frdysk on Farcaster

frdysk pfp

so normie friends asked again, wtf is crypto, how is value created out of thin air, i almost had a meltdown explaining, i realized idk how to articulate it as well as i'd like to think the questions asked are really basic: what is a token? what is a smart contract? what's the difference between bitcoin and ethereum smart contracts? why are there so many type of blockchains? do blockchains use the same type of tech? why do some institutions favor one over others? if we can create our own tokens, why is not everyone doing it? 🤪

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Thomas pfp

@aviationdoctor.eth

I feel like there’s a lot of underlying understanding that we take for granted even in ourselves — I also know what those things are but never had to articulate them, so I don’t necessarily have simple and straightforward explanations that are suitable for normies. It’s a good exercise to force yourself to spell it out though, it helps uncover our own blind spots

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agusti pfp

a token is a smart contract that handles the name or ticker, supply, and holders of such token. when you hold a token on your wallet, you’re actually only holding a private key to a wallet that is linked to the ownershi of such token in their smart contract, which has the value you hold, when you sign another contract or transfer these tokens, you use your private key to tell the smart contract of the token you authorize the transfer.

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na pfp

blockchains are machines that keeps promises the more people keep promises on blockchains, the more reputation they for keeping promises value shouldn't be created from thin air. people misconstrue reputation with hype. don't invest in places where values are said to be created from thin air

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Monteluna pfp

I might have more of a computer sciencecy and physics answer but for me I would only respond that the value is because its just data. You might value a picture of your mother, and I might value a picture of my mother. No one would disagree we value this information, but it is just pure binary digits landing on digital substrates, and we both can subjectively value each item as different. To go further, Google is not valuable because of its real estate. Its valuable because of its data (and data processing capability). As for why blockchains have different values, again, data processing and security of data. Native tokens are just a valuation of future data that could land on a chain. Normie's might not accept that data can have value or should, but I would point them to how in the last 30 years all the top companies transitioned from manufacturing orgs to data orgs, except for Saudi Aramco. The world is digitizing whether people like it or not.

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Cynthia Wang pfp

how would you explain a smart contract to a 12 year old

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0xtom.base.eth 🎩 pfp

0xtom.base.eth 🎩

Show them pump dot fun

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buffets pfp

A good starting point may be to direct the same question about value to fiat money, e.g. how is the value in the money we use created? I think people first need to internalise that the value of fiat money is also a socially-constructed phenomenon. Then get them to question whether there are other money-like things in life that derive their economic value from non-governmental sources. I think airline miles is one very relatable example. The key is to open up their minds to the fact that there are actually a lot of transactable money-like things already in our economy today, with different entities governing how these money-like things can be used. From here, I think it is easier to explain what crypto is, as an alternative money-like "thing", with its own unique properties and governing "entities" thanks to its underlying infrastructure, i.e. the usual things said about blockchains: decentralisation, permissionlessness, immutability, transparency...

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Saxophone55 pfp

@saxophone55.eth

Only cryptocurrencies that everyone believes have value get a price. Even if I create a coin, no one trusts it, so its value is zero 🤣

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Ayan pfp

you have smart normie friends. they are less likely to be scammed based off of their questions

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rileybeans pfp

it is good to be able to answer these questions, especially difficult in person and not replying to a post. imo the more you do it the easier it is to make decisions about building

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Seth pfp

As a normie I appreciate these gems 📝 bookmarked!

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