It all STEMs
from Chicago
from Chicago
I Can’t Even… with Centralized Storage
Crypto Culture 101
The Singularity
Degen Drama
100
Chicago was the birthplace of this 1893 fair, which introduced the world to the first Ferris wheel and helped shape modern architecture.
What is the World's Columbian Exposition?
100
This type of address, used by IPFS, stays the same even if the content moves — because it’s based on the content itself, not its location.
What is content addressing?
100
Eric Hughes wrote in this 1993 manifesto: "Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know."
What is 'A Cypherpunk's Manifesto'?
100
In his 1999 book 'The Age of Spiritual Machines,' Kurzweil predicted this technology would be widely available by the 2020s, allowing computers to understand human speech.
What is speech recognition?
100
This cryptocurrency exchange crashed due to mismanagement of funds, lack of liquidity and the large volume of withdrawals. Binance announced it would buy it to prevent a larger market crash, but quickly bailed out of the deal as more news reports of mishandled customer funds surfaced.
What is FTX?
200
The Chicago-based innovation hub, 1871, was named after this "Great" thing.
What is the Great Rebuilding?
200
Storacha uses DIDs — short for these — so that users can fully own and control their digital identity.
What are Decentralized Identifiers?
200
This distributed ledger technology, popularized by Ethereum in 2015, allows for self-executing contracts with terms written in code.
What are smart contracts?
200
This philosophical concept, central to Singularity theory, proposes that technology's rate of change increases exponentially rather than linearly.
What is the Law of Accelerating Returns?
200
This hilariously low-quality character from the Pixelmon NFT reveal went so viral for its awkward 3D art that it became an ironic Web3 mascot — with memes, derivative projects, and even its own OpenSea collection.
What is Kevin?
300
In the 1980s, this neighborhood became a major hub for the early tech boom, earning the nickname "Silicon Prairie."
What is the Fulton Market District?
300
In 2017, to circumvent government censorship during the Catalan independence referendum, activists used this decentralized protocol to mirror restricted websites, ensuring continued access to information.
What is IPFS?
300
This 1984 William Gibson novel coined the term 'cyberspace' and is considered the defining work of the cyberpunk genre.
What is "Neuromancer"?
300
This mathematician and computer scientist first proposed the concept of technological singularity in the 1950s, calling it the 'intelligence explosion'.
Who is I.J. Good (Irving John Good)?
300
This crypto influencer — known for shilling questionable coins, feuding with other creators, and even claiming he was kidnapped over a Lambo dispute — saw his empire crumble after lawsuits, internal betrayals, and a very public fall from grace that included rumors of crypto-fueled chaos and...cocaine?
Who is Bitboy (Ben Armstrong)?
400
The world’s first nuclear reactor, buried in a forest preserve just southwest of Chicago was part of this top-secret, US government-led research and development program during World War II that produced the first atomic bombs, ushering in the nuclear age.
What is the Manhattan Project?
400
This is the name of the data structure IPLD uses to link pieces of content-addressed data together, forming a graph-like structure ideal for distributed systems.
What is a Merkle DAG?
400
Created by cryptographer David Chaum in 1983, this early electronic cash system was the first to use cryptographic protocols to secure transactions.
What is eCash or DigiCash?
400
This term describes the hypothetical moment when AI begins rapidly improving itself, creating ever-smarter versions without human input.
What is recursive self-improvement?
400
This North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, named after a biblical figure, has stolen over $3 billion in cryptocurrency since 2017.
Who is the Lazarus Group?
500
In 1978, this Chicago tech company made history by creating the first personal computer with an Intel 8080 processor, signaling the beginning of the personal computing revolution.
What is Vector Graphics, Inc.?
500
In addition to storing data, Filecoin enables decentralized retrieval markets powered by these participants, who fetch data and deliver it to users.
What are retrieval miners?
500
Created by cryptographers Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991, this was the first cryptographically secured chain of blocks, predating Bitcoin by nearly two decades.
What is Merkle tree-based timestamping?
500
This philosophical concept, important in Singularity discussions, refers to the emergence of novel properties when simple systems combine into more complex ones.
What is emergence?
500
This DeFi founder known as '0xSifu' was revealed to be Michael Patryn, previously involved with the collapsed Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX
Who is the Wonderland/Time Wonderland treasurer?