A small glossary not to get lost
If you don’t understand half of the words in the sentence: ‘I saw a meme in which an influencer advised her streaming to buy NFTs’, don’t worry. They are ‘words’ of new use (relatively) referring to very specific technologies and social phenomena. Here’s a glossary to catch up.
blockchain
It is a gigantic database distributed among the computers of the people and companies that participate in it –called nodes– and that contains all the transactions that have occurred in that network, as if it were an accounting book. When a change occurs, ‘blockchain’ creates a block with it, poses a complex mathematical challenge to the nodes and the first to solve it sends the solution to the others. If the majority of these certify that this solution is true, the nodes accept the block with the change produced, that block is closed, becomes part of the chain and an exact copy is made in all the nodes that cannot be modified or remove. In addition, the information regarding that transaction is accumulated, since each block is connected to the previous one and the next one, as if it were a chain (blockchain means ‘chain of blocks’).
Utility
Cryptocurrencies and safer economic exchanges, since everything is done in an encrypted way and the names of those who send money or those who receive it are not mentioned. Traceability in an order if production and distribution are automated. Smart contracts, for example, in a plane trip that includes travel insurance it will not be necessary to claim it to collect it because the trip will have been registered and if there has been a problem that justifies the payment of the insurance.
Main problems
There is no regulatory body for operations and no legislation. In addition, there is doubt about the privacy of the data of the movements.
malware
As its name suggests, it is a computer program that is harmful to the computer systems or networks on which it is installed, rendering them useless.
What cause?
Theft of passwords and paralysis of services in the companies and organizations affected, such as the ransomware attack on the Public State Employment Service in 2021.
Metaverses
They are digital worlds in which users create a three-dimensional character (avatar) that represents them and that continue to function even if the user is not connected. The best known currently is the one being prepared by Meta (formerly Facebook). To interact, it will be necessary to have virtual reality or augmented reality glasses and haptic gloves that transmit sensations in order to achieve the sensation of really being in that world and interacting in it as in the real world.
Utility
Not having to travel to have virtual meetings that seem real, access virtual communities without moving, create personalized virtual businesses…
Problems
The devices needed to interact isolate people. Currently there is no legislation and the owners of the metaverse can know all the movements and opinions of their users. Like any computer program, they can suffer computer attacks in which this data is stolen or the economy of the metaverse is paralyzed or the identity of the users is supplanted.
NFT
It is related to blockchain technology; specifically, with tokens, which are a unit of value based on cryptography and issued by a private entity within a blockchain, something like the coins that allow you to ride bumper cars, but virtual. A non-fungible good can be associated with the token, which is one that is unique, and thus guarantee the ownership of this object, which can be virtual (such as an image in jpg format, a video or a building in a metaverse) through blockchain. or real. Thus, an NFT is a digital certificate of authenticity of who is the sole owner of the object.
Phishing
It is the identity theft of all life but in the digital world. An email or text message (or, less frequently, a phone call) that pretends to be a company (bank, courier, energy company…) or organization and that urges the victim to enter a link to avoid a fine, a suspension of service, collecting a prize or any other excuse. If the user clicks and enters that page that seems true – but it is not – and asks him to enter personal information, it is done with his personal data.
streaming
It is a technology that allows you to receive audiovisual content on a device via the Internet without having to download it first. For example, music through Spotify, Netflix series or live broadcasts through Twitch. For the latter, you only need a camera and a home computer.
Utility
Virtually any device can receive videos and music via streaming, even if they are old or not very powerful, although an Internet connection is required.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.