Nick is a global thought leader on Deep Tech - Quantum Computing, AI, Blockchain and has been at the heart of the decentralised crypto revolution since 2013. A sought after speaker Nick is a prolific writer and is making a TV series about the existential threat of AI. He has built a crypto exchange and designed and built several production Blockchains for his clients. His new ventures fund Solarix Ventures focuses of Deep Tech and finding Next Generation Technologies and founders. Nick has worked with Family Offices. and c- organising some of the worlds largest family offices events in Monaco, Dubai and elsewhere. He invests in leading tech and serves as a board members across a range of industries. His passion is Quantum Computing where he is involved at the cutting edge of quantum photonic silicon processing at room temperature. He is writing is also writing a book on why decentralised operating models always win!
Available For: Advising, Authoring, Consulting, Influencing, Speaking
Travels From: London, Dubai, Vienna, New York, Singapore
Speaking Topics: Deep tech, Quantum Computing, Existential Threat of AI, 4th Wealth Creation Revolution, Decentralised Business Models...
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Date : October 19, 2022
The world is becoming obsessed with ‘digital’ as many want to spend more time in the digital realm - some call the MetaVerse. Personally I can’t see why, as sentient beings the MetaVerse seems boring uneventful and dull.
Big brands have convinced themselves they need a MetaVerse a glorified place for customers to shop, try on things, use things virtually apparently, experiencing what exactly? You can examine the products quality, the material or features that indicate quality. The entire ‘experience’ is an optical scan from images that hit the retina leaving the cortex to render the brain, to deliver the experience, the physical reaction. Unlocking fun, excitement, scares and certain arousal, but you still cannot FEEL what is going on.
SEEING is no longer believing! Today you have to be able to FEEL what s going on, every jump, jolt, force, punch, kick, bullet, rain, wind through our skins, our muscles and skeleton dealing into our deepest humanity. After all consciousness is the ability to experience being alive.
The question that springs to mind - can we live, co-exist and experience both realms by flipping back and forth between the physical and digital. Or is it more complex or is it just that simple? You be the judge.
So why write this article? I’ve been at the forefront of technology for decades and my day job comprises of listening to pitches and trying the various ‘frontier technologies’ that have the potential to advance humanity, push civilisation to the next phase or indeed kill us all.
Opposing Forces
There are several opposing forces that limit what it’s like to be human or not. In the sense of biological entity as opposed to non-biological we'll go into more later. The morally right and correct, the ethically concerned, the government rules and continued manipulation by the few who prey on our instincts, our pursuit of fun, entertainment and efforts to live a good life.
What many call being alive, being sentient and thus conscious, we leave the argument do we really have or is there such a thing as free will for another day.
Our lives are also about collecting experiences we store as memories and which makes us human. Again our brain re-renders experiences, how we felt, emotional state, a cocktail of things that is written into memory, science has discovered isn’t very accurate and over time our memories can often be entirely different and unreliable.
The new generation XYZ are all about experiences, growing up in a tech world and they expect to be entertained, to be online, to have everything at their finger-tips and live with both sides. They want a phy-gi-cal existence, as many want to play with gender, flexible lifestyle, support causes and want to push new boundaries.
Choices are varied. We immerse fully in a digital experience or receive Augmented or Mixed Reality (AR, XR) through primary senses to aid our path, our journey through the day to day of physical realm. Additional information, gamification, concierge and guidance the risk of making future generations completely reliant on HELP to get through the day becomes a fixed reality.
Studies are already revealing increased level of depression of those who spend a lot of time in the MetaVerse primarily shopping, social networks and gaming, and early studies link young children who live in the blue screen too much develop new forms of ‘digital dementia’ as their creativity is diminished and right brain activity Is dialled down.
The conspiracies and theories continue following the Tritone move from 432hz to 440hz that has shown to shut down right brain activity responsible for freedom of original thought, creativity, decision making capabilities. Is the MetaVerse another example of mass population manipulation and control?
The Science bit.
Humanities greatest invention was the telescope, that enabled us to find our place in the stars, helped us create the concept of time, understand the sessions and posed the big question - where do we come from? It was not until we turned this inside to create the micro scale did things get interesting, the world of randomness of subatomic particles opened the quantum debate but also showed us the way to discovering how life itself really works. Now passing the Standard Model exposing new particles, we are presented with String Theory and my favourite Assembly Theory, a clue to the Constructor.
Synthetic biology has been outperforming by 500% Moore’s Law and this has been going on for decades. Whilst we don’t yet understand how life itself works and what makes us tick at the cellular level, we are getting much closer. New discoveries forces us to let go of the Newtonian concepts that hinders our thinking, new breakthroughs are happening all the time as computation efficiency increases. But overall advancement is rather disappointing as humanities greatest advancement - is the transistor is our greatest achievement, and until we surpass this we will as a race be unlikely to reach our dreams.
