could simply download wallets and exchange peer-to-peer electronic money, say bitcoin cash, without any startup companies between them. 

Also read: Coinbase Flexes Muscle, Creates Political Action Committee

Blockchain Tech Goes Porno

Favorite ecosystem pornographer, Brenna Sparks, recently tweeted “I’m going to be shoving a dildo in my vagina on the Blockchain tomorrow. If that’s not the coolest thing ever, idk what is!”

For sure, the Laotian triple x-rated social media influencer has more or less cornered the crypto market. Her adventurism extends from between the sheets and on camera into the financial world, where she is known to give digital asset education videos topless. And she’s not half bad … in terms of her decentralized money knowledge.

“I’m going to trademark all of my crypto camshow games,” Ms. Sparks cheekily tweeted on the eve of stuffing herself with plastic, “I’m going to trademark-troll anyone who tries to profit off my genius. I’m going to be a Pablo Escobar of camshows, taking cuts off of other camshows. This is my town!”

Ms. Sparks is also something mildly deeper. She’s helping to fire up discussion, debate about blockchain usage. Corporate hype, the drug in fashion, is attaching any project to “blockchain.” Name it, and the two have been associated: blockchain and ice tea, blockchain and medical records, blockchain and ending refugee crises around the world, blockchain and religion. It’s endless. There’s just one problem. None of these dreamy projects have gotten off the ground and proven themselves to be anything more than slick marketing to venture capitalists who appear ever-more credulous.

Pornography could be a real-life, honest-to-goodness use case. Sort of. Ms. Sparks is also a savvy businesswoman, and she’s teamed up with the smile-inducing project titled, Spankchain. The idea is to perhaps end embarrassing credit card charges for late night indulgences while an in-the-flesh partner is unavailable, for example. Spankchain is essentially a micropayment processor for the masturbatory universe, client and talent.

Digital Equivalent of Anonymous Tipping

Last year, the company was thought highly enough to have gobbled up close to twenty thousand ether, over five million dollars, after trading its proprietary payment token, spankcoin, during an initial coin offering. That money reportedly has gone to develop the streaming system Ms. Sparks would eventually use to fulfill the promise of her tweets.

Vice Industry Token Inc. is yet another variation on the blockchain porn entertainment idea, and it too raised a boatload of cash, something like $20mil worth of ether in about a day. It’s Vice Industry Token (VIT) “can be used to create a resilient global utility token economy in which goods and services can be earned and traded internationally without any barriers whatsoever,” its quite lavish website boasts.

“People will be free to earn VIT, to buy VIT and consume with VIT as a cryptocurrency,” they continue. “VIT enables people to get paid to watch and consume content. VIT is an important disrupter of status quo systems and networks and is a vital link for interconnected global human prosperity.”

What it all basically comes down to is an ability for a performer to be paid well, timely, transparently without the usual minders. For users, confidence in quality talent attracted by the arrangement, plus a kind of financial anonymity, makes for a smoother experience. And so these types of platforms are developing tipping mechanisms with dancers much in the same way dollars would be slid behind garters of yore during a semi-private dance back in the day. That can happen again digitally thanks to on-chain solutions. Still, there’s also nothing stopping these same performers from operating their own cam and accepting bitcoin cash, for example, directly peer-to-peer, from an admirers’ electronic wallet to theirs, without participating in a blockchain startup. Go figure.  

Is this a use case for blockchain? Let us know in the comments section below. 

Images via Pixabay, Twitter, Brenna Sparks. 

Be sure to check out the podcast, Blockchain 2025; latest episode here.