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How to Explain Blockchain to Your Mother
Have you ever tried to explain Blockchain or Web3 to your mother or maybe your Uncle Ned? During the explanation did they give you a blank stare?
If it was your Uncle Ned, it was probably followed by some kind of a rant…
“There’s nothing there – it’s not a real commodity like corn or wheat or fatback”
I don’t know what fatback is- I don’t think that’s an actual commodity.
You might think, ‘why aren’t they getting this? It isn’t that hard.’ And yet for them, it sounds like you’re speaking a different Language.
You can see it in their eyes; they fade off into slumberland at the words cryptographic hash. Well, I have found a way to hold the fade at bay. A method that allows people to grasp the basics and in many cases become avid supporters of Web3 technology.
The following is an example of how some of these conversations go. I’m using my mother as a guinea pig in this example. On a side note, my mother is not from England, however, she is quite proper and very hospitable. So in my head she is always speaking in a proper RP English accent (Received Pronunciation – Queen’s English). As you read this, if you could try and imagine the same, that would be lovely.
“OK Mom, you have Facebook, right?”
“Well of course. You know that I’m always giving a thumbs up to all your posts, Deary.”
“Where does Facebook live?”
“Oh my – yes, on the computer. No, wait. It lives on the Interweb, Dear.”
“Close enough for Jazz, Mom.”
“Facebook is an application that a lot of people – over a billion – interact with online (the interweb). The actual program is housed on thousands of servers in massive buildings called server farms. Servers are big computers. Those servers are managed by some really smart technicians. People who make sure the servers stay nice and cool (because computers don’t work well if they get too hot). They also make sure they are upgraded with the latest tech on a regular basis. In a way it is like maintaining your car with a mechanic. The technician is sort of like your mechanic.
These servers allow Facebook to operate on individual devices around the world and function at its best while they steal all your information. I’m kidding? At the tip of the Facebook pyramid is a guy named Mark Zuckerberg.”
“Oh right, the guy who makes and sells the jams and jellies. Is that how Facebook makes its money?”
“Nope. Different guy. There are several ways that Facebook makes money. They make money when people buy shares in the company, through ad revenue and (if rumors are true) when they sell your personal information. And where does that money go? Into the pockets of Mark Zuckerberg (and the shareholders).
Like a server farm, a blockchain is also made up of many servers or computers as well. However, those computers are not all in one place. They are spread out all around the world. Some Blockchains utilize programming called Smart Contracts. Some of the blockchains using smart contract technology are Etherium, EOS, the UX Network, WAX and Telos. Unlike the server farms where Facebook lives, blockchains (also called Decentralized Ledger Technology or DLT) is a decentralized system of servers (or nodes) that are all linked together in a virtual chain. Smart Contracts give guidelines on how each node communicates with each other. Every time a change is made to any application using the blockchain, that change is recorded as a block of information. That block of information is then verified and recorded by all the nodes who are part of the chain.
If there was an app like FaceBook on a blockchain and you used that app and “liked” a post I made, that “like” would be verified and confirmed by all nodes around the world who are a part of that chain.
There are technicians who maintain those nodes. Some blockchains call them Miners, some call them Node Operators and some call them Validators, but they are all a type of Block Producer. Block Producers (the technicians) make sure the applications and information that is stored on the chain is protected, verified and passed onto the other Block Producers. They also make sure those servers stay cool and are upgraded with the very latest tech.
What’s interesting about a blockchain like Telos is that the tech that runs and links them all together is really cutting edge – very fast, and extremely Green, with almost no carbon footprint. Unlike a lot of other blockchains it’s powerful enough that you can house a ton of decentralized applications (sometimes called dApps) and manage tons of transactions per second. In other words a decentralized version of Facebook or YouTube could utilize a chain like Telos.
By the way, “tons” is a figure of speech. Applications don’t really weigh anything.
If you decided to put money towards a blockchain like Telos that money wouldn’t be going into the pockets of someone like Mark Zuckerberg. It would be going back into the blockchain’s ecosystem.
You are actually buying space on the blockchain that you could use for your own application, or you could rent it to someone who has an application (there are smart contracts that manage the rental for you. You can also hold onto it until the value of the space you own goes up significantly. It’s like owning land.
In addition, if you acquire a token (own land) on Telos, EOS, UX or a similar chain, you also get to participate in the governance of that blockchain because you are a landowner. You get to vote on who the Block Producers are and what other opportunities the blockchain will support.