We know that death isn’t inevitable, a disease like any other as we become more obsessed with bio-hacking, with longevity and why not. But living longer isn't about extending time on earth, it’s about living a healthy life in old age, still able to move around and experience things.
There has been an explosion of discoveries that prove it is possible to slow down ageing, in some cases reverse it, through better lifestyle choices and finding out, measuring and analysing our personal data. The explosion in wearable tech much is clinical grade allows us to record and examine of core biomarkers - as evidence of how well our bodies are doing. Our body chucks off huge amounts of data and only now are we starting to analyse it.
I’m not talking about recording steps, heart rates and blood sugar content. No, I’m taking about knowing the state of my immune system, knowing through a test the severity of the virus I have caught (Covid) from light to severe or possibly causing death. Knowing if I will develop the biggest killers Type I & II diabetes, cardio vascular disease or whether my body has been traumatised, and the extent of poisoning from our environment and food chain. This tech is real and advancing quickly.
Extending life 20 years of more is already within reach. The tech that measures everything is here - both worn externally and as implants. Capturing data and receiving signals from the body. But this signalling can go both ways - as we start to think about correction, prevention and cure.
We can dial into our bodies with new instructions?
MetaVerse
Look the reality of anything online is quite boring. Whether consuming content, watching a video or playing a game where after a while we become numb to it. The reality is our eyes optically input signals our cortex interprets to delivery the bodies response. The scary movie where something jumps out gives us a sudden rush, normally adrenaline as our flight response takes over. We get sad, aroused or excited by the things we see, yet we use just two senses, audible and audio. The other senses are not engaged. But what if we could?
Imagine you could feel the MetaVerse, experience the many realms and things it has to offer?
I created this model to explain where we are with Web3 that is a transformation layer into our analogue past, dealing into Web1 and Web2 and embracing the tools of a modern era to capture and analyse data quick enough to influence human behaviours (Predictive), responding to and adjusting ones products and services on the fly (Sensory Processing).
A predictive world that puts the people, the consumer, the user in control of their personal experience, their sovereign identity, their data and rewarding them for it. A model the big corporations just hate as they cannot do as they wish as they do today, relying on us all to simply Accept Cookies. The freedom to exploit us, our data our good will.
So how to combine a Web3 sensory physical world with the digital realm, to get literally Phy-gi-cal.
Many believe our sensory abilities are not developed to their full capabilities, while others believe we’re dumbed down from birth through dissonant frequencies, fluoride in our water, and a broad range of social manipulations, and of course the education system that hasn’t changed for almost 200 years. Essentially keeping us dumb, as throughout history the people do rise up and force change at massive cost to lives, replacing one form of dictator with another - authoritarianism is soon followed by totalitarianism.
It is inevitable biological humans will converge with machines? Well yes - if you have a pace-maker, prosthetic or transplant you’re alive because of this. Bio-feedback from our bodies will manifest as a set of decision to make to improve what is going on, our physical and mental wellbeing. There are new membranes that act as Bio-Ware (data passing both ways) acts as a new digital nervous system is available, so we can FEEL everything, offering new ways to dial into our bodies - to cure, correct and for therapies, and to help people with damaged bodies move and enjoy more life.
The fun part of my job is trying the tech, taking the tests and in this case wearing a new generation of bio-ware membranes. To play Call of Duty and feel the bullets, explosions, punches and cuts (a big kid thing I admit) and to train differently, loading my muscles and not my joints, to feel a movie as I watch it, to feel sorts collision of music as though I was there, while sitting on my sofa.
The collective intelligence opportunity, the Hive Mind has been spoken about for decades is already here. Delivered by Google, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, Apple and others who harvest our data to harvest us (humanity) to purposes of manipulation for profit, for their benefit and not ours or advancing humanities. As government seeks more ways to enforce mass surveillance and data capture, they will use and create further pandemics to force our hand. But not if we know more about our bodies than they do, not if they cannot see our actual data, not if we don’t let them. At birth we have one thing that nobody can take away - our unique identity, not from the government naming schemas, but from our DNA, our humanity, our unique biology.
We live in a world where we can test the effects of foods, chemicals and lifestyle on our bodies. We can see the effectiveness of drugs and treatments for ourselves as see the extent of big Pharma lies and manipulations. We can call out the food manufacturers that have been poisoning us for generations.
With Web3 combining with the Internet of Feelings we can take back control of our lives, our bodies and our future. We can live more life, experience more of everything and we can decide what we want to be, how we want to live and whether we want to live a Phy-gi-cal life.
