Hey guys. Was looking for forums focused on wildlife and stumbled upon this community.
My name is Denis and I’m working on a project revolved around crowdfunding in order to help endangered animals. We are using NFTs as a way to raise funds for several NGOs but I’m really curious what do you guys think of the whole NFT trend and do you see other ways we can use this technology?
Why specifically the use of NFTs here? I’m not seeing a reason why someone would need to digitally certify they have ownership of something for this application.
I feel like the concept can be useful for certain things (say the title for a property), but basically every time I see them used it’s for something that absolutely does not need to be a NFT. Kind of like cryptocurrency in general, definitely useful for certain applications, but most coins are not that.
I guess if you can extract money from the NFT hype for endangered species, that’s not a bad thing…
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Which platform are you using?
The average NFT is reported to have huge environmental cost :
https://memoakten.medium.com/the-unreasonable-ecological-cost-of-cryptoart-2221d3eb2053
If Memo Akten´s breakdown is correct, any use of platforms which aren´t using “clean NFTs”/proof-of-stake currencies seems wildly counterproductive in ecological terms.
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If you are into NGO fundraising, why not trying to sell nature inspired art? it is more “valuable” for people who is into nature, NGO, ecologic stuff, and is way to much more ecological. After all NFT are just speculative late-capitalism things.
If I have the money I would love a painting with big dimension inspired in the sea, but not a NFT of art of the sea.
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Everything about NFTs and the technologies underlying them are designed to enable exploitation and rent extraction. Even disregarding vast environmental impact which may or may not be solved in the future, they are therefore IMO diametrically opposed to the spirit of open collaboration which makes a community like iNaturalist thrive.
For anyone interested in why, Dan Olson’s extremely thorough breakdown of the topic is essential viewing:
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Personally, I hate them. I’ve had my work essentially stolen and pawned off all for the sake of NFTs, with me not even being aware of it for a while. I can appreciate one trying to use it in a helpful way and maybe that can work but will the positive impact outweigh the negative? It seems like a bit of a gamble.
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NFTs are primarily a vehicle for wash trading (illegal in most countries’ financial markets):
- Traders are selling themselves their own NFTs to drive up prices, Engadget, 2021-02-04
NFTs also function as a pump-and-dump scheme:
- Here’s why NFTs are crypto’s latest pump-and-dump scheme designed to make crypto insiders rich, Business Insider, 2021.
And then there is the risk of money laundering with NFTs:
- As NFTs flourish, U.S. Treasury raises alarm over money laundering in art, Reuters, 2022-02-04.
And if those reasons were not enough to make you (or any other moral person) avoid creating an NFT like it were a toxic waste dump, then there are the environmental impacts of many blockchain technologies, as mentioned by @sbushes…
I’m closing this topic and unlisting it. As far as I can tell it’s more market research than anything else.
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