 Hey everyone, today we're gonna be talking about NFTs, non-fungible tokens that exist on the blockchain, what they are, why it's basically a scam, and what's happening to some of my acquaintances out there, from Dreamcast guy, Nintendo-like, Stephanie Sterling, a lot of peers. Probably gonna happen to this YouTube channel eventually, and many others as apparently channels are being sold as NFTs, which is really, really hilarious because it kinda highlights the fact that NFTs are a scam, but why are gaming companies a konami for the 35th anniversary of Castlevania jumping in and doing them as well? Why are other companies doing them too? I'm really confused on why they're getting in on this because it turns out NFTs are actually the biggest reason for money laundering at the moment, money laundering is happening like crazy through NFTs, and there's a reason for that. There's a reason that NFTs are a scam. I'm gonna explain what NFTs are in as simple as terms as I can. I've done a lot of research into this. I've looked into the markets, I've looked at people who support and don't support NFTs, and I've come to some interesting finds and conclusions. So before I do that, though all of a reminder, we do have some giveaways going on right now. If you'd like to enter them, we got some stuff for new subscribers, some stuff from people who've always been here, et cetera, head down to the pinned comment or the description and find out the details on our giveaways. Yeah, they're pretty fun. We're giving away like almost $300 worth of stuff, so pretty cool. That being said, let's talk about what happened. So I was browsing the net over the weekend and a video popped up from my acquaintance Dreamcast guy and he pointed out how his likeness, his image as YouTube channel was sold as an NFT and he went on a bit of a rant about why this is dumb and this was happening on an open NFT market called Open Seas, I believe. And that's also where NFTs for Alana Pierce, Stephanie Jim Sterling and obviously, or Jim Stephanie Sterling, I forget which way she prefers her name to be said. And then obviously, on Nintendo Live, the website actually put up an article how they too have been sold on this market as that Open Seas has come out to say that, hey, we don't believe in selling NFTs of copyrighted material and so they've gone ahead and banned one of the accounts that was doing this, but new accounts are popping up and it's very hard to police. So what is an NFT? This is really the biggest question I think at the center of this because I don't know that everyone really understands and you're gonna find people heavily supporting NFTs for very specified reasons. So let's explain what an NFT is. An NFT is called a non-fungible token. What an NFT is, is really a spot in a database. It is a ones and zeros in a database. This database typically almost exclusively exists in what's called known as a blockchain, which is basically a group of computers or servers as they were that are chained together in different locations so that nobody actually owns full control over the chain. It makes the chain thus ungovernable and some people hate government and hate taxes and hate this and hate that so having a way to have an ungovernable chain of servers really feels like a good thing in some cases and basically how a database works fundamentally is it's a way to store data hence being called database and it's usually done in a list form. So let's say as an example I create a list that can forever be added onto. Let's say we start with 100 entries but it can always be added to 101, 102, 103, 104. It can even be automatically done hence user generated NFTs on websites such as OpenSeas. Someone can generate NFTs, it creates a new list on there. So what the token is is actually the ID of that spot on the list. So when you're buying an NFT, you're not actually buying what you're seeing as a visual representation. So you're buying that spot on the list. That spot on the list has intrinsically zero value. It's literally a free database list made on a blockchain. Anyone can make this list, literally anyone. If you know what you're doing, I've been in database, I've taken courses, I know how this works. Anyone can make it. However, what gives that space value? Let's attach a digital item to that space. So let's say you're standing in line, right? Say you got, I don't know, 100 people standing in line, right? And you wanna buy that spot in line. You're not standing in line for any particular reason. There's no difference in being first in line or being last in line. Nothing actually happens when you're in this line. But you want people to find this line valuable and the spot's in that line valuable. So we need you to attach something to it. Well, we are a visual species. So we will attach a video clip that hangs on the wall and plays on loop. We will attach a moving image, a GIF. We will attach a piece of art or something that's next to that spot. And if you own that spot in the line, you're able to look at that video, watch that video on loop or whatever, but you don't actually own it. It's just a visual representation of a singular spot you're standing in that you purchased but have no ownership of. Non-fungible tokens are not you buying YouTube channels. Or they're not you buying images even. They're not you buying stolen art assets or video clips. Non-fungible tokens have nothing to do with ownership of any of these digital goods, whether they're digital or real goods that you see. You are buying simply a row in a database that says I own this row. And you might even get fancy receipts in there that will go, you own the Mona Lisa. But that's not really what it is. You own a spot in a line that lets you look at a digital copy of Mona Lisa. But you don't actually own that digital copy either. Nor do you own the Mona Lisa. You own a spot in a database that intrinsically has zero value, but we as humans are attaching value to those spots to create this open marketplace. And it's being heavily scammed. As an example, you buy an NFT. Let's say you buy an NFT for a design for a tattoo. So you feel like you own the design for that tattoo. You really don't. You have no copyright, no ownership over that tattoo design. In fact, it might even be stolen. Doesn't really matter. You don't own it. You own a spot in a database. And I decide, you know what? What's the best way I can get someone to give me money? Let me create a second account for that NFT. Let me create a second account and I'm gonna buy the NFT from myself. And then I'm gonna buy it back. I'm gonna buy, buy, buy, keep buying back and forth, increasing the value, the perceived value of that NFT. And there's nothing in the government stopping this because, again, this is ungoverned and exists in the blockchain. There is no way to police what I'm doing right now. I am artificially inflating the price, which is illegal in auction houses and other places, not illegal in the blockchain because it can't be monitored by the government. Okay, so we're trading back and forth. And all of a sudden you pop in and you go, man, this thing keeps going up in price. I better step in and buy that thing for, once it hit 500, I better step in and buy it for 600. And I just laughed for the bank as I just made $600 off of you and don't buy that thing back. That digital spot in line has no value, but because of you, I just made $600. Because I was just trading