Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Bitcoin Mining (< these links help explain a bit more about each one)... they've all been in the news lately with stories of people making enormous sums of money or spending mind-blowing amounts on things like a GIF of a Pop-Tart cat shooting out a rainbow in its wake as it flies through space. While it all may seem benign, it's actually having a big impact on the planet. 

Basically, due to the incredible amount of computing power it takes to encrypt, complete transactions, and create new "blocks" in the blockchains they utilize, these digital entities are consuming huge amounts of energy.

Take Bitcoin, the best known cryptocurrency. According to Digiconomist, due to the massive computing power necessary for Bitcoin to function, its annual carbon footprint is comparable to the country of Norway, it uses about the same amount of electricity as Kazakhstan, and each transaction requires 80,000 times the energy of a single Visa transaction. And that's just Bitcoin!

These technologies have the potential to undermine years of climate change progress. However, by changing how they encrypt transactions, they could greatly reduce their environmental toll. And while some like Ethereum - the company most connected to the NFT market - have promised to do so, they have not made the change while their energy demand has risen dramatically. 

One important benefit to note is that NFTs are helping artists get paid for their work both from the original sale of the NFT and from subsequent transactions. That's great and we fully support artists earning a living through their art. But as this technology becomes more widely adopted we can't lose sight of the need and opportunity to do it right!

As with all issues we bring forward, we try to offer ways to tackle the problem, but here the greatest impact you can make is to just not be part of the problem in the first place. If you do want to explore cryptocurrencies or NFTs, look for ones that are more sustainable. If you currently use these technologies, advocate for more sustainability within the system and consider offsetting your related emissions. 

New technologies can really be great - and indeed these ones may be, too - but we can't ignore the impact they have on our warming planet. 

REVERB