Thread by @NotBrunoAgain

Okay, sure, let's try a short explanation.
A 'block chain' is just a file structured in a special way. It holds an accounting ledger. Bitcoins exist only as values recorded on transactions on that ledger, much like how real money largely exists as numbers on bank ledgers.

It's a blockchain because new transactions are added to the ledger in blocks. Anyone can generate a block -- doing so is misleadingly called "mining," but it's really processing transactions.

At any given moment, millions of computers are trying to generate the next block on the chain. But only one will be the chosen one that actually becomes part of the "real" block chain, and therefore only its transactions will be considered valid and real.

To decide which miner is the chosen one, the bitcoin protocol uses a sort of decentralized lottery. Every miner is trying to essentially guess a password which is determined by the miner's own identity and the contents of the block.

The only way to produce a valid block is to guess thousands of times until one hits a valid password. Whoever gets there first "wins" and gets to write the next block -- including collecting transaction fees and being granted a special reward for doing so.

"Hitting" is based on luck and on how much compute power one has. This is known as "proof of work" and is why bitcoin eats up more electricity than Argentina. Because transaction processing is tied to "mining", transaction costs are very high, and transactions are slow.

Bitcoin specifically is structured such that the economics of it incentivize throwing ever-increasing amounts of energy at it, but that's another thread.

Ethereum is another protocol and another block chain based on bitcoin. The ethereum blockchain can hold 'tokens' other than its main currency, ether. This has been used to create numerous stupid little cryptocurrencies.

An NFT is a non-fungible token -- a token that you can't split apart like you can with money, nor can you join it together with other tokens.

An NFT is functionally like a line in a ledger saying you own a trading card. The trading card does not exist, but it notionally references some real-world online thing, like a gif or a tweet.

You "mint" an NFT like you would do any other transaction -- by asking miners to include it in the next block and offering a fee for the privilege. If this all sounds like a ploy to generate more transactions with higher fees, it is.

The cryptocurrency ecosystem is perpetually starved of filthy fiat money. Exchanges that trade USD for crypto *must* take in more money than they pay out; can't pay your rent in bullshitcoin.

Consequently, there is a great incentive to find new things that get more filthy fiat money into the system -- convincing artists that they will become rich if they buy some eth to mint NFTs is one such way.

Keep in mind, however, that just because an exchange says you own 20 million worth of whatevercoin, doesn't mean you can actually extricate real money out of that system. The whole thing is designed to *not* let go of real money.