THE GROWING LABOR MOVEMENT

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF NFTS

Since the conception of cryptocurrency, people often wondered where it would lead and if this was an answer to the growing divide between rich and poor. And with influencers such as Elon Musk, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, and several other wealthy elites, this new market could easily be shifted by a mere few words from them.

One example of this phenomenon was captured by a Twitter executive from Shibecoin tweeting at Musk, asking how much Shibecoin he had – to which Musk replied, “none.” As a result, a majority of Shibecoin holders sold their shares, thus rendering Shibecoin useless because of one man’s single word.

With this Wild West-style new exchange market, certain people within these circles started developing the idea of artistic collectibles, bought and sold via cryptocurrency. And among the many problems that arose with this, the most notable ones at present would be the amount of energy it requires to buy an NFT; the “right click” argument; the scamming of assets to create the art; and the lack of artist support that results.

CLIMATE VILLAIN

In an average American household, one single family sharing a house will consume 11,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in one year. To power Etherium, one of the main blockchain systems used to purchase NFTs and cryptocurrency, the system uses 84.9 million kilowatt hours in one day. Because of this power consumption, several supply plants of varying companies generate up to 120,000 kWh daily and have been reported to be actively creating heat so intense that for one Atlas-owned bitcoin plant in Dresden, New York, residents nearby have reported that the adjacent Seneca Lake “feels like a hot tub.”

These mining plants are mainly coal-powered and are absolutely needed for the intensive computing processes that go into transferring cryptocurrency for an Etherscan of a JPEG. And,

amidst the growing climate change-induced criticisms, some blockchain systems have attempted the switch to middle-chain, a system that relies on contributing some funds towards making the transactions carbon-neutral. Regardless of this attempt, the majority of participants in the cryptocurrency atmosphere do not use middle-chain and are instead perfectly content with using the systems partially responsible for pushing climate change.

ETHER-SCAMMED

When buying an NFT, the main reason it’s bought is for the Etherscan, an online certificate of authenticity that provides proof of purchase. The problem with this, however, is that these become easy to scam from, considering how unregulated the marketplace is. Along with the simplicity of these transactions, multiple NFT scams have occurred since the beginning, and for the most part the deceived buyers cannot receive justice for their spent money due to the lack of regulation.

Even when people manage to buy an authentic NFT, they can post their lavish JPEG on social media, only to be guaranteed a comment from someone else saying “Mine now!” along with the same image. Although the thief does not own the Etherscan, the entire product is rendered value-less just from someone else “stealing” it by saving the image to their files.

The purchase of NFTs is solely for the Etherscan, but nobody really wants to go around waving a code for a product because the real product is much “prettier,” and they would like to hold this image close considering its value: Some of these can go for hundreds of millions of dollars. And even though the consumer owns an Etherscan of the artwork, sometimes they don’t even own the art itself, as the item can be bought and sold multiple times in different copies and variations.

ARTISTS EXPLOITED

Delving further into the variables of copying pieces of art, the NFT market also has a common practice of actually taking another piece of art, rebranding it, and then selling it for a price that the original artist gets no bite of. One example of this was during the 2021 Academy Awards

show, when Andre Oshea purchased a model of actor Chadwick Boseman’s face online for $50, digitally painted it gold, and then auctioned it off as an NFT. The cyber-artist received numerous complaints for this act, so along with the mere thought of dedicating a dead actor to this, he donated half of the funds accumulated from the auction to the Colon Cancer Foundation.

Even in the realm of authentic NFTs, a lot of the artwork created is just digital rebranding of a design, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which pieces all feature the same image of an ape rebranded to have different costumes, colors, and accessories. To make it more arbitrary, these apes all have supremely varying prices despite the clear lack of originality: It’s just the same boring ape, with a different costume.

One counter-argument to criticisms that I hear often is that NFTs “support the artist.” I, for one, disagree as someone who knows and has befriended several digital artists. There is already a structured way to support them in a way that doesn’t harm the environment – through commissions. Paying the artist directly to create a work to meet your original desired look is not only helpful to actual creators, but much more mainstream than NFTs, something that I’ve had to begrudgingly explain to multiple people, only to be met with similar disdain and/or confusion.

Meanwhile, for a digital artist there already is a system set for all the rights of the creator to be retained with their work – with piracy, theft, or plagiarism being a crime that can actually be handled, instead of that artist just being left to shrug when someone “steals” a piece of digital art the owner does not have any right to, regardless of the money spent.

Not only is digital artistry an actual job that doesn’t rely on a marketing brand, but the artists have a lot more custom options fit to their job with an ability to negotiate pay with clients directly. Digital artists are themselves the brand, their style and art can change with them over time while still having a following, and everywhere you go currently the artwork that goes into anything is more likely than not made by someone who takes no part in the NFT space.

FOOLS’ GOLD?

In my mind, NFTs don’t have a chance in becoming truly mainstream because they are already competing with a system that is much simpler, effective, and profitable. And to those buyers who dedicate their wallets to a horrid-looking, rebranded image of a monkey, I hope you step away from the squiggly line that controls your life.