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

[Illmaeran]

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 has to do with generation of electricity and the power efficiency of systems that run NFT software. From what I've gathered, the design of NFT systems is intentionally inefficient, which causes them to consume a disproportionate amount of electricity. Someone stated that one of the current NFT companies uses the same amount of electricity per year as Libya.

That power doesn't come from nowhere and has its own environmental impact based on how it's generated. If you consider the overall carbon footprint of the electricity generated for that one NFT business is equivalent to a modestly populated country, one starts seeing how an increase in that technology is bad for the global environment.