The value of a blockchain like that can continue to go up as more people build applications on those servers because the value of the “land” goes up with demand.”
***
That’s how I usually explain blockchain tech. It’s a pretty simple approach. I get some questions but they are usually pretty basic and easy to answer. Afterward people will have a good (basic) understanding of what blockchain is and why they might want to get involved.
Hopefully, what you have read today will be helpful in the future as you talk about blockchain and Web3 with your mom or anyone else you think might benefit from a simple explanation.
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GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance (decidevoter.app) and Decentralized Cloud Storage (dstor.cloud). Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the EOSIO codebase.
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media:
Website: https://goodblock.io/
Twitter: @goodblockio
Medium: https://medium.com/goodblock-io
Telegram: t.me/goodblocktls -
Antelope.io Announced at Last!
Antelope.io Announced at Last
In this episode of Around the Block, join Douglas, Erika, Leah, and special guest Daniel Keyes from EOS Nation and Pomelo. They’ll tell you all about the newly-named Antelope codebase. And you’ll hear about all the latest from Pomelo too!
LINKS:
Follow Daniel on Twitter
Follow Pomelo on Twitter
EOS Nation
Check out Pomelo
About Public Goods
Learn more about Quadratic Funding
All about Antelope
Antelope Press Release
Antelope Announcement with DouglasCrypto BS:
Chasing Down Tornado Cash On Tornado Cash Sanctions
More on dev arrestSpecial thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video, vote for their BP, @Telos Culture on the Telos Network!
GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
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GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
Hacks, Vulnerabilities, and Scams, Oh My!
Hacks, Scams, and Vulnerabilities
In this episode of Around the Block, join Douglas, Nathaniel, Sean, and special guest Jesse Schulman! They’ll tell you all about what the difference is between a hack, a vulnerability, and a scam in the Web 3 world. And you’ll get the lowdown on sTLOS too!
LINKS:
Bridge hacks since January
Recent Solana vulnerability
Ripple opens new office in SEC HQ
The IRS is the real lottery winner
Star Wars salaries
Nancy Pelosi in TaiwanSpecial thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video, vote for their BP, TelosCulture on the Telos Network!
GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
***
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
What in the World is a Security Anyway?
What in the World is a Security Anyway?
What’s a Security and why should you care? Are cryptos securities? Today we explore these questions and more on Around the Block with GoodBlock.
From the SEC overreach to crypto scams, a lot is happening in the world of securities these days and in this episode we’ll dive more into recent news.
LINKS:
Mojang bans NFT integrations on Minecraft, for silly reasons
Amend Proposal Feature – sTLOS: EVM Single Asset StakingDownload the Decide Voter app at decidevoter.app to vote on proposals, ballots, BPs and more, built by GoodBlock and TheTelosCrew.
Need the web-based version? See all active proposals at https://app.telos.net/trails/ballots
What’s a Security and why is it important?
https://protos.com/former-sec-director-hinman-made-millions-from-a-pro-ethereum-firm-during-tenure/https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-must-surrender-hinman-email-003323079.html
“Block Stuff” of the week
Binance sues to acquire an old domain
Helium hotspot nodes a flop?Special thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video, vote for their BP, telosculture on the Telos Network!
GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
***
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
Get to Know GoodBlock
July 24, 2022
We have a jam-packed episode for you today on Around the Block with GoodBlock. On today’s video, we introduce you to the whole GoodBlock team, and give you a chance to get to know us a little better. Hear from CJ, Will, Leah, Douglas, Nathaniel, Sean & Erika.
Then, we’ll hear from the team who proposed the Pomelo Community Initiative on Telos Works (the ‘Meta-Public-Goods Proposal’), which has now passed with flying colors, approving funds to help onboard Telos projects to Pomelo Season 3. Lliam from Telos Culture teaches us a bit about quadratic funding, and the ways it can fundamentally change public goods funding.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome to Around The Block with Goodblock!
01:01 Proposal Feature – Pomelo Season 3 on Telos Works09:00 Moss’ Market Minute #NFA #DYOR
11:00 Get to Know GoodBlock
30:30 Crypto BSSpecial thanks to the team at Telos Culture for producing this video, vote for their BP, telosculture on the Telos Network!
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
***
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
Where are the Women in Blockchain?
Where are the Women in Blockchain?
