Ok guys time for a big question.

About 1yr ago I had a burnout. Since then I've been avoiding online communities, social medias, the phone itself and if I hadn't to graduate I'd have avoided my pc as well.

So, recently I reopened "the web" and I feel like Fry from futurama.

What the fuck are NFTs? Images for sell? Blockchain related stuff? Why is everyone talking about them? And why is everyone talking about web 3.0? And why none says anything good about it? Is this related with NFTs?

If I google this shit out I get only ELI5s, so I'd appreciate if anyone could Explain Like I'm A Software Engineer.

Thanks for your patience

NFTs are tokens on a block chain. The difference is 1 token != 1 token (non fungible).

Instead each token contains unique meta data. Must people trade NFTs whos meta data is a link to images. This gives them provable ownership of a digital asset. The image itself could be stored in the blockchain to make this more effective, but storing data on the block chain is expensive.

Web 3.0 is decentralized apps. Your browser can now have ablockchain client in it like metamask that will allow you to run decentralized code for a small fee. This fee is usually known as gas (ethereum term). The gas goes to the miners and nodes who actually run the code and give you a verified output.

The use cases are still emerging for these technologies but they seem well suited to games. Randomly generated NFT gear would be good for a Diablo like game where people could trade gear in the real world for real money. And decentralized apps I'm not so sure about.

One reason so many talk bad about NFT is that to many opportunists have tried to make quick money on them so many NFT implementations is either a new form of micro transactions, some kind of ponzie scheme or similar.

And without an independent registry the really are risky since if the registry falls, all value disappears.

In theory its a good tech, it just needs to stabilize.

As for web 3.0 thats just the next buzzword like web 2.0 ;)

Its a nonsense word to gather up a lot of technologies so that marketers can sell it to non tech people ;)

nft is populistic frontend for companies attempting to deliver rest api for blockchain but in fact delivering api for their traditional storage cause blockchain transactions are to expensive for scamming people.

It’s a classic pyramid and you can be banned and your “nft” can be removed cause there is no blockchain behind it, it’s just false advertisement.

Yeah the concept is ok but implementation is just a scam.

signal founder changed his nft image to poo after someone bought it
https://engadget.com/nft-signal-fou...

this is his best explanation on web3 and how he got banned
https://moxie.org/2022/01/...

NFTs are a "greater fool scheme" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...). with a large side order of "wasting tons of energy".

not worth investing any thought in. just accept the fact that this will be The buzzwordbingo-Joker for a while.

if you _do_ want to spend your time on learning about it: here's everything you need to know https://youtube.com/watch/...

Don’t sweat it, nothing has changed. People are still trying to over hype anything they can to get rich and then move onto the next BS technology and do the same. None of this stuff matters. The only game changer will be when a general AI is created that makes humanity obsolete, and depending on who you read, that may never be possible. Tech is boring because nothing substantial changes - only the personalities around it.

@lungdart NFT does not give provable ownership. It just is a link to whatever data file is on some server, and all it proves is that you bought the link - not what it points to.

The main use for NFTs is money laundering, just like with much of the trash that goes for "modern art".

@Fast-Nop yes, provable ownership, as in you bought the access to the meta data on the token. If it's a link, then that's what you bought. The link.

Web 3.0 in a nutshell: what if all the web is on blockchain

@tosensei so that's how cryptocurrencies are called... Greater fool theory...

@iiii well, cryptocurrencies were a decent idea. if there only was a way to keep all those speculating gamblers out, and enforce its usage as _actual currency_.

and cut down power demand. significantly.

but NFTs? complete and utter garbage used by idiots to scam bigger idiots.

@tosensei that's when you encounter one fatal flaw of cryptos: no control. It is designed as a speculative material.

@iiii

I strongly believe in Web 3.0.

Since no one seems to agree what that actually means, allow me to also just barf up a definition as well.

It's all about democratizing the internet, right?

So let's make a non-profit institution. That institution doesn't run any platforms or social networks or whatever... but to get to unified, compatible technology, it could be in charge of protocols.

Lets call it The Consortium for the World Wide Web or something like that... maybe www-c, or even "W3C" to make it a bit more catchy.

Then we say: "Fuck NFTs. Forget Ether, Crypto, Blockchains, Proof-of-whatever".

Instead of hyping corporations and scam startups, we start hyping open protocols again (Like, ActivityPub for example).

The early protocol-based internet wasn't perfect... but it was certainly more democratic. Instead of RSS feeds, we now have corporation-controlled, ad-infested social algorithms.

@bittersweet what does it mean for the web or the internet to be democratic?

@Lensflare It's the common dev error to think you could fix the centralised web by more decentralised tech. Prime example of devs not knowing shit about the world outside their little tech domain. The early internet was decentralised, and it centralised because of the networking effect. That's a social thing, hence unknown to devs.

@Fast-Nop yeah I agree. But what does it have to do with being democratic? Decentralized == Democratic? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

@Lensflare The problem with the centralised web is that some few actors get to decide and also censor at their whim. Facebook, Youtube, Google Search, Twitter, Amazon, you name it.

The decentralised web doesn't even have such actors so that it offers more freedom. What it also doesn't have is reach, which is why we got the centralised web in the first place.

Is Blockchain the new .com? Everyone is going nuts for it for no reason.

@ars1 blockchain was the previous gen bullshit bingo term. NFT is current gen.

