Monkey Business: Why NFTs Are More Than Just Expensive JPEGs

Forget everything you thought you knew about NFTs. While million-dollar monkey pictures dominated headlines, the true revolution in non-fungible tokens lies far beyond digital art collections—it's about fundamentally transforming ownership, identity, and authenticity verification in our increasingly digital world.

This episode cuts through the hype to explore what NFTs really are: unique digital assets that provide verifiable proof of ownership through blockchain technology. We debunk common myths surrounding NFTs, explaining why they're not just "expensive JPEGs" or elaborate scams, but powerful tools with practical applications across multiple industries. From concert tickets that reduce fraud while becoming collectible memories, to luxury goods authentication protecting against counterfeits, to digital identities that prevent impersonation—NFTs are solving real-world problems today.

We dive into how major brands like Nike, Disney, and Starbucks are already implementing NFT technology, creating value for consumers beyond simple speculation. The tokenization of real-world assets like real estate and vehicles is opening new possibilities for fractional ownership and simplified transfers. Digital identity tied to NFTs offers unprecedented control over your online presence and reputation, ensuring true digital sovereignty where no platform can arbitrarily take away your identity. As Bitcoin reaches new all-time highs and institutional adoption accelerates, understanding these technologies provides a significant advantage in navigating our evolving digital landscape. Whether you're looking to upskill professionally or simply prepare for an increasingly tokenized future, education about blockchain and NFTs has never been more valuable. Discover more resources and certification opportunities at learnweb3.xyz and join us at the forefront of digital transformation.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Tech Talk Introduction
• 3:02 Hot Sales in .Now Domain Extension
• 5:13 GBM Auction Festival Update
• 6:49 NFTs Beyond Monkey Pictures
• 10:42 Busting Common NFT Myths
• 12:50 Real-World NFT Applications
• 17:12 Digital Identity and Ownership
• 19:49 Education and Future Opportunities

Transcript

Speaker 2: 1:24

Thank you, hello, hello. Yeah, welcome to another Tech Talk. Yeah, let's go ahead and get into it. This is our Tech Talk podcast Live session that we record here. Well, now, bi-weekly and, yeah, this is an executive session and I guess I didn't announce yet but you can actually switch this to a bi-weekly podcast, but we have been doing this over the past two and a half years on a weekly basis, have over 100 and something odd episodes out there, but we'll not be doing this bi-weekly, where we highlight news, innovation, education, alpha and business development, primarily in the Web3, identity and digital identity space.

Speaker 2: 2:02

I am your host, marcus aka Wynn Airdrop. I'm the founder of iHeart Domomains and I'm the community manager at GreenAid. We are your number one resource for unbiased Web3 and blockchain domain educational content, with over 100 Tech Talk episodes and YouTube videos produced and archived over the past two and a half years. If you want to search our entire archive of previous podcast episodes, you can do so at our website at iheartdomainscom, where you'll also see a pretty neat blog overview of each as well. So if you'd like to read, you can read it instead of listen to it, or if you want to listen to the full episode, you can do so again natively right there on the website or also in any major podcast player, including Apple, spotify, iheartradio, et cetera, and you can get to those episodes at techtalkhost.

Speaker 2: 2:51

All right, well, let's get into some recent news before we get into the main topic. First thing, which is kind of obvious if you're on crypto, twitter and looking kind of at the domain climate, you'll probably notice that there is a new extension that's kind of getting some traction and making some pretty big sales. I don't know if it's just the echo chamber that makes them bigger than they maybe are, but the now extension has been top of the conversation as of late. So quite a few big sales on it this week, the biggest of which is lovenow for 79 000. Uh, so, yeah, definitely, uh, you know, definitely a substantial sale. Um. Quite a few others as well, such as um signsnow. Uh, I think there was quite a few. There's a pretty big list of dot now domains that have gone for four and five figures. It did inspire me to acquire my own now, so we do hold a few in our portfolio. The one that we've recently just posted is buycarsnow, so went for a two word, thought that it fit with the TLD, but yeah, d-y-o-r.

Speaker 2: 4:02

One of the things to note about the now TLB is that the renewals can vary all over the place. They are not the same for every word. I don't know what makes one word more valuable than the other. It's kind of the same as like fun, where that was all over the place too. But, yeah, minimum renewal fee I think it's $31 and some change. I mean, there's some that are a few thousand dollars a year to renew. So not every word is equal D-Y-O-R, and definitely make sure your risk can handle those renewals if you're going to jump into that TLD. Luckily for me, this name actually happened to be one that has a renewal of $31. So, hey, yeah, stay frugal, all right.

