EOTO PRESENTATION

THE NFT MARKETPLACE

    For my first EOTO presentation, I decided to research the evolution of cryptocurrencies in global society and the birth of NFT's. N-F-T is an acronym for non-fungible token, which is a collection of data that is spawned by smart contracts from developers that allow for users to make artistic content and make money on it on the free market. However, in order to fully understand the benefit of NFT's we need to look at the cause for a new monetary system. In 2008 when the recession plummeted the stock market, investors were looking for a way to take power out of big banks hands and place the control into the hands of the investment community. Traditional banks are known to be secure, but the various cryptocurrencies on the emerging blockchain are even more secure because every transaction is able to be tracked on the blockchain. The problem of hacking is almost nonexistent with NFT's due to this line of security features. The first major blockchain innovation was that of the popular Bitcoin currency. The benefit of Bitcoin was its ability to bypass all foreign exchange rates which allowed traders to deal at a faster rate. Bitcoin is currently valued at over $61K which is an all-time high since it's inception back in 2013. Since society is becoming more automated each day, people are more inclined to trade their money on their phone by using apps such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken. 

    The next big development of the blockchain was the cryptocurrency Ethereum. Ethereum was the decentralized form of currency that allowed developers to implement the smart contracts that are now known as NFT's. These digital assets are items that a users can buy with their cryptocurrency portfolios. The NFT world is currently dominated mostly by artists that want to ensure authenticity with an indestructible proof of ownership. One of the only downfalls to NFT's is their extreme volatility in the marketplace. When a user buys an NFT online, the price can either skyrocket or plummet which is risky for those who are seeking a long-term investment instead of owning a piece of art that interests them. However, these NFTs are listed on a marketplace that minimal or even no cut from the developer which is rare for this industry. 

Below is an NFT of Shawshank Redemption stars Andy Dufresne and Ellis "Red" Redding that currently sells for 1.3 Ethereum. That would currently be valued at $5,668. This is one of many examples of miscellaneous content that developers have made through NFT's. Also, the sporting world has begun to adapt to popularity of NFT's especially for the NBA and the UFC. There are several different individual plays from each NBA game that can sell online as an NFT. Depending on whether or not people think those moments aged well over time, the more I would anticipate the price going up. The UFC has also sold some of there fight card posters as an NFT as well. This is still an extremely new industry and there's so much more that can be done as far as creativity can go. 

8 VALUES OF FREE EXPRESSION

 THE EIGHT VALUES OF FREE EXPRESSION

    Since the First Amendment was established in the late 18th century, citizens of the United States have accumulated inherent values that come along with free speech. Each value listed on our class website highlights the importance of free speech and how it molds our society into a patriotic one that is also willing to criticize the government at any juncture. The first value of free expression that I took a lot away from is the theory of stable change. As seen throughout the last decade, Americans that disagree with a certain policy or injustice in our society is more likely than ever to speak out on the issue. Since we're in the age of digital content and social media, people have noticed that making noise and protesting in the streets has led to lawmakers and politicians feeling more inclined to act and make changes. There are several eastern based countries that will punish those for protesting, whether that be arresting those folks or forcing them out of their homes. In my opinion, a society that can't recognize its own issues is one that cannot operate at a functional level. The beauty of the freedom to protest is that the United States government is able to see what people are upset about, and make an educated decision through our justice system in order to resolve these issues. 

   The next value of free expression that is worth discussing is the value of individual self-fulfillment. Free speech is designed for people to express their own thoughts and opinions without government interruption. In doing so, American citizens are allowed to use their freedom of speech to form their own self-identity and figure out who they want to be in the world.  The United States is known as the land of opportunity, and the ability to freely express oneself directly impacts that slogan both in a positive and negative way. Inherently, free expression is a positive right but there have been instances in the past where a person's

statements has negatively impacted their free will. The greatest example I can think of is the incident that took place on January 6, 2021  at the capitol. Donald Trump was accused of using his Twitter account to incite an insurrection on the Senate. After this incident took place, president Trump was indefinitely banned from using Twitter to express his views on the current political agenda. Talking heads on television were pleading for Trump to be arrested and/or stripped of his post-presidential privileges which ultimately flamed out because there was no reasonable way to prove Trump was inciting the insurrection. Is this an example of restricting one's autonomy? Since Twitter is a private company they're allowed to ban people from using their application but one could argue that it is restricting Trump's first amendment right to free speech. 

    The third and final value of expression that impacts our first amendment rights is the ability to check on governmental power. Checks and balances is not a new idea in government, as the constitution split our government into three different branches in order for each branch to monitor each other to make sure they're abiding by the constitution. However, since checks and balances was introduced in the 19th century, there have been several instances of the government abusing their power. Since the constitution promotes citizens to freely criticize government, there have been several examples of powerful officials abusing their power. Some examples I can think of include Richard Nixon's infamous Watergate and Hillary Clinton's thousands of deleted emails that arose during the 2016 election. When these situations caught the wave of local news, national news networks took it upon themself to acknowledge this abuse of power. Even though there will be inherent bias due to their allegiance to their political party, it's important for every citizen in the United States to understand what our leaders do to undermine our free will and take advantage of their platform. Another part of our freedom as Americans is the freedom of the press, and when political officials abuse their power, we act as the press and are responsible for calling them out for their unconstitutional and hypocritical actions. 

