00:00:00:01 - 00:00:32:01
Mary Daphne
Although advancing as learners. Welcome back to The Lesson. If you're listening on the podcast, welcome. If you're listening and watching on YouTube. Welcome. The reason we do these conversations is to give you an opportunity to listen to native English speakers and to see if you can catch everything we say and give you an opportunity for listening comprehension, giving you also some nice vocab, maybe some new phrases that you haven't heard of before.

00:00:32:06 - 00:00:42:00
Mary Daphne
And also checking in with your pronunciation to see if you can match it to ours. All right. So with that being said, are you ready for the topic, Greg?

00:00:42:07 - 00:00:43:13
Greg
Very ready. What do we got?

00:00:43:16 - 00:00:50:12
Mary Daphne
All right. Well, it's three letters. We're going to talk today about an F TS.

00:00:50:18 - 00:00:51:25
Greg
Ho Ho and F.

00:00:51:25 - 00:00:52:23
Mary Daphne
TS. Yep.

00:00:53:03 - 00:00:53:19
Greg
All right.

00:00:53:23 - 00:01:10:26
Mary Daphne
Let's jump right in. All right, Greg, maybe you can tell us and tell the audience what nf ts are. What are they?

00:01:11:18 - 00:01:36:00
Greg
That's a great question. And lefties are very, very misunderstood. And it's the best thing to do is just start at a very basic level. Right. A very fundamental level, I should say, which is that an NFT is just a standard. Right. So it's a coding standard. So on the blockchain, you have smart contracts.

00:01:36:11 - 00:01:37:14
Mary Daphne
So what's a blockchain?

00:01:37:21 - 00:01:38:12
Greg
Okay, so a.

00:01:38:12 - 00:01:39:00
Mary Daphne
Blockchain.

00:01:39:00 - 00:02:04:24
Greg
That a blockchain you've heard of many blockchains. You know, there's Bitcoin, there's Etherium. They're basically ledgers. And typically they are public ledgers. So it's just a long list of transactions. And because they're public, everyone can access them and see them. Yeah. So that's what a typical blockchain is. Mm hmm. And on the blockchain, certain blockchains like Ethereum, you can actually run smart contracts.

00:02:05:01 - 00:02:14:08
Greg
Right. So more than just simple transactions, you can actually run little programs on the blockchain, right? And these little programs are called smart contracts.

00:02:14:12 - 00:02:14:21
Mary Daphne
Okay.

00:02:15:00 - 00:02:23:03
Greg
And an NFT is just a type of smart contract and it uses a standard called I.R.S. 721.

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Mary Daphne
Wow. It sounds so futuristic.

00:02:25:13 - 00:02:41:24
Greg
I.R.S. is just a type of Etherium standard, but you also have nfts on other blockchains like Solana. Right? So one is another popular blockchain, and they have their own standard for an NFT. But what an NFT stands for is non fungible token.

00:02:41:26 - 00:02:46:03
Mary Daphne
Okay. So what does fungible mean? Let's first define that term. Fungible?

00:02:46:04 - 00:03:06:02
Greg
Yeah. So fungible just means easily exchangeable with another of the same items. So, for example, a dollar is fungible. Right. If I give you a dollar and then you give me a dollar, it doesn't matter if you gave me the same dollar that I gave you. Right. Because they're fungible, right? Every dollar is essentially the same.

00:03:06:02 - 00:03:08:01
Mary Daphne
They're more or less equal in value.

00:03:08:04 - 00:03:25:02
Greg
They're not only are they equal in value, they're sort of equal in in purpose and function. Right. Whereas an NFT is non-fungible nonfungible. Which means it's another way of saying that it's unique. Right? Right. And what doesn't have to be rare.

00:03:25:14 - 00:03:25:21
Mary Daphne
Right.

00:03:25:22 - 00:03:47:09
Greg
Well, that one individual is unique. So it's more than rare. There's only one of it. But they can be many. NFT is of a certain type. But each of those entities is slightly different in one way or another. Okay. Right. And so it's nonfungible in that you can exchange it for anything exactly the same as it. Mm hmm.

