What is an NFT and how is it “bad for the environment?”

[Awarewolf]

If it’s a digital item, how is it polluting the environment? I tried googling this and, much to my surprise, I couldn’t understand it.

And how would this affect FF14 if it was implemented? If anyone can explain it in 3rd grade language I’d appreciate it, lol.

[Maxilor]

It's to my understanding that 'creating' an NFT takes an ENORMOUS amount of Electricity.

Generating one NFT would not cause much of an issue, but so many are being created now that it's causing lasting effects.

Beyond that I defer to the experts:

[Feronar]

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token.

From what I can gather, it is basically a blockchain distributed system for tracking ownership of digital assets. The environmental problem is that, as with cryptocurrency (I.e. Bitcoin), each transaction requires a huge amount of computational work, and thus, a lot of electricity. Blockchain technology has also been driving up demand for computer hardware, especially video cards, making them much more difficult and expensive to get.

[DontReadThis]

Someone makes monkey picture and sells an NFT of it. You buy it. The blockchain wastes electricity to do intensive calculations to record this transaction. You now have NFT for monkey picture.
However, NFT does not give you legal ownership or copyright of monkey picture.
So, what did you actually pay for? For your transaction to be recorded on the blockchain, of course.
At most, you could expect the seller to send you a copy of the image file and maybe a receipt or "certificate of ownership."
The creator of the monkey picture still has legal ownership and all rights to the monkey picture, and there is nothing stopping them from continuing to sell more NFT's of exact same picture.

Why do people buy NFT?
They think it's an investment that they'll be able to take advantage of, except they don't understand that for something to be an investment, there has to be a possibility of being able to resale your purchase for more than what you paid for it. You also need to OWN something to be able to sell it. The only people actually profiting are the ones making the NFTs to sell, and a lot of them are just artwork stolen from sites like DeviantArt which has had to resort to creating automated systems which scan NFT marketplaces to tell artists when their art has been stolen.

Something similar was those companies which let you "buy a star."
Unfortunately for the people who bought them, you cannot legally claim ownership over a star. The people who "bought" a "star" were simply scammed into buying a "certificate of ownership." There was no way of enforcing this "ownership" as anyone with eyes could just look at "your" star and anyone with a camera could take a picture of it, just like anyone can just "right-click->save as" that monkey picture.

Just like those star companies, the concept all falls apart once you try to think about how "reselling" it works.
Remember, you don't actually own that monkey picture. The most you can legally claim to own is the receipt or "certificate of ownership" the original seller may have sent you. Good luck trying to profit off that monkey NFT you spent 50k on, especially since the original seller may still be selling duplicates of the exact same monkey!

If it sounds like a scam, that's because it is. However, nobody will admit it because:
1. Nobody wants to admit they were scammed, and
2. the scammers don't want to admit it's a scam

Prepare to see a lot of denial and/or mental gymnastics when encountering people who are involved with NFTs.

[dapperfaffer]

If it’s a digital item, how is it polluting the environment? I tried googling this and, much to my surprise, I couldn’t understand it.

And how would this affect FF14 if it was implemented? If anyone can explain it in 3rd grade language I’d appreciate it, lol.

An NFT puts out no more pollution than any other always on electronic device, or the servers used to run an MMO like FFXIV, or the servers used to make sure that everyone has access to their always on and available streaming services, etc. What is often talked about with NFT and crypto currencies is the carbon footprint which is just scam language from fraudsters and morons who are trying to devalue a market so FOMO purchases can reinsure it by making retarded investments.

[Rhysati]

An NFT puts out no more pollution than any other always on electronic device, or the servers used to run an MMO like FFXIV, or the servers used to make sure that everyone has access to their always on and available streaming services, etc.

You should maybe actually research it before you make such an incorrect statement. Studies are showing that a single bitcoin transaction uses around the same amount of power that the average American household uses in a MONTH. It also causes about a million times more carbon emissions than a single credit card transaction. Bitcoin mining alone uses about as much energy across the world as the entire country of Sweden uses.

And that's not even touching every other blockchain coin or NFT. NFTs work the same way bitcoin does when it comes to transactions. If you want to know more about WHY they use so much more electricity, feel free to do a simple google or youtube search.

[SeiyaSoiya]

You should maybe actually research it before you make such an incorrect statement. Studies are showing that a single bitcoin transaction uses around the same amount of power that the average American household uses in a MONTH. It also causes about a million times more carbon emissions than a single credit card transaction. Bitcoin mining alone uses about as much energy across the world as the entire country of Sweden uses.

And that's not even touching every other blockchain coin or NFT. NFTs work the same way bitcoin does when it comes to transactions. If you want to know more about WHY they use so much more electricity, feel free to do a simple google or youtube search.

a single bitcoin transaction has a gas fee of 1.81 usd on average, you would need to mine 59 times 1.81usd to reach the average monthly use of electricty in the us (893kwh at 12 cents a kwh), that is absolutely 100% not worth it because every time you manage to mine a transaction you would, according to you, be paying 59 times that much earned in power bills.

[SamsaraTrickstar]

If it’s a digital item, how is it polluting the environment? I tried googling this and, much to my surprise, I couldn’t understand it.

And how would this affect FF14 if it was implemented? If anyone can explain it in 3rd grade language I’d appreciate it, lol.

It's easy really the environmental pollution is from extra electricity this use. If you ask me it's minimal at best.
Now how it can be bad for the game. Think of SE selling limited gear sets that people then can re sell for profit. Or what Konami just did for 30 years of castlevania. Auction. Now think what it can add to the game play. Nothing,but it can add cash to see CEO.

[Krojack]

NFT's will be used by large companies to launder money and get out of paying the taxes they should be paying.

[Juun]

You pay real money to own a copy of your favorite memes, that I can right click and save still. But you'll be the owner of that meme, but not the copyright holder mind you, that still is the creators. So you just pay money for pixels everyone else can still download for free.