NFTs and the Environment. What Gives? - YouTube

Cryptocurrency as it relates to the environment  has been a hot button issue for years, and now  

that this tired old narrative is drying up, since  more and more Bitcoin mining is being done using

yeah,

renewable energy.

Solar.

Wind.

Even El Salvador is using  volcanoes to mine Bitcoin.

Well apparently, it’s time  to target the next victim:

Non-Fungible Tokens.

Stop.

Let me get this straight.

Generative profile pictures of cute cats  and dogs being minted on Blockchain is…

bad for the environment?

Something is missing, does not compute.

This about Proof-of-Work again isn’t it?

Mmhmm.

So this is ‘Bitcoin is bad for  the environment’ version 2,  

but now it’s ‘Ethereum is bad for the  environment, but not actually Ethereum, NFTs?’

It would be a stretch to say that NFTs  

actually help the environment or have a  net zero effect on the Earth’s ecosystem.

Not many things do.

But to slap an ‘NFT bad, hurt environment’  sticker on every NFT is pretty ludicrous.

With the NFT boom in recent months,  

the difficulty of mining Ethereum as  well as gas prices have skyrocketed.

And this puts pressure on the Ethereum  ecosystem which means more resources are needed,  

more electricity is needed in order  to approve transactions, and so on…

I'm not arguing against all that.

But that’s an Ethereum network problem, not  an NFT problem, and to be more specific,  

an Ethereum Proof-of-Work problem.

Which is apparently changing  to Proof-of-Stake any time now.

Yep, any time now.

Soon.

But, for now, if you use a  layer 2 solution like Polygon,  

you can basically avoid gas fees and  unnecessary energy usage almost entirely.

Ethereum’s scalability is a longstanding issue,  but the idea is that, once Ethereum 2.0 kicks in  

and the consensus mechanism  moves to Proof-of-Stake.

Which is a fraction energy Proof-of-Work requires,  this problem will be more or less resolved.

Oh, and guess what?

NFTs don’t only exist on Ethereum!

There are other networks out there!

Like WAX, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon,  Hive, bunch of other Blockchains that don’t use  

nearly as much energy as Ethereum needs  because of the change in consensus mechanism.

So, Ethereum’s efficiency could very well  

improve dramatically with the  introduction of Proof-of-Stake.

Which is coming.

At some point.

It's coming!

But, OH!

Crypto naysayers, they love to take  advantage of the complexity of our industry.

Am I right?

They’ll say some general statement  like ‘crypto harms the environment,’  

give a couple examples like Ethereum  NFTs or Bitcoin that make it true,  

and then walk away knowing you’re  not going to look any deeper into it.

Utilizing large amounts of electricity to  secure a network is only one of many, many,  

MANY mechanisms that are out there.

Even though some of the most  popular NFTs in the world  

are secured by ‘wasteful  energy’ from Proof-of-Work,  

there are NFT projects like Woodies that are  actively helping the environment and giving back.

Planting millions of trees in sub-Saharan Africa!

In fact, a lot of NFT projects are  giving to charities and improving  

the world by diverting portions  of their funds to good causes!

Hmm?

That's a thing.

So, let’s keep it real, NFTs are not  to blame for the state of the planet.

That honor goes to the institutions  and centralized mega corporations  

not doing enough to curtail the issue of fossil  fuels and move towards cleaner forms of energy,  

which already exist right now.

Just 100 companies are responsible for 71%  

of global emissions, according  to a Carbon Majors Report.

So, in summary, NFTs are not  inherently harmful for the environment,  

that depends on the protocols that secure them.

There are many protocols available, and many  of which have negligible environmental impact,  

and thirdly, there are many projects  that are actively giving back to help  

efforts to improve the environment.

So just leave me, and my Party  DJ Space Club NFT, alone!

Thanks.

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