Not for The Environment?
NFT’s have been all the buzz lately. With people like Mark Cuban and Jalen Suggs minting their own NFT’s, the innovative technology burst onto the scene in 2021, grabbing everyone by storm. Unfortunately, everything has its downsides, and today we will focus on the impacts NFT’s have on the environment.
To understand, we need to know how exactly the process of minting an NFT works. Each NFT contains a unique line of code that is inserted into a blockchain, which is a digital ledger of transactions that is stored on the overall enterprise blockchain. When someone clicks to mint one, the process of mining begins. Computers go through many cryptographic puzzles, spending hours and hours trying to crack it, and the miner who answers first gets their NFT added to the blockchain.
The mining is the fatal flaw; the process of creating an NFT has been estimated to create 200 kilograms of carbon, which is terrible considering how popular NFT’s are becoming. Even worse, the continuation of mining leads to more complex puzzles, causing the computers to use more energy in the future. Like the current problems with global warming, blockchain mining goes in a continuous loop that is destined to create problems for our Earth. With how dire the situation with climate change is, NFT’s have suddenly become dangerous.
However, there are steps that we can take to fix this. Most of the electricity used to power mining computers comes from fossil fuels, which we all know is dangerous. By using clean energy sources such as wind and solar power, we can take an alternate approach to creating electricity in a much better way for the world. What do you think about this? To continue using this landmark technology, we need to advocate for clean energy instead of using fossil fuels we know will kill us and future generations.
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
