They are some environmental concerns surrounding NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and I will be discussing some of these environmental concerns on my article today.
Ofcourse it all depends hugely on the network that is used for the creation of the particular nft as those that use the proof of work network are the ones that usually raises environmental concerns, yes the network used for the buying and selling of this nft and it's creation determine the level of environmental concern it will raise.
I will discuss below the environmental concerns that surrounds nft.
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What are some environmental concerns that surrounds nft
Well one of the environmental concerns surrounding NFTs stems from the fact that they have been known to operate on energy intensive blockchain network. Yes one of the network that supports the creation, buying and selling of nft is the Ethereum blockchain and the Ethereum network for long have been on the proof of work consensus mechanism which requires high computational energy for transactions to be validated on the chain.
It's true though that the Ethereum network from 2022 shifted from PoW to proof of stake but before it did it had often operated in a similar manner to the Bitcoin network and requires fossil fuel as an energy source which leaves carbon footprint that is bad for the environment.
And then since nft is operating on this chain it also implies that an nft transactions often takes up as much energy consumption, infact the energy consumption of an nft transaction have often been compared to be equal to the electricity usage that an average household utilize for a week that's for the proof of work consensus mechanism that requires a great deal of computational power and relies on energy sources that leaves carbon footprint.
So looking at that clearly shows that there are some environmental concerns surrounding NFTs especially nft on the proof of work consensus mechanism and that is exactly the consensus mechanism Ethereum known to housed nft have been on for years up until 2022 when it migrated to proof of stake.
Another evironmental concern that seemingly comes surrounds nft is the fact that when we look at the mining process and the resources utilitized by the proof of work mining process them we would know that it involves or makes use of enormous hardware resources, yes the equipment needed to mine in PoW are great and powerful hardwares so great that it causes risk of natural resources being depleted in the process.
There is often great waste in electronics power and rare earth metals often have become some of the casualties of PoW mining operations which is one of the earth's natural resources to be depleted due to the powerful hardwares needed to run mining operations in PoW consensus mechanism and ofcourse this makes NFTs minted on any proof of work network to really raise major environmental concerns.
And ofcourse here there is also a need for this powerful hardwares equipment to be updated, I mean there are always new updates in technology with it arises a need to ensure that the equipment needed for this mining process is constantly updated and this leads or continues to contribute to e-waste issues and that's a great environmental implications that needs serious consideration.
We also have concerns of water usage, as most of the mining rigs needs to be cooled after mining and the needing for the cooling process becomes greater in places where the climate is harsh or much warmer as the case maybe and water is one thing that is really used in this cooling process, the amount of water needed for this cooling process is really enormous and this thus adds to the concerns that surrounds NFTs as regards the impacts on environment.
Viable solutions
Because of the environmental concerns surrounding NFTs there is an initiative which most nft creators now are investing in renewable energy projects what's the goal? They are trying to ensure that the carbon footprint problem no longer exist
So investment in renewable energy could help reduce the ecological impact so to speak to a bare minimum or the purchase of carbon credits, this too can help in this regard though a most viable option would be to remove reliance of NFTs on proof of work consensus mechanism to a much suitable network like proof of stake as this proof of work is really the underlying issues of this environmental concerns.
We also have other alternative not only proof of stake, we have the solona, flow and tezoes blockchain which is also most suited and has lesser ecological impact which could help ensure that environmental concerns surrounding NFTs is reduced or eliminated completely.
Conclusion
So with the advancement in technology in our time I don't really think we should still be having issues with this, NFTs could easily build on proof of stake network like eth to mitigate the ecological impact or even in more renewable resources, it's important to ensure that NFTs operate without any concern for having major environmental impact
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