Author: Grace Enjia Xu
Editors: Sophia Chen, Ken Saito
Artists: Grace Enjia Xu
In today’s world, technology has come to be the biggest stumbling block of Generation Z – inseparable from the internet. The younger generation is more attached to technology than ever, which has gained superiority beyond our basic needs. It is often where the works of others get plagiarized, since it is so easy to do so. Therefore, in a day and age where mass information is posted online, the invention of NFT, or non-fungible tokens, is undoubtedly a good safeguard for the original owners of digital products. But what comes with the unique copyright and ownership of NFTs are the serious carbon emissions that are released.
NFTs, representing Non-fungible tokens, are assets that are made from blockchain-based tokens that can represent ownership for digital images, art, unique assets, or even real-life items. Fungible literally means easily replaced, and non-fungible tokens are ones that are unique and irreplaceable. Due to its unique characteristics, NFT has opened markets to digital collectibles and has led to trends that have been persisting since 2021. A notable non-fungible token event that brought a great deal of awareness towards NFTs would be the iconic NBA basketball player Stephen Curry’s $180,000 purchase at the Bored Ape Yacht Club on August 28th, 2021, which has continued to rise in price.
Simple enough, the purpose behind NFT is not very complex to understand, but what exactly makes it a hazard to the environment? How does a bored ape necessarily tie into carbon emissions? To answer that question, we must delve into the NFT cycle. Depending on the size and design of these blockchains, they have unique identification codes that help identify and distinguish ownership, so their consumption of energy also varies. To understand the energy consumption of the NFT, it is important to understand the basic NFT life cycle, which consists of mining, listing, purchasing, and storage. Firstly, non-fungible tokens are mined and programmed, where creators upload their image or digital asset to a blockchain that is then tokenized and secured with a unique code that masks the original data while also allowing it to be sold online. After an NFT is purchased, a blockchain transaction will be initiated, which will validate the transaction and transfer ownership of the non-fungible token to its new owner. This non-fungible token asset can then be stored outside of the blockade system.
However, within the cycle, a fair amount of energy is wasted, and carbon emissions are released in two ways: non-transaction energy use and electronic waste. Non-transaction energy consumption is the energy used when there is no transaction. NFTs themselves take up storage even without transaction activity, so these tokens that are stored on the blockchain use up an abundance of energy just by being present. As NFT’s increase,an increase in data storage space is also required, thus more energy consumption.
Compared to non-transaction energy consumption, electronic waste is a bigger issue for non-fungible tokens that threatens the environment. In the process of mining NFT, the blockchain hardware must be consistently upgraded. However, as these hardware are programmed to solve harder cryptographic problems (complex hidden coding information), they are used 24/7 and quickly outdated as they wear out the electric circuits. Therefore, new hardware needs to be consistently replaced to keep upgrading and allowing the NFT to continue to work, which creates outrageous amounts of electronic waste. Furthermore, these electronic wastes are then hazardous as they are released into the environment. The mercury and lead released by the hardware can lead to pollution in the environment, and the processing of electronic waste can also lead to greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate global warming. This will cause detrimental impacts on the temperatures in our environment, but what solutions do we have if we want to keep NFTs but also minimize the environmental consequences?
Surprisingly, there are many positive approaches to solving this problem and renewable energy and replacing it with PoS are all good ways to help the environment. Primarily, NFT hardware is recycled using the procedure of burning fossil fuel, which leads to greenhouse emissions. However, if we try to use biomass energy, wind energy, or any other eco-friendly procedures to supply the energy required for NFTs, the emissions would be reduced greatly. Another approach to the problem is shifting from PoW, which requires solving energy-consuming cryptographic equations, to PoS Proof of Stake models, which use staking as a strategy to let the owner lock the NFT from being used and are a lot more energy-efficient compared with the original way to function NFTs. Therefore, despite the negative environmental impacts of NFT, there are still available solutions with which we can minimize the negative impacts and continue to use them.
Citations:
Garnett, Allie Grace. “NFTs and the Environment: What You Need to Know.” Investopedia,
Investopedia, www.investopedia.com/nfts-and-the-environment-
%2C%20exchange%2C%20and%20storage. Accessed 31 May 2024.
OpenSea. “7990 - Bored Ape Yacht Club.” OpenSea,
Accessed 31 May 2024.
Calma, Justine. “The Climate Controversy Swirling around Nfts.” The Verge, 15 Mar. 2021,
www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22328203/nft-cryptoart-ethereum-blockchain-climate-
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