Store a file on the Ethereum blockchain as NFT

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panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

https://trisquel.info/en/forum/file-can-be-copied-cannot-be-forged

Based on this thread, please tell me what software is needed to store the digital file of my song as NFT on Ethereum blockchain using Trisquel and only free software.
I think I've taken a glance through all the information about Ethereum on the Trisquel website. I also did a search for ”Ethereum” on Synaptic and didn't find any software that seems to do it.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

What a shame nobody replied in over 2 weeks. This thread was moved from "Trisquel users" to "General Free Software Talk", wasn't it? Well, good - otherwise I'd never notice it.

Unfortunately, getting into NFTs is not very straightforward. To issue one you would need to create a "smart contract". For that, you first need to get some ETH. Writing the contract and the NFT to blockchain will incur a transaction fee which can be equivalent to about $10 (judging from online charts). And to play with your own NFTs you will need to write some code or have it written by someone.

It seems the most common way of using NFT is through, well, apps. Ethereum uses name "dapps" for (decentralized) applications built on top of itself. Someone who wants to do something interesting with NFTs is expected to create their own application and distribute it to the users.

Tools for building on top of Ethereum are free/libre but apparently not packaged for Debian/Ubuntu/Trisquel. An NFT example on Ethereum website uses some python library called web3py. Perhaps it would be possible to install this library and its dependencies manually, thus avoiding pip and pypi? There are also tools made specifically for creation of dapps. Obviously, none of them is in the repos, so installation from third-parties or manual is necessary at this point in time.

Also, to be truly independent, you might want to run your own node with your copy of the blockchain. The official implementation is - you guessed it - free software that is not in the repos.

If you have time to devote, you can do this all by yourself. If not, you can hire a programmer. Or perhaps you rethought NFTs and decided they're not for you - that wouldn't be too surprising...

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

Before answering your answers, I'd like to ask you a question: Is it possible to sell NFTs through forward contract?
I'm sorry, I have a lot of things to think about so I'm confused now.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

What exactly do you mean by forward contract here? A transaction that is to actually happen in the future but has its price decided in advance? From what I searched this is a purely financial mechanism but I assume you are actually interested in a version of it that is secured by the blockchain, right?

Ethereum's smart contracts can perform arbitrary calculations, including operations on blocks' timestamps. The underlying programming language is turing complete, so it should be perfectly possible to cause some transaction including an NFT to be allowed to happen at certain point in the future (or even to trigger itself). Actually, it would make sense to implement something similar to futures to prevent a party from exiting from the deal.
Obviously, any smart contract will be limited to operation on ETH and the kinds of assets and currencies available on Ethereum network...

What now comes to my mind is that in case of Ethereum additional issues can arise when someone decides to put into the main network a contract with nonfree code. Then, all full nodes are going to execute it. I think this is completely different from conventional execution of a program on a computer and does not contradict the spirit of software freedom. If, however, someone has a different opinion, I would be happy to hear their points

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

> A transaction that is to actually happen in the future but has its price decided in advance?

That's right.

> this is a purely financial mechanism but I assume you are actually interested in a version of it that is secured by the blockchain, right?

May...perhaps. My knowledge of economics is almost only based on a half-way reading of Marx, and I have almost no knowledge of futures trading, so I'm trying to understanding throuth assuming the case where my customers sell their NFTs of my work as futures using a smart contract as one of the ways to sell them.

As far as I searched, there are no exchanges that sell (or broker) NFT futures transactions using Ethereum smart contract, although I have found exchanges that deal in ETH and BTC futures.
Do you know of any exchanges that deal in NFT futures, or can we use dapps to trade it?
I still have a limited understanding of Ehtereum, so I'm probably asking a stupid question, though.
The reason why I said forward contract instead of futures contract is because I thought that the system to handle NFTs as futures contract would not be formulated in Ethereum yet. Or can we think of the Ethereum blockchain itself as a comprehensive financial exchange? If so, should we call it futures contract in market derivatives(exchange trading) rather than forward contract in OTC derivatives?

As for the ethics of NFTs, I haven't come to a conclusion yet, but my current stance is to leave it up to the ethics of the people to whom I transferred/negotiated the NFTs to decide how to handle them, just like in the case of LBRY and TPB that you mentioned recently in another thread. I might leave it to the ethics of the people to whom I transfer the NFTs of my work. I have to admit that I personally have some doubts about the idea of opening up a platform where illegal files are distributed and leaving it to the ethics of the people who use it, but I also feel that some of the people who provide those platforms probably have the same doubts.

