BlockchainGandalf

The 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?

By 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...

Airdrops 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 c...

I 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...

Why 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...

We 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...

What 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 addre...

I 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 progra...

Most 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) id...

Smart 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 t...

Trust. 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 towar...

And 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 k...

Have 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...

If 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 e...

I 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.

Sometimes 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.

Samson - 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...

In 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,...

You 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 usi...

If 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 contrac...

Are 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...

Why 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.

If 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 pl...

The 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" sa...

What 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.