00:03:47:27 - 00:04:02:07
Greg
And that's really powerful for a lot of different things. When we hear about Nfts and, you know, social media and mainstream media and in the news and in the news, we're typically hearing about a very specific type of NFT.

00:04:02:12 - 00:04:03:02
Mary Daphne
Which is what?

00:04:03:02 - 00:04:04:10
Greg
Which is art. Right.

00:04:04:27 - 00:04:06:25
Mary Daphne
Right. And so.

00:04:06:28 - 00:04:14:24
Greg
Digital art. Digital art. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And why is digital art a good candidate for a non-fungible token? Because it's unique.

00:04:14:24 - 00:04:15:09
Mary Daphne
It's unique.

00:04:15:09 - 00:04:34:05
Greg
Exactly right. When I draw a picture of a horse, it'll look very different than the picture of a horse that you draw. Your eyes will be much better than mine. I'm sure of it. Right. These are all unique pieces of art. And so a non-fungible token can represent that digital piece of art.

00:04:34:13 - 00:04:48:00
Mary Daphne
Got it. Okay. So I've heard before people say that Nfts might be harmful to the environment. What do you have to say about that? Is it true? Is it false?

00:04:48:03 - 00:04:48:18
Greg
Yeah.

00:04:48:18 - 00:04:49:12
Mary Daphne
What's the situation?

00:04:49:13 - 00:05:11:18
Greg
Well, I'll start by saying that I'm a huge proponent of environmental conservation. Right. And and energy reduction. So I care a lot about ensuring the future for our children and the future of the planet. So the environment is very important to me. And I just want to be very clear that Nfts themselves have no impact on the environment.

00:05:11:23 - 00:05:26:14
Greg
There's a lot of confusion about this. Now, it is true that the blockchains that support nfts can be energy consuming. However, as of probably September or October of this year.

00:05:26:14 - 00:05:28:00
Mary Daphne
October 2020.

00:05:28:16 - 00:05:55:25
Greg
Two, the largest blockchain smart contract blockchain Ethereum, where most nfts are created and hosted, will be transitioning to a proof of stake. Right. So it's currently proof of work, right? And the proof of work protocol takes a lot of energy. So Bitcoin is another proof of work protocol and it uses something like three or 4% of the entire world's energy.

00:05:55:27 - 00:05:56:26
Mary Daphne
Tremendous. Right.

00:05:57:12 - 00:06:10:29
Greg
And to be fair, Etherium is also using a ton of energy, not as much, but a lot as well. When it transitions to proof of stake, it'll be 99.69, 9.9, 6% more energy efficient.

00:06:11:00 - 00:06:24:09
Mary Daphne
Amazing. That's a huge deal for the environment and also for people who want to maybe participate in that kind of the blockchain, but also who are environmentally conscious.

00:06:24:12 - 00:06:25:06
Greg
Absolutely.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:26:03
Mary Daphne
So it's important.

00:06:26:08 - 00:06:49:04
Greg
Absolutely. Now, going service, going back to NFT is and if keys are just again, their type of smart contract. Yes. So they themselves, even on Ethereum, don't use up energy. Right. You can think of the theory on the blockchain as kind of like a train. Right. A train is always moving between stations. Right. Let's say a train from New York City to Washington, D.C..

00:06:49:09 - 00:07:14:05
Greg
Right. That train is going back and forth every few hours. And whether or not you get on the train doesn't matter. Irrelevant to whether or not that train runs. That train's going to keep running. Yeah. So you can think of an NFT, kind of like you getting on a train, right? You're the NFT and the NFT. Whether or not it gets posted to the blockchain has no impact on the energy consumption of the blockchain.

00:07:14:18 - 00:07:35:27
Greg
So I just want to clarify that nfts don't themselves use any energy so you can mint a bunch of entities and not worry about your energy consumption, but you can be concerned about is the energy consumption, the technology that it runs on. And like we said, very soon, that shouldn't be an issue for the vast majority of Nfts, which I'm very excited about.

