What the funge is an NFT? And DAOs are those delicious sweet buns, right? If you’re confused right now, HODL on to your seat, keep reading, then watch the replay of HEX World’s Blockchain in 2022 discussion, where we asked a panel of HEX community legends who are building and buying this stuff to demystify NFTs, DAOs, crypto and Web3.

So, who was on the panel?

• Kaia Myers-Stewart - Head of Product at BitsCore, a blockchain technology company  specialising in IP protection; Consultant at Prismatic, a DAO specialising in distributed systems, blockchain, and the metaverse.
• Elliot Risby - Designer-Developer of NFT collections CryptoFluffs and HypeSneakrs; Co-founder of Frill, a service revolutionising the way customer feedback is collected.
• Matt Krak - 5.3 HEXIE, software engineer and Co-founder at KarmaDAO.
• Amin Shokri - newly minted 5.8 HEXIE and founder at EnviroCoin which is working to combat cryptocurrency’s impact on the environment.
• Alfie Torres - 1.7 HEXIE, Technical Business Analyst at HEX and educated blockchain lay person (if such a thing exists).

We started with blockchain jargon busters. Never heard of gas fees? Well now you know they are probably the biggest blocker for anyone wanting to dip a n00b toe in the metaverse market.  You’d be forgiven for thinking gas fees are what you pay your utility company to power your stove, but in the world of crypto, a gas fee is essentially a transaction fee that is distributed to crypto miners.

If that wasn’t confusing enough, we discussed how gas fees change throughout the day and are influenced by several factors (think Uber surge pricing!). Hot tip: if you are looking to buy NFTs, you are better off buying them when the US is asleep, that is, when a big chunk of the crypto audience is asleep. 🧠  

While discussing Web3, a very interesting point was brought up. Most people (myself included) have never thought about the internet in terms of evolution, i.e, web, Web 2.0, and Web3. But increasingly, our identity is linked to something online (try Googling your name). It is widely believed that eventually real life will become indiscernible from the internet which is why there’s almost a mad rush of companies (like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nike) heading from the meatspace to the metaverse.

And if you’ve ever wondered what the relationship between blockchain and metaverse is, you’re not alone! Blockchain is just the underlying technology upon which the metaverse is based. Oh, and did you know that there is a decentralized and a centralized metaverse?

For more such terms (confusing and otherwise), and a fun discussion on blockchain and where the industry is headed, watch the whole discussion 👇🏽👇🏻👇🏿.

Thanks to Julie Nolke for the amazing What’s An NFT? intro video and to Friends of Satoshi for Welcome To The Blockchain.