Go Go Blockchain! Plus Observations on modern online security

Mid-Spring 2021

How To Blockchain: Algorithms and Examples

Blockchain! Everyone loves it, or misunderstands it, or thinks it will drive business, or something. What is it? How does it really work?

Here's the first thing you need to know:

Blockchain IS NOT Crypto 

OK? Blockchain is NOT money. Blockchain is an algorithm for securing data online. 

So what is the algorithm? How does that work?!

Here's a nice recipe in C++ I found online. He demystifies the algorithm quite nicely.

And another coder did a more fully fleshed out blockchain creation machine, also in C++. And here's a creation machine plus tutorials in Node JS!

Who wants to have a go at translating these into Go, Rust, Java, or whatever language you like? Because I do! Oops, some people already did for Go. And Rust is on the way.

What are NFTs, then? Aren't they blockchains?

NFT, as you know, has been a colossal mess to implement and distribute. I don't know if someone literally sold the Mona Lisa as theirs for a million dollars, but at this point, it's plausible. 

I thought of something similar in the 90s, when it was Napster who was going to destroy the music industry as we know it. Such innocent times! Anyway, I thought that mp3 files should be encrypted with a secret code that is created at the recording studio (multitrack recorders are digital now, aren't they?) and then recorded in the record label's database. 

Instead of building such a thing, I went to an ASCAP convention and chatted about it with some suits.
This went about as well as you'd expect. "WE WILL CRUSH THE PIRATES AND SAVE OUR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY" was the party line, and they towed it.
Not that the guy probably didn't go back to Hollywood with my suggestion in his head.

Learn from my mistakes, kids. Don't talk about your ideas - make them happen. Or someone else will.

Anyway. How to make an NFT using npx. In the context of some grave concerns about the idea. And here's a breakdown on the metadata an NFT carries around with it.

Can we figure out how to install it in, say, an Adobe file? Or Avid, or Blender, or Audacity, or insert open source/one time purchase solution here? There's an even better coding project for you.

So how am I helping here? Um...

I admit I have a weakness in dev work, and that's handling money. Things like Stripe API terrify me, so making a crypto currency, while I'm sure that recipe is out there too, is beyond my confidence level. Working on an operational crypto? I'd rather stab myself in the knees.

As for crypto, I have 0.0002781 bitcoin, or about $14 worth, because my cousin-in-law really felt I should get it. I'm no investor, I've never even played one on TV - but we'll see how this goes.

What's so bad about this stuff, then? Are we just old and afraid of new ideas?

The green concerns worry me - it shouldn't require this much energy globally to make this money. But it does, because mining bitcoins requires ludicrous amounts of power, even if you buy a specially built computer known as a ASIC miner. Which the kids in impoverished nations can't do, so they plug grandma's old PC into the network and burn it 24/7, and the ancient local grid along with it, mining for digital gold.

If you're interested in mining to the point of wanting to buy a ASIC mining computer, consider a solar RV battery to go with it. (They're at Home Depot, or whatever the equivalent for that is in your country. Don't forget the windmill backup!)

Not to mention the usual wealth inequality concerns - can we get Jane and Joe Sixpack or the street kids in my city some crypto? Would it help them with their problems? These are important questions to ask, and they require sober, BS-free answers.

So...anyone wanna buy a blog post? Not cheap, just inexpensive!

;)