Start Here → What is Web3?
A foundational guide to the Metaverse, Blockchain, Crypto and NFTs
A revolution is underfoot. Known by many different names, some of which you’ve definitely heard — the blockchain, crypto, web3, NFTs. It truly is a tidal wave of technological progress and this revolution is comparable to the invention of the internet, trains or electricity.
And it will change your life in unimaginable ways.
Here’s how and why.
The Future (Metaverse)
When anyone mentions the Metaverse, you’re probably thinking of someone with VR goggles on interacting with a virtual world that doesn’t follow the rules of gravity. That could well be the case but it’s a bit too limiting. The Metaverse is upon us. It will become a meaningful part of our reality. The specifics are up for debate because predicting the Metaverse right now would be akin to predicting the prominence of search and social media in 1995. We know something big’s afoot, but we will have to watch and see how the specifics will shape up.
There are a few things we are certain of
- The Metaverse will be more compelling that the internet and the current version of the internet is pretty damn attractive and addictive — Instagram, Netflix, Amazon, TikTok
- Your income will be inextricably linked with the Metaverse. Underestimating this point is like someone in 1995 saying work can be done offline with email. You will need the Metaverse for your livelihood.
- A substantial portion of your private life will be hosted on the Metaverse (meeting friends, teaching children, entertainment, finances, etc.). This isn’t so hard to imagine because a substantial portion of your life is already on the internet.
- All financial holdings and transactions will be virtual (no more physical cash)
The Problem
Most of us interact with databases hundreds of times a day. Your bank account balance and transactions are stored on a database. Your facebook login and posts are stored on a database as well. Flight tickets, grocery shopping at the supermarket, amazon orders, hotel bookings, emails sent or received. All information stored on databases.
Databases are awesome.
Over the past 20 years, a few victors have emerged and all data is beginning to accumulate in the databases of a handful of companies — Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, etc
You’ve probably heard of the phrase — “data is the new oil”. Control of databases gives these companies control of your data. And once they have control of your data, that’s where machine learning and artificial intelligence kicks in to model your behaviour and profit motives dictate that more ads are sold to you encouraging you to buy more and click that link.
When the Metaverse arrives and everything (all your data) is owned, processed and stored by a handful of tech companies, as a society and individuals, we are bound to be in a LOT of trouble.
Enter Blockchain Technology
The Blockchain is a revolutionary new model of computing technology that allows us to store information on a network of computers instead of storing it in a data centre. The Blockchain network is open and any computer can participate in the network.
In addition to discarding the need for a centralized database, the blockchain incorporates encryption to ensure that only the user with a cryptographic key can access specific data (hence the term crypto). The cryptographic encryption is so safe that even if a supercomputer ran from the beginning of Planet Earth until today, it would be unable to crack the code.
What’s Crypto?
Everyone has heard of Bitcoin right? A digital currency. Computer money. Like gold. No real utility in your life because you can’t spend Bitcoin at the grocery store or on Amazon (you probably can hack your way into spending Bitcoin online but that’s not worth getting into right now). So, yes, practically useless.
Except that it is exceptional.
- Because nobody owns Bitcoin. No Government and no individual controls it. It ain’t American nor is it Chinese. The founder is a ghost and has never been seen or heard of ever again. It lives on the internet and is practically impossible to shut down or manipulate prices other than by good old demand & supply (which happens to be fixed).
- Oh, and by the way, the computer program that controls Bitcoin is open source. Because any computer can join the network and run the program, ANYONE can read the code and validate for themselves that Bitcoin isn’t doing anything dodgy. They can also copy-paste the program and build their own Bitcoin (and they have).
- Because it’s computer money and computers can do math, you can buy 0.000001 Bitcoin. Yaay!! 🥳
- When you do end up owning that tiny sliver of a Bitcoin, a database (called a ledger) keeps track of your ownership. The genius of the Blockchain revolution lies in the concept of distributed ledgers — a fancy way of saying there are multiple copies of the database saved on multiple computers all around the world; all storing the exact same copy of the database. So if Uncle Putin decided to turn the power off in Russia, El Salvador would still have their computers running and Bitcoin would continue to chug along like nothing happened. Yep — it really is decentralized. Out of the control of one central institution or individual.
- Lastly, the word cryptocurrency is derived from cryptography. What that means is that you have a password or key phrase that can unlock your 0.000001 Bitcoin. Only you. Nobody else can touch your cheese.
The overall computer network system used to create, manage and transact Bitcoin with the attributes described above is called a Blockchain.
What are NFTs?
If you haven’t heard of NFTs to date, then you’re probably a lucky person living a happy life far away from the hubris of social media. The mass media have characterized NFTs as exorbitantly priced unique jpegs (images). To a certain extent, they’re correct. Most of the NFTs currently being traded is art and the value of art is subjective and might appear obscene to a casual observer (I spent most of my life in this camp).
The blockchain allows for a wallet to indisputably own an NFT and the corresponding image that accompanies it. This enables owners to sell those images with the buyer being extremely confident that they are getting what they pay for — guaranteed by blockchain technology.
Until NFTs arrived, it has been impossible to verify the ownership of a certain image (jpg) since the image in question could be copy+pasted from computer to computer a million times until the original owner was obscured by the vastness of the internet.
Now with NFTs, this digital scarcity and trustless authenticity guarantee is possible. And their usage has boomed as you can see in the graph below. Billions of dollars of NFTs per month are being generated, bought and sold. Billions!
Let’s Participate in Building The Future
If we take a step back and look at the current financial institutional landscape
- Why should we be beholden to a higher power that devalues our currency by printing new money with reckless abandon?
- Why should only institutions get access to valuable investment opportunities?
- Why shouldn’t customers and suppliers get a chance to participate in the upside that they helped create?
- Why do you need to “apply” for a bank account with your documents?
- Why does the financial system need to “KYC” you and keep track of every single transaction you make?
The old ways are locking smaller people out of participating in the market. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What I’m advocating for is that if you haven’t yet done so yet, please give this revolution a chance. A huge technological phase shift is underway which offers life altering changes to regular people like you and me with very very low barriers to entry. And the odds are highly skewed towards us.
