I think we need a cryptocoin based on unmarketable art (I'm really getting into this new term that's floating around, "NOOArt - Non Object Oriented Art... http://www.nooart.org";). We need a mining algorithm that will search for non-marketable art. The less likely it is to be sellable, the more it's worth in the cryptocurrency.
On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 6:42 PM, Rob Myers <[email protected]> wrote: > On 19/01/14 04:36 AM, Annie Abrahams wrote: > > Maybe now Michael, you can explain it to me .... > > > > > > On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 1:19 PM, Michael Szpakowski <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > > > Rob > > This is sleek and smart work! I like it very much ( although I did > > have to do quite a lot of googling to fully understand what you were > > doing...) > > Part of the reason for starting this series ("Coins") is to encourage > people to engage critically with the concepts behind cryptocurrency, so > I'm glad to see this discussion. > > Facecoin is Bitcoin with a different Proof Of Work system. I'll try to > explain what this means here but I also recommend the following articles > about Bitcoin and its protocol: > > > http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-how-does-bitcoin-work > > http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/ > > Proof of Work > ============= > > Whenever a computer in the bitcoin network wants to record transactions, > it must perform a simple but unguessable and time-consuming calculation > then send the results to other machines on the network to verify. It is > therefore computationally (and monetarily) expensive to record a > transaction if you are not actually performing one. This discourages > abuse of the Bitcoin network. > > This calculation and its output are the "proof of work", they prove that > the computer's user has been willing to do some work and expend some > resources in order to prove their good faith: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system > > In Bitcoin, an algorithm called SHA-256 is applied to the transaction's > data. Give SHA-256 any data and it will output a string of characters > that cannot be used to recreate the original data but that will always > be the same for the same data. They are a kind of identity for data: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function > > For example, on the UNIX command line: > > $ echo annie | sha256sum > 7eb9d8162722f815b8aeb728d4112d24c2a2ea821fc0af7286bddab0df79baa9 - > > $ echo michael | sha256sum > bb472c3cc2b662a74956c8539fec9fe73f2b8a9f9124506aa0474698b3bac62d - > > $ echo rob | sha256sum > 30d71981944699f23038164f4eb8189950b4dcf9b39ea2c1ecbda13aea8b7d4a - > > $ echo rob | sha256sum > 30d71981944699f23038164f4eb8189950b4dcf9b39ea2c1ecbda13aea8b7d4a - > > Bitcoin uses SHA-256 to repeatedly make such an identity string for the > transaction data and a number that it increases by one each try called > the "nonce". Eventually, and there's no way of predicting precisely when > but it should take about ten minutes, the output string will start with > several zeroes. When it does, Bitcoin uses that as the proof of work for > the transaction: > > https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work > > Machine Pareidolia > ================== > > Pareidolia is when we mistakenly see faces in clouds, or electrical > sockets, or in photographs from space probes: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia > > Machine pareidolia is when a face detection algorithm gives a false > positive, locating a face in an image when there isn't one: > > > http://urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2012/01/14/machine-pareidolia-hello-little-fella-meets-facetracker/ > > There's been some nice art done using this: > > http://www.di12.rca.ac.uk/projects/pareidolic-robot/ > > Not every image can be mistaken for a face by a face detection > algorithm, in particular finding a face in a series of randomly > generated pixel images takes some time. > > The amount of work required to do so will be greater than nothing, and > cannot be guessed precisely. We can therefore use machine pareidolia > with random images as proof of work. > > Facecoin > ======== > > Facecoin replaces Bitcoin's search for leading zeros with a machine > pareidolia search for faces. > > SHA-256 output is used as an 8x8 256-level greyscale pixel map, and a > face recognition algorithm is used to try to find one or more faces in > it. If no faces are found, the nonce is increased and another attempt to > find a face is made. This can take from one to several hundred tries. > > When a face is found, the nonce and the face bounding rectangle are > recorded so the proof of work can be validated. > > Why? > ==== > > Bitcoin is a very interesting development in cyberculture. It's a > repository for the hopes and fears of various ideologies, and a frontier > or dark space for the imagination and social or economic activity in a > 90s Internet way. Its protocol is a communication model of existence, > identity, community and proof, with a CCRU-ish market worship at its > base. Because of all of this I think it's worthy of and desperately > needs artistic investigation. > > Artworks are proofs of aesthetic work, used as unique value identities > both in the market (art is used as an investment, signifier of status, > and symbolic resolution of lacks in free market ideology by oil > oligarchs and trust fund managers) and by organized crime (stolen art is > used as a medium of exchange by criminal gangs). > > If Facecoin was widely adopted these two value identity systems would be > trivially but critically mapped onto each other by millions of machines > cranking out imaginary portraits across the network as part of a > financial network, and vice versa. > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- ***************************** Pall Thayer artist http://pallthayer.dyndns.org *****************************
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