BlockchainGandalf
136 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago -This channel features regular updates devoted to explaining issues surrounding blockchain, from the technical through to economics and philosophy. I also look at tech startup issues, innovation, and the patenting process.
You can get a copy of my book at http://mybook.to/moveover or read more about it at http://www.thinklair.com/
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Episodes
What is lazy minting?
February 28, 2022 08:17 - 1 minute - 994 KBLazy minting is not minting an NFT until you have a buyer. So now you don't even need to listen to the episode. Except, it contains a cake analogy, and is only a minute long, so perhaps you want to anyway.
The OpenSea NFT Phishing Hack
February 28, 2022 08:15 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBIn the last few days about $1.7 million in NFTs were stolen from OpenSea users, and there is quite a bit of confusion about how it was done. In this episode I talk about a number of "design decisions" in the Ethereum space, and their security issues. These include: token approvals, off-chain signing, how NFT decentralized exchanges work, and there is a bit about phishing emails thrown in for good measure. In summary, it doesn't look like OpenSea was to blame in this case, but just as we've...
Marketplaces will be centralized
February 28, 2022 08:13 - 6 minutes - 6.12 MBDecentralization maximalists dream of a world in which everything is decentralized, and single players no longer dominate in particular sectors. I think their dreams will never come to pass for two main reasons, which are discussed in this episode. The audio for this episode comes from a video where I am wearing a hat. Because I can't be bothered to clip the last 20 seconds I talk about a hat I am wearing, which of course is going to be a non-sequitur to listeners, so feel free to ignore ...
What can a DAO do?
February 20, 2022 23:23 - 3 minutes - 2.9 MBOh the wonderful things that a DAO can do! It can moo like a cow, moo moo. No, hang on, that's a Dr. Seuss book. The thing is, a lot of DAO use cases are probably better served by a multi-signature wallet than a DAO. But there are some where providing the ability for a diverse and unconnected group of people to vote on a regular or semi-regular basis as to how assets should be dispersed, is of value. Furthermore, DAO's can be given extra powers by connecting or chaining them to other smar...
DAOs and Voting
February 20, 2022 23:20 - 5 minutes - 4.64 MBFundamentally, a DAO is about automating voting processes in the context of a deterministic collective with assets. Or in less stupid language - it's a computer program thingy that controls some money and does what its owners tell it to when enough of them agree on what should be done. As it happens, voting is a complicated and subtle science, with plenty of empirical data for us to examine from the real-world of democratic (or not so democratic) voting systems. In this episode I talk bri...
DAOs Have Bugs
February 20, 2022 23:14 - 3 minutes - 3.08 MBDecentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are automated voting systems, which (sometimes) happen to have large sums of cryptocurrency assets at their disposal for their members to vote on. And by "vote on", I mean that the members (the people who have voting tokens for the DAO) get to decide where that money goes through a voting procedure. Unless the DAO contains bugs. In which case, a malicious hacker gets to decide where that money goes. Which is usually into the hacker's pockets. ...
What is a DAO?
February 20, 2022 23:11 - 3 minutes - 3.35 MBIf you're having difficulties understanding DAOs, it may be that it's because you're thinking about companies from the perspective of an employee (which is what most of us are), rather than as an active shareholder or board member (which most of us are not). More on that in this episode.
The first NFT ever is in a legal and metaphysical crisis
February 14, 2022 08:40 - 6 minutes - 5.93 MBDid you know that the first NFT was minted way back in 2014? Neither did I, but Anthony Day helpfully pointed me at an article about the problems currently surrounding it - https://www.ledgerinsights.com/sothebys-sued-over-quantum-nft-auction The artwork the NFT (or NFTs, as you will understand if you watch the video) points (or point) to is called Quantum, and looks like a British 20 pence piece that went to too many raves in the late eighties. An NFT (not _the_ NFT, as you will understan...
OpenSea and the Frozen Delusion
February 10, 2022 16:31 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MB"This item's metadata was permanently locked and stored in decentralized file storage." Those word can be found in the details presented for many of the NFTs listed on OpenSea.io. They make you think that your NFT can never change - the traits and the image are locked down forever, right? Wrong. In this episode I explain - using the Bored Apes Yacht Club NFTs and NFT contract as an example - how misleading those words are. And I have a little rant at the end, which may be partially due ...
ORTHOVERSE.IO IS DOOMED!
