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Things being a social construct doesn’t mean their definitions lack solidity. Particularly when defended by force through mutually agreed frameworks like govern

Things being a social construct doesn’t mean their definitions lack solidity. Particularly when defended by force through mutually agreed frameworks like governments and legal systems with their own mutual agreements inter-jurisdiction. All you do when you use a local definition is note that you’re going against the established definition by society, enjoy none of the protections and muddy the waters for people who don’t know you have a peculiar definition. This happens a lot in blockchain communities where ownership, trust, decentralisation and other terms end up being a lot more local in definition because the whole house of cards gets exposed if you actually look at things more neutrally. It’s a bit cult like in that respect and interestingly a lot of cults have odd ideas about ownership as well.

mrtksn 5y ago
Yes, blockchain stuff don’t abide within the established definitions in the society. In fact, that’s the main value proposition of it. You own certain amount of coins or NFT not because the legal framework allows it but because the software that interprets the blockchain says so. it’s distributed nature makes it a societal construct within the society that uses that software. To own anything in the blockchain in the traditional sense, there needs to be a legislation for it and I’m not aware of any. The point is though, it doesn’t matter.
- meheleventyone 5y ago
  Actually the ownership of the coins and tokens does fit into established definitions. Hence why it slides into legal frameworks quite nicely and we see taxation, prosecutions and so on based on that ownership. It’s just the ownership of what the NFT points to doesn’t.
  - mrtksn 5y ago
    No it doesn’t but it seems like will eventually, that’s why it’s a debated topic the last few years and varies from locality to locality. Legislators may eventually legislate the NFT too.
    - meheleventyone 5y ago
      Pull the other one! You can literally see legislation that impact NFTs going into US law this week and confiscations of crypto-currency from criminal cases as well. The crypto crowd doesn’t like it but it’s not because the understanding of ownership of the coins and tokens is different. The art a token points to on the other hand. Put it this way I absolutely think people that own an NFT own the token and owned the currency used to pay for it. I don’t in anyway think they own the art it’s supposed to represent.
      - mrtksn 5y ago
        Just as Afghanistan recently outlawed foreing currency use and that's Afghans' problem, this is also something US citizens should deal with. Spoiler alert: Most people in the world are not US citizens and don't live in the US. The ownership of the underlying asset depends on what you understand by ownership.
        meheleventyone 5y ago
        > The ownership of the underlying asset depends on what you understand by ownership. Only in the sense that equally anyone can claim ownership of anything. It's just noise rather than a substantial point.
        mrtksn 5y ago
        Anyone can claim ownership of anything, NFT or not. That's why there are lawsuits over ownership of property and wars over disputed territories. NFT ownership concerns those who engage in the community, just like Bitcoin concerns those who are engaged with it. What is Bitcoin after all? A transaction record in a distributed ledger. Exactly the same thing as NFT. It exists only because someone said so in a community that use software with the same algorithm to parse transaction records(the ledger distributed as a blockchain).
        meheleventyone 5y ago

mrtksn 5y ago

Yes, blockchain stuff don’t abide within the established definitions in the society. In fact, that’s the main value proposition of it. You own certain amount of coins or NFT not because the legal framework allows it but because the software that interprets the blockchain says so. it’s distributed nature makes it a societal construct within the society that uses that software. To own anything in the blockchain in the traditional sense, there needs to be a legislation for it and I’m not aware of any. The point is though, it doesn’t matter.

meheleventyone 5y ago
Actually the ownership of the coins and tokens does fit into established definitions. Hence why it slides into legal frameworks quite nicely and we see taxation, prosecutions and so on based on that ownership. It’s just the ownership of what the NFT points to doesn’t.
- mrtksn 5y ago
  No it doesn’t but it seems like will eventually, that’s why it’s a debated topic the last few years and varies from locality to locality. Legislators may eventually legislate the NFT too.
  - meheleventyone 5y ago
    Pull the other one! You can literally see legislation that impact NFTs going into US law this week and confiscations of crypto-currency from criminal cases as well. The crypto crowd doesn’t like it but it’s not because the understanding of ownership of the coins and tokens is different. The art a token points to on the other hand. Put it this way I absolutely think people that own an NFT own the token and owned the currency used to pay for it. I don’t in anyway think they own the art it’s supposed to represent.
    - mrtksn 5y ago
      Just as Afghanistan recently outlawed foreing currency use and that's Afghans' problem, this is also something US citizens should deal with. Spoiler alert: Most people in the world are not US citizens and don't live in the US. The ownership of the underlying asset depends on what you understand by ownership.
      - meheleventyone 5y ago
        > The ownership of the underlying asset depends on what you understand by ownership. Only in the sense that equally anyone can claim ownership of anything. It's just noise rather than a substantial point.
        mrtksn 5y ago
        Anyone can claim ownership of anything, NFT or not. That's why there are lawsuits over ownership of property and wars over disputed territories. NFT ownership concerns those who engage in the community, just like Bitcoin concerns those who are engaged with it. What is Bitcoin after all? A transaction record in a distributed ledger. Exactly the same thing as NFT. It exists only because someone said so in a community that use software with the same algorithm to parse transaction records(the ledger distributed as a blockchain).
        meheleventyone 5y ago