For NFTs to become mainstream as opposed to current state of being driven by the crypto rich & speculators, a central authority like OpenSea is inevitable and desirable.
An NFT is a transaction and a URL to a file. It doesn’t tell you if the transaction is “legitimate” or not.
There are at least two common forms of illegitimate NFT transactions that have no fix on the blockchain that have 1. Your wallet is hacked and the NFT is transferred to the hackers wallet. 2. Someone mints an NFT of an image copied from another NFT. Anyone can mint this ape today
Since the blockchain is immutable, there’s no way to reverse transactions. Next best thing for illegitimately transferred NFTs is for marketplaces to refuse to list them. This obviously is easier for the community it’s done centrally versus best effort across many marketplaces.
Counterfeit NFTs can be verified by knowing the wallets of the original BAYC and ensuring their in the transaction chain for an NFT but that’s not a great workflow for a user facing system.
Even Twitter now relies on OpenSea’s verified collection as a seal of approval.
Due to the poor fit of the blockchain’s design for basic commercial transactions, there will always be a need for a layer of abstraction above it. This creates winner-takes-all dynamics as network effects encourage people to standardize on a common set of proprietary abstractions
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People like to talk about the online advertising industry as if it’s a monolith but it’s really two broad industries; push (display/social) and pull (search) based advertising.
There are different types of products and industries which benefit from each type of ad product. If you want to buy a lawn mower, you perform a search and “pull” ads to you about various types.
While browsing feeds an ad for #Moonfall is pushed to you letting you know it exists.
Both types of ads are dependent on tracking but for different reasons. Both types need tracking to be able to tell if you bought the item in the ad you clicked on to both improve ad targeting & charge the advertiser. Amazon is unique because you click ads & buy on their site.
There’s only one product thought leader worth following on Twitter and that’s @shreyas. His framework where PMs tend to focus on one or more of these 3 tracks is extremely insightful
• Execution
• Impact
• Optics
I’d argue this is actually baked into various company cultures
The case study @shreyas describes below is fascinating because from one perspective it’s a success. For the individual PM, they drove a major project at the company then used the clout from that to get a senior job at another company. They also did an excellent job managing up.
On the flip side, one reading of this case study would imply the mistake on the project was not being “differentiated” which is the wrong lesson. The right lesson is focusing on impact by coming up with a goal & metrics for measuring that goal that show directional success.
I’ve been seeing people share a 2 hour long YouTube video criticizing NFTs and I keep wondering where people find the time?
Even if my job required watching that video I’d try to find some way to get out of watching a video about NFTs longer than most feature length movies.
Listening to the video while walking my dogs and this guy desperately needs an editor. The first 10 minutes contains both an unnecessary recap of the housing crisis yet manages to use half a dozen bits of jargon like nodes & mining without context or explanation.
It’s an ordeal.
The video is less information and more indoctrination. I say this as someone who’s fairly skeptical of crypto & NFTs.
That explains why it takes over two hours to explain a topic you should be able to cover in ten minutes.
Many people want to be managers to grow their careers but in reality being a leader is more important in the long run. A leader is someone whose authority is earned and people choose to follow as opposed to someone people have to follow because it’s their job.
Good leaders are…
• focused on the team instead of themselves. Good leaders want to develop others and help them grow. They are ambitious but it’s for the team’s success not just their own career.
• effective and transparent communicators. They also understand listening is part of communicating
• self aware about their strengths and weaknesses. Self awareness is coupled with a growth mindset. Weaknesses aren’t limitations but opportunities to learn.
• respectful to their team and act with personal integrity. They set positive examples of how people should be treated.
The Wall Street Journal article has some good advice on getting a raise.
Compensation is market based not inflation based. You get a raise because people at your skill level are worth more (check levels.fyi ) not because the inflation rate went up x%.
In tech, a meaningful number of companies did one off compensation increases last year because market rates have gone up.
It’s worth exploring and securing job offers outside your current company if you missed the wave last year. You’re likely underpaid. blog.pragmaticengineer.com/off-cycle-comp…
A lot of web3 advocacy became easier for me to understand once I realized most advocates aren’t technologists.
The most ardent advocates are people who treat making money as a signal of value (e.g. VCs, early adopters, grifters, etc) who view the tech as Star Trek technobabble.
I approached web3 from the perspective of how can this create value for a company with millions of users or enhance a product making millions of dollars. And that turns out to be the wrong question.
The right question is how do I turn FOMO into money? That’s the core of crypto.
In contrast, with Web 2.0 it was straightforward to discuss how one enhanced value of a 1M+ user or $1M+ product by adding incorporating JavaScript, inline updates without refreshing and enabling users to create content instead of primarily consuming it.