Portals

I find it interesting that when you open your phone or computer you can use it as a portal to the digital world. I find that when I see some of my favourite aerosol art online I am looking through a portal to a rendition of another portal. One virtual and the other temporarily existing as a painting as one in a digital world. Maybe that is why I find Felipe Pantone so interesting. He tries to blur the boundaries between the real and digital the same way the portals to the digital world do between real events and their publication as a digital moment tied to attention and comprehension. For one comprehension is never accurate as we have the context that changes from moment to moment in the real world as much as it does in the digital world. The digital worlds only boundary is the portal itself. Now that we have digital space being bought and sold for example you have unique areas designated within a platform for gain or loss. With so many platforms using the Ethereum blockchain as the backbone for NFT adoption and dissemination you have the digital world slowly being owned and sold. There are other blockchains that provide a platform with a backend other than Ethereum although Ethereum is currently the most adopted for NFT projects. From video streaming to games and fan-based interactions with digital assets there is strong adoption. Contrary to popular belief Ethereum is largely carbon neutral and heading toward low power overheads with current updates and planned updates to the network. Bitcoin is far more cumbersome in terms of power consumption yet the digital world is largely based on high power consumption by default. Maybe the fact that the digital world is built from servers and physical tools there is a need for monetising digital space. Whether we like it or not the platforms are being set up for this scenario. In China, large social media platforms are tied to large payment platforms that have been highly successful and widely adopted whereas Western countries have lagged behind. When I was in China every payment was made through a social media application. Even beggars would use their phones to receive digital payments in China. This will be made in the West eventually but what will it look like? Will it be tied to digital currencies? China is already rolling out its own digital currency to move into the digital space. Let us see how the digital space will grow.

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