4 ms·

And is what's out there the actual tweet? I'm sure their data is distributed & duplicated across many regions. Does the NFT encompass all of them? Are any of t

And is what's out there the actual tweet? I'm sure their data is distributed & duplicated across many regions. Does the NFT encompass all of them? Are any of them even original? It's possible that the first bits & bytes on a server that hosted that tweet are long gone, tossed out after twitter scaled beyond its humble beginnings. The original could be a slagged hard drive, a cooled molten lump of metal & silicon. Actually, that would be much more interesting to own than the NFT.

drexlspivey 5y ago
That's why usually NFTs point to IPFS addresses which are just hashes of the content and it doesn't matter where they are hosted.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  Seems like a very lossy form of compression. Not to mention that hashes usually aren't reversible. Not a great stand in for the real thing, especially when the real thing might be a widely available jpeg. There's really something I don't understand about how an NFT, apart from cryptographic foundation, is different enough from, say, a UUID in a traditional database. Also it would be funny if there was a (very highly unlikely) hash collision between two different valuable NFTs.
  - dlubarov 5y ago
    Whoever owns an NFT can prevent the pre-image from being lost by just personally storing it. If they wanted to ensure the pre-image is easily accessible to others, they could additionally host it on IPFS.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      What if the NFT is for a physical object? (and one that may or may not exist any longer?) I mean, clearly hashing wouldn't seem to apply there. But it still leaves the question of whether there's a substantial difference between a traditional database entry. I may be overlooking something because I don't see the problem solved by NFTs. I see the use for them as part of an artistic statement, but not a general use function.

4 ms·

And is what's out there the actual tweet? I'm sure their data is distributed & duplicated across many regions. Does the NFT encompass all of them? Are any of t

by ineedasername 5y ago

drexlspivey 5y ago
That's why usually NFTs point to IPFS addresses which are just hashes of the content and it doesn't matter where they are hosted.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  Seems like a very lossy form of compression. Not to mention that hashes usually aren't reversible. Not a great stand in for the real thing, especially when the real thing might be a widely available jpeg. There's really something I don't understand about how an NFT, apart from cryptographic foundation, is different enough from, say, a UUID in a traditional database. Also it would be funny if there was a (very highly unlikely) hash collision between two different valuable NFTs.
  - dlubarov 5y ago
    Whoever owns an NFT can prevent the pre-image from being lost by just personally storing it. If they wanted to ensure the pre-image is easily accessible to others, they could additionally host it on IPFS.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      What if the NFT is for a physical object? (and one that may or may not exist any longer?) I mean, clearly hashing wouldn't seem to apply there. But it still leaves the question of whether there's a substantial difference between a traditional database entry. I may be overlooking something because I don't see the problem solved by NFTs. I see the use for them as part of an artistic statement, but not a general use function.