NFTs and the Environment
Source: Ivan Djordjevic
https://unblock.net/nft-environmental-impact/
"Just like cryptocurrencies, NFTs have the stigma of being bad for the environment. While this aspect doesn’t apply to all cryptocurrencies (mainly to Bitcoin and Ethereum), it’s a huge problem in the NFT ecosystem.
This is because artists mint most NFTs on the Ethereum network, which currently relies on a proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism. Consequently, minting a single NFT requires ungodly amounts of electricity. Then there’s the transactions, listings on marketplaces, sales, purchases, transfers between users or wallets… Every single of these actions requires a separate transaction that the Ethereum network needs to compute and record on its blockchain.
Ethereum 2.0 in 2022
Fortunately, we are getting closer to the Ethereum 2.0 update every day. During this highly anticipated event, the entire PoW Ethereum blockchain will migrate to a more scalable proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Transactions will become much cheaper, faster, and won’t depend on the size of the userbase anymore.
However, the most important aspect of this narrative is we can expect the energy consumption of the network to drop by 99%. This should finally put the entire environmental impact of NFTs debate to rest.
Some of the best NFT marketplaces like OpenSea have already integrated Polygon into their offering. They allow artists to directly benefit from this scalable solution when creating and selling NFTs.”
Striving towards CLEAN NFTs