February 10, 2022 16:29 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBHow should a well-managed efficient NFT project be run in order to maximize the chances of success? There is a well-structured format to NFT projects these days (a road-map if you will) that every project now seems to follow. In this episode, I explain how Richard Piacentini and myself decided to throw the rule-book out of the window, and do the opposite pretty much every single step of the way. If you want to see what the project is about - it is to be found at https://orthoverse.io If ...
The 320 million US$ Wormhole hack explained
February 05, 2022 12:56 - 6 minutes - 5.79 MBA few days ago hackers made off with about a hundred thousand ETH due to a security flaw in a cross-chain bridge protocol called Wormhole. The protocol bridges assets between a number of chains, including Ethereum and Solana. In this episode, I explain how the heist was pulled off, using an analogy.
The worst web3 developer misconception
February 05, 2022 12:54 - 2 minutes - 2.72 MBI've now talked to and heard enough reports from other smart contract developers who have encountered the same thing: web3 developers who don't understand one simple fact about the blockchain world. And if you don't understand that fact, even if you know how to write ethers.js or web3.js code in your React website, you're not really a web3 developer. Listen to this episode to find out what it is, and why it's concerning.
Wanted: blockchain developer who can do everything.
February 02, 2022 18:51 - 6 minutes - 5.87 MBNo, this is not me advertising an open position. These are the kinds of job adverts I'm seeing in my inbox these days. The salary ranges may be more realistic than they were three months ago, but the job descriptions have expanded to the point where they are longer than my resume. And there are probably only ten people on the planet who could both do the job, and who would want to. You can listen to the episode, or read this summary: Offering half a million dollars for a job that requ...
Will my NFT last?
February 02, 2022 18:49 - 5 minutes - 5.05 MBWelcome to the NFT metadata persistence problem. Art NFTs and Collectible NFTs usually follow the same data pattern: the NFT points to a metadata file, which points to an image file. The problem is that if the metadata and image file are hosted on a third-party server, and that server disappears, then the NFT points to nothing, and its perceived value will drop. If the metadata and image file are on the IPFS, persistence is also not guaranteed. There still has to be someone out there with...
NFTs, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Community
January 30, 2022 22:09 - 10 minutes - 9.79 MBIn which our intrepid hero talks about why, despite having no use and conferring no real ownership of the artwork, NFTs are still booming.
The trials and tribulations of OpenSea
January 28, 2022 10:30 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBOpenSea hasn't just offered the world a rather average looking NFT trading platform. It's also provided us with an excellent set of lessons concerning the risks posed by smart contracts and bad design. In this episode, I look at the recent problems they have faced, in which people's tokens are being bought at below-market prices and then instantly flipped for huge profits, due to a series of smart contract, web interface, and user experience design mistakes made by OpenSea. As such, it off...
NFTs and Utility
January 22, 2022 08:25 - 5 minutes - 5.45 MBCollecting NFTs that point to artwork you like, and are part of a community you enjoy belonging to is lovely. But there is so much more that NFTs can do. We're already seeing NFTs gain utility features, such as giving you access to members-only Discord channels. In the future, I predict that NFTs will gain all sorts of other super-powers. But - problems arise when those super-powers are provided on centralized platforms. More on that in this epiaode.
General Lecture on Blockchain for Tampere University
January 21, 2022 10:53 - 1 hour - 65.6 MBToday I gave a lecture on Blockchain for the Emerging Technologies group at Tampere University. The focus is less on how blockchain technology works, and more on the problems it aims to solve, and why it is significant, and so I talked more about the history, psychology and sociology of blockchain, rather than going into computer science, cryptography, or consensus algorithms. I place a copy here for anybody who would like a gentle introduction to the topic (and for anyone who meant to ...
How to assess Web3 development contractors
January 18, 2022 06:08 - 4 minutes - 4.15 MBYou've got your project sorted - tokenomics, value proposition. community building, marketing, and smart contract development are all in place. But you need a company or person to build the front end for you. How do you determine whether they're competent or not when it comes to web3 work? In this episode I provide a simple practical checklist that you can use to make your decision, which is summarized here: 📃 - do they have samples of previous work ✉️ - does the sample page handle the f...
Let's talk about Proof-of-Stake
January 16, 2022 10:41 - 6 minutes - 6.07 MBWe all know that proof-of-work is energy intensive, which means that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum currently have to defend themselves against charges that the environmental damage they are causing is not outweighed by the current or future benefits they offer. This means that if someone sees no value in a decentralized currency/store of value/whatever the cryptocurrency is ... then you can't win the argument. Ethereum has taken the approach that side-stepping to proof-of-s...
