The federal government determines how the radio spectrum is used and who can use it. Turns out, renting out the spectrum to private companies is a billion-dollar business. The spectrum business goes to the highest bidder. But what problems does that pose in the long run? Google engineer Andrew Clegg discusses this and more with Dr. Robert J. Marks and Read More ›
In this first part of “Staking and Liquidity on Web3”, the fifth episode of the podcast series between computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks and engineers Austin Egbert and Adam Goad, look at upcoming changes in mining — how cryptocurrency is produced. In Episode 4, the discussion centered on what a decentralized crypto financial system would look like and on challenging new concepts like flash loans and smart contracts. Dr. Marks is the director of the Walter Bradley Center. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-203-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 A partial transcript, notes, and Additional Resources follow. Robert J. Marks: Like gold, cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Ethereum is mined, at least so far. Mining becomes harder and harder as more gold is mined… finding fresh gold deposits becomes more Read More ›
Like gold, cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin is mined. Gold becomes harder and harder to find as it is mined. In the same way, as the supply of a cryptocurrency increases, computers have to solve harder and harder problems to be awarded cryptocurrency. Staking is a is a new approach that replaces mining and reduce costs. How does it work? Adam Read More ›
Could blockchain could decentralize finance by establishing trust and security without government regulations? In “What Is Decentralized Finance?” (September 1, 2022), computer engineers Adam Goad and Austin Egbert are back with Walter Bradley Center director (and computer engineering prof) Robert J. Marks to discuss how such a system might work. Or maybe not. It didn’t work with decentralized autonomous organizations… But then again, this might be simpler. A partial transcript, notes, and Additional Resources for the first half follow. What difference would decentralized banking make to the average customer? Robert J. Marks: When you pay Uber for a ride, you use a bank or a third party like PayPal, or Visa, or MasterCard, or something. Decentralized banking, hopefully, will let Read More ›
When you pay Uber for a ride, or anybody else, you use a bank or a third party like PayPal. What if you could pay the Uber driver directly? Decentralized finance uses blockchain to establish trust and security without government regulations. Is decentralized finance the way of the future? Adam Goad, Dr. Austin Egbert, and Dr. Robert J. Marks discuss Read More ›
Here’s the second part of Episode 3 of the discussion between computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks and computer engineering grad students Adam Goad and Austin Egber on the wild new online world. They’ve been talking about non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and what sort of NFTs survived the crypto crater: Now, in the second part of “The NFT Anti-bubble” (August 18, 2022), they look at what happened to the decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that grew up along with crypto and NFTs: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-200-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 A partial transcript, notes, and Additional Resources follow. Austin Egbert: Could you give an example of what one of these DAOs was maybe trying to do? What service were they providing? Or what was their business output, so to Read More ›
Here’s the first part of Episode 3 of the discussion between computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks and computer engineering grad students Adam Goad and Austin Egbert on that wild new online world. They’ve been discussing what gives NFTs (non-fungible tokens) their value. Now, in “The NFT Anti-bubble” (August 18, 2022), they are looking at how NFTs are faring in the vast crypto crater. What still sells?: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-200-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 This portion begins at 00:15 min. A partial transcript, notes, and Additional Resources follow. Robert J. Marks: We have talked about non-fungible tokens kind of hitting the skids. Is this a bubble pop? Are non-fungible tokens going to disappear as kind of an interesting thing in history? Or are they going to Read More ›
Here’s the second part of Episode 2 of the discussion between computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks and computer engineering grad students Adam Goad and Austin Egbert on the wild new online world of digital money, fan gear, contracts, and art. In the first part, Adam and Austin explained how digital collectibles — non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — work (or don’t). In this second part, What are NFTs?, they look at how people use them, with a sidestep into the swashbuckling world of crypto crime: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Mind-Matters-199-Adam-Goad-Austin-Egbert.mp3 A partial transcript, notes, and Additional Resources follow. The discussion continued with the NBA’s use of NFTs as the new “trading cards.” How are NFTs like or unlike the iconic cards? Adam Goad: That one Read More ›
In the first part of this week’s podcast, “Web3: The next generation of the internet” (August 4, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks talked with graduate student Adam Goad about Web3, the coming internet of more privacy on the one hand and a metaverse of avatars on the other. So, only as wild as you want it to be, maybe. Now, postdoc Austin Egbert joins the discussion as they continue with how, at worst, Web3 could be a bit like sci-fi film Ready Player One. (2018). Note: Re the metaverse, this week’s news reveals that Facebook executives are deserting Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse in droves: “ … recent retreats point to deeper turmoil inside Meta. Some suggest it lies Read More ›