These Omakasea lessons get more Chad the further we go; hang with me and forgive the cut and dry nature of this post. Comment with any questions; I’ll make sure to respond.
Possible Applications for Ethereum
Broadest use- Token systems, Financial derivatives (synthetic assets) and stable coins.
-Identity and Reputation Systems
(decentralized tracking of how you interact with blockchain/ web3 applications )
- Decentralized File Storage
Alternatives to Google and Amazon Cloud services, peer to peer trading.
Provenance and Metadata
Provenance is defined by Teara as value that can’t be objectively defined- provenance is the difference between fungible and non fungible.
An oz of gold has a set value as defined by an external market, and has had established value long before any of our grandparents were a twinkle in their grandparent’s eyes… this is fungible.
However, what gives value to a Picasso, or these NFT traits vs those NFT traits.
Typically, provenance is decided by a community over time rather than daily by an external market. Because provenance is subjective value- it could vary widely between buyers and sellers. This is non fungible.
Metadata is essentially data that point to more data. In the NFT world, metadata is the smart contract and underlying code which dictates the NFT name, traits, description, etc.
IPFS
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol and peer-to-peer network for sharing and storing files. It allows users to access and share content in a decentralized manner, rather than using a centralized server. This means that the content can be accessed directly from the network of participating devices, rather than being hosted on a single server and accessed through a central point of control. IPFS uses a content-addressable method of storing data, meaning that each piece of content is identified by a unique fingerprint called a "hash," rather than by its location on a server. This allows users to access and share content without needing to know the specific location of the server where it is stored. IPFS has been designed to be a more efficient and scalable alternative to traditional methods of storing and accessing content on the internet.
IPFS is a crucial component in many NFT projects, in the spirit of keeping the metadata for these tokens decentralized.
It’s highly recommended for those who want to deep dive into the semantics of NFTs to download the IPFS Desktop Extension and exploring the Merkle Forest of IPLD data model of the content addressable web.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
A DAO is a virtual entity that has a certain set of members/ shareholders who have the right to spend the DAOs funds and modify its codes- via some for of majority consensus. (67%, more or less)
DAOs can allocate their funds to their community through bounties, salaries, native currency rewards for work, etc. Essentially DAOs mirror the trappings over traditional business entities, except with underlying code/ blockchain tech enforcing the rules/ hierarchy rather than a centralized corporate structure.
As mentioned, DAOs reach consensus by votes- often times less active members of the DAO can delegate their votes to more active or involved members. This can obviously make things easy by essentially creating a board of directors, but could also suppress voices and make things more convoluted, and less democratic, and creates an oligarchy.
DAOs are still in their infancy and have alot of progress to make, but the concept and basic outline is there.
Essentially, Ethereum is a do it yourself, “make your own rules” network. It provides the underlying structure to build out the network of your dreams.
Avalanche is layer 1 EVM sidechain, which has highly customable subnets to create your own mini blockchain, complete with your own rules. Examples of customizable rules could be:
- Only users who’s IP address is in this region may participate-
- Gas may only be paid in this token-
- Only Linux computers can access this-
- and so on. Avalanche subnets give users the opportunity to customize a blockchain without building it out from scratch.
Self Modifying Code are essentially updates indexed into smart contracts which update the blockchain state. (i.e. every smart contract executed modifies the state of the blockchain. It’s always evolving, every transaction, hundreds per second!
Consider buying a PokeGan NFT.
You'll gain so much more than the basic outlines here.
Tokengated lessons provided by Omakasea.
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In the last section, we will deep dive into the NFT market and the Omakasea NFT creative lab.
