Also I can see there are very mixed opinions on NFTs within the Pokemon TCG Community.
At one point everyone thought bitcoin was crazy too. There has already been digital collectibles in games such as runescape like partyhats which have had real world value for over a decade. Digital collectibles already existed before Cryptocurrency was created i.e in runescape. It’s a new and beautiful phenomenon and I’m looking forward to the future it holds.
Sure there are some bad eggs who pump and dump but please tell me which market you won’t find these individuals in?
The world is changing - and we need to be open to new concepts and ideas - and sometimes if we dismiss them we end up missing out on great oppurtunities!
I’m probably late to this party, and maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t get is this: If one can hack a crypto transaction server, what is to stop someone from hacking the NFT transaction, and stealing the NFT itself? Just as sitting behind an onion server in Siberia and mis-directing crypto transactions is easier than robbing the wells fargo wagon, commandeering a choice NFT transaction presents a far less risky option than stealing something physical and avoiding the guys with the guns.
By nature you cant really hack a blockchain. There of course are bugs that can be taken advantage of, you can look up the story of Ethereum Classic if you want to learn about that.
Most “hacks” are still just malware or social engineering based.
responding to myself… I s’pose it’s a transfer of risk. Instead of risking that someone can make forgeries as with physical goods, the risk is being traded for an ease of stealing the actual thing (which still isn’t easy, but more enticing because it’s less risky and cheaper).
eesh you’ll have to start wayyy back. Start looking into Byzantine fault tolerance and the Byzantine general’s problem . Seriously though at this point for major blockchains you can just assume that’s more or less impossible. Individuals can very very easily have bad security practices and lose/expose their private keys but nobody will be able to guess or hack them and forcible break in. If you never expose them they will never ever ever get them. This image illustrates it nicely
Yes, social engineering is probably the most reliable attack method right now, but there are lots of flaws in code just waiting to be exploited, and we shouldn’t default to “social engineering”. IDK if you’re in the cybersec field, but we can discuss in DMs if you’d like. =)
Of the cases that I know of involving crypto theft, threat actors were able to get their own malicious servers accepted into blackchain transaction nets. When a transaction came their way, they simply re-directed it to the threat actor. The same is true for any transaction on the internet, just as someone might intercept a letter sent in the mail (though that analogy lacks the nuance needed to explain host-server authentication). There are things in place to protect data on the wire, but it’s never 100% secure.
I’ll tag @primordialaa , here since it’s the same response. Basically, I miss-explained in an effort to be brief: I shouldn’t have said hack the server, I should have said, fool the client. It was not easy, and who knows if another group would succeed, but with the amount of poor coding practices that I see, I would not be so confident that enough hosts properly implement zero-trust models. So, cleverly, they are not hacking anything to do with the blockchain, but simply, as I said penetrating the host network(s). A real-world analogy might be, masquerading as the armored truck.
This absolutely is not a thing and cannot happen. Unless they can forge a signature (they can’t) they cannot redirect a signed message/transaction to them, unless they were the miner… in which case they would need to be colluding with all other miners and defeat BFT.
Social engineering is absolutely the way all of this happens, other than on-chain exploits within smart contracts. Under no circumstances has somebody man in the middle attacked a transaction and “redirected it their way”. This is literally the point of the ‘crypto’ in ‘cryptocurrency’. Please please read up about private keys, signatures, etc. You are absolutely right that you can MIM most packets on the internet and it’s an extremely common practice for other black hat attacks but in this case you’re taking a signed message and you cannot do anything with it unless you can forge the signature. In no way can you take a message that I’ve signed saying “I am sending 5 BTC to Alice” and change it to say “I am sending 5 BTC to Bob” without having control of my private key and sign that tx (in which case you would have access to my entire wallet anyways so it wouldn’t matter)
edit: just reading your edits now, yea cool completely agree re: social engineering / ‘fool the client’. You can hack a UI and get somebody to sign a message doing A when they think they are signing a message doing B and tons of things like that, but you cannot MIM a signed tx and redirect to yourself. Completely get what you’re saying now and yes you can absolutely fool people into doing actions that are harmful to themselves or different than they expect them to and there is no recourse for it. Security of your keys, devices, etc. extremely important in this space
Also, this is a lot of fun! And a cool illustration of the power of blockchains! I wish PSA and grading companies would use blockchain to secure grades, collectibles, etc. The expensive part is in mining, and the mining is irrelevant when you’re not using it as a currency… I think. Sorry, I’m nerding out over math and cryptography.