Speaker 2: 4:51

Next thing that I wanted to make everybody aware of as well and we actually had a Spaces with GBM yesterday on the Freename platform about their current auction festival Freename is currently participating in this auction festival, but this auction festival does consist of many different entities across the space, both in the identity sector and some outside of it. If you're familiar with GBM, gbm is an auction house that is on chain, where you are incentivized to bid against each other. They have created this auction festival to highlight not only their capabilities but also their partners. So FreeName has placed about 80 different domains and TLDs on the platform right now. Currently a few days left on that, but again, as I've said, in those spaces, great opportunity to maybe discover something at a pretty good price. Nobody else is bidding on it. So, yeah, it gets kind of closer to the close. That might be something to pay attention to.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And then, lastly, before we get into the main subject at hand, just want to re-remind everyone that our own flagship TLDs dgen, exchain and deFi wallet, are currently live registrations. Any free name promos you can apply to this. So the current promo of new site that entitles you to 50% off With a cart of 300 bucks you can slide a couple dot DJ and there are a couple dot exchange in there, or not beef by wallets. And again, these are some extensions that have a lot of plans behind. These are general purpose and use extensions. Definitely not the only TLDs our own, but these the ones I'm gonna put my bag behind. Really high hopes for dot exchange. I think I put out the theory for that a couple times. Again, kind of aligning with X. But yeah, again, registrations are open and you can get your forever name for as cheap as five bucks. All right, all right. Well now, with that being said, let's get into the main topic in hand.

Speaker 2: 6:46

Today, again, we're taking on a hot topic that you've probably already heard about I mean, I think everyone on the planet has heard this word at least once and that's NFTs. Nfts get a lot of attention and, let's be real, they also get a lot of skepticism. And, let's be real, they also get a lot of skepticism. You've probably heard things like aren't NFTs just overpriced monkey pictures, right? Or isn't it all a scam? Because that's what's usually what's highlighted about our space? Well, today, what? And even real world assets. So let's get beyond the monkey pictures.

Speaker 2: 7:33

First, let's clarify the NFT stands for non-fungible token, so that's the definition of it. But what does that even mean? Well, here's the simplest way to understand it. Fungible means replaceable, so, like dollars or Bitcoin, you can exchange one for another and they're identical. But non-fungible means something that's unique, like a one-of-one, like a rare baseball card or a signed jersey or your passport. These things aren't replaceable because, again, they are one-of-a-kind and they are one-of-one. Well, nft technology is the same. These things aren't replaceable because, again, they are one of a kind and they are one of one. Well, nft technology is the same. These are unique digital assets that are stored securely on a blockchain. They can be things like digital art, like those famous board apes, like those monkey pictures, but they can also represent things like tickets, music. Digital identities represent things like tickets, music, digital identities, real estate deeds or even physical assets like cars or luxury goods. In other words, nfts are digital proof of uniqueness and ownership for those one of ones, not just monkey picture.

Speaker 2: 8:38

So let's bust some other NFT myths that are out there. One of the big myths out there when people hear about NFTs and I'm talking about from the normal perspective again, our job here is to break outside this bubble and bring new people into the space with the education needed to navigate it in the correct way, Right? So there are a lot of myths and misconception out there again, and most of this is aligned with monkey pictures, right, monkey pictures pretty much set the narrative. They got the press coverage, they got the mind share. Unfortunately, when you're having conversations with normies, you're, most often than not, you're ground. I guess you would say you're even ground with them. It is probably going to be on the monkey pictures and you kind of have to go from there, right? So myth number one uh, nfts are just expensive pictures. Right, they hear about born apes going for hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, crypto pumps, of course, still going for hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Um, but the reality is, is n? Nfts represent proof of ownership and authenticity.

Speaker 2: 9:44

Again, owning an NFT isn't just about the image, it's about what's behind it, and I often have to explain to people that imagine the kind of people that could spend a million dollars on a monkey picture. Right, you sure there's going to be some degenerates in the crowd. There's going to be some people who look their way into the, into the community, because obviously there was a mint at one point that wasn't a million dollars, but for the most part, if someone, as a grown adult, spent a million dollars on a JPEG, you got to wonder what kind of person or what kind of life they live outside of that. That gives them the means to do so, and being in a club or a collective full of those kinds of people I am sure has some sort of benefit. So, again, having this membership, this NFT, prove that you are part of that community and, again, whatever benefits exist within that community you're now entitled to. It ain't just about the picture.

