The NFT craze makes me furious, even though it’s great to empower artists and support an important part of society through a devastating pandemic. The cost of this support is much greater. NFTs have a catastrophic impact on the environment, the true extent of which we cannot even comprehend.
I’m not an IT crazy person at all. However, I am very interested in art. NFTs initially interested me a lot from an art perspective. After digging the rabbit hole of NFTs, I was shocked to find out what the environmental impact of these modern seemingly good platforms is, and you will be too. You do not have to be a techie to understand the extent of the damage that NFTs cause.
Before I go any further: artists are not guilty here. Those who succeed in selling their artwork benefit financially from NFTs. Over the past year, the art industry has suffered incredibly hard. I encourage artists in all respects. I am opposed to damaging the planet in the process.
How do popular cryptocurrencies work and why are they harmful?
The cryptocurrency on which most NFT sales are based is called Ethereum. The price of Ethereum is linked to how much supply / demand there is. When a currency grows, there is a lot of demand, which leads to a sudden increase in transactions. Physical energy must be used to complete each transaction. The more popular a currency is (increased demand), the more energy is used to process transactions. This is called Proof of Work. To be able to do any transaction with Ethereum, the system must show that it has done work. The higher the value of each transaction, the more work needs to be done. The more people get on the hype train, the more popular the currency. The more popular, the greater the number of transactions. The higher the number of transactions, the more energy is used. It’s a never ending loop.
An average Ethereum transaction consumes 35 kWh of energy. To put this in perspective, this is how much an EU citizen consumes in 4 days. It’s incredibly high. But it gets higher, depressingly higher.
What are NFTs?
The idea behind NFTs is to create a unique character that cannot be exchanged, split or changed in any way, hence the non-fungability of the character. Therefore, an NFT is a collectible, like a collectible dollar once issued, like buying an expensive painting. It holds value as an item. You can not pay for ice cream with a piece of paint. An NFT is a digital version of this.
The energy consumption of NFTs is catastrophic
The trick with NFTs is that they are unique. The more artists create NFTs (create digital assets for their artwork), the more transactions take place. In addition, every bid, canceled bid, buy, etc. is also a transaction. This suggests that an NFT is very transaction-heavy. And because of the nature of an NFT transaction, it requires a lot more energy compared to a regular cryptocurrency transaction. In numbers: 82 kWh, with 48 kg CO2 released. This is more than 2.3 times higher than a normal transaction.
You already know that an NFT transaction takes a lot of energy. But an NFT sale from start to finish can be hundreds of transactions. It is estimated that an average NFT consumes 340 kWh of energy and emits 211 kg of CO2. It can be compared to two hours of flying or 620 miles of driving. The worst part is that most NFTs will never be sold, causing artists to lose money while also irreversibly harming the planet.
What about artists?
A few anonymous case studies will come in handy.
Suppose an artist has sold about a small number of works of art, each with a few hundred editions, totaling 800. In a period of three months, sales amounted to 138,272 kWh of energy and 85 tons of CO2. This is comparable to 825 hours of flying and consuming electricity for 40 years.
Another artist is more popular. They made more artwork and sold about 1,500 issues. During that time, they used 263,538 kWh and consequently released 163 tons of CO2. This can be compared to the total energy consumption of an EU citizen for 77 years and flying 1500 hours. If you fancy cooking a kettle, you need to boil it 3.5 million times.
You can interpret these values as you wish. But the energy consumption of NFTs is incredibly high, unnecessarily high.
What about the platforms?
Open Sea, one of the most popular platforms for digital art, underwent (from 2021 to 31 March) 869 077 transactions, releasing 67,824,222 kg of CO2. Another popular platform, Nifty Gateway, underwent 130,904 transactions, resulting in 15,382,066 kg of CO2. The nine most popular NFT platforms underwent a total of 1,606,435 transactions. It released 115,811,072 kg of CO2. This is 115 811 tons. You will have to fly continuously for 146 years to spend the amount. An EU citizen will have to use electricity for 83 266 years to spend the amount.
Can anything be done?
The short answer is yes, there are ways to do NFTs without harming the environment on such a biblical scale.
The solution developed over the past seven years is Ethereum 2.0. It uses another method called Proof of Stake. The mining capacity of a new block is not linked to energy, but to the amount of money already available. Current news indicates that ETH 2.0 will be introduced to the general public in the next few years. Hopefully, the sense of urgency created by the sudden increase in NFT popularity will accelerate the rollout of ETH 2.0. Once launched, ETH 2.0 will only enable faster greener transactions. A better solution than ETH 2.0 is also in development.
That solution is Efinity. A recently launched NFT chain (part of the futuristic Polkadot network) is being created with the goal of pushing NFTs to the heart. Efinity claims that it is cheaper for creators and much cleaner for the environment. For end users, Efinity will allow fast (no more than six seconds) transactions, and what’s more exciting, no blockchain wallet required. It improves accessibility for all users and allows NFTs to grow more while being sustainable. This growth will be encouraged by how easy it is to use Efinity for a new user. The general idea of the NFT is amazing; however, the execution is terrible. Efinity wants to solve it.
The CEO of Enjin (the company that develops Efinity) claims:
NFTs should be for everyone. With Polkadot, we are building an accessible, scalable solution that enables everyone to participate in the emerging NFT economy. With the end user in mind, Efinity offers a fun, simple and accessible experience for everyone.
Closing thoughts
For now, NFTs are deadly to the planet. Until ETH 2.0 starts, or even better, Efinity, I discourage NFT transactions. There are greener ways to support artists, such as donations or auctions.
Please do not harass artists using NFT platforms. Rather share this article to make you aware of the urgent matter. I condense anyone who has used the information herein to attack an artist.
What are your thoughts on this? Should there be protests against NFTs despite what their artists offer? Should we boycott NFTs? Let me know in the comments; I always read it.