An Interview with the Big Cheeze winner B1ackKett1e

Inside look into who B1ackKett1e is and how he won the Cheeze Wizards tournament

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Feel free to exclude personal details you don’t feel comfortable sharing. Who is B1ackKett1e?

‘B1ackKett1e’ is basically an umbrella organization representing some interdisciplinary research on consensus mechanisms, incentivized game theory and so on. We have an interest specifically in the implications of these fundamentally new and open mediums for content creators and artists, and for decentralized decision making.

What was your earliest experience with crypto?

Everything before trollbox life has become kinda blurry…

Um, Slock.it? no…

It was multiple block-reward halving ago that we began observing the field.

Which cryptocurrencies do you own?

“‘Currency’ is just the first app.” -A Antonopolous

Because our interests lay primarily in the use cases of math and cryptography as open creative medium, as well as in this technology’s ability to bring the most-secure decision making tools, we tend to prefer to deal in ‘protocols’ and ‘platforms’.

We do follow the material assumption that optimizing usefulness will precede widest applications and eventual adoption base. The Platform which provides the best properties of electronic currency (most secure store of value, instantaneous transaction speeds, affordable, fungible medium of exchange/payment….) will ALSO be best suited for open source app development, decision and reward incentives to all members of a network, and the fulfillment of the rest of these technologies’ wide utilities.

So far as we have observed, only the DASH network’s llmq with chainlock innovations allow their decentralized second tier to offer the superior functionalities to scalable build out these service offerings.

As the largest chain (& originator) of the X11 hash algorithm, as well as the longest continuous experiment in DAO, Its forward looking and flexible budget allocation system (and ability to own assets or equity as a network) may allow them to look out for the interests of the space more broadly, while not simply keeping in mind narrowly the interests of their miners.

To nurture these ends, we’d like to announce that the Big Cheeze prize will be exchanged directly, peer-to-peer for the opportunity to participate in and support the DAO MN network moving forward.

We certainly do also look forward to Ethereum’s implementation of proof-of-stake consensus, the world computer with all of its world changing potential.

Not to be forgotten, we study Bitcoin as one might some Chthonic monster, which attempts to prevent the evolution and ascension of its spawn by consuming them.

While we hold that the real legacy of these titans will be with their offspring and optimizations, not just in the convoluted passing of their namesakes.
Who’s excited about inter-Kleenex hash wars to keep any upgrades all gommed up, …anyone?

As futurist types we are betting that Innovating on a medium’s technical usefulness eventually supersedes stagnant incumbent branding.

Do you play any non-blockchain games? If so, which ones?

Sure, we play our share of basketball, chess, and poker. Also Exquisite Corpse.

How did you hear about Cheeze Wizards? What was your first impression of the game?

We came for the Curdlin kitty cap, we stayed (riveted for the nostalgic possibility of a recursive withdrawal attack… no,) for the founder NFT wizards; just your average consensus anthropologists uncovering previous civilizations crypto-cheeze technology artifacts.

Actually, we are happy to see some intriguing contracts exploring ERC 721 Non-fungible Tokens, and think this is the highest the bar has been raised so far. Great work DapperLabs proving the concept!

Since you won the tournament with a Pawhead. Why did you decide to convert your Curdlin into a Cheeze Wizard?

NFT’s with multiple applications demonstrate new properties of these new mediums.

This is an unfolding experiment, and there is nothing to get you to investigate and learn more about what a technology could be capable of than to dabble in it yourself.

What about Cheeze Wizards attracted you/made you want to play the game?

We just want to observe crypto gaming as it develops and hope to apply what we can learn about incentivized decision making thru some of these games.

Also it was actually fun to play with the art and digital artifacts.

Share with us your favourite duel (the duel animation link would suffice)

Well, the final duel to settle the Last Pawhead, Last Elemental Standing, and the Big Cheeze itself was certainly a fun moment for us

https://www.cheezewizards.com/duel?id=7fc1f45b-29ce-44c5-ba25-a0812f4ae446&state=result

It kinda reminded me of how similar Cheeze Wizard glyphs are to those old-timey ESP tests (Zener Cards) you might encounter in secret government paranormal programs ;)

Which Wizard is your favourite and why?

Well, suppose we’ve grown fond of ole’ 4845. Elemental pawhead extraordinaire, may hafta retire its jersey.

https://www.cheezewizards.com/wizard/4845

What was your strategy in winning the game? Could you share details of the books, articles, videos you watched/read?

There were consensus checks among the team at various stages. There were checks on each other’s arithmetic.

We researched the optimal Nash equilibrium strategy, and whether other strategies could improve upon it. We matrix graphed each combination of match-up, to three theory-of-mind levels of deception deep for each. We continually referred back to see if we understood any of the rules.

There is also timing to considering any acquisitions or for trading out of your positions to other players at various stages in the game. But for a regrettable lapse in concentration over Thanksgiving, we wouldn’t have consolidated our final neutral wizard and kitty-cap contender.

This also threw off our central plan to take the Long Living Wizard Quorum party to the end of the game. Though, for any future tournaments you may expect us to throw our Cheeze behind this

Long Living Wizard Quorum Party
https://www.cheezewizards.com/parties/4bcd2ad0-ddbd-42ac-8f26-03856443ac1f (and/or perhaps whatever becomes of the DARK Cheeze.)

https://www.cheezewizards.com/parties/e36044d7-c44d-4e31-a074-3d2e4ea580d0

Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for players participating in the next tournament?

Oh. Next tournament eh?

Be water. #BeWater

Anything else you’d like to share?

Please feel free to network with us, or follow our unfolding shenanigans on social media at

https://www.facebook.com/ETHsociety/
(a kind of curated record of the crypto platforms discourse and history.)

Or on Twitter
https://twitter.com/B1ackKett1e

Thanks again to Dapper Labs for the opportunity, keep building!
See the rest of you wizards next tournament.