Speaker 2: 10:42

The other myth, of course, is that NFTs are a scam. Right, and I mean in reality, everything can be a scam. And when you solo out you know most NFT projects, most JPEGs, monkey pictures, whatever. When you solo those out as a representation of NFTs, it certainly can look that way. Everything has scams in it and I won't shy away from the many scams that do happen with NFT launches behind, trying to copy the narrative that the ones that do have value have established. Right, but NFTs in themselves are powerful, transparent technology that proves ownership and authenticity, publicly on chain. If bad actors are launching a bad project, they would do so in any space, they would be a scammer in any space, but they're not the total representation of the technology and how it would be utilized. And then, of course, following along that lines is that if it's just a JPEG, that's a scam, it has no value.

Speaker 2: 11:47

And again, going back to what I was explaining about the private clubs Right, maybe that's an implied benefit, right, but many of these NFT projects have actual stated contractual benefits and they can unlock practical uses, like things from event tickets, right? Imagine your event ticket. Next time you have a concert ticket being an NFT and it entitling you to an experience, or maybe an airdrop of a token or fan merch, and you're just being able to use that as your entry into the concert or memberships to clubs or collectibles or real estate. Major brands like Nike, starbucks, disney and even major sports leagues are already using NFTs for real-world value. They're already using them to give them out as fan tokens and create different experiences. So, again, nfts aren't just hype. They're transformative tech bringing digital ownership to life.

Speaker 2: 12:42

So again, let's go back to some real world examples where NFTs can create real and tangible benefits. Again, going back to a ticket or event access right Concerts and sporting events now issue NFT tickets, which reduces fraud and it creates a collectible experience right, which reduces fraud and it creates a collectible experience. Imagine tickets having collectible art on them from a local artist. Or imagine them having or being connected to some other song or merch on the blockchain. Imagine going to a Tennis Web concert and your ticket becomes now a digital collectible that you can keep forever or maybe even resell. When it comes to digital, identity and membership.

Speaker 2: 13:25

This is where NFTs play one of the most important parts, right, because NFTs can represent, again, your membership in exclusive communities and clubs which can grant you special access, perks, alpha, whatever it is, or voting rights. But also, when it comes to digital identity, it can prove who you are. It can link to your profile, link to your achievements, link to the things that you put on chain that matter, so that people know that not only you are you, but you also have the credentials to potentially network with. Buy something from hires and influencers, kol, et cetera, or airdrop to I mean, think of something like the Solana phone, right, when you purchase the Solana phone, we all got airdropped this chapter two token, and it's been an airdrop magnet. We are a member of a community of early adopters of physical technology of Solana. I guess I don't know how other people are seeing it, but that has value. And being able to find the people that hold these NFTs again is a way to identify a target group of people that, if you're building for them not hard to find One easy click of a button can tell you all the holders of an NFT. Yeah, the contract request. Super quick, it's actually extremely easy.

Speaker 2: 14:40

So, again, digital identity and membership, but also now coming into the real world, how other people will start dealing with this outside of just these experiences. So we're talking about real estate, real world assets, physical property, deeds, cars, rare collectibles All of these things are starting to become tokenized and placed on chain as NFTs. Why? Because it makes it much easier for you to sell or fractionalize and sell, make stocks or whatever on something, even store something, right. If you've got, let's say, a collectible car that's stored in a warehouse somewhere that's climate controlled, it's under perfect conditions, in a warehouse somewhere that's climate controlled, it's under perfect conditions, right, and someone wants to buy this car from you, but they agree that where it currently is is the best place for it, in some sort of vault, and this NFT gives them access to it, hence ownership to the car. This is essentially what we're going to see. There's a lot of things that you can't move physically, but you can move digitally, and bringing these things on chain and transferring ownership that way is value, right? Being able to raise money on these digital assets, that's a substantial amount of value.

Speaker 2: 15:53

And then, of course, proof of authenticity. Again, nfts are non-fungible. They're one of ones, if one NFT when an NFT is created on chain, it has a unique identifier that lets you know everything about it. Its creation is origin, and you can tell it from the next right so, when it comes to things like luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, gucci, rolex, they're actually already now using NFTs to verify authenticity. This ensures that their products are genuine and not counterfeit, right so? And of course, if you're buying luxury goods, you know that this is an issue. If you're buying luxury goods on the secondary market, you know that this can be an issue. So these are ways that NFTs do solve problems in the real world. Nfts aren't a fad. They're a fundamental shift in how we prove ownership and value in both digital and the physical worlds.

