The head of a leading South Korean cryptocurrency exchange has recently promised that its non-fungible tokens featuring the world-famous K-pop band BTS will be minted by “low carbon, eco-friendly” technology after receiving backlash from environmentally conscious young fans about the energy use of NFTs. Wait a minute, environmentally conscious people. NFTs and the metaverse are not environmentally unfriendly technologies. To the contrary, they can save the planet and bring humankind a much greener future.
Crypto Mining Required for Minting Supports Green Energy Development
South Korea isn’t just among the leaders in the global cryptocurrency and blockchain race – fans of South Korea’s biggest and most famous K-pop group, BTS, are also very educated on the subject. When Hybe, the entertainment company that runs BTS, announced that it would be releasing BTS-themed NFTs that would play music, the fan reaction was not “what is an NFT”, but rather “NFTs are not environmentally friendly”. Sirgoo Lee, CEO of Upbit’s operator Dunamu, which is in a joint venture with Hybe, had to promise in response that Hybe would use “low carbon and environmentally friendly” technology to strike NFTs. .
The controversy surrounding the environmental impact of crypto mining and minting NFTs is mainly centered on energy consumption. But in fact, many crypto mining farms tend to be located in low-temperature, high-latitude countries where electricity is much cheaper and is generated from renewable sources such as geothermal or hydroelectric power. Even energy from volcanoes is being developed for crypto mining. The recently formed Bitcoin Mining Council calculated 56% of the industry uses sustainable energy resources.
Although some industry experts argue the math, there’s no denying that viewing cryptocurrency and NFTs as environmentally unfriendly technologies demonstrates an isolated and narrow view of what cryptocurrency and NFTs can actually do. for humanity and the environment.
Instead of Purchasing Physical Commodities and Luxury Goods, Buy More NFTs
Gift boxes, plastic and nylon wrappings, holiday décor, limited editions, special collections, you get the idea. The human desire for purchasing and owning essentially unnecessary things has been around for centuries. In order to fuel this consumerism, merchants and brands do their best to make additional items that hold special value throughout time. Killing or suffocating this century-old consumption desire would be hard, but there are also alternatives.
Instead of buying, owning, then throwing and throwing physical objects everywhere – which are absolutely not biodegradable and would end up floating or sinking deep in the oceans – why not migrate that desire to the metaverse and the keep digital?
Minting NFTs is not an add-on to the already existing human footprint on the fragile environment. Hopefully, once more and more people migrate their consumption from our current world to the blockchain-based metaverse, the physical consumption of commodities and the massive amount of junk generated through this process will also be largely replaced by the virtual and more eco-friendly NFT.
Over the past six months, an increasing number of artists, celebrities, and even politicians have released their NFT collections on the blockchain. It’s amazing that social influencers are leading the way, releasing digital limited editions and special collections, instead of printing cards, molding plastics, manufacturing chemicals and polluting the environment when the items are no longer considered valuable.
Instead of Accumulating Mileage, Let’s Meet in the Metaverse
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people around the world noticed how nature somewhat returned to its life and vibrancy with humans not transgressing against it. Wild flowers were blossoming, blue skies were back, valleys filled with cheerful water, and the fields turned green again.
While it’s sad that BTS fans couldn’t fly to Europe or the West Coast of the United States to attend the concerts, and people were forced to do all meetings on Zoom, the mileage saved and the reduction in CO2 emissions were a great blessing for the environment. So why not continue like this?
The Snoop Dogg concert inside The Sandbox, one of the leading metaverse experiences, was a very successful experiment. It shows us the possibility of creating exciting meetups and large events inside the metaverse without the need to fly people around, drive people across the city, and pack people into a physical location with a limited number of overpriced tickets.
Perhaps the United Nations Climate Change Conference should consider hosting a metaverse-based conference to allow attendees to reduce their environmental footprint?
