profiles Text by ASHMITA RAJMOHAN and ANDREW XUE
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Art by BLAIR MIGDAL
CRYPTO CRAZE
STUDENTS VENTURE INTO THE CRYPTO WORLD
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69 MILLION. THAT IS HOW much Mike Winkelmann, a renowned American digital artist, earned from selling his NFT, or non-fungible token. Upon reading this news, Palo Alto High School senior Ziv Weissman decided to learn about and create NFTs, a decision that would later have a profound impact on his life. Weissman is one of several Paly students who have taken it upon themselves to explore the possibilities of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Decrypting crypto A cryptocurrency is a digital asset secured by cryptography, making it nearly impossible to counterfeit. The technology that underlies crypto is called blockchain, a digital receipt of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across systems of computer networks around the world. “Blockchain is mostly used to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions,” Weissman said. “This means that you can make transactions without having to go through a central authority, which in theory, results in quicker transactions and lower fees.” Each block in the chain contains many transactions, and every time a new one occurs, a record of that transaction is added to every participant’s ledger. Cryptic activities Andrew Pham, a freshman at Foothill College and Paly Class of 2021 alum, is one of many who are currently part of a group that mines Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency. Mining is performed using
KNOWING YOUR NFT – NFTs that come in the form of digital art are usually released as a part of a collection. These portraits are a part of a larger collection known as Cryptopunks, which can sell up to $550 million each. “Somebody that owns an NFT could be the only person in the world to be able to interact with certain codes within that NFT,” senior Ziv Weissman said.
sophisticated hardware that solves complex computational math problems in order to complete a block of verified transactions. “I had extra graphics cards that I could make money from, so it was nice to have some form of passive income,” Pham said. Every time a transaction is verified, the rewarded cryptocurrency tokens are split among miners that contribute money to maintaining the hardware.
He emphasizes that there is a difference between owning an NFT and being able to look at a copy of it. “They’re selling 8,888 of these angry ape NFTs,” Weissman said. “When you own this NFT of the ape, you are able to play with it in some NFT gamification, something you can’t do if you don’t own it.” His interest in NFTs has also prompted him to create his own digital art. Sometimes you have “On Open Navigating NFTs Source, a program no idea why modern NFTs are unique, used for NFT creirreplaceable digital art is so valuable beation, I am generatassets that are verified cause you don’t see the ing a script to generand stored using blockate 1,000 variations chain technology. They value in it.” of a certain piece of represent a range of reart I created,” Weiss— ZIV WEISSMAN, senior man said. “After I al-world objects such as music, in-game items create this NFT coland videos, though the current craze re- lection, I can publish it on the NFT marvolves around digital artwork. ketplace Open Seas, which allows others to While digital files can be quickly and end- see and buy it.” lessly duplicated, with NFTs, artworks can Weissman views NFTs as more than be “tokenized” to create a digital certificate just a form of digital art that can be purof ownership that can be bought and sold. chased. Because of this, many people joke that “NFTs allow people who own them to NFT’s are worthless simply because you come together over their love and passion can copy the original by taking a picture. for or emotional connection to these pieces “Sometimes you have no idea why of art that they chose to buy and socialize modern art is so valuable because you don’t in a whole new form of interaction,” Weisssee the value in it,” Weissman said. man said. v
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