The data is ours coming from us (bodies) and the things we do, how we live and enjoy ourselves is OURS! And without it, large corporations and governments will find it harder to manipulate us. They have become used to deciding whether or not we live a good, healthy and long life. It hasn’t been our decision for millennia and with the social, economic unrest around the globe with draconian moves by governments and those in power to control us further, we can use new Web3 and I-o-F business models to take back control.
“Ignorance os strengthened”
Author. Nick Ayton is a technologist and Founding Partner at Solarix Ventures a Deep tech Investor and Multi Family Office. He’s spent 45 years in tech and works at the frontier of computing, materials and biotech.
Tags: Blockchain, HealthTech, Metaverse
It is time to tell you what really goes on when you buy an NFT…
Let’s face it would you buy and NFT (Non Fungible Token? The only people that seem to be buying these tokens are the crypto whales as a means to park their crypto so they don’t have to pay tax, or plain dumb people sold the dream they will go up in value due to scarcity and originality. Just because crypto whales and millionaires have accumulated lots of crypto to spend doesn’t mean they are right or know how crypto works. Most got lucky, took a punt of BTC in the early days while others ars are intuitive traders that play the emotions of the crypto markets.
Well there is nothing like a bit of ‘front running’ to get a market moving, right! Look I have nothing against NFTs, they are a great concept. The issue is the engineering of them.
When you buy an NFT what actially happens? What do you get? Well, you sort of own a token that is meat to give you rights of redemption and ownership in something. An asset, — some art, a car or something ese. The problem is it doesn’t. Not even close. Yes you own a token which is natively worthless. Unless all the market participants agree to be honest and agree that you have access to the thing you bought. Good luck with that one.
Unfortunately 90% of people in blockchain still don’t understand is a blockchain only records token movements — that you have handed 10 BTC to some address. It doesn’t record what was actually purchased although the NFT platform may tell you their smart contract handles, verifies and does the rest. Which is sort of a lie. This is because blockchains can’t do this, nor can you write data directly to a blockchain. And that means all of them. To keep blockchain secure, immutable and safe, only the movement of tokens is recorded — this is because as soon as outside data/information/communications happens, the properties of a blockchain to be safe and its consensus disappear.
I will explain how NFTs can work so keep reading.
Why the current generation of blockchains struggle with NFTs?
Look NFTs are indeed a great concept. But they are currently not engineered properly because the underlying blockchains, and consensus models aren’t up to the job. For example any ‘ledger based’ protocol such as Ethereum (rather than unspent) has no native ability to ‘track and trace’ tokens that are apparently defined as a security or asset token (linked to a commodity). All kinds of shenanigans have to happen to fudge this. Sort of re-centralisation effects and promises.
Unfortunately the asset you think or are told you have purchased is somewhere else, and the binding authority that confirms ownership is also somewhere else. A sort of custodian or notary services of you like — the problem this is yet another layer is a tech stack thats already vulnerable. So rather than removing the centre, and the human propensity for fraud, NFTs solutions involve too many parties and rely on trust. The ownership of what you have purchased is or isn’t validated (real or copy), and its certainly not part of the one sided token transaction.
So when you handed over some BTC to buy an NFT. The thing you have purchased is mentioned probably in a solidity script, with a URL link pointing to a website or JPEG destination address. And then there are rug-pulls — where the owner packs up and disappear with their assets. Some NFT platforms claim the asset is apparently linked to another blockchain that hosts the asset if by magic, or describes the asset or confirms the storage of the asset in a digital sense. But this happens somewhere else and they are not bound as a single transaction under law. Yes, you heard it hear.
What you purchased for the tokens you hand over isn’t recorded with the exchange of tokens. There is also NO basis of Law that protects the Buyer of an NFT! Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Any redemption rights granted are not part of the token exchange, and also not valid under any form of business law. And to call it a token exchange is also stretching the truth because it is one way.
Here is the other issue.
How do you know what you have purchased is real?
How do you know what was purchased is the real thing? Is the provenance proven? Is the owner of the asset you have apparently purchased been validated? How do you know who is looking after it? The problem is everything can be Copied and Edited when its digital, and this is why ‘data’ in generic terms has zero value, and why the Internet doesn’t work and destroys the value of everything. All because of Copy, Edit, Paste. Unless the data is smart that is — smart data changes everything.
NFT platforms will tell you the assets have been validated, but often won’t disclose by who, of share the chain of title remains unclear, apparently due to privacy? Then there is the identity of the buyer and seller. Are the parties known? Are they real and are they good actors. And this is where crypto falls down so many times with the demands for anonymity.
The item you purchased, on which you have spent your crypto is recorded on the ledger, the token amount recorded, but it is not an ‘exchange of value’ at all. There is no value coming the other way. All you have is the transaction ID on Etherscan or the location URL, that can be copied, changed and closed. Good bye crypto. I will explain how NFTs can work so keep reading.
