Learning with a Punk Sith Lord — part 1
Last Friday, 7 Oct 2022, I spent my evening attending a course delivered by a punk jpeg in Darth Vader’s voice. This post tells about what this course was, three takeaway points, and my overall impression.
A free course on The Metaverse in The Metaverse
The course was the first of a series of FREE open introductory lectures on NFTs and the Metaverse by The University of Nicosia (UNIC). The lectures are delivered by George Giaglis, executive director of UNIC, and punk6529, an influential thinker, figure, and collector in the NFT and crypto scene. Around 16k wallets enrolled to this course through minting a free NFT. The first lecture was delivered in punk6529's open metaverse. More info on the MOOC course can be found here.
Three takeaway points:
- NFT tokens are mostly just a pointer to a link where the picture/file metadata is stored. This storage is either a centralized server, decentralized server, or on-chain. Centralized server is the most cost effective but vulnerable to hacks. Decentralized servers use a network of PCs to store information. Only upfront payment is necessary and the single point of failure is diminished. On-chain storage is the most expensive storage method which is not a feasible option for pictures/files not generated by code. However, those pictures/files will live forever as long as the chain is alive.
- NFT token represents ownership over an object and carries with it an underlying social contract. Transferring the token also transfers the social contract. Think about it like land deeds, the deed represents ownership over a certain land. The social convention — where the deed represents ownership — is enforced by mechanisms such as the courts and law enforcement. In digital arts, artists and collectors have agreed on a social convention that each NFT token represents an edition of work. No enforcement is needed as this is reflected on the on-chain metadata.
- Now, NFT tokens mostly represents ownership over digital assets or access to certain communities. NFT tokens will gradually represent ownership of IP rights to in-real-life (IRL) objects. Certain mechanisms and counter party assurances will be needed to enforce the social conventions over IRL objects. Using NFTs as a pointer for ownership of IRL objects is the hardest to achieve but as the use cases of NFTs grow, it’s the direction we are heading.
“How was day one?”
A friend who missed the course asked. I replied: It was either fascinating or I am a nerd. Other friends replied me that both options were true.
It was fun. As the course was held in punk6529’s open Metaverse, we — my friends and I who enrolled together — got to explore the place while listening to the lecture. The lecturers gave us fundamental aspects and point of views which most probably us as practitioners who face this everyday had missed or overlooked.
The course chat went wild when punk6529 appeared to deliver his part of lecture: he used a robot voice to maintain his privacy. Listening to punk6529 speaking felt like listening to a Sith Lord like Darth Vader talking about digital economy. It felt like peak meme.
First lectures of the course are not token gated. If you’re interested, the live session of the first lecture can be accessed here.
Next live session is on Wednesday, Oct 12, 2022 and I will be writing part 2 of this. Stay tuned!
