3 ms·
I’ve seen a lot of backlash in the generative art world over NFTs as a result of the revelations of their climate impact, with people refusing to participate. S
by paulgb 6y ago
I’ve seen a lot of backlash in the generative art world over NFTs as a result of the revelations of their climate impact, with people refusing to participate. So these articles aren’t pointless.
It’s ironic that Bitcoin started as a way to subvert the state, but now that its externalities are clear it’s a failure of the state to control those externalities. Never mind that it would require a global carbon tax, since coins are fungible and mining will relocate to avoid having to pay the cost of its externalities.
- willtemperley 6y agoI'm arguing from a purely practical perspective. What can be done? Can we forget PoW and Bitcoin ever existed? Can we ban someone using their GPU from performing hashes and connecting to the internet? Even the great firewall of China hasn't managed that. Can we close coal burning power stations? Yes. Let's do that then. Whether it's ironic or not, whether bitcoin was designed to subvert anything is immaterial.
- paulgb 6y agoI mean, people refusing to participate does move the needle a bit. I think as awareness of the problem grows (via articles like this), there will be more demand for less wasteful NFT platforms. You're probably right that the same is not true of Bitcoin. In my experience the digital art community is less nihilistic than the Bitcoin community about climate impacts, if only because Bitcoin has had a longer time for people concerned about the climate to self-select out of the community.