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Showing posts from April, 2021

NFTs and the carbon footprint dilemma

NFTs are disrupting the creative industry by providing artists with a   new medium to sell their work   and even make a profit with subsequent resales. Although this technique has been around for some years already, it is in 2021 when it has started flourishing driven by the new golden era for cryptocurrencies. However, NFTs are being criticized for the carbon emissions they produce. Each transaction is  estimated  to produce  20 kg of CO2   [1]  and there are often multiple transactions connected to a single artwork. Carbon emissions associated to NFTs An individual NFT transaction  does not  directly  increase emissions . As SuperRare points out  [2] , Ethereum's blockchain has a fixed energy consumption at a given point in time regardless on how many transactions are processed. While this statement is technically true, there are at least two ways NFTs are   indirectly  pushing carbon emissions  further  [3] : "More NFT transactions" means more money going to the mine