There is no exchange of value as NFTs stand today
Example: Bob sends Alice 10 BTC to buy a share of a painting , BUT what Bob receives isn’t recorded on this blockchain. It isn’t atomically bound to the token exchange or value exchange as part of (combined) single transaction. The recroding of the thing — asset - you have purchased part happens elsewhere, probably supported by another business, whos owners, morals and security status remains unknown. In any event your adding ‘t’ connectors to the piping that introduces vulnerabilities that will be exploited.
The blockchain that records and holds the assets also doesn’t record the token payment (because it didn’t happen there), so if there is a dispute or a need to validate or audit what went on, you cannot as the information isn’t held or recorded in a single tech stack. The parts of the transaction sit in different places and who knows if they are complete when they are reassembled?
It is worth remembering blockchains only have key qualities because they are self contained. When you have to get the information from elsewhere, the script calls to an oracle, or deals with a storage node, everything comes at an extra cost, and doors (channels) are opened. The compute cost to run the script that executes an instruction to do something gets expensive. Each off-chain or chainlink structure is owned by another business, has different rules, structures and protocols. They will charge you fees to execute of the simple script to simply report on it, but the report for say an audit is touched by a third party who have access to change things. But who these people are? Will they sell it on, how good is there security isn’t known. Is there trust? Have they made a secret deal?
In the sense of this discussion: Non Fungible means ‘unique’ and cannot be replacted or another one exactly the same reproduced.
What gives something non fungibility? To guarantee the items is unique, a one off. NFTs as currently engineered cannot guarantee this. That is because all data can be copied, edited and changed unless it is smart data, and why ‘block headers’ in a blockchain become part of the next block and so on for continuity, but also a show of strength confirming nothing has been changed.
Yes NFT platforms will tell you its all good and there blockchain talks to other blockchains and handle this automatically. Well the bad news is blockchains do not talk to one another, not easily and mostly at all. The smart contracts struggle to interoperate but they do call for information or wait for inputs. Which could be we’ve received 10 BTC from this sucker, its time to sell the asset again or move it, or delete any record the exchange tokens for it. After all the asset isn’t recorded with the token exchange transaction. This gap is called a Byzantine Fault and its very bad.
NFTs are brilliant and they can work
The only way for NFTs to work is for the token exchange and asset exchange in return to be done at the same time, timestamp, an held on the same ledger. This is a true value exchange and why our current capital markets still operate and haven’t collapsed. The only way for NFTs to work is for the token to be replaced by the Asset, and record the full transaction in what is called a dual double entry, thus creating something called a Non Fungible Asset. The token and asset exchange happens atomically within the same blockchain stack and yes you guessed it, is written to a single file (version of truth) where the commercials basis, identity and law is also reflected buyer and seller.
Bob sends Alice 10BTC and Alice Sends Bob the deeds, the rights, the asset directly, in a binding transaction under a legal jurisdiction. Within this dual double entry transaction that is instantly auditable by the way, are all details of the identity of both parties — yes shock horror, the details of the asset (provenance) and the commercial principles of the deal, as well as the price discovery are bound as a single transaction. This is called ‘real value exchange’ and only this can support NFA — Non Fungible Assets, as let us not forget.
Tokens have NO value, only assets do, so any time you want to buy an asset make sure what you paid is recorded at the point of purchased. Get a receipt and confirmation, see evidence of the change in ownership, title and rights. Yes some evidence of the value and thus how the price was established would be nice, rather than someone simply setting the token price randomly, because they can. All of this has to be compiled into a ‘smart data’ file gives the transaction value. Give the data value. Value that can be exchange traded immediately and audited immediately.
One last thing. Remember tokens have no intrinsic value. They are not linked to value. They are given value by parties of the market, unless they are a protocol token that follows Metcalf’s Law — that respond to economic activity of participants in a network, such as ethereum.
Non Fungible Assets are the answer, and there is only one protocol today that can write both sides of the transaction at the same time, in the same stack, running datanomics alongside tokenomics and this is because the protocol makes the data about the asset and the transaction smart, because it knows the tokens are merely that, a token, a proxy for making frictionless payment, but not exchange, because there is no exchange. Don’t be taken in by the hype. NFTs have to mature to become grown up NFA’s.
If you want to know how to create NFAs or fix the NFT problems there is only one company I know that can do this, and I am happy to share.
Author. © Nick Ayton 2021
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Emerging Technology
Tags: Analytics, Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing
Location: USa, UK, Mena, EU Date Available: January 10th, 2022 Fees: 0.00
Submission Date: December 21st, 2021 Service Type: Service Offered