NFTs: What, Where, How, Why, Who

This deep-dive -- one of our occasional 2-4X explainer episodes on 16 Minutes; (past such episodes have covered everything from Section 230 and Tiktok to GPT-3 and the opioid crisis) -- teases apart what's hype/ what's real -- and the what, where, how, why, who, and other questions top of mind around all things NFTs:

• 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.

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, this episode is for everyone!

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

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