So, with all this excitement around NFTs, it feels like there’s some sort of vindication of artists against the Man. However, there also feels like there’s some sort of mass psychosis happening where the consequences of sticking it to the Man haven’t been fully thought through.

There has been some discussion of the energy consumption of NFTs, but not nearly as much as the price tags of some of the art. CryptoArt.WTF randomly selects an NFT and shows its energy consumption on the blockchain. The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #CryptoArt is the companion series of articles that goes with the website.

TL;DR - Crypto Art is destroying the environment.

Meanwhile, a group that calls themselves Burnt Banksy auctions off an NFT called Original Banksy Morons representing the burning of an official Banksy print certified by the Pest Control Office that they acquired for $95,000. It went for 228.69 Ethereum, or, roughly $382,000. Wait, I thought Banksy was an anonymous street artist - how exactly does one certify his merch?

Then, @jack decides to auction off his first tweet as an NFT. The current bid is $2.5 million. In a time where millions in the world are suffering from food insecurity and violence, while geopolitical escalations and climate change are creating catastrophic risks, people are transacting to buy scarce digital items that are literally worth… nothing… and millions of dollars.

My head hurts.

However, we have seen this before. It seems that we are somewhere in the neighborhood of the peak of inflated expectations. There will be tastemakers and there will be bagholders and there will be those that go to prison for fraud. It is a time of opportunity, risk, wealth creation, and transfer of power.

The next version of the Internet is emerging, and understanding it is important. So is developing a more regenerative way to power it.