This week, the ladies of GoodBlock chat about the new Lummis Gillibrand bill, and ponder the question: “Where are the women in blockchain?” CJ Walters, Leah Petersen and Erika Elder host for you on this week’s episode of Around the Block with GoodBlock.
First they discuss the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (TLDR) and its implications to projects in the Web3.0 space.
CoinTelegraph: ‘US crypto regulation bill aims to bring greater clarity to DAOs’Then we get to the meat and potatoes – where are the women in blockchain? The Female Quotient has some ideas and the ladies discuss their own as well.
Finally they dig into some light ‘Block Stuff’ and dive into January Walker’s Tweet about recording government spending on-chain.
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
***
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
Surviving the Crypto Winter
Surviving the Crypto Winter
The crypto winter might have many in the Web3 space feeling uncertain and downtrodden. In this episode of Around the Block with GoodBlock, team members CJ, Nathaniel, and Douglas discuss how to survive crypto winter, the Voyager bankruptcy, and some wacky crypto news.
Links:
“Staying Afloat in the Crypto Bear Market”
“India’s Day of Reckoning with ‘Most Controversial Crypto Tax’ is here”GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.
***
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | Medium | Telegram -
GoodBlock Goes to Davos
In May of 2022, GoodBlock’s Douglas Horn and Erika Elder set out to introduce Telos to the elite movers and shakers at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland.
Each day we received updates on their trip, the connections they made and the things they learned. You can follow along and see what they did in this series of short videos.
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Astronaut Scott Kelly is Minting NFTs for a Very different Reason
When people outside the blockchain space talk about NFTs it’s usually in a less favorable light. Often bringing up the excessive energy consumption that occurs on the Ethereum (or a similar) blockchain or the lack of practical application in regard to the technology. Sometimes people are just parroting their favorite late night talk show host or some other equally uninformed online source.
There are some incredible practical applications coming to the NFT space that we will be discussing (and showing) in the future. At the same time, NFTs created as a piece of art continue to demonstrate incredible value. In all artistic spaces there are people who produce art strictly for commercial reasons. And then there are those who create art because they are passionate about the message or the story that they are sharing through their art. Scott Kelly is one of those types of artists… and more.
Kelly is many things. He’s a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. Kelly also commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions. In October 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space and the single longest space mission by an American astronaut. He is also an artist and a philanthropist.
He recently raised over $500k USD on an NFT auction, donating 100% of those proceeds to help the people of the Ukraine as they fight to survive the Russian invasion of their country. That auction happened on Open Sea. Kelly was very happy about the funds they raised but is passionate about the environment and decided he needed a greener blockchain option in the future. Thus he turned to Telos, the ESG blockchain. A chain that can do 10,000 TPS, is totally green, costing a fraction what it costs on Ethereum, with transactions that are nearly feeless.
With this next set of NFTs Kelly partnered with Western NFTs, Inc. to mint a series of one of a kind NFTs featuring 15 photographs that also include an audio description in his own voice, describing a bit of the story connected to each of the amazing pictures. All of the images are taken from his year aboard the International Space Station.
These beautiful pieces of art are totally unique, capturing a single moment viewed from 254 miles above the surface of our planet from a vehicle traveling at over 17,000 miles per hour. That moment — that perspective will never be seen again.
The NFT’s are being minted and auctioned on Telos, utilizing the Telos EVM. The NFTs can be viewed and bid on while the auction is live at scottkellyart.com, where the auction will run for at least 48 hours. If a bid is placed in the final 10 minutes of the auction, the auction will extend 10 minutes from the time the bid is placed.
This unique collection of NFTs is being launched on Telos because it aligns with Kelly’s passion for sustaining the environment. Once again Kelly is also donating 100% of the profits from this auction to the people of the Ukraine in their fight for freedom.
The auction goes live on May 12, 2022 at 17:00 UTC.
If you’d like to check out the art in advance go the scottkellyart.com
GoodBlock Technologies is a partner with Western NFTs, Inc.
Episode 1: Around the Block with GoodBlock
Watch our very first podcast video Around the Block with GoodBlock with special guest, Astronaut Scott Kelly, when we get to chat about his NFT project, why Telos and what makes it special.
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GB’s Magical Guide to Being Awesome at Being a BP! — Part 1
Hello, GoodBlock Systems Administrator Nathaniel here. This article is the start of a new series that serves as a distillation of all the knowledge I have gained as a Block Producer.
