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mattdesl
Personal blog · mattdesl.substack.comdesignprogramming
mattdesl is a personal blog at mattdesl.substack.com about design and programming. Since 2021, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web3”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-12-11, and you can follow it by feed.
musings on creative coding.
Most-linked posts?
- Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web33 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2021-11-14
What Hacker News says?
there are many non-PoW chains and applications built on top of them that meet your criteria, and are already benefiting from the decentralization of these networks. I wrote about one case here: https://mattdesl.substack.com/p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-...
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on “It’s not still the early days of blockchain”Submitted Subscapes – Breakdown of a Generative Artwork as a story · 22 points
HN discussionIronically, this is great for NFT artists: most artists distributing their work as signed tokens want the high resolution media to be more widely distributed across many points of failure (that's exactly why IPFS is typically chosen). So far most comments here fail to understand that the economic value of an NFT, unlike traditional art through most of recent history, is not tied to scarcity of access to its media. I…
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on “TheNFTbay.org – The Billion Dollar Torrent (All NFT's from Ethereum and Solana)”Submitted Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web3 as a story · 4 points
HN discussionPretty much every time this comes up, I point to Hicetnunc, as I feel despite its small size and shaky organization, it is indicative of the kind of disruptions that may occur, and also how it may prove beneficial to many creators. https://mattdesl.substack.com/p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-... Considering NFT/Web3 only really entered public discourse in 2021, and programmable smart contracts are still nascent, I wo…
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on “Web3 Is Bullshit”Submitted H=N and the Merits of Decentralized “Web3” Art Markets as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe term "Web3" may be bullshit: it wrongly implies that crypto/blockchains will replace current web structures like servers, websites, AWS media hosting, OAuth, etc. But, the ideas of Web3 — building applications on top of distributed ledgers and programmable smart contracts — is rather novel, potentially paradigm-shifting, and has already exhibited some clear merits[1]. Most likely this will continue to grow as th…
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on “Web3 Is Bullshit”Submitted Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web3 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionthere is a certain irony in peer hosting IPFS-based NFTs thru BitTorrent as an attempt at some kind of critique… I hope they do this with Hicetnunc[1] NFTs too and help back up all that media. :) [1] - https://mattdesl.substack.com/p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-...
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on ““The NFT Bay” Shares Multi-Terabyte Archive of ‘Pirated’ NFTs”Submitted Hicetnunc and the Merits of Web3 as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSome NFTs are distributed as 1/1 (like a single-edition print of a photographic negative), while others are distributed as an edition of 50 or 1000. In the case of platforms like ArtBlocks[1], each edition is itself unique and tied to the transaction hash, hence their tagline "1 of 1 of X." The buyer holds the token (cryptographically secured to their wallet). Any person can save the JPG that is conceptually tied to…
Comment linking /p/subscapes-part-1-preface
on “Visa Buys CryptoPunk #7610”Submitted Blockchain-Based Archival Generative Art as a story · 1 points
HN discussionNot the first NFT marketplace to shut down; and won't be the last. Depending on the implementation, this may or may not have much of an impact on the assets being distributed and/or traded on the platform.[1] I suspect most marketplaces that take a completely open and decentralized approach will struggle against spam, plagiarism, and regulation. [1] - https://mattdesl.substack.com/p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-...
Comment linking /p/hicetnunc-and-the-merits-of-web3
on “NFT marketplace shuts, citing 'rampant' fakes, plagiarism problem”Submitted Archival Generative Art on the Blockchain as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI am an artist running a Shopify store (prints), and also have been selling via NFTs on Tezos and Ethereum for the last few months. If NFT continues to be profitable in the long term (even a fraction of what it is currently), there will be no need for me to continue using Shopify. Consider the fees alone: I pay monthly fees for Shopify, for art printing and shipping, pens and physical materials, hosting my domain na…
Comment linking /p/subscapes-part-1-preface
on “The Non-Innovation of Cryptocurrency”