CODES OF CHANGES

THERE IS A DIGITAL ASSETS REVOLUTION GOING ON—FROM DECENTRALISED FINANCE TO NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS AND THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF THE METAVERSE—AND IT IS REMAKING THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

- VAISAKH E. HARI

The virtual world looks much like the real world now. There are gardens, streets, art galleries, cafes, skyscrapers and dog parks in a 3D system. In addition, the entire system is decentralised; you can vote (which will carry a weight proportional to your investment) on the rules that will govern your world. Four years ago, parcels of land in the city were sold for as low as $17. By 2021, the prices were in six figures. Welcome to the ‘metaverse’ of Decentraland, available on the Ethereum blockchain.

Have you ever fancied collecting era-defining artworks, a Monet or a Pollock? Now, for as little as $1, you can earn fractional ownership of highly sought-after digital artworks like the legendary Shiba Inu ‘doge’ meme (valued at around $175 million), or the modern absurdist pieces like ‘The Last Shawarma’ (valuation of six figures), which recreates ‘The Last Supper’ with characters from Marvel’s Avengers series.

All of these are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a digital assets revolution going on—from decentralised finance (DeFi) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the evolving concept of the metaverse—and its proponents say it will remake the world as we know it.

The anatomy of cryptocurrencies

It all started in October 2008, with the release of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which was 3,000 lines of C++ code compiled by a programmer called Satoshi Nakamoto (most likely a pseudonym, and could be a group of people). In Nakamoto’s peer-to-peer currency paper that introduced Bitcoin to the world, a specific kind of decentralised ledger technology (DLT), called blockchain, was also introduced.