A LESSON ON THE COURTS

 THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT SYSTEM

    In the United States of America, all federal cases and lawsuits are taken through our legal system, which has been ratified and built upon over the last 200 years since the Judicial Review in 1803 gave the courts enough power to review all actions of the government. All bases of argument are established through the Constitution, as each Chief Justice much interpret the constitution in a just and orderly way in order to hold up our democracy. The Chief Justice's we meet in the video including Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg make it clear that there are no secrets in the courtroom. Their job is simply to interpret the constitution and cases of the past in order to make their arguments in court. The judiciary system is made up of 3 courts: the District court, the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court as the end-all-be-all. Since the Supreme Court is the highest court, the vast majority of cases don't make it to the Supreme Court. Something I learned while watching this video is that Chief Justices can only choose a certain amount of cases to take on each time they assemble. Most media members make assumptions that when a case isn't picked up in the Supreme Court it means that they've upheld the case when in fact they are not making any decisions yet and are just leaving the case in limbo until the majority of Chief Justices's vote to settle the case. 

  "Being appointed to the Supreme Court is akin to getting struck by lightning"

    The amount of years a lawyer must sacrifice in order to reach the highest stage of the American legal system is extremely staggering. Justice David H. Souter was told that it takes at least 3 years to get used to working in the Supreme Court, with some people claiming 5 years is more realistic. One of my main takeaways from this video is the respect and trust that each Chief Justice has for one another. They prioritize having a healthy relationship with their coworkers, as display that by shaking each other's hands before they deliberate. They also stress the importance of having each member speak once before someone speaks twice which provides a fluid system for each justice's arguments to be heard and understood. Lastly, I learned throughout this video and our discussion in class is the weight and significance that the 14th amendment holds. It provided "every person", which is an important distinction, the opportunity of equal treatment through the law including privileges and immunities and due process of the law. 

TOP 5 SOURCES FOR NEWS

 TOP 5 SOURCES FOR NEWS AND INFO

1. TWITTER

    The famous social media outlet that allows a user to blog about anything to the global population is one of the biggest outlets of news for me personally. For someone that is an avid sports fan, Twitter allows fans to get access to information from inside the league as soon as information breaks to verified sources. Along with being able to interact with other profiles and start an energetic dialogue, the increase in social media in the younger generation allows for more creative ways to release news to the public as we advance in society. Former President Donald Trump used Twitter to release information to the public as soon as possible and everyone was invested in what he had to say. 

2. INSTAGRAM

For a social media outlet that turned just 11 years old as of October 6, Instagram has taken the world by storm as one of the most used applications in the entire world. Instagram started off as a way for people to create social profiles and upload pictures in order to share their lives to the rest of the internet. It is now turned into a platform for monetizing oneself, as many users are exploring sponsorships and advertising due to the growing popularity of the app. For me personally, I get lots of news from Instagram. Almost everyone I have a relationship with uses Instagram, which gives me the opportunity to see what they're doing on a daily basis. It's not necessarily the best outlet for breaking news since its primarily used for uploading pictures and videos, but I've definitely learned a lot while using this app and I only expect it to keep growing after they sold their company to Facebook in 2012 for $1 Billion. 

3. ESPN

The "worldwide leader in sports forever" certainly lives up to its name as ESPN is definitely the best news outlet for all professional and collegiate sports. For someone like myself who is studying Sports Media, I find myself scrolling through the headlines on ESPN almost every day. The ESPN application allows each user to follow the scores of their favorite sports leagues live. You are allowed to sort through the app and "favorite" each one of your favorite teams so that you get news updates and score updates while using the app. As ESPN has evolved, we've seen streaming begin to emerge which allows fans to watch games directly through the app. For example, the UFC agreed to a partnership with ESPN back in 2017 making ESPN the home of streaming all live events for the UFC, including their pay-per-view fight cards. They've also adopted features such as "stories" which has primarily been used on apps such as Instagram and Twitter. 

4.  YOUTUBE

The very first video on Youtube was 19 seconds long and was uploaded in April of 2005. Now in 2021, video consumption is one of the most popular ways to consume content, with 85% of U.S. users accessing online video from YouTube at least once a week. YouTube is now the leading platform for creating video content, with popular content creators such as PewDiePie and KSI making millions of dollars off the platform for the amount of engagement they receive on each of their videos. This outlet is mainly used for entertainment purposes, but its search engine is very similar to Google as you can find information on virtually anything on Youtube. There are thousands of tutorial videos uploaded onto Youtube that can give information on how to do somethings to anyone that clicks on the video. Also, with YouTube being a free website, its popularity and usage will only increase especially with content creators making a living off of the platform.  

5. COINBASE

The advance in cryptocurrencies in the United States and all around the world is extremely staggering. With many young adults finding it attractive to get invested in the stock market early, trading cryptocurrencies is another way that traders can profit off the growing market of digital assets. I recently got involved in cryptocurrencies over the summer, and the application I use to trade and receive news is Coinbase. Coinbase allows each user to access the market on each altcoin with various different charts and graphs that display which coins are surging and plummeting. For each coin that I'm invested in including the big coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and other decentralized altcoins like Cardano, Polkadot, and Shiba Inui, there are articles under each graph that give information on the volume of trading each day and what local businesses do in order to affect the market. I am still a novice when it comes to the stock market and trading cryptocurrencies, but Coinbase allows me to learn and make money at the same time.