Owning Digital Art – What Is the Environmental Cost? Agnieszka Cichocka, Daily Art [5/6/2022]
While digital NFT art is booming, recently becoming one of the most broadly discussed topics in the art world, this success has also raised an issue of its environmental cost.
NFT (non-fungible tokens) art is seen by many as an evolution in art collecting in relation to digital assets. The tokens are sometimes sold for millions of dollars, contributing to the creation of the crypto art market, the value of which is constantly growing. On the other side, interest in NFT art has also raised questions of its impact on the earth’s climate and high carbon dioxide emissions generated by the cryptocurrencies used to buy and sell them.
How Is Crypto Art Influenced by Cryptocurrencies?
All of the crypto art platforms use cryptocurrencies, especially Ethereum, to make transactions selling and buying digital art pieces. NFTs exist on Ethereum blockchain which is energy costly – the tokens are created (mined) based on a process known as Proof-of-Work that necessitates large computing powers that emit CO2. This incredibly power-hungry process acts as a sort of security system which keeps financial records secure and makes it possible for the transactions to be made peer-to-peer without a need for a trusted third party (like a bank).
Η συνέχεια εδώ.