00:07:35:28 - 00:08:01:28
Mary Daphne
Yeah, that's a big deal. It really is. So can anyone create an NFT or is it just sort of a select group of people like famous artists or digital artists or I mean, I've seen I've seen rocks like pictures of just like really very abstract but basic looking things. And then I've also seen very elaborate, beautiful digital art.

00:08:02:16 - 00:08:07:21
Mary Daphne
So who can make these? And can you tell us a little bit about that?

00:08:07:26 - 00:08:19:17
Greg
That's a great question as well. I mean, the beauty of the blockchain in general is it's public, right? It's also called permissionless, which means no one needs permission to use it.

00:08:19:27 - 00:08:25:24
Mary Daphne
Right. That's really cool because there's no real barrier to it. Exactly. It's open to everyone.

00:08:25:25 - 00:08:31:06
Greg
It's open to everyone. And so to answer your question, absolutely. Anyone can make an NFT.

00:08:31:15 - 00:08:32:03
Mary Daphne
Very cool.

00:08:32:03 - 00:08:41:02
Greg
Right. And so when it comes to making an NFT, there actually are a lot of pieces of software out there, programs online that will help you do that. Mm hmm.

00:08:41:21 - 00:08:45:02
Mary Daphne
Like what? What would that be like? Adobe Photoshop? Yeah.

00:08:45:02 - 00:08:46:06
Greg
Adobe adobe.

00:08:46:06 - 00:08:46:28
Mary Daphne
Fresco.

00:08:46:29 - 00:09:09:08
Greg
Adobe fresco? Yeah. If you just search NFT generator online, you're going to find a bunch of different options. That's cool. I would focus on getting a recommendation from someone who specializes in NFT. I'm not a specialist, an anti specialist. I know a fair amount about them, but in terms of creating them, that's not really my expertize. So I would be sure to get a recommendation from someone who is an expert.

00:09:09:08 - 00:09:11:20
Mary Daphne
If someone wants to create an idea themselves just.

00:09:11:20 - 00:09:15:06
Greg
Because you don't want to use a program that could be harmful to your computer, right?

00:09:15:07 - 00:09:15:28
Mary Daphne
Oh, yeah, that's true.

00:09:15:29 - 00:09:17:23
Greg
There are a lot of scams.

00:09:17:23 - 00:09:29:28
Mary Daphne
Yeah, right. And like free software, when you download things off the Internet, you really need to be careful exactly what you're downloading because you could be also downloading malware, which is. Yeah. Yikes. That's it. Yeah. No, no.

00:09:30:14 - 00:09:52:28
Greg
Yeah, exactly. So anyone can make an NFT. If you have any kind of artistic inclination, you should totally try it out. Cool. And you can try it on, on on cheaper blockchains, too, right? So, Etherium itself, the layer one is quite expensive to make in anything, but Etherium has layer two's like arbitrage and optimism and decay sync, right?

00:09:52:28 - 00:10:02:14
Greg
So those are much, much cheaper. So I encourage Polygon is another great one. Mm hmm. So I encourage you to look at some of those cheaper options if you want to play around with making your own NFT.

00:10:02:16 - 00:10:23:24
Mary Daphne
Yeah. And you can also just, you know, practice for fun to see what kind of digital art you come up with. And, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be an NFT per se, but if you're interested in digital art, you could, you know, just try and make something on your computer or your tablet or wherever you make digital art could you make an NFT where you simply take a photo of something?

00:10:24:05 - 00:10:32:11
Greg
Absolutely. Literally anything that you can view on a computer can be can be compiled into an NFT.

00:10:32:12 - 00:10:32:20
Mary Daphne
Wow.

00:10:33:10 - 00:11:00:16
Greg
And it's just a so again, an NFT is just a smart contract. You're not necessarily storing the data of that image right on the blockchain. You can, but that's more expensive because that's a lot of data. Typically what an NFT does is it simply points to an image stored somewhere else. So you could store an image on your OneDrive or a Google Drive or on, you know, Amazon's database and simply link to that in your NFT code.

00:11:00:16 - 00:11:12:24
Greg
So the code of the NFT will point to that image, but that image is hosted elsewhere. Right. But purists NFT purists say, well, that's not properly decentralized because what if Amazon's says take that down? What if Google says take that down?

00:11:12:24 - 00:11:13:08
Mary Daphne
Right. Right.

00:11:13:15 - 00:11:34:06
Greg
So we now actually also have decentralized storage options like Ipfs interplanetary file system. Well, that's cool. Where you can actually store your files and host them in a decentralized way. So if you want to put something up and you're worried about, you know, being told to take it down, well, in these decentralized venues, it's much harder to be censored.

00:11:34:17 - 00:11:36:04
Greg
So that's a really cool option.

00:11:36:13 - 00:11:58:04
Mary Daphne
Yeah. Wow. So it's it's sort of it's almost a little bit futuristic, but I think it's the direction that the world is heading in, in a lot of ways. Oh, yeah. You know, the creator economy is upon us, which is very exciting because I feel like with people who have artistic ability and are, you know, hoping to do that in a way that'll support their lifestyle.

00:11:58:04 - 00:12:14:12
Mary Daphne
And they're living this now, web3 can sort of give them that opportunity where they can, you know, do their creative pursuits, have their creative endeavors, and then make a living off of that. And, you know, that's pretty cool.

00:12:14:20 - 00:12:36:20
Greg
That's spot on. Yeah, we haven't talked too much about it, but one of the things that makes NFT so powerful is that you can build in. It's a smart contract. Yeah. So you can build in all kinds of revenue models for the artist, right? So you can have an NFT that every time it gets sold to a different person, the artist, the original creator, it gets a cut of that sale.

00:12:36:20 - 00:12:52:21
Greg
Right? Gets a commission of that sale. And that's not something that it relies on. Trust is built into the code. So each time it changes hands, the artist gets a cut. You can also do things like every time it gets handed to a different person, the image morphs a little bit.

00:12:52:22 - 00:12:53:24
Mary Daphne
Oh, that's neat. You can.

00:12:53:24 - 00:12:55:03
Greg
Do really cool dynamic.

00:12:55:03 - 00:13:02:25
Mary Daphne
Changes. Owners like I could have owned the NFT and then I. Then you buy it for me and exactly. Someone else buys it.

00:13:03:03 - 00:13:18:17
Greg
And while there can be multiple owners, what makes digital NFT is so powerful is that the creator is etched permanently into the blockchain, right? So you always know the provenance. There is zero risk.

00:13:18:17 - 00:13:20:12
Mary Daphne
Where it came from, where it is.

00:13:20:21 - 00:13:39:27
Greg
Right? There is zero risk of a counterfeit NFT. Everyone always ask, well, what's the difference between just right click saving an image and saying, Here's my NFT? Well, you can look at the code of the NFT. Yeah. On the blockchain. Basically the record of it being added to the blockchain and only the person who created it can prove that they created it.

00:13:40:06 - 00:13:45:03
Greg
Right. So there's zero question about where it came from. There's zero possibility of counterfeit. Yeah.

00:13:45:03 - 00:14:01:02
Mary Daphne
Or plagiarism and that kind of thing. Like how, you know, someone might steal someone's idea or their visual representation of something and then try to pass it along as their own. That doesn't fly in this space.

00:14:01:09 - 00:14:10:11
Greg
Yeah. And I would encourage I would also encourage people to look past a lot of the press that it gets around. Yeah. You know. Oh, there's so many scams in Nfts. That's true.

00:14:10:11 - 00:14:12:19
Mary Daphne
There are. There's scams. Everything everywhere.

00:14:12:22 - 00:14:18:21
Greg
Scams, everything. And right now, there's a very specific type of NFT that's popular, which is called a PSP, which.

00:14:18:21 - 00:14:19:10
Mary Daphne
Profile.

00:14:19:10 - 00:14:19:25
Greg
Picture.

00:14:20:02 - 00:14:22:21
Mary Daphne
Oh. That they can post on their social media posts.

00:14:22:21 - 00:14:24:09
Greg
On their social media account. Exactly.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:27:02
Mary Daphne
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, wherever Tik Tok.