> when someone decides to put into the main network a contract with nonfree code

I am not sure, of course. Are you saying that a service like the Ethereum Alarm Clock in the link is a proprietary program and everyone who uses it will be using a non-free program, but the underlying Ethereum is free software and therefore not against the spirit of free software?? I too would be happy to hear their points.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

> I have almost no knowledge of futures trading, so I'm trying to understanding throuth assuming the case where my customers sell their NFTs of my work as futures using a smart contract as one of the ways to sell them.

I have no Idea whether it actually makes sense to sell NFTs as futures. From technical point of view it is doable.

Futures are different from forwards in that they are secured by some third party. From Wikipedia:

> As both parties risk their counter-party walking away if the price goes against them, the contract may involve both parties lodging a margin of the value of the contract with a mutually trusted third party. For example, in gold futures trading, the margin varies between 2% and 20% depending on the volatility of the spot market.

Here, it would be possible to craft a smart contract that would function as such third party. It would first take the margin value of ETH from buyer (or buyer and seller) and later allow the transaction to complete. Had one party refused to provide the rest of money of the token, the entire margin would go to the other one.

> As far as I searched, there are no exchanges that sell (or broker) NFT futures transactions using Ethereum smart contract, although I have found exchanges that deal in ETH and BTC futures.

That's what I'd expect, too.

> Do you know of any exchanges that deal in NFT futures, or can we use dapps to trade it?

We can sort of use dapps. It is possible to make a smart contract that would function as an exchange (the "third party" that I mentioned earlier). It would then be an obvious thing to create a dapp to facilitate interaction with such echange. I suppose it would be possible to create a single smart contract exchange that would allow any standards-compliant NFT to be traded.

> I still have a limited understanding of Ehtereum, so I'm probably asking a stupid question, though.

That was a good question.

> If so, should we call it futures contract in market derivatives(exchange trading) rather than forward contract in OTC derivatives?

If Ethereum is used to secure the deal (and there seems to be no reason not to use it this way, except being too lazy to write some code) then definitely futures contract.

> just like in the case of LBRY and TPB that you mentioned recently in another thread.

>> when someone decides to put into the main network a contract with nonfree code
>
> I am not sure, of course. Are you saying that a service like the Ethereum Alarm Clock in the link is a proprietary program and everyone who uses it will be using a non-free program, but the underlying Ethereum is free software and therefore not against the spirit of free software??

The Clock is permissively-licensed free software, so it is not an issue. Other contracts might be. And in addition to that, we should also notice that once a contract is issued to the blockchain, it remains there forever (well, unless it destroys itself). This means even libre-licensed smart contracts are in some way unmodifiable.
As a mere Ethereum user you are not really executing any of this code. Ethereum nodes do, as part of transactions validation. The code of the smart contracts people issued decides where the contracts send ETH (and tokens). As a wallet owner, you can choose not to closely interact with contracts you don't like. A full node has to compute all contracts nevertheless

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

The futures being traded in the actual markets seem to be purely for speculative purposes. After a certain amount of NFTs have been bought and sold, the NFT futures market will probably make some sense once a larger market forms and volatility increases. It certainly doesn't seem to make sense for the auction house to sell the NFTs of the artist that Christie's or Sotheby's I forget bought for $5.7 or $7.5 billion in futures now.

Thanks, I got a general understanding of the derivatives market. I think it's interesting, but I don't really like it. I don't even like the concept of interest rate, so how can I like the concept of derivatives? This kind of concept caused the financial crisis and we are paying to clean up the mess.
However, Ethereum seems to be a very good match for derivatives. You mean that smart contracts can replace (centralized) existing market exchanges, right? I think I have glimpsed the powerful potential of decentralized systems. The point is that even if cryptocurrency values were to crash in the cryptocurrency world and someone (e.g. a bank) were to go bankrupt, it doesn't look like we taxpayers would have to bail them out. And maybe there would be something we can use interestingly.

I also found out what is needed to issue NFTs, thanks to you as always. I wish I could find a good software or programmer to help me.

Once I understand the protocol, maybe I will be able to understand a little more of what I want to know a little more now, but I will look it up on Wikipedia myself, otherwise, it will get too off-topic (again).

However, I suppose it would be possible to ask one more thing here.

> I suppose it would be possible to create a single smart contract exchange that would allow any standards-compliant NFT to be traded.

That means that no one has yet developed the single smart contract as such a comprehensive NFT exchange, right?

edit:typo
for such a comprehensive NFT exchange, > as such a comprehensive NFT exchange,

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

> Thanks, I got a general understanding of the derivatives market.

Well, I should thank you for motivating me to find out things about Ethereum and derivatives in the first place

> However, Ethereum seems to be a very good match for derivatives. You mean that smart contracts can replace (centralized) existing market exchanges, right?

