Philosopher and environmentalist Troy Cross has arisen as one of the most prominent scholars making the case that bitcoin mining has certain special properties which make it ideally suited to powering the development of renewable energies.

Check out his interview on the Futurati Podcast, where he discusses his radical proposals for new financial instruments that foster the 'greening' of bitcoin mining.

I'm a bit late to this party (it being 2022 and all), but I took a stab at putting together a high-level explanation of what blockchains are how the blockchain works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7_uZog6ark

It's based on a recent talk I gave at Elementus, which was well-received enough for me to think that it would be of broader interest.

I provide a big-picture definition of the blockchain drawn from sources like Andreas Antonpolous, how transactions are validated, broadcast, and structured, how blocks are created from the mempool, what mining is and why it's important, and how the whole network maintains security.

All this with multiple Harry Potter analogies, if you're into that kind of thing.

Posting here because I'd like to know whether these explanations resonate and whether I got anything factually wrong.

In a recent interview long-time real estate innovator Teresa Grobecker made the bold claim that in about a decade home titles will be hosted on a blockchain as NFTs.

Setting aside that there's probably a certain amount of showmanship and hyperbole on display here, the conversation touched on a number of ways in which NFTs and the blockchain could transform real estate, including:

- Using NFTs to certify that e.g. certain repairs had been done on home appliances or fixtures (https://youtu.be/MP2xGAfUn0I?t=1007)

- Looking at how real estate might play out in the metaverse (https://youtu.be/MP2xGAfUn0I?t=820)

- The ways in which a blockchain for real estate might make appraisals more objective, reducing bias in the home ownership process and improving prosperity in under-represented communities (https://youtu.be/MP2xGAfUn0I?t=1297)

I would be interested in hearing the community's thoughts, as I'm currently in the process of trying to seriously think through the various real-world use cases for these technologies.

In a recent interview on the Futurati Podcast (https://youtu.be/TLHPzPbu5JU?t=848) Bitcoin heavyweight Peter McCormack claimed that Bitcoin would beat out fiat, gold, and other cryptocurrencies to become the money of the future.

Wondering what your thoughts are.