Why is Web3 identity different to Web2 (part 3)
January 12, 2022 10:31 - 4 minutes - 4.34 MBWhat is the user experience for web3 identity going to be like? Initially, very much like the web2 experience is for users who are wise enough to use a password manager. Provided the web3 sites get their own ux designs in order. More on that in this expisode.
Why is Web3 identity different to Web2 (part 2)
January 11, 2022 23:39 - 3 minutes - 3.31 MBOkay, so Web3 uses asymmetric key cryptography as the basis for identity and authentication. Why do we need the rest of blockchain then? Answered in this episode. Well, it's an answer. Of course, given blockchain, it's not _the_ answer.
Why is Web3 identity different to Web2 (part 1)
January 10, 2022 18:25 - 3 minutes - 2.88 MBThe three authentication mechanisms are: 1️⃣ Something you know 2️⃣ Something you have 3️⃣ Something you are But what about a fourth one: something only you can do? In this video, I look at the fundamental different between identifying yourself to a Web3 website using a blockchain wallet, and Web2 using a username and password. It has to do with asymmetric key cryptography. In part 2, I will talk more about why blockchain is an important piece of the puzzle for a number of different r...
Take the red pill, or take the blue pill?
January 09, 2022 16:38 - 17 minutes - 16.7 MBIn this video I talk about how I airdropped 100 DETS tokens to every single one of the 1.5 quindecillion Ethereum addresses. In the process I examine different layers of meaning in blockchain systems, from the raw ones and zeroes on hard disks around the network, through data structures, smart contracts, and right up to the presentation layer in the form of web3 that actually shows users what they own. The key word in the previous sentence is "meaning". Because ones and zeros don't have me...
Journalists misreport because the analogies are broken
January 08, 2022 15:17 - 3 minutes - 3.13 MBI regularly read news reports in which it is plain that the reporter writing the report hasn't really understood what is going on the blockchain, DeFi or crypto world. And it's not their fault - they're trained writers, not blockchain experts. The problem is exacerbated by the number of analogies that have taken hold in the space. In this video I talk about this, using some of the bad analogies as examples of the problem. The solution? Presumably, better analogies. And journalists who w...
Is cryptocurrency useless and dangerous?
January 08, 2022 13:04 - 10 minutes - 9.42 MBThe masters of the current financial institutions would have us think so, and have been mounting a campaign with increasing frenzy over the last year to push forward this opinion. The same tropes are trotted out again and again. One of those tropes contains a logical contradiction. But who ever expected propaganda to be logical and consistent?
$SOS and the Whales
December 29, 2021 10:59 - 5 minutes - 5.33 MBBy looking further into the structure of the $SOS token contract, I am fairly convinced that it doesn't allow the deployers to drain your wallet of funds. However, there are always more concerns surrounding smart contracts than just the code that is there on the blockchain. I mentioned in the previous video on this topic that I was not entirely sure about the digital signing function for claiming $SOS, based on your activity on OpenSea. And indeed, some people have determined that the Ope...
Airdrops, OpenDAO, and the $SOS Token
December 26, 2021 13:06 - 10 minutes - 9.94 MBAirdrops are giveaways, where a project hands out tokens for free in order to drum up interest in the project, hopefully increasing the user base and/or the price of the token given away. There are risks associated with airdrops though - they offer a great opportunity to scam artists. For example, you may think you're getting a token, but be tricked into signing a transaction that allows a smart contract to siphen off your NFTs and crypto. Here follows the obligatory disclaimer - what foll...
Is it possible to destroy the Bitcoin network?
December 20, 2021 08:35 - 10 minutes - 9.8 MBI was asked over the weekend if I could think of any way to bring down Bitcoin. Of course, "impossible is nothing", so there may well be a way. But I can't see what it would be. Technically, it seems very unlikely to me that one wealthy actor could destroy Bitcoin, and I cover 51% attacks, quantum crypto cracking, and ordinary key/hash function cracking in the video and explain why they won't work. Legally - well, the evidence from Russia and India is that it's ineffective. It's like tryin...
Be your own banks (plural)
December 14, 2021 17:52 - 7 minutes - 6.71 MBWhy do Ethereum addresses work on Polygon and Binance Smart Chain? If you create an Ethereum address in your wallet (for example MetaMask), the same address can be used on other EVM compatible layer 2 chains, such as Polygon Matic and Binance Smart Chain. The reason is because these sidechains use the same digital signing algorithm and blockchain address derivation function. It's like creating a bank account number at one bank, and finding that the same account number now exists and can...
