Cryptocollectibles, Ownership, and Scarcity

Cryptocollectibles, Ownership, and Scarcity

Key Learning Objectives:

Understand the historical evolution of collectibles and the emergence of digital collectibles.

Understand how blockchain technology is reshaping the concept of digital ownership.

Gain insight into the role of smart contracts in ensuring trust and transparency.

Explore the concept of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their application in cryptocollectibles.

Become familiar with the Cryptograph project, including its purpose, how it works, and its sustainable philanthropic model.

Master innovative pricing mechanisms such as GBM auctions and GBM perpetual bidding system.

Understand the technical choices and implementation details of the Cryptograph ecosystem, including upgradeable smart contracts.

Learning Materials:

Focus on the following sections:

Digital Collectibles, Ownership, and Scarcity (Part I)

Cryptograph (Part II)

Collectibles Pricing and Trading Systems (Part III)

Technology Choices and Implementation (Part IV)

Self-Upgrading Smart Contracts (Excerpt)

What is Ethereum Gas? (Excerpt)

Test Questions

What are the advantages of digital collectibles over physical collectibles?

How does blockchain technology solve the ownership and scarcity issues of traditional digital collectibles?

What are NFTs? Why are they so important for crypto collectibles?

What is the purpose of the Cryptograph project?

How does Cryptograph's sustainable philanthropy model work?

Explain the concept of GBM auctions and how they work.

What are the advantages of GBM auctions compared to traditional auctions?

What is the GBM perpetual bidding system? How does it work?

How do Cryptograph smart contracts ensure their permanence and security?

Why did the Cryptograph project choose the Ethereum blockchain?

Answer

Digital collectibles are theoretically indestructible or lost, and ownership transfers can be completed instantly across borders.

Blockchain verifies ownership and scarcity in a decentralized manner, without the need for a trusted third party, and provides a public and transparent record of all transactions.

NFTs are unique digital tokens that are non-interchangeable and indivisible. They are essential for crypto collectibles because they are able to represent unique digital assets and ensure their scarcity and ownership.

The Cryptograph project aims to raise funds and awareness for creators and their chosen charities, and leave a lasting digital legacy for the world.

Cryptograph's charitable model allocates a portion of the proceeds from each sale and transaction to a charity of the creator's choice, creating a sustainable source of charitable income.

GBM auctions are limited-time, open ascending auctions with incentives. Participants bid publicly, each new bid must be higher than the current bid, and bidders who are outbid receive incentives.

GBM auctions encourage more aggressive bidding by rewarding participants for price discovery, which can lead to higher final sales prices.

GBM perpetual bidding system is a continuous bidding system where buyers can bid and withdraw bids at any time, and sellers can accept the current highest bid at any time. Incentive mechanisms encourage aggressive bidding and prevent black market transactions.

Cryptograph smart contracts achieve their permanence and security by utilizing a proxy model, decentralized governance, and redundant storage mechanisms, allowing upgrades, preventing loss, and ensuring the availability of media.

The Ethereum blockchain was selected for its extensive smart contract capabilities, low transaction fees, large user base, and active developer community.

Paper title

Discuss the impact of blockchain technology on the concept of digital ownership.

Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of traditional collectibles and crypto-collectibles.

Analyze the effectiveness of GBM Auction and GBM Perpetual Bidding System as innovative pricing mechanisms.

Evaluate the potential and limitations of Cryptograph project for philanthropy and digital legacy.

Explore the future of smart contracts and their potential applications in different industries.

Key Terms

Crypto-collectibles: unique digital assets stored on a blockchain with guaranteed ownership and scarcity.

Blockchain: a decentralized and tamper-proof digital ledger that records transactions in chronological order.

Smart Contracts: self-executing contracts that run on a blockchain.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs): non-interchangeable and indivisible tokens that represent unique assets.

Ethereum: a decentralized blockchain platform that supports smart contracts and the cryptocurrency Ether.

GBM Auction: an auction system with incentives developed by Gonnaud, Bessire, and McDonaugh.

Perpetual Bidding: a continuous bidding system where buyers and sellers can bid and accept bids at any time.

Agent Pattern: a software design pattern in which one object (agent) controls access to another object (target).

Decentralized governance: Decision-making power is distributed among multiple participants in the network, rather than concentrated in a single entity.

Decentralized Web (Web3): A future version of the Internet based on blockchain technology that emphasizes decentralization and user ownership.