How much would you be willing to pay for a one-of-a-kind work of art?
For some collectors, the limit lies somewhere in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Welcome to the strange world of crypto art collectibles, also known as NFTs.
Like Bitcoin, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are cryptocurrencies.
But whereas individual bitcoins all have the same value, NFTs are more like baseball cards.
Each token has a different value and they cant be used to buy things.
NFTs have been around since 2017, when the first mainstream experiment in crypto-collectibles emerged:CryptoKitties.
The average price for one of these cat cards was about US$60 back then.
But thats chicken feed compared to current takings.
But how can someone buy a tweet?, you may ask.
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Most of the time, what youll also be responsