Source:
https://twitter.com/SBakerMD/status/1365155012360302592?s=20
- SBakerMD
I love crypto.
I love money.
I love art.
I love the planet.
I am not the biggest fan of arguing with people on the Facebook with very little knowledge about how cryptos work, so i thought i would discuss the topic here.
One of the first criticisms of crypto we often encounter is the environmental impact it causes via wasteful Proof-of-work consensus mechanisms like Bitcoin. (Don't get me wrong , i love Bitcoin, and still support it. I will explain why further below)
First we should be mature enough as a community to honestly acknowledge and understand that crypto in its current form does indeed have an ecological price tag, and it's big.
It's as big as all of watching Youtube & gaming combined in terms of CO2 emissions. See chart above.
Bitcoin & PoW is the main culprit. As the graph above illustrates the problem is far greater than Bitcoin and is an issue we face in general about how do we power all kinds of modern technology.
Ethereum was the first to market as a smart contract crypto project that enabled NFTs & via PoW and now is desperately trying to upgrade to Proof-of-stake (PoS) in order to remain relevant in the industry, but the recent NFT art boom brought up some interesting ideas for me.
Firstly are the countless poorly made NFTs "worth" being on the blockchain ecologically? Do they have a right to exist in the current paradigm of energy production & consumption? Does this post have the right to exist on the blockchain?
NFT crypto art is trending now with all the hype and rush for artists to try cash in on the mania but to me the ‘art world’ but the reality is most of it is pure garbage.
Have you seen enough versions of countless poorly crafted 3D renders of the statue of David with a space helmet glued on or similar? or worse just hastily painted photoshop effects called artwork.
Is cryptoart a detractor and least relevant reason to be discussing the actual value and usecases of blockchain technology.
In my mind I give Bitcoin the "eco-damage pass" because I believe that although PoW is more wasteful than PoS I am willing to pay this energy cost as high as it might be our only chance to end to the tyranny of Fiat currency system sooner rather than later.
Once a fair economic system is reestablished then we can slowly replace Bitcoin with something mores sustainable and in line with current Proof-of-stake systems like Cardano.
I hate to see bad crypto art being used as an excuse to write off the value of the entire blockchain industry. I worry that governments will start using the ecology card as a way to try and prevent crypto adoption.
Hopefully soon bad cryptoart NFTs will be soon possible on PoS systems like Cardano and other competitors in the coming months with certainty.
TLDR: Everything in life has an operational cost, can we morally justify the ecological cost of shitty NFT artwork on Ethereum's current PoW systems? Is my reason for justifying PoW for Bitcoin's social revolutionary potential justified ecologically?