NFTs, the Metaverse, and Everything Web 3.0

Chapter 3. Blockchain-Based Digital Assets

Let’s begin this chapter by breaking down the various types of digital assets on a blockchain. CoinDesk has created a Digital Asset Classification Standard for categorizing these. There can be overlap among some categories, so to simplify, we will focus on the following: cryptocurrencies, smart contract platforms (or layer ones), stablecoins, NFTs, and DAOs.

By any measure, the two largest and most significant digital assets are bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, and Ethereum, a platform.

Bitcoin was the first and most successful use case for blockchain technology. It all began with the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto publishing a whitepaper on Halloween 2008.

Note

We say mysterious because to this day, no one knows who or what Satoshi was. No one ever saw “him” in person. Satoshi is a male name, but he could be any gender or a group of people.

This paper was titled: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.

Electronic cash: A digital form of money.

Peer-to-peer money: Money that can be sent between users without having to go through a central bank.

You can read about this fascinating origin story in Chapter 1 of Blockchain Success Stories, but to sum up, over time the Bitcoin network grew, and after a famous pizza sale for the arbitrary price of 10,000 bitcoin proved that bitcoin could have value, it slowly rose in value starting at fractions of a cent and going to a few cents. Then in December 2010 when bitcoin was around $0.30, Satoshi ...