Speaker 2: 16:50

And then let's go back to identity, because, again, I think this is where I think this is where NFTs play the most part, right Again, in building a permanent, establishable, honorable and, again, non, non editable or modifiable identity on change your online presence, your name, your reputation, your achievements. Again, they can be securely and verifiably owned through an NFT. Imagine your digital identity tied to an NFT, clearly proving who you are online. No more impersonation, no more confusion and full control over your digital reputation. For example, platforms like ENS, which everyone knows of, and in Freename, they allow you to own your own digital username and online identity. As an NFT, you control it permanently in the case of Freename. You have to rent it in the case of ENS, but still powerful nonetheless. But no platform can take it away. This isn't just digital art, it's digital sovereignty.

Speaker 2: 17:52

I encourage everyone listening to this and anyone who gets a chance to listen back to this, to take advantage of the biggest thing that you can do for yourself, and that's educate yourself, because this will bring you closer to understanding how this space will truly unfold and bring value to the world. Again, why don't we remind everybody and it's important that we remind everybody because we've created these things to do our part in the space, and it's important that we remind everybody because we've created these things to do our part in the space. But there's a couple again easy to follow things out there, such as our module on Mighty Study, which is our intro to Web3 Domains. This is a free module. You're able to go on the Mighty Study and you can learn about Web3 Domains and NFTs. It's really compact and short but, again, very good start to understanding how to explain that you're introducing others to the space. And then, of course, for those who want to take this more seriously, want to deep dive, um, want to become a quote-unquote expert, or at least create the foundation to continue on the path and become an expert, we have our full course rolling out right. So our fundamentals of Web3 and digital identity certification course again is aimed at bringing normal people, upskillers, people who want to enter this space from a vocational level, giving them the education necessary to do so, so that they are hired right or at least confident to do their own thing in the space.

Speaker 2: 19:13

Again, education is power. Understanding NFTs gives you an early advantage as a digital future unfolds. So what are nfts? Just monkey pictures? Absolutely not again. Nfts represent real ownership, authenticity, verification, digital digital identity and practical real-world use cases like events, tickets, real estate, luxury goods and more. Don't let the misconceptions fool you. Again, nfts are revolutionary digital assets that are going to shape the future of ownership, identity and value.

Speaker 2: 19:52

If you're excited to learn more, I encourage everyone to check out our educational courses Again, we remind you that's a mighty study or you can. Excited to learn more, I encourage everyone to check out our educational courses again. We remind you that's a mighty study or you can get to our fundamentals of Web 3 and digital identity certification course. That's a mouthful right, so we've shortened it down to learn Web 3 dot, x, y, z Super easy to get to this course again, getting ahead now, getting yourself prepared now, will prepare you so much for the future that is inevitably coming.

Speaker 2: 20:23

We're at our all-time high, or just hit the all-time high for Bitcoin, and I'm talking about, in a crazy way, we're at 111 a few days ago and now we're at 118. That's a pretty big jump and, again, that's a big signal that more money is entering the space. More entities are pouring their money into Bitcoin, pouring their money into blockchain, and once it is here, once the value of it clicks with the companies that you do business with, then the opportunity starts to become a little smaller. Right, it'll still be there, but when the whole world gets it, then it'll cost what it costs, right? So, again, taking advantage of the opportunities now, learning what you can now, getting yourself ahead again to either prepare yourself, to get you know, to become hireable in this space as the future expands, or to do your own thing, and again, we're doing this is happening at the same time as AI, if you want to be competitive now in this space, in the future, you've got to get a grasp on both. You know blockchain and AI at the same time. Right, because those are the two technologies right now that again are very powerful and are transforming the way we both think, the way that we are productive and the way that we transact our finances. Right, and these are all three big, revolutionary technologies, right again, that you know, educating yourself can help you get ahead of and prepared for the future.

Speaker 2: 21:50

So, again, thank you for everyone for coming to listen to the Space is Live Again. This will be posted and published on our podcast In the next few days. You can listen to those live again at techtalkcom, so it'll be on every major podcast player and you'll be able to find this episode on our website, artdevayscom. Hope everybody has a blessed weekend. Thank you again. Focus on your mission, not your condition. Happy to me and I will see you in the future. Yeah, see you guys next week, or actually, you know we get another week from now. See you guys later.