Thread by @interstar

@AlSweigart Define fan. I think blockchains are "interesting". They're a real thing and they aren't going away just because we don't like them. So we need to take what opportunities we can to try to steer them in a better direction. \1

@AlSweigart For the right-wing libertarians, blockchains offer the fantasy of capital unleashed from its last dependencies on the democratic state. Which will be a terrible thing if it comes to pass.

OTOH ... \2

@AlSweigart Blockchains could do the opposite. Allow us to automate the boring stuff of the entire financial sector out of existence. Banks, hedge-funds etc. can be replaced by scripts. And investment take place by frictionless P2P crowdfunding. \3

@AlSweigart The claim that capital is "useful" is nothing more than the claim that it does important information routing and processing work. If that's true, an infrastructure that can turn that routing / processing into an invisible / commoditised network infrastructure layer ... \4

@AlSweigart And replace capital altogether, seems to me to be an opportunity that shouldn't be lightly dismissed.

NFTs are a) a bubble, b) terrible in the sense of promoting the idea that scarcity is valuable.

But if they can bring more people to think about blockchains ... \5

@AlSweigart Particularly people who aren't normally interested in money and finance, to want to engage and help shape the direction that blockchains evolve in, then I think that's a good thing.

For example ... \6

@AlSweigart NFTs on hic-et-nunc are bringing Tezos a lot of attention and excitement. Tezos is already a proof-of-stake blockchain which doesn't have the same energy requirements that proof-of-work blockchains do. \7

@AlSweigart In principle, the energy / environmental requirements of the Tezos blockchain are similar to any other internet infrastructure. Not the exponential growth that's hardwired into BitCoin and other POW chains. \8

@AlSweigart I'm all for NFTs if this moment switches people over from the extremely energy costly BitCoin to starting to think about and use Tezos, because they saw a bunch of their favourite artists selling stuff on hic-et-nunc.

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