Unconfirmed: Why This Environmentalist Doesn’t Blame Creators for the Carbon Footprint of NFTs - Ep.219
Brendan McGill, co-founder of Offsetra and Carbon.fyi, a company focused on reducing carbon emissions, talks about the environmental impact of NFTs. In this episode, Brendan discusses:
- his career as an environmentalist and how his sites intersect with crypto (1:07)
- why online art platform ArtStation canceled its plans to create an NFT program (3:21)
- what the environmental impact of NFTs actually is and why minting and transacting with NFTs has a greater environmental impact than for normal Ethereum transactions (5:21)
- misconceptions surrounding the environmental impact of NFT minting and why he believes artists should not be blamed for the carbon footprint calculated by Offsetra (6:57)
- what accounts for the emissions in NFT transactions and why it’s hard to calculate the exact environmental impact of any specific NFT, and why minting NFTs doesn’t necessarily increase emissions (7:32)
- why NFTs aren’t really responsible for the bulk of emissions from Ethereum and why Brendan thinks the backlash against NFT creators for the environmental impact is unfair (12:02)
- how Offsetra and Carbon.fyi attempt to calculate the amount of ‘clean’ energy vs. fossil fuels used in PoW mining and what assumptions they use (13:59)
- the methods (and blockchains) artists are using to create “clean NFTs” (16:17)
- Crypto New Recap (16:17)
Thank you to our sponsor!
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Episode links:
Brendan McGill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmc6/
Offsetra:
- website: https://offsetra.com/
- Ethereum CO2 footprint calculator: https://carbon.fyi/
- carbon.fyi methodology: https://carbon.fyi/learn
Reading Material:
- guide to ecofriendly NFTs
- fixing NFTs’ carbon pollution problem
Other:
- statement from ArtStation
- CryptoArt.wtf
Link to the Crypto News Recap:
https://unchainedpodcast.com/a-69-million-nft/
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