Beware the algorithm
December 13, 2021 22:49 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBWe all know that social media platforms use complicated algorithms to determine who gets shown what. But are they really that complicated? And if they are, do they need to be? In today's newsletter, which I have read out to create this podcast, I put forward a very simple formula to determine when your LinkedIn post has peaked. Who knows, perhaps it even works. Why don't you try it and let me know?
Seed phrases and hierarchical deterministic wallets
December 12, 2021 12:38 - 4 minutes - 3.78 MBWhat exactly is a seed phrase? Or an HD wallet? In this video, I explain how a seed phrase is converted to a "master key" for your crypto-wallet, and why as long as you have your seed phrase (and no one else does) you can use it to set up and use a wallet on any device. This is what non-custodial wallets are all about - your seed phrase is the key to accessing and controlling your blockchain addresses, and hence your digital assets (crypto, NFTs, or other) and ultimately your identity on t...
Code is law?
December 11, 2021 12:48 - 4 minutes - 3.86 MBI don't stand by the smart contract principle that is espoused by some, that is summed up in three words: code is law. As a former test engineer, it's all to clear to me that there will always be bugs in any computer program that does something complicated or contains more than ten lines of code. Or in the platform, interpreter, or operating system running underneath it. Behind all computer programs there is an intent, and the code is an attempt to capture that intent. In specific cases w...
The most important thing about Web3
December 10, 2021 11:36 - 3 minutes - 3.67 MBMost important to me? The potential for web3 and a digital wallet (browser or otherwise, but probably browser to begin with) to be used as a replacement for OAuth or other identification systems. No more "log in with Google/Facebook/Twitter". Instead, I can have accounts on many platforms and servers where IAM is handled using my decentralized controlled-only-by-me (if I'm careful with my keys) identity. Some people may take a very reductionist view would be to consider your identity as "d...
The marketing dilemma of Ethereum
December 09, 2021 08:05 - 2 minutes - 2.27 MBSmart contract projects that want to use the Ethereum system have a well-known problem. Ethereum has all the brand recognition, but it costs a fortune to use. Layer 2 solutions such as Polygon or Binance Smart Chain are a lot cheaper, have the same functionality, but involve awkward contortions to move people from the main network onto them. And the clunky bridges that exist between Ethereum and the other chains aren't getting any easier to use. What's a DeFi or NFT project to do?
Trust and Blockchain
December 08, 2021 11:37 - 4 minutes - 4.32 MBTrust. Such a short simple word. Well, it's short. Not so simple. The problem with the word trust is that it has different meaning in different contexts. And no more so than in security, cryptography, and by association, blockchain. In this episode, I talk a bit about what people mean when they describe blockchain as "building or engendering trust", and at the same time describe it as moving towards a "trust-less system". I trust that at the end of the episode you will have a better unde...
Three categories of gaming blockchain projects
December 05, 2021 18:54 - 3 minutes - 2.84 MBAnd why two of them are a waste of time. Three years ago I recorded a video where I talked about the gaming token projects built on blockchain that I've looked at over the last few weeks. In the end, there was even enough material there for an article (to be found here: https://lnkd.in/eScHejs ), but if you prefer a guy talking in the freezing cold about it instead of reading, then all the key stuff can be heard here. Summary: these days a blockchain token needs to offer more than just d...
The MonoX hack explained in simple terms
December 03, 2021 23:03 - 6 minutes - 5.89 MBHave you ever lost 31 million dollars because you didn't think someone would do something both stupid and brilliant? That's what happened to the DeFi protocol MonoX a couple of days ago. In this video I explain, through the use of an analogy (that anyone who has ever bought a bag of potatoes can understand, or indeed Samson Williams) how an eight figure sum was lost to a hacker who thought like a test engineer rather than a software developer. DeFi - it's the gift that keeps on giving. U...
Has someone already invented your idea?
December 01, 2021 22:58 - 3 minutes - 3 MBIf you've invented something and are looking to get a patent, one of the costs you'll be looking at is the "prior art search". That's patent speak for "find if something has been made public that describes your invention". Professional patent searches cost money. And if you're a pro se inventor (an inventor prosecuting your own patent application), then it's a cost I think you can avoid. In this episode I explain why.
A Day in the Life of a Cro-Magnon Inventor
November 25, 2021 08:26 - 2 minutes - 1.97 MBI am told that storytelling is often a better way to get your point across than explaining, especially when the story is authentic and comes from personal experience. So here is such a story.
