The Energy Debate in Blockchain and Art

This episode is all about NFTs. It seems like nothing has caught on and spread into mainstream interest like NFTs, where one hears everything from "I've never seen anything like this before" to "is this like ICOs all over again" to "it's just a jpg I don't get it" to "but what about the energy use!"

So, in this special deep-dive episode from the a16z Podcast network, we break down everything you need or want to know about NFTs -- while cutting through the noise for what’s hype/ what’s real, as well as where are on the long arc (and sometimes seemingly sudden tipping point!) of innovation (apparently, Google trends data showed that interest in NFTs recently surpassed interest in cryptocurrency). Editor in chief Sonal Chokshi interviews friends of a16z crypto Linda Xie, co-founder of Scalar Capital and former Product Manager at Coinbase; and Jesse Walden, founder at Variant Fund and former co-founder of Mediachain Labs (which was acquired by Spotify, where he was then an R&D lead).

Posted on both the a16z Podcast show and 16 Minutes -- as one of our "2-3x explainer episodes" of topics that keep coming up over and over again in the news (past such episodes have covered everything from Section 230 and Tiktok to GPT-3 and the opioid crisis) -- this episode covers:

• what NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are -- as well as the properties of crypto that enable them, just to set some big-picture context;
• what forms they take, and what is and ISN’T an NFT -- including where “social tokens” and the creator economy do and don’t come in;
• common myths and misconceptions -- from ‘just a jpg’ to the frequent question of energy use & NFTs;
• how they work -- as well as the broader ecosystem around NFTs, and different players;
• various applications, now and next -- touching briefly on how to think about NFTs, whether you’re an artist/ creator, developer, or institution.

...This episode is for everyone!

transcript available at: https://a16z.com/2021/03/27/nfts-explainer-faqs-hype-reality-innovation-crypto-creator-economy

image: Mona Lisa/ Creative Commons 4.0; changes made by Greg Truesdell per Sonal Chokshi, who dubbed it "The First 500 Years" as a nod to Beeple's "The First 5000 Days"

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