In this part, I’m going to provide you with a network of links which are my bookmarks. In my BP bookmarks folder, I have 40~ links, not all of which I’m going to share with you, but just the ones you need to know to be awesome at being a BP. From brand new BP to day-to-day operations, this guide will give you the info you need to know for starting and running a Telos BP node. Here’s everything I wish I knew when I was going through the process of getting started with Telos BP operation:
Installing your own BP:
Listed below you will find my recommendations for hardware.
Requirements and Tips:
- Optimize for Single-threaded CPU usage instead of GPU.
- Optimize for Hard Disk space and RAM.
- GPUs are not needed as Telos and Telos EVM are Proof of Stake (or rotational block production).
What are the current best in class specs as of this article? Arguably my best single threaded build:
- Intel Core i9–12900KF 3.2 GHz 16-Core
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 72.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
- ARCTIC Intel LGA1700 Upgrade Kit — For Liquid Freezer II Series
- Gigabyte Z690 AERO G DDR4 ATX LGA 1700 Motherboard
- G.Skill Ripjaws V 128 GB (4 x 32GB) DDR4–3200 CL16 Memory
- Western Digital Black SN850 2TB M.2–2280 NVME Solid State Drive
- PNY NVIDIA T400 Graphic Card — 2 GB GDDR6 — Low-Profile — 64 bit Bus Width — PCI Express 3.0 x16 — Mini DisplayPort
- NZXT C 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
This build costs 5400$ as of this article.
The minimum requirements for running a BP Node are here, but do not run the minimums. I recommend the following at the time of writing:
- 16–32GB RAM
- 2 SSD Arrays
- One can be 200GB for the OS and EOSIO,
- The other at least 4–6 TB, if not more, to hold the blocks and any snapshots you’d like to start from. Having more storage to start means less down time.
Building from block 1 using just a genesis.json file just isn’t feasible anymore. In my own test, it took 28 days to catch up from just genesis.json. Snapshots are the best way to catch up and start producing/seeding. You can find the latest snapshots here: TelosUnlimited Snapshots
This link is used for creating a Telos account on mainnet. Telos Account Creator account creation is free, but it will cost about $5 USD for RAM and CPU to run the smart contracts. You can do this at Buy Telos Ram Here.
You will need to generate a keypair using cleos wallet and make up a name to create an account for Testnet using the faucet here: Create Test Accounts — telos docs. The faucet’s source may go empty causing an error when you try to make an account. You can ask in the testnet Telegram chat for a replenishment, and then once confirmed, you’ll be able to make an account with some test TLOS.
I consider the following link to be the Telos “BP Bible” for setting up a validator node: Telos Docs — Setting up Telos Validator Nodes
The BP Bible will walk you through installing EOS.io onto an Ubuntu or MacOS (10.14 or better) server. Personally, I do not recommend installing on MacOS. I do recommend Ubuntu 20.04, as EOS.io has updated to 2.1.0 since the linked document was released and currently works well with this OS. In the future, we will walk through installing a node, but following this guide works great.
The github for the bp.json file you must create and host to show your node(s), can be found here — BP.json Standards. It is important to subscribe to see if the standards update. Here is an example, Goodblock.io’s bp.json example.
Once your bp.json is up and you’ve got your node running, an EXCELLENT check is to use get_info to see the current status of the blockchain — yourdomain*/v1/chain/get_info
For running the process automatically on start, and managing environment updates (updates to the config), and restarting the program for you with a single command, use this tool — ProcessManager 2. Look for an article coming soon on how I personally use ProcessManager 2
You’ll need to learn nginx to deter attacks. Let’sEncrypt — lets you create your own SSL certificates, so you don’t have to worry about Centralized SSL corporations charging you exorbitant fees.
Finally, once you’re up and running, you’ll want to know how fast you are in comparison to others. Telos Speed Test also allows you to check your speed and compliance.
Support Chat is in place to help! You have to be on the Telos testnet for 7 days before you can host a mainnet server, The Testnet Telegram room serves to help baby BPs troubleshoot issues.
Since you are going to be a Block Producer, you will want to join the community to keep up to date with information regarding Telos. The best places to do so are Telegram and Discord.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon!
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance (decidevoter.app) and Decentralized Cloud Storage (dstor.cloud). Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the EOSIO codebase.
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media:
Website: https://goodblock.io/
Twitter: @goodblockio
Medium: https://medium.com/goodblock-io
Telegram: t.me/goodblocktls