NFTs: the newest ridiculous fad

NFTs are the latest craze in art and technology, but are they worth it?

Non-Fungible Tokens are the newest tech thing. They’re everywhere. 

There are both companies and celebrities like Grimes and Jack Dorsey who are getting into the NFT market to make some quick cash and capitalize on the newest fad in technology. Here is why they suck. 

NFTs are complicated. Essentially, they are one-of-a-kind pieces of art, and the rights to own them are put up for auction and sold using a cryptocurrency called Ethereum blockchain which is a form of blockchain. A blockchain is a database that builds on top of itself at every interaction. 

The Ethereum blockchain has to be mined, which is essentially guessing which number comes next to build the chain. Once a block is added, every interaction that is performed on it gives the person who found the block a profit.

NFTs are bought and sold on these blocks using ether which means people have to mine it to buy an NFT. 

Mining takes an insane amount of energy. Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times reported that the average NFT has a carbon footprint roughly equal to driving 500 miles in a typical car. 

In addition to the massive carbon footprint that buying and selling NFTs makes, the very idea of them is ridiculous. 

Buying an NFT doesn’t, in fact, guarantee that you’re the only one allowed to use the art. It only means that you are the only one who can say that you own the artwork.

So everyone can download the image and use it wherever they want. While you’re the only one who can say you own it, the Internet is notorious for being full of lies and misinformation. 

There’s not a way to remove and correct every single instance where someone claims ownership. 

Spending literally millions of dollars to own not even a physical thing but an idea of ownership is quite frankly ridiculous. 

Money and my own personal opinions about the idea aside, we cannot let something like this ruin our climate even more. We must ask ourselves if ownership of art that can be used anywhere is worth destroying our planet.