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My thoughts on NFTs
3 years ago
Right, this is something that I had been planning to write for a long time. I had not written this earlier, because I wanted to make sure that I get all the facts right to the best of my abilities. Everything that I write here will be based on what I've researched over many months, and from the help of some of my friends. I wish I could submit this earlier... I've waited way too long to post this journal entry, and it's bothered me so much that I couldn't submit this earlier. I just want this journal posted as soon as I can. I would like to thank my friends over at Twitter and Discord for helping me out with getting the facts needed to write this journal entry.
So, what is an NFT? I'm sure that, by now, many of you are aware of what it is, but in case you're not, NFT stands for "Non-Fungible Token". Basically, it's a digital receipt that is tied to a digital file, typically digital art, but it can also be anything else such as video, audio, in-game items, etc.. Essentially, a proof of ownership.
Sounds exciting, right? Well... no, not really. >_>
The way I see it, NFTs are just a way to give some sort of artificial feeling of ownership towards a file an NFT is tied with. What NFTs do not prevent is that people can still right-click and save these files as many times as they want; all these NFTs do is show proof that the people that have in possession of these NFTs are the rightful "owners" of these files. Ownership of something that can't be reproduced or duplicated can be a very powerful feeling indeed, and is one of the driving factors of why so many people are into NFTs.
To be honest, NFTs could be the future, if this technology was done right, and was implemented in a way that wouldn't be egregious. Unfortunately, it was implemented in such a painfully egregious way.
So many major companies seem to want to jump into this NFT bandwagon, much to the ire of most of the public. A lot of major AAA video game publishers like to treat NFTs like something new and revolutionary, like it's some kind of major gamechanger in the gaming industry -- for example, Ubisoft's Quartz, in which every in-game item is an NFT tied to the gamer which they can proudly show-off and optionally sell off. But the truth is that, as a concept, this is nothing new: Steam has already been using a similar system like this for years, via unique item IDs, and games that support them can utilize them in-game.
There's also the issue of plagiarism, and just how easy it is to mint someone's artwork into NFTs without their prior consent. Ever wondered why so many artists absolutely hate NFTs and wish to see this technology die off into obscurity? Well, that's the reason why. I've seen horror stories of artists who ended-up shutting down their online presence altogether, due to so many of their artworks being minted into NFTs without their permission. Sure, DeviantArt does have that DeviantArt Protect feature, but it doesn't prevent artworks from being minted into NFTs. All it does is it informs the original artist that their artworks got minted without their permission. The legal work required to issue copyright takedowns is just too much for a small indie artist to handle.
And then there's the issue that NFTs have with the environmental impact. NFTs are based on the blockchain technology, the same technology that cryptocurrencies like Ethereum are based on. And like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are "minted" from the blockchain. This minting process involves lots of computational resources, which means lots of electricity used just to mint for one NFT. More electricity means more power had to be drawn from the power plant, which in turn means more coal being burned and polluting the air just to meet the electricity demands required to power these computers. As more of the blockchain is being mined, it becomes increasingly more difficult to mine for more NFTs, therefore the computing power also had to be exponentially increased just to keep up and mint NFTs at a steady pace.
Now, I'm not trying to discourage people from NFTs. If you're an NFT fan and you own NFTs yourself, that's fine and I'm cool with that... as long as you keep your NFT interests to yourself. My hope is that now you understand why so many of us hate NFTs, and the mere mention of NFTs alone causes people's blood levels to rise. NFT is a fascinating piece of technology that has unfortunately turned into something worse, due to bad actors abusing the technology for their own selfish gains.
To close off this journal entry, here's a video by Solar Sands, whose video mostly inspired me to move along with the creation of this journal entry:
So, what is an NFT? I'm sure that, by now, many of you are aware of what it is, but in case you're not, NFT stands for "Non-Fungible Token". Basically, it's a digital receipt that is tied to a digital file, typically digital art, but it can also be anything else such as video, audio, in-game items, etc.. Essentially, a proof of ownership.
Sounds exciting, right? Well... no, not really. >_>
The way I see it, NFTs are just a way to give some sort of artificial feeling of ownership towards a file an NFT is tied with. What NFTs do not prevent is that people can still right-click and save these files as many times as they want; all these NFTs do is show proof that the people that have in possession of these NFTs are the rightful "owners" of these files. Ownership of something that can't be reproduced or duplicated can be a very powerful feeling indeed, and is one of the driving factors of why so many people are into NFTs.
To be honest, NFTs could be the future, if this technology was done right, and was implemented in a way that wouldn't be egregious. Unfortunately, it was implemented in such a painfully egregious way.
So many major companies seem to want to jump into this NFT bandwagon, much to the ire of most of the public. A lot of major AAA video game publishers like to treat NFTs like something new and revolutionary, like it's some kind of major gamechanger in the gaming industry -- for example, Ubisoft's Quartz, in which every in-game item is an NFT tied to the gamer which they can proudly show-off and optionally sell off. But the truth is that, as a concept, this is nothing new: Steam has already been using a similar system like this for years, via unique item IDs, and games that support them can utilize them in-game.
There's also the issue of plagiarism, and just how easy it is to mint someone's artwork into NFTs without their prior consent. Ever wondered why so many artists absolutely hate NFTs and wish to see this technology die off into obscurity? Well, that's the reason why. I've seen horror stories of artists who ended-up shutting down their online presence altogether, due to so many of their artworks being minted into NFTs without their permission. Sure, DeviantArt does have that DeviantArt Protect feature, but it doesn't prevent artworks from being minted into NFTs. All it does is it informs the original artist that their artworks got minted without their permission. The legal work required to issue copyright takedowns is just too much for a small indie artist to handle.
And then there's the issue that NFTs have with the environmental impact. NFTs are based on the blockchain technology, the same technology that cryptocurrencies like Ethereum are based on. And like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are "minted" from the blockchain. This minting process involves lots of computational resources, which means lots of electricity used just to mint for one NFT. More electricity means more power had to be drawn from the power plant, which in turn means more coal being burned and polluting the air just to meet the electricity demands required to power these computers. As more of the blockchain is being mined, it becomes increasingly more difficult to mine for more NFTs, therefore the computing power also had to be exponentially increased just to keep up and mint NFTs at a steady pace.
Now, I'm not trying to discourage people from NFTs. If you're an NFT fan and you own NFTs yourself, that's fine and I'm cool with that... as long as you keep your NFT interests to yourself. My hope is that now you understand why so many of us hate NFTs, and the mere mention of NFTs alone causes people's blood levels to rise. NFT is a fascinating piece of technology that has unfortunately turned into something worse, due to bad actors abusing the technology for their own selfish gains.
To close off this journal entry, here's a video by Solar Sands, whose video mostly inspired me to move along with the creation of this journal entry:
I'd call it all a scam, but none of it is illegal, and the platforms are very open about how this scheme works. I guess it's all an excuse for people to flaunt their excessive wealth by showing how much money they can spend on literally nothing at all.
And ownership doesn't come with any actual ownership rights, copyright, etc.
You're paying to write your name next to a unique url an image happens to currently exist at, that anyone can view and copy, in hopes you can convince somebody else to pay you for the space you wrote your name.
On a potentially infinite piece of paper.
Why?
Why? I'd be inclined to ask that question, too.