The Internet was designed and built by hippies (literally bearded dudes out of Berkeley). Open protocols, bits are free. Copying is a core function. Open Sourc

The Internet was designed and built by hippies (literally bearded dudes out of Berkeley). Open protocols, bits are free. Copying is a core function. Open Source, BSD, GNU, ... all an extension of that thought. While this was awesome for the spread and easy build out of the modern apps we all use, it had a massive "flaw" when it comes to property rights. This was exemplified by what happened to music through p2p file sharing, e.g. Napster. Bits don't have copy protection. The industry tried to roll back this fundamental freedom of the web via DRM schemes, with massive pushback from the old guard of netizens. But, freedom is never perfect, the devastating effect on artists is real. Streaming kind of solved the copy problem, but the amount you can charge for music now is miniscule. (Just using music as an example). NFTs, web3, metaverse are all now being positioned to rollback this fundamental flaw of the Internet - copy protection, ownership on the bit level. Digital scarcity. There will be no Right-Click Copy in the metaverse, no screenshots in web3. The struggle with NFTs right now is that it is this idea of digital ownership on top of bits that don't support it, hence this mind-boggling maelstrom of crazy. Personally, having grown up in HACKER CULTURE (see the name of this very forum, oh the irony) e.g. having spent time at copy parties in shady buildings, admiring the intros/demos on cracked games, the BBS scene ... this whole web3 thing creeps me out. I totally get why it's kids doing it, they don't know it better, and maybe this is just normal, the pendulum always swings. Some VCs will get ultra-rich pumping this, big corps will be all over it (charging for bits? ironclad copy-protection? price arbitrage on premium bits?), even government will see the upside - no more anonymity, every bit is signed. Bleh.