A SHORT LESSON IN “DIGITAL PHYSICS”


When Richie Shoemaker wanted to broaden his understanding of web3 and get a balanced and reasoned argument for its potential benefits and dangers, he went to CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson for enlightenment. Here is what was said


W 54 | MCV/DEVELOP July 2022


hen it comes to the soap opera of web3 - the metaverse, blockchain, NFT’s and the like - there appear to


be two types of protagonists. Those that think the metaverse is regurgutated bullcrap, the blockchain utterly unnecessary and NFT’s the embodiment of pure capitalist evil, and those that insist that web3 will save us, if not from ourselves, then at least from overreaching big tech. And if the latter group gets rich waiting for the rest of humanity to catch up, so much the better. A slight generalisation for comic effect there, but my point is that much of the discourse


around what are collectively labelled as web3 technologies is polarised to say the least. You are either dead set against it, or a signed up member of the crypto bro fraternity. It would appear gamers, rank-and-file game makers and environment-sympathisers occupy one side, while investors, game execs and John Terry line up on the other. And never the twain shall meet. As for myself, I lean slightly towards where


the cool kids hang out and the arguments seem to make more sense, but I try to stay as close to the centre ground as possible if only to maintain a veneer of professional impassivity. It’s not easy. As I’ve said on the subject previously,


May 2020 MCV


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72