with myself. I wasn't actually losing money. And because I created that NFT, now if you ever resell it and someone does buy it from you, you technically don't own anything. So I make a little percentage of a tax that I put on that NFT back on every sale. And this is how video game companies are hoping to use NFTs. It's not that initial sale, which yeah, they're gonna make some money off that initial sale. They're looking to double, triple, quadruple dip on every time someone resells their spot in the line. When they resell that spot, they make a small little tax on that because they created the NFT in the first place. Now you might go, but doesn't that sound amazing? Let's, if you buy a skin in Fortnite, we could bring it all the way over to Call of Duty Wars for starters. That's not how video game companies work. They don't work together that nicely. They're completely different development studios and completely different companies. That's not really how it works. So let's say you're staying within the same company and we're talking about taking the skin from Spyro, the dragon for some reason, bringing it into Crash Bandicoot, but also bringing it into Call of Duty, also bringing it into World of Warcraft or something, like all those games are under the same company. So you could argue that's theoretically possible, but here's the problem. You don't actually own that digital asset. When you get that skin, you're getting it probably through the same methods you already were, besides maybe buying it on an NFT market now. You're getting it from Gotcha Mechanics and Micro Transactions. You're buying that and then thinking you own it. When you really, when they start putting it as an NFT, you don't actually own, you're just buying a bunch of ones and zeros in a database. You don't actually own the art. You have no copyright ownership over it. No legal ownership over it. And as soon as people stop caring, there's no value. See, this is why you'll see people that are deeply ingrained in NFTs, trying to tell you how valuable NFTs are and how NFTs are the future. And you just don't understand how NFTs work and NFT this and NFT that because they have a high investment in NFTs to keep them valuable because NFTs only hold their value so long as people perceive them to actually be valuable. There's nothing tangible attached to NFTs. You don't actually own anything other than a little spot in a database. You don't own the items. Even if game companies let you trade items through NFTs, you still don't own it and that item can vanish at any point. The servers can go down at any point and you have zero control because you have zero ownership. You own a spot in a database table. Wow, congratulations. And think about it like this. There are roughly 2.7 million NFTs, although new ones are being made every single day. 360,000 people own it out of 300 and million people who participate in cryptocurrency because cryptocurrencies also ran on the blockchain. As I said, the blockchain itself isn't inherent in the evil, NFTs are. So most of the blockchain community, most of the digital currency community isn't even participating in it. And you know what's crazy? 10% of that 360,000 people own 80% of all the NFTs. Why? Think about it. What could the advantage be there? Oh, to artificially drive up prices, to launder money through the process. And by the way, all of this is extremely hard for any government to ever tax and for all the illegalities you might hear about, good luck at actually, who do you go after? Do you go after every single person who has a computer or thing as part of that blockchain network? Do you go after the creator of the individual NFT database and what country they're in or where they're hosting it? Where do you, how do you go after? It's extremely hard for governments to do anything about. In short, NFTs are a scam. You're buying a row in a database that holds no intrinsic value, except for the perceived value you put on it because of whatever digital item, whatever piece of art, whatever video, they're putting next to it. You're not actually buying, like Dreamcast guys, YouTube channel and like to support them. You're not actually buying this YouTube channel. You're not even buying the rights to the little image, the little thumbnail image. You're not buying the rights to the Nintendo life or Alana Pierce or Jim Sterling, Jim Stephanie Sterling. You're not buying the rights to any of these people. You're not buying the rights to any of the art assets on you. You're not even buying the rights to that card. That is just a visual representation that stands next to you in a database. You don't actually own that. It's a scam. It's always been a scam. It's been a scam since day one and it's gonna continue to be a scam. There's no way to monitor it. There's no way to police it. There's no way to stop money laundering going through it. Literally, it's basically a crime syndicate's wet dream. It's a way for rich people to take advantage of people looking to make a quick buck. Oh, I gotta get in on this hot ticket thing because, well, hey, other people are doing it. Clearly if the rich people are into it, it must be worth doing. Look at all the people that are in NFTs are touting how wonderful NFTs are because if they don't, if they tell you the truth, they lose money because NFTs have no value. They're aligned in a database. I could show you how to make one yourself on your own computer. You can make your own NFT system right there on a virtual machine on your computer and congratulations, you now have a database and thus you have something you can sell, slots in a database. Congratulations. They have no value. You can attach images and say, oh, you're buying this image, but you're not. You're buying a digital, spot no database. It's insane to me that people are actually attaching real world value to this. Anyways, folks, I end with Andy Rebeljance from Nintendo Prime. Let me know your thoughts on this down in the comments below. I'm gonna link as well to a couple really good video resources out there for other content creators. You should watch that really go in depth on this even further than me and do a much better job going into each individual reasoning. You might go, oh, well, what about this? Oh, but what about that? That's all covered by them. This is more like a, I'm just really upset to see my friends and colleagues getting affected by this and obviously some of them getting really upset about it. When reality is, it's not really worth being upset about. People are just using your likeness to make money which is really, really stupid, but also they don't own anything. So it doesn't actually hurt you, but it can hurt a fan who thinks they might be getting something tangible and then they're actually getting scammed. That part sucks and I hope if an NFT Nintendo Prime pops up that none of you guys ever buy it because you're getting scammed and I, it's not my fault you're getting scammed but also NFTs are new and a lot of people have no idea what the hell they're doing and when you look it up, you're gonna find so many people touting how amazing NFTs are because they have to keep the value of NFTs high. You know, these spots in a database that have no value. You're not supposed to know they have no value. The moment you do, it's when the market crashes. All right, folks, I'm Nathaniel Robachance from Nintendo Prime. Go have a good day.