By Sunday 11:59pm, post a question (basic or sophisticated) about the material for this week.

By Wednesday 11:59pm, decide whether the promise of blockchain-based systems outweighs their risks, and post your conclusion. Back up your judgment with citations from the reading/viewing and/or class discussion.

All posts go to the week 12 channel.

A comprehensive guide for the lay person on how blockchain and NFTs work.

The Library of Congress' Trevor Owens suggests practical obstacles to adopting NFTs.

Jon Ippolito debunks 8 myths about NFTs, explains some of the jargon, and shows how a creator would actually mint an NFT. Choose the excerpts that most interest you from the interactive table of contents.

Technologist David Rosenthal eviscerates blockchains and crypto in this MIT lecture.

A cryptocurrency booster responds to common arguments against blockchain-based currencies.

Jon Ippolito compares token-enabled DAOs (Distributed Autonomous Organizations) to digital communities from the past.

If you don't know what web3 is, this explainer from the Wall Street Journal offers a basic introduction.

"Web3" architect Glen Weyl explains how a next-generation Internet might ensure creators are rewarded for their work and democracy is not subverted by disinformation and collusion.

A manifesto from RadicalXchange proposing decentralized solutions to the problem of a few tech companies controlling and profiting from user data.

This technical paper by Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver, and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin describes a blockchain-based solution to current problems with the current web dominated by platform monopolies. In the authors' view, non-transferable "soul-bound" cryptographic tokens could enable transparent mechanisms for fighting disinformation, rewarding creators, and making trustworthy community decisions.

A review of projects that allow communities to support public projects (like open-source software) and make collective decisions about their future.

Art historian Charlotte Kent explains blockchain's potential for securing creator royalties.

NFT boosters and a skeptic debate the merits of NFTs on the occasion of Sotheby's first NFT auction.

This Twitter Space (an audio-only panel accessible via Twitter) includes curators from brick-and-mortar and virtual museums talking about how web3 might affect their practice.