NFTs explained: for artists and creators
November 20, 2021 18:26 - 7 minutes - 6.92 MBSometimes it's best to explain things backwards. Perhaps this is one of those times. In this episode, I work backwards from the artwork through the metadata to what an NFT actually is, in order to help "content creators" (shudder - why can't we call them artists, composers, writers, and so on). And in particular, why the NFT is not the art, but rather a pointer to a pointer to the art.
What is the metaverse?
November 17, 2021 09:07 - 7 minutes - 6.82 MBSamson - you need to watch this one: https://youtu.be/kqtfPSP-f0k In this episode, I talk about the metaverse. Oh, the metaverse. It's a hot topic, yet no one seems to really know what it is. Perhaps it's a hot topic because no one knows what it is? The problem I have with the definitions I see flying about is that they focus on "immersiveness". But imersiveness isn't new. A good book is immersive. A story well-told is immersive. Neither is the concept of a "collective online virtual e...
The Magic Picture Frame Factory
November 15, 2021 11:51 - 10 minutes - 10.1 MBIn this episode, I present an analogy for NFTs, which explains how they work and what the significance of various steps in the production and sale of NFTs actually is. It will also help you to understand why an NFT isn't a piece of art (just a pointer), and how easy it is to make an NFT look like it was produced by someone else if the website used to display it lies (or if we're being charitable, presents information in a slap-dash manner).
OpenSea and the CryptoPhunks
November 14, 2021 21:33 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBYou read that correctly - CryptoPhunks with a PH, not CryptoPunks, the iconic NFTs selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the last day, OpenSea has had another public relations nightmare. Due to an oversight on their part, forty NFTs were sold at well-below market prices. In this video I go through the timeline, covering the history of CryptoPunks and CryptoPhunks, copyright scuffles using DMCA takedowns, and the mistake made by OpenSea, which I explain in a non-technical manner....
Are NFTs disappearing?
November 14, 2021 11:10 - 3 minutes - 3.33 MBIf a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Yes, but the sound has no meaning. These days you'll find articles and reports that alarmingly imply that NFTs are disappearing. I give some examples at the end of this text. The thing is, the NFTs aren't disappearing. The files they point to are, and that is very different. NFTs are immutable (if the contract has been set up correctly) and persistent (as long as the blockchain they are on continues ...
A Simple NFT Primer
November 11, 2021 10:14 - 15 minutes - 14.7 MBAre you confused by NFTs? Have an idea for an NFT project, only to have it dismissed by the software developer you talk to? In this episode, I present a short talk that explains the mechanics of NFTs in a manner that can be understood by anyone who has used a spreadsheet, or kept a list on a piece of paper for that matter. This video will help you: 🤑 Understand what you are buying when you purchase an NFT 👍 Determine where they might be useful 🚫 Filter out pointless projects. Th...
Renting NFTs
November 09, 2021 22:47 - 4 minutes - 3.93 MBWhy would someone want to rent an NFT? And if they did, how could such a borrowing and lending service be provided? In this episode, I discuss these questions, and look at how one protocol, reNFT, has solved this problem, and what weaknesses their solution contains.
Strange behavior on the Ropsten chat channel
November 06, 2021 15:36 - 4 minutes - 4.21 MBIf this video title isn't the antithesis of clickbait, then I don't know what is. But the point of this video is wider than just to comment on some quirky behaviour on a geeky chat channel in the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Internet. There's a platform called Gitter, which designed as a place for software developers to go to chat. And there's a channel on that platform for the Ropsten Ethereum test network. Except the people on that platform don't chat. They post ...
IPFS and submarines
November 04, 2021 09:48 - 4 minutes - 4.34 MBThe IPFS has a lot in common with traditional file systems. But the few distinct differences that it has, do not only mean that it is decentralized, they also occasionally pose problems for developers that are not easy to solve. Yet. In this episode I talk about one of those problems, namely "revealing" files over time. Reveals are important in the NFT world in order to prevent people "sniping" sales of particularly rare colletables. It turns out to be a lot trickier than you would think...
IPFS and NFTs
November 03, 2021 17:34 - 2 minutes - 2.52 MBWhat is the connection between the InterPlanetary File System and Non-Fungible Tokens (especially art tokens)? Given the amount of money that has poured into art NFTs, getting those images that the NFT metadata points to up on a server that is unlikely to ever go away has become more and more important. It's probably given more impetus to the adoption of the IPFS than anything else in its history.