@xileets digital collectibles (pray), some day they will be more than they are now and there are a lot of cool things that may come along with that! Let’s hope all of the big companies now can do something super unique
Firstly, thanks for the interesting debate and points of view here - I honestly learnt a lot.
I find this space incredibly intellectually interesting. The whole concept of virtual existence, and life lived through avatars on platforms presents so many philosophical questions, and seems closer than I imagined it could be ten years or so ago. Covid has of course accelerated it a lot, but simple things that seem normal like the fact that I’ve not handled physical currency once in 18 months would be alien to older generations.
I’m probably too old/set in my ways already to engage fully, but I can see how for now 16 year olds/the open minded this will become the absolute norm.
I don’t have the capital nor risk appetite to invest in NFTs, and so far have no interest in buying any personally that I’ve seen.
The issue I have is that NFTs are currently almost seen as their own type of pixel art, whereas they could and should be absolutely anything in the art space, and are just a vehicle to convey ownership.
I have no interest in 99% of physical collectibles, but Pokémon cards have strong nostalgia and a history of engagement for me. If TPC minted 39 Pikachu Illustrator ‘cards’ I can see that for those who engage they would be incredibly desirable.
The current content feels like a lot of proof of concepts, and given the natural links to crypto and the challenges in withdrawing without incurring taxes, has just inflated unnaturally.
I’m sure once established entertainment companies engage with customers via NFTs, rather than just pioneers/crypto investors trading almost internally, the level of ‘organic’ interest will be more apparent, and will lose some of the less desirable impressions NFTs give out to some.
Looks like I’m joining the NFT club now lol! I am aware of how speculative and risky it is so have only set aside cash I’m willing to allow to go to zero for it!
Late to the party but I got a SpacePunksClub back when they were .09 ETH and am not very attached to it. Liked the art and was curious about the dino drop. As @primordialaa said for pfp projects it’s way more about the community and people’s commitment to the project. When doing your research it’s a great idea to join the project’s discord and read all the info you can about the project’s roadmap. Right now I’m most active in the discords for The Wanderers, DeadFellaz and DystoPunks. My pfp is Deadfellaz. All those projects have friendly and vibrant communities, art I enjoy and roadmaps I’m personally excited about. When it comes to where I put my limited ETH I’d rather be part of a vibrant and committed community than try to determine from the outside which communities are vibrant and committed. But there are tons of valid ways to approach it and signals to look for if that’s not your style!
Anyone collect the arsham NFTs? He takes advantage of the digital medium and his NFT statues erode/change over time, which is pretty unique. One of his NFTs changes with the seasons. His NFTs seem less like a cash grab as the use of the technology is consistent with the themes of his other pieces.
I just checked it out a bit and it seems like a cool concept and leans heavily into the “pure art” side of things. It would be cool if he made these sculptures in person and made the NFT match its deterioration or something but I feel like its missing a bit of the in person side of things that would make it cooler.
Ex. Tom Sachs Rocket Factory had their first launch this weekend and people actually got to meet other people interested in the project. It also is a bit odd that out of 922 items, only 52 owners are there. Quite a small group if I do say so myself. but overall, lacking utility even if that utility is social currency.
. Seriously though at this point for major blockchains you can just assume that’s more or less impossible. Individuals can very very easily have bad security practices and lose/expose their private keys but nobody will be able to guess or hack them and forcible break in. If you never expose them they will never ever ever get them. This image illustrates it nicely