On Gustav Klimt, Radiohead and Smart Contracts
Feel free to read (especially recommended for those not interested in cryptocurrencies), enjoy, comment and kill. Everything takes. I'll go to bed and see what closes in the morning.
"When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fuckin 'special
But I'm a cryp
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin 'here?
I do not belong here ”
I'll start with what I do not. Crypto Expert. Absolutely not, far from it, I'm even a little confused but I'll still try to make order to other confused, and anyone who has anything to add on the matter or correct me is welcome. Since recently the subject has started to interest me more so I got into it a bit, I will explain later what the trigger was, and I just hope to be able to clarify why I think it's worth getting to know the field. Do not support, do not purchase, do not recommend, but at least acknowledge. Why? I'll start with a story.
Years ago my brother David Levy came home with a request to my parents: Buy me a computer. "Why?" The elders asked and David began with a detailed explanation of why he needed the computer. At the end of the call, my father turned to my mother and told her to buy him a computer. "Why do you think so?" Asked and he replied "because I did not understand anything of what he explained to me". A True Story. The main reason in my opinion that the field needs to be understood is not necessarily because of its implications at the moment but because there is a really good chance that in the not-too-distant future technology will be involved in many more day-to-day fields. Although to us the field of crypto may seem a little strange because we grew up on shekels and dollars, but for the next generation it will be a natural thing. They will grow up with it and not really know a world without cryptocurrencies and with the accompanying technology that are perhaps the most important: blockchain and smart contracts.
So what is a crypto currency? It is a digital or virtual currency which is protected by virtual information security methods based on mathematics and called cryptography. Hence - CRYPTO CURRENCY.
The truth is that the idea is not new. You know him, I'll explain and start with the most basic: a monopoly game. We buy with real money a game that has "unreal" money and through it we buy houses, hotels, etc. We all know that. Now imagine that we have turned Monopoly into a computer game. We purchased the game and it has a computer coin with which we purchase the hotels and computer houses. So far completely normal. It's a virtual currency. Limited to the monopoly game but virtual. In fact almost everyone who has ever played a computer game and bought some token for the game using it to purchase a sword, or an outfit or some character has actually been trading in some kind of digital currency. Whose children are playing Roblox? Although these coins are limited to the areas of the game but what if there were no limits? What if you could use the currency you bought in Roblox on Amazon or Alibaba as well? Suddenly it became kind of something tradable.
The idea with the virtual currencies that exist today is to reach a state where there are no limits and we can use them to perform operations in the "real" world and in fact become something tradable. The intention is not to trade the currencies themselves as is happening today but to exercise a classic trade: replacing the currency with something else. This process has already actually started and there are reputable companies that are willing to accept virtual currencies including Microsoft, PayPal, Wikipedia, Starbucks and more and more and more.
Today, 4 types of virtual currencies are defined:
Currency - These are virtual currencies whose purpose is to serve as an alternative to existing money
2. Assets - which virtual currencies are equal derived from an array of something external such as coins related to the value of some commodity like gold
Currency with a purpose - Which currencies have a defined purpose such as currencies that are related to the decentralization systems of cloud services, or are related to a system that provides some financial service.
4. Joke coins - which coins were created as a joke and do not have a specific purpose.
Did we understand a bit what a virtual currency is? We will continue. We moved to Blockchain. Blockchain is the technology on which this entire system is based. This is a type of Internet Phoenix network on which the actions performed simultaneously are recorded. why is it important? Because if on all those phoenixes all the actions are recorded it is a kind of protection. Imagine that a certain operation was recorded on all the notebooks and someone tried to change the registry, there is no way today to change it on all the notebooks together, i.e. if someone claims that the operation was not performed and even tries to change the registration in some notebook there are copies of the operation in all the controllers Prove that the action was performed. This is called Decentralization or decentralization in Hebrew which is the distribution of powers or roles. In this case dispersal of the ability to record the action. The opposite of decentralization is from concentration or concentration i.e. a situation where all the power or information is concentrated in one place similar to an action done in front of a bank and recorded exclusively in the bank records. There is no copy of the action anywhere else.
How do Crypto and Blockchain connect? The cryptocurrencies are blockchain based ie when I purchase, sell or use the cryptocurrency the action performed is done on a blockchain system, i.e. the action is recorded correspondingly in a large number of “notebooks” and therefore there is no ability to claim that it did not occur. smart.
Well done to those who have survived so far.
We'll move on to the hot thing of 2021: NFT. The meaning of the term NFT is None Fungible Asset which in translation to our mother tongue - an irreplaceable asset or a unique asset. What does that mean? Take a dollar bill, it's not a unique asset. Does it really matter to me which bill I received? No. They are all actually the same and of the same value. Take Klimt's painting "The Kiss" instead. It is a unique property and there is no other like it. Not only unique, it is also beautiful. So beautiful that I have a copy hanging in my bedroom.
When we hear the term NFT immediately jumps into our heads to the connotation of all sorts of crazy guys who invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in buying some virtual image of a monkey. A cool and cool monkey, but a monkey. It sounds delusional and privileged to us, and I understand why. Not only do I understand, in many cases I also agree that this is also true, but NFT is much more than that and that's why I think it's worth understanding what's behind it for three main reasons:
1. The virtual world is becoming part of the reality in which we live.
2. You do not necessarily understand what it means to buy a virtual monkey.
3. This story can have much broader implications.
I will try to explain.
