The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has stopped selling animal products. NFTsAfter receiving criticism from environmentalists about the industry’s carbon footprint, they decided to reopen the project..
The WWF announced in a tweet that they had launched their NFTs on the PoS Polygon network. It claimed that the choice of blockchain was environmentally-friendly.
Our NFTs are being released on the eco-friendly Polygon Blockchain. Each transaction has the equivalent carbon emissions as a glass of tapwater, the WWF. Originally said at the time.
Since that tweet, PolygonThe carbon footprint of networks has been under scrutiny.
A Polygon transaction has a carbon footprint of approximately 430 grams of C02. This is almost 2,100 more than the optimistic estimate by the WWF. It is clear that Polygon is far from sustainable. Alex de Vries, founder and CEO of Digiconomist.
The WWF has reacted to the criticism and has reaffirmed its plans for NFT.
We reached an agreement with our partners to close this Friday. We recognize that NFTs are a hot topic and we all have much to learn about the new market. This is why we will now fully evaluate the impact of the trial and reflect on how best to engage our supporters. The WWF informed the Independent.
NFTs & the environment
The carbon footprint of proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains like BitcoinAnd EthereumIt is It is well-documented.
According to Cambridge University the Bitcoin network is a fraud. ConsumeAbout 125 terawatthours (TWh), of electricity are produced annually, more than most countries in the world. The Digiconomist website is another example. EstimatesEthereum’s energy consumption currently stands at around 112 TWh.
The Ethereum blockchain, which is the most important NFT platform, consumes a lot of energy. However, it is difficult to assess the carbon footprint for each NFT transactionor of the larger NFT market.
This is because proof-of-work blockchains are calculated based on the energy cost associated with mining new blocks on the blockchain, and not individual transactions.
According to a study PublishedThe UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies has designed proof-of-work Blockchains so that their energy consumption strongly correlates to its market capitalization. This creates a high demand for popular implementations [like Bitcoin or Ethereum].
According to UCL’s study, PoS Blockchains consume orders-of-magnitude less energy than PoW Blockchains. PoS blockchains like Polygonare built on top PoW blockchains. However, critics continue to point out the role NFTs play in the crypto industry’s larger carbon footprint.
This is not the first instance of an organization jumping on the NFT bandwagon in the face of environmental concerns. Mozilla, the nonprofit that developed Firefox, announced a halt to crypto donations last month after backlash online. Additionally, the Wikimedia foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds Wikipedia, was faced with calls to cease accepting crypto donations.
https://decrypt.co/92707/wwf-drops-nfts-amid-environmental-criticism
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