00:14:27:07 - 00:14:50:21
Greg
Exactly. And this got popular early on with the cryptopunks. Yeah. And then a little later they bought it Yacht Club. But there have been because there was were so popular, it became so valuable. Yeah. There became so many new entrants, right? So many low effort, low quality papers that came onto the market. So suddenly the market was flooded with them and everyone wanted to make money the way others made money before them.

00:14:50:21 - 00:15:15:10
Greg
So they everyone started speculating on these things and it just created an awful, terrible, toxic ecosystem. And it looked bad for the public. It was very bad for the people trying to trade them and make money off of them. So it was really a disaster. But that doesn't change the fact that the underlying technology of Nfts, particularly as a use case for art, again, nfts can be used for all different kinds of things financial products, ownership of.

00:15:15:10 - 00:15:16:09
Mary Daphne
Fundraising.

00:15:16:09 - 00:15:34:13
Greg
Fundraising, ownership of houses, right? Real estate. Because and if you can represent anything, it can represent a contract, anything unique, right? But so the point is that the underlying technology of an NFT is is still there and it's so powerful and we're really just scratching the surface of what we can do with it.

00:15:34:14 - 00:15:54:27
Mary Daphne
Yeah. So more to come. We'll probably talk about this topic again. We'll revisit it in the future. Send us your questions. Send us your comments. Have you heard about an NFT before? Are you curious to maybe dabble in it? Are you maybe going to be a creator of an NFT, these smart contracts or what is your take on it?

00:15:55:12 - 00:15:56:26
Greg
So you've got to hear it.

00:15:56:27 - 00:16:04:15
Mary Daphne
Be interesting to hear your perspective as well. As always, we welcome your feedback and such. So thanks for joining me. Greg. This is really fun.

00:16:04:15 - 00:16:06:19
Greg
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I could talk all day about it.

00:16:06:21 - 00:16:28:24
Mary Daphne
It's very technical, but I think beyond sort of like when you get to the bigger picture of these these concepts, it really starts to make sense. And, you know, they're puzzle pieces in a way that when you get more and more information about this type of technology, it starts it starts to connect, it starts to make sense. So hopefully this wasn't too technical.

00:16:29:03 - 00:16:41:06
Mary Daphne
But, you know, a lot of people are interested in NFT. They're talking about it. The world is fascinated by this new technology and it's only going to get more and more developed.

00:16:41:12 - 00:16:41:15
Greg
And.

00:16:41:17 - 00:17:07:14
Mary Daphne
Existing. Yeah. All right.
Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure that you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. Share that with friends and family and anyone who wants to improve their English language communication skills. And then also, if you're listening to the podcast, which we hope that you are and enjoying it, be sure to leave us a review that really helps us out a lot and make sure that you share that as well.

00:17:07:14 - 00:17:30:11
Mary Daphne
And then check out our website. We have a lot, a lot of hundreds of lessons and conversations for you to enjoy and listen to and watch. So be sure to head on over to Advanced English Eco Forward Slash Blog and sign up for our free newsletter. We send out one a week, so that's very exciting and it'll help you improve your communication skills in English.

00:17:30:21 - 00:17:53:18
Mary Daphne
And then speaking of communication skills, we have a separate channel and podcast called Explore Learning Communication. I'll link it below, which you can see if you're watching on YouTube. If not, you'll see it in the blog post and also in the podcast. That is for anyone who wants to improve their social skills, their public speaking skills, their interview skills, and their social interaction in English. And it's designed for native English speakers. But I have the strongest confidence in you that you, as an advanced English learner, will be able to follow along and also benefit from this channel as well. So check that out as well. All right. We will see you on the next one. Bye for now.

About the Author and the Explearning Academy:

Mary Daphne is an expert in communication, executive skills and professional development. She is the founder of the Explearning Academy, a platform dedicated to helping individuals enhance their social fluency, boost their careers, and elevate their social game. Through immersive group coaching programs like the Executive Communication Lab and self-guided journeys, participants gain the social superpowers and career catapults they've been searching for. If you're ready to take your negotiation skills to the next level and connect with like-minded individuals, visit academy.explearning.co and explore the various plans available. Join the Explearning Academy community and unlock your full potential.

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