I feel like NFt's have some good potential, just not in how they're being used currently...

NFT is a scam that is fucking over buyers and artists alike, so Tuesday. Also bad for the environment and has no reason to exist

@bittersweet web 3 may have some application, but it would never replace anything

@bittersweet you want some world peace, enlightenment, and eternal, healthy life with that? ...seems about as likely to me.

@sylsii _potentially_ NFTs could be used in a non-terrible way. but they're not solving any problem. they don't provide any actual benefit over existing systems.

Imagine everyone in your village is screwing your wife, but you have the marriage certificate.

The certificate is the NFT.

@Inxentas Only that everyone can issue such a "certificate". It doesn't mean anything.

"auction house ... suggests the buyers make the photos “permanently digital” by destroying originals "

https://petapixel.com/2022/02/...

The most important feature is actually that everyone can issue an NFT. That's the same with the "modern art" painting mills, but you don't need to pay the painters. The goal in both cases is to create things that are unique, although their uniqueness is meanlingless - except for one key feature: there is no market to compare prices.

Imagine e.g. with gold, you can't "buy" one gram for $1mio because the finance authorities know the real price. It's obvious that you're not buying, you're transferring money. With these "unique" things, there is no exact second thing to compare with.

So the plot is that you have money from illegal activities, you "buy" that shit, and at the other end, it's just regular income that can be declared with taxes so that it becomes legal money. Since it's paid in crypto currency, the authorities can't easily prove that the receiving end knows that it's illegal money.

The term web 3.0 is clearly overloaded and definitions vary substantially. It has basically lost its meaning through marketing.
My definition of web 3.0 would be a web were users own their data again. Instead of storing all their data on centralized servers user can distribute data between their devices or only store encrypted data on servers they don't control. There are currently some attempts to realize this namely Tim Berners-Lees' https://solidproject.org/ (you still have to trust/self-host PODS though).

Also, it takes no effort to create an NFT so that you don't even need to run a fake business which the authorities could unmask as the facade that it is.

@Fast-Nop you also just explained the market for contemporary "art". you know - the "one red line on a 3m wide, blank canvas for $5M" stuff. it's 100% money laundering.

@TheSilent if web evolution/centralization showed us anything, it's that users don't want to own/self-host their data. Not even large companies want to self-host their applications and are flocking into AWS and Azure. We sold the whole data center division just so we don't have to care for hardware maintenance. And most BFUs don't even have a clue in which folder on their device the data are, so idea of them managing anything across multiple devices sounds like an utopia to me.

@tosensei There's even another use: tax withdrawal. That's just like money laundering, only in reverse.

If you team both up, you can withdraw taxes in a high-tax country, then you have dirty money. Now you move it, laundering it in another country where it will get taxed - but at a lower rate.

@lungdart "this gives them provable ownership of a digital asset"

lol no it doesn't. it gives them provable ownership of a token tagged with that digital asset.

there's nothing in the tech nor laws which even implies in any way that ownership of that token also means ownership of the digital asset that token is tagged with.

nfts are a huge scam and if you didn't make a mistake in your description, and you actually believe what you wrote there, then you're one of the people who fell for that scam.

You know what's even dumber than a glass with fart? An NFT of it. You won't believe it, but even that sells: https://insider.com/reality-star-ma...

@Midnight-shcode hard disagree. The assets are created, sold, and traded with the sole purpose of being owned by the associated token.

Anyone can download the asset, but they can prove ownership. It was made for that token, with the artists intent to be owned by the token owner, and bought by the owner with the intent to own it.

That's ownership. Just because it's not their control and they can't stop people from copying it just means it's stupid, but not that they don't own it.

@lungdart Nothing prevents me from generating an NFT that points to a picture of your butt that I didn't even take.

@Fast-Nop just let me know where to put the picture!

@Fast-Nop nft of a glass with a fart...

my brain feels dirty even thinking about this.

my mind wants to bathe in bleach after knowing _this is a thing that happened_

i feel that "just letting humankind run into the next apocalyptic disaster without doing anything against it" might not be the worst idea...

@tosensei destroy all humans

@lungdart except there is no one to one relationship between a token and an "asset". Any asset can have any amount of tokens. Is that shared ownership? How does that fucking work? Like you own a girlfriend together with a neghbor jock, except you don't have any sex with her?

@iiii don't judge, she needs a tender cuddler that the jock just can't give!

@lungdart I actually don't judge and am content with promiscuity

NFT are nowadays “emperor’s new clothes” they are a total scam and bullshit, anyone can see it but most won’t admit it because they are not completely honest or are afraid of what others may think about them

@rov3rand0m "greater fool theory" 🙃

You will laught when read about meteor of may

@lungdart lol sure buddy, tell that to the morons who bought the nft tagged with frank herbert's dune ebook for a few million and are now planning a franchise set in that universe because they are under the delusion they bought the rights to dune.

tell that also to all the deviantart artists whose art got stolen to be used as an nft tag.

and so on, and so on.

@lungdart also i love how you pretended to respond to me, but totally dodged @iiii's question since there's no way for you to spin it in a way that would make nfts seem legit ;)

@Midnight-shcode love away my dude. Your attacking a straw man I'm not defending.

I agree with you that scammers are using NFTs to scam. I don't even defend collectors buying legitimate NFTs. I think they're morons too but I also think people who collect anything are waiting their money.

I was only explaining how they work under the hood. And why people find them valuable.