Ask HN: Where can I educate myself on modern tech trends: blockchains, NFT?

3 points by kalimatas 4 years ago | 5 comments

Hi HN!

I'm web developer (mostly BE) with 13 years of professional experience. While I'm trying to keep up with modern tech, I started to notice that lately I feel a bit like a dinosaur: I don't get all this latest hype about blockchains, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, etc. I hear people build games on top of these technologies and earn a lot of money, but I just don't get it: How, why?

Am I missing out on something big happening? Do you feel the same?

I would like to educate myself more on the topic, and would be nice if you could advise some helpful resources.

PaulHoule 4 years ago |

It's a good thing you don't "understand" it. There isn't anything to understand.

https://mcn.edu/mcn-insights-nfts-are-a-scam/

That is there are two kinds of people: people who have a good head on their shoulders and people who have been hypnotized by FOMO. You are the first kind of person now, don't let FOMO turn you into the second kind of person.

mindcrime 4 years ago | |

NFT's in particular do feel pretty scammy, and crypocurrencies in general are of questionable long-term value, so in that sense I agree with you. But underneath it all, it seems like there are a couple of interesting ideas that it might be worthwhile to understand more about. Blockchains as a form of "decentralized trust" for example, may have limited utility in most situations, but there probably are cases where that approach makes sense. And "smart contracts" seem like something that, if ever perfected, could have utility as well.

That said, I am not advocating anyone run out and invest their life savings (or any money other than what they would take to Vegas on a gambling trip) in crypto / NFT's, etc. :-)

rantallion 4 years ago | | |

> Blockchains as a form of "decentralized trust" for example, may have limited utility in most situations, but there probably are cases where that approach makes sense.

We're just waiting for someone to actually find the problem that blockchain solves.

nth_order 4 years ago | |

It is unfortunate that NFTs have become synonymous with these (sometimes generative) digital art collection certificates. These are overhyped, useless, speculative rubbish, while NFTs in general are neither a useless concept nor a scam. It simply means that a clearly identified object (could be a real life object, like a bike of a bike rental company) is transacted upon, owned by somebody or otherwise subject to programmatic access by smart contracts. I think NFTs become useful the moment they are connected to the real world. This all applies only if you accept that blockchains have legitimate use cases at all, of course.

PaulHoule 4 years ago | | |

Historically people have tried to build decentralized signature systems (say GPG) but they have the problem that you don’t really know who made the key. With a blockchain system I don’t think you have a real answer, but you do have a public database that tracks the history of that key.