richardmurray

NFTs: What Are They and How Much Should Writers and Publishers Care? • Jane Friedman

TO Jane's article

Nice article Jane... Yes, the internet's backbone is a lot of security systems that use cryptography principles made circa 1970s 1980s but with modern machines , very potent. I will say you miss a key point about the origins of the internet and the various elements that want to maintain it a certain way.... The question , in my mind, is : does the internet need to be decentralized? It is a question analagous to global trade. The global free market's whole point is, the market has no bounds. no blockades, this allows for greater trade and wealth accumulation. the internet is currently designed the same way. Facebook is present all over the earth. but the unique problem of the internet is how does a comment from the usa to a profile of a russian newspaper magazine be verified as true. the security protocols through hashtag functions serves this. said functions are the basis for the cryptocurrency and the ledgers of the cryptocurrency are the basis for the nft's But I will never forget experiments in germany with isolated city wide networks. I do think inevitably the internet's structure will reflect a far more fragmented existence in itself. My last point to NFT's , and I think your article did well, is explained part of the problem is the concept of worth? From stocks/bonds/futures to NFT's , things have value today ,not based on a mineral backing. the fiat currency philosophy has a role to play. like paper currency the value of cryptocurrencies or the NFT's isn't based on something considered valuable physically. It is all speculation. Thus when an NFT is attached to an object, the value doesn't have to be grand but can be grand and with the NFT it allows a potential transfer of value that is safer in electronic means than. I tell people to think of christies or sothebys when they think of anything attached to an NFT. Art that thirty years ago was worth a million may only be worth tens of thousands, it happens.

A Longer Thought to CyptoCurrency

NFT's are very simple, the problem with people's assessment of cryptocurrency or electronic information security is they start at the end of the process and not at the beginning... the question is, what is data? how is data made secure? Data is merely numbers. The same numbers you learned about in high school. How is data made secure? you apply a function to it, like your basic calculus. A function is merely an equation , like your basic algebra, where the nomenclature is the key to making it more easy to calculate to infinity. Instead of algebra's equation x+5=7 you get calculus, f(x)=7. x can equal 2 or y/50 if y= 100 or et cetera. Now taking that simple function f(x)=7. if I tell you f(x)=7 can you say what f(x) is. Yes, I said f(x) as originally x+5 but how would you know if I didn't tell you. f(x)=7 standalone means f(x) can equate to [sqr(y)-3 ; y=100] How can you say its wrong? This is the key to security. In the same way the key in a door has a specific shape that corresponds to the lock, the specific function is one form of secrets. Now some of you may say, but this should be simple to do. Your wrong, but the reason why is key. a common tablet sold in the usa, with such a function needing to be solved doesn't stand achance against an well made algorithm that uses a better designed function to extract its identity. what you have to comprehend is that the growth in computing power , in speed or memory volume changes the scope of functional strength. So many governments /firms have supercomputers as their disposal that can churn out functions far better designed that x+5 that they can deduce the equation based on the computer. So, in the late 1970s early 1980s a guy developed a set or philosophies on secure data that are still the cornerstone today and in it, he developed the basic idea of cypto data, using hash functions. Now, in those functions. which are more refined that x+5, you have data that is input into the function, some call it secrets or keys. These are essential to solving the equation in reverse. Thus making it hard. Now lets go back to how cryptocurrency works, Were are not at NFT's but cryptocurrency is the root to NFT. LEts say Rich has his x+5 function again, we will call it Rich(x) , and lets say, I send my 7 to Jane and she applies, her Jane(bubbles) to it. Lets say Jane(bubbles) equates to bubbles+7*(bubbles^4) now we have another result.7+ 7*(7^4) =203 [I used pencil and paper, don't be silly] But lets say we Jane sends to Suzannah who has SuzannahQueen(I know what you did last summer) which equates to ((I know what you did last summer /2)+Rand(I know what you did last summer)Mod(10))EXP(2) +5=7 . WAIT? what just happened. Rich and Jane had functions that gave results as answers. Suzannah wants the possible answers to the quadratic, of the power of two , equation to be the results. Rich and JAne say, go on and pass those two to Shella. Shella has ShellaKnew(y) which equates to y+38 . But ShellaKnew has two inputs thus two answers. And imagine if more commentors join in, lets call these commentors peers. Now, lets say this post has two hundred commentors each adding to the stream. How many values will we have at the end? It may seem like a horde of data, like coins in a vault, but what to do... what if each of these results are treated like a currency. maybe a cryptocurrency... only a potent computer can reverse the one hundred and growing equations. But, what if Jane has a fan, he never comments, but he has a jane friedman wall that is too impolite to describe. Children may read this post. Now, He says I will make a computer to divulge a solution that will fit the stream of equations thus bringing it back to Rich's X+5 Not impossible, but the crazed person needs help. besides mental help, he needs a computer. But the computer has to go through the data, it has to prove itself is correct, and for that it needs energy! lots of energy as churns numbers all night long, all day long to find a solution. The computer knows all the results , but the key to the security is knowing the functions that lead to it. JAne's fanatic fan waited months, months, but his computer finally computed or mined a correct result. And that is data mining. Now , what if another fan was so cool, she didn't want results but wanted a set of data like keepsakes each. Not currencies but minerals, like diamonds, that are never the same to each other. She noticed each iteration of data and prescribed a function on the data going backwards from the hundredth commentor back to my 7. Or for the sake of example. used the two results from suzannah in a function and applied them to JAne's result<203>. and then applied them back to my 7. The results of her function would relate to a specific sequence of inputs so exact, her results are nonfungible or unique. And then if someone like casper has a drawing on facebook and Our super female fan says I will attach one of her non fungible results to his art piece on facebook. Anyone can copy the image Casper made on facebook, but if the fan gives Casper a usb drive with the data representing the non fungible result. if he applies that data to her system it will verify yes. Now, why do they have value? well what if casper writes a book that gets translated into every languageand spawns a the longest movie series ever, longer than bond, fans will pay a pretty peny for casper's Non fungible result from the female superfan of JAne. And over time, fans will bid on that NFR or maybe NFT is a better phrase, and then like the red painting that is merely a painting only red, that gets sold for millions, it will maintain value and be a marketable item. Of course, casper may not have said career and no one will pay a penny for his NFT but....:) .... it isn't complicated folks. The problem is the explanation people give it, trying to make it mystery or something not for the common to comprehend.