When we talk about NFT we are referring today to virtual things: monkeys, art, images. That means someone is purchasing some digital asset that exists on the computer, like a digital entity that we are all familiar with, and is its owner. The essence of NFT is the ownership of the property. The claim of “Why buy? I can keep a copy on my computer ”is irrelevant. It's true that you can keep a copy. But it's a copy. I am the proud owner of a copy of “The Kiss”. Is it the same as owning the original image? I do not feel that way… ..
If I own the property I enjoy a number of benefits:
1. The right to brag Bragging Rights - an American term that indicates my right to brag that I own. It is important.
2. We meet today at Zoom and VR technology already exists. It is not difficult to imagine a combination of the two in which we meet in some virtual office. And if we have a meeting in the office, do not we want an impressive and original picture to hang on it? pleasing. And there are really beautiful ones. Do Google for Misshattan's Infinite and we'll see you convince me it's not impressive.
Some of these NFTs have additional horns, for example exclusive meetings of the owners of those NFT's. Their purchase provides a ticket or token entry to some exclusive club. This too is by the way not a new idea. Admission to some prestigious golf club has been the desire of men for generations in the United States. "Americans" you probably think of you, but even in Israel there are clubs like that. Do not believe me? Do Google "Commercial and Industrial Club".
Examples of? NFT horns I've heard of one that has a kind of conference call for rich guys. From a kind of mentoring and networking on the phone. Gary V is about to set up a real restaurant in New York that only its NFT owners will have access to. 3000 people who have a lot of money and connections will eat there. Think about who you would meet and where it could lead if you could stick some pastrami sandwiches there. Now consider whether it was worth buying the monkey or not.
So we had a virtual currency and a blockchain and now we'll connect them to NFT. All digital property purchases are made using virtual currency and all action and ownership will be recorded on a blockchain network so that ownership is unassailable. A kind of virtual taboo for virtual assets.
The last part of the puzzle is how we even manage this whole story of buying and selling and so on. Here we come to the wider implications of the field. Here we come to the part where we talk about the middle ground. Smart contracts are digital agreements written as code on the blockchain system that define the terms of the transaction similar to the regular contract. The domain also has a concept: Code Is Law. What is written in the contract is the law and that is what will happen. How do you make it so that what has been agreed is what will happen? The smart contract not only defines the terms of the agreement but also implements them and that is its genius and importance. Open longs, I will give an example:
Let's imagine that I am selling you the copy of my "kiss" and in the regular contract on a sheet of paper written that if you sell it in the future at a profit I will get 10% of it. A year passes and you sold at a profit, how do I monitor it? It is not clear. Even if I was able to monitor you now have to write me a check or make a bank transfer of my parts in the transaction. On the other hand, if I sell you the digital image digitally by using a smart contract (which will henceforth be "tied" to the image), when you sell the image at a profit the contract will automatically set aside my parts and send it to me before the funds even reach you. Of course all payment in this form is made with the help of cryptocurrencies and registered on the blockchain.
In fact I can sell you the physical copy as well. All that is needed is to be written in the contract that whoever holds the digital copy has the right to appear at my house and take the physical one. Hopefully this will not happen.
Such a method of work in which technology "enforces" the terms of the agreement is of course very cost-effective and efficient. Requires less supervision, less lawyers, less headache.
So how does this relate to us real estate people? I will give three or four examples:
Let's start with real estate agents who rent apartments. It is usually written in the contract that if the tenant they brought in extends the contract in the future the agent will receive an additional commission. There is almost no way around it. On the other hand if the whole thing was conducted with the help of a smart contract as soon as the tenant would sign the extension of the lease the system would send the agent the commission due to him.
Think of taboos or title companies whose purpose is to find out who owns them. Think of a world where owning a property is recorded in a blockchain instead of a taboo and you don't have to run a title for a week but check on a computer, which almost anyone can. Everything will appear there: who owns it, has Lynn or not, and no one will be able to argue that this is not true. It's registered with everyone and can not be faked, at least as of today.
More? Think of a property whose management is done with the help of a smart contract. The tenants pay the rent, the system automatically sends the payment of taxes to the city, water to the municipality, a pre-defined management fee to the management company, the cost of repair to the plumber and the difference to the property owner. And everything is available for viewing without human hand contact to all parties. There are no misunderstandings. I know some property owners that it will add them some good years to life.
Investing through an entrepreneur and waiting for the end of the quarter to distribute the profits? The contract, after paying all the transaction expenses automatically, will calculate your share of the profit and send it to you. Savings to the entrepreneur tons of work and investors gave confidence that the funds are managed according to what was agreed in advance.
I will already say that especially in the field of real estate and other areas where government regulation is high, the whole field of crypto and blockchain has a lot more to work on. There are many more regulatory and mental hurdles to cross, and we are not there yet, so if you are offered to invest in such a way, it is worth understanding well the pros and cons, and right now, probably in US real estate, there are many disadvantages and questions without a clear answer. This is my opinion, no obligation to agree.
When I heard about smart contracts it was a trigger for me to understand the field. This was the link I was missing in the field of crypto and blockchain. It's an amazing field and so usable and logical that I do not think it goes somewhere but the opposite. I believe that as a system learns to deal with technology and ideas they will take root into day to day life and we will reach a point where smart contracts, blockchain and cryptocurrencies will be an integral part of our lives. How can this help you personally in your life or your field of practice? It is already a matter for you to meditate on it.
Good luck to all of us.
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