Not necessarily. Ethereum does make it possible to create exchanges that operate on Eth and NFTs. For all other things (conventional currencies, other cryptocurrencies, assets) transactions, in order to be secured in some way, would still require an external third party

> I wish I could find a good software or programmer to help me.

I am looking for paid contracts right now. I hope saying this is not against the Community Guidelines.

> That means that no one has yet developed the single smart contract as such a comprehensive NFT exchange, right?

I don't know. Our searches for "Ethereum futures" revealed nothing like that, so perhaps there's no such thing yet? Or perhaps there is some exchange but without support for futures? I don't know for sure.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> I hope saying this is not against the Community Guidelines.

From the Community Guidelines, which are accessible from all pages of the forum:
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/trisquel-community-guidelines

"Code of conduct

1. The forum / mailing lists exist to foster the development and use of Trisquel. Non-constructive or off-topic messages, along with other abuses, are not welcome."

Accordingly, this whole thread is totally off-topic, and as such goes against the Community Guidelines. Whether posting an advertisement for personal business within such a thread does make things worse is debatable.

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

I believe per is making a parody of another thread.

@koszkonutek

> I don't know. Our searches for "Ethereum futures" revealed nothing like that, so perhaps there's no such thing yet?

I see. If even the futures market is activated, this NFT boom is real.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

> From the Community Guidelines, which are accessible from all pages of the forum:
> https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/trisquel-community-guidelines

Thanks, I couldn't find those (I searched, really)

> 1. The forum / mailing lists exist to foster the development and use of Trisquel. Non-constructive or off-topic messages, along with other abuses, are not welcome."
>
> Accordingly, this whole thread is totally off-topic, and as such goes against the Community Guidelines.

I wouldn't say so. It is in the "General Free Software Talk" forum. I would say the matter of issuing an NFT using free software fits here quite well. Also, it is implicitly assumed the tools and methods we discuss here apply to Trisquel.

As to my advertisement, I hoped it wouldn't be bad given that it resulted from the discussion quite naturally. And also given that I am not not advertising by spamming or anything like that.

> I believe per is making a parody of another thread.

In this case I was being quite serious, actually.

Sorry if my post was not suitable here

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

I would be very grateful if you might take the job seriously.
I am going to crowdfund and offer autographed copies of my work to investors as rewards.
In addition to that, I will be offering NFT copies of my work too to investors as a reward (Reward-based crowdfunding).

As for setting the price of the reward, I will ask you to create NFTs and transfer them to the investors.
Please set a price for the creation and transfer of one NFT. I will add that price to the price of the reward. If the crowdfunding is successful, you will receive all the added money related to the NFTs. The only thing is that the crowdfunding company will charge us an around 6-16% commission, which I will deduct from the total investment, including the added price as costs of NFTs, equally.

As I have mentioned, I will not be involved in the preparations that investors need to make in order to receive their NFTs, which means that investors will have to make some preparations themselves to receive the NFTs.
However, it would be a shame if they hesitate to invest because of this, so I am thinking of introducing someone who can help them prepare for this.
If you are willing to take it too on, I can provide them with contact information and the cost of preparing it on the crowdfunding site.
I'm sure there are many investors like me who don't know how to receive and manage NFTs, so that's something I have to take care of.

I personally consider it a gray area as to whether this violates the community guidelines. I personally don't think your statement was an advertisement at all, but there might be some people who think that further discussion should take place in private.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

I sent you an email via forum. I hope you received it (I have bad experiences with forum emails in general)

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

It seems that I haven't received them.
OK, I will send you an email with invitation.
Would you let me check the fingerprint of your email address?
I'm a bit afraid but since the forum emailing system does not seem to provide encrypt option, so, yeah...

Mine is: DA75 888D AC28 E81E AD1C E3ED 0C93 7214 3E45 EC8D
This is exclusive one to you.

If this is against the community guidelines, please downvote this post according to the rule. I will reflect it.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

Here's my key (email address included):
https://koszkonutek-tmp.pl.eu.org/key.gpg

Fingerprint: E972 7060 E3C5 637C 8A4F 4B42 4BC5 221C 5A79 FD1A

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

It doesn"t match. Wait a minute. I'll double-check.

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

And? Did you eventually import the right key? If not - what fingerprint did you actually get?

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

I told you I was a little confused. Hold on a second.

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

The fingerprint appears to be 4B42 4BC5 221C 5A79 FD1A.

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

Okay, it matched. I was able to send an email.

panties
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Joined: 02/02/2021

By the way, you all like gambling, don't you? My life itself has been a big gamble, but I have no interest in bicycle racing, lotteries, or pachinko, exchange market etc so I wonder why everyone is so passionate about it. Those are really boring compared to some future artist's ambition...