Liam Garrett
The term NFT has drawn controversy throughout the art world and introduced an interesting question to art critics and artists: are NFTs the way of the future?
As a digital artist and a craftsman it’s a difficult question to answer. One side of the argument highlights the devastation NFTs will cause to the environment, and the other side argues that NFTs are the solution available for digital artists to authenticate their work and sell it without worry of plagiarism saturating their market. The blockchain is already a head-scratch initiator—for most of us, we just see the insane amount of money cryptocurrency generates. We all are witness to the attention crypto receives as viable for the future of trading and unregulated economics, or liable for economic disaster and environmental decimation. But before we get into NFTs or the tensely divided opinions about this new “minting” of art, what is blockchain exactly?
Well, in short blockchain is a ledger, without requiring a third party to regulate a transaction. Blockchain is almost like a long ledger of ownership that is unable to be tampered with. That’s all that’s necessary to understand about Blockchain to grasp the basic premise of an argument for NFTs. For digital artists, plagiarism is an issue, and pieces can be stolen and reused. All that was necessary to steal a piece of digital art with immense value—without having to pay a dime to use it—was to look it up online and copy and paste it (No harnessed figures dropping from museum ceilings necessary!). This presents a problem for digital artists: How can we sell an original piece of digital art and assure the buyer gets their dollars worth? This is where blockchain comes in handy: it proves ownership and creates an official transaction between the artist and the destined art owner.
This is a big problem solved for digital artists who have wished for a way to be taken more seriously in the art trade. However, this presents a larger issue sheathed below the profitability of this new craze. A legitimate question: is it a bad sign that memes and jpegs of tweets are selling for thousands of dollars? How can people afford to buy things which normal people would consider silly or kitsch at ridiculously high prices?! Does this point to a wealth divide far more grand than any of us could imagine? Not to mention what the hell is this going to do to the environment? Overall NFTs answer few questions and present a whole array of new ones in their growing popularity.
Although one question is particularly important, and does have an answer: seriously…what the hell is this going to do to the environment? Well, this year estimates say the energy consumed by Bitcoin will be more than the total electricity consumption of the entire nation of Argentina. So yes, if mining continues to use the amount of energy it is using now—or uses more—it will be devastating to the environment. But we will have to see what the future holds for the norms of crypto mining in the years to come, and whether NFTs are a phase or are here to stay. One thing is for certain: they are making many digital artists major dollar figures.