NFTs and crypto, specifically Ethereum – the platform and coin with which NFTs are traded – take up energy and therefore affect the environment in multiple ways:
- Minting and trading NFTs cause no damage to electricity
- Ethereum, the primary NFT blockchain, consumes electricity
- Ethereum is transitioning to a Proof of Stake (a type of consensus mechanism used to prove cryptocurrency transactions) that uses far less electricity.
- Other blockchains, such as Cardano, Tron and EOS, spend little electricity
Because most crypto art distributions and security technologies draw from Ethereum, the Ethereum platform then uses 48.14 kilowatt-hours of energy per transaction. Every time the Ethereum blockchain generates a transaction, that then takes up as much power as the common household over 1.5 days. This then increases global energy consumption substantially.
Data mining is used to provide a unique identifier to the purchase of an NFT and involves a number of mathematical sequences to provide a high level of security for the owner’s protection. Any maths problems are solved through a process of trial and error by computer systems, which are running all day, which then adds to the energy consumption.
The energy consumption involved in NFT transactions is a key reason why some people are hostile to to the idea of getting involved. However, environmentally conscious consumers and artists who are keen to enter the NFT space might be encouraged by the basic fact that without consumers, any market will crash.
For the NFT market to survive and thrive, it will surely have to adopt eco-friendly practices, I decided that NFTs are worth considering for musicians and other artists. Only then will NFTs, in time, move through the innovation adoption curve: every commercially successful idea and product is created by innovators, picked up by early adopters, before moving through the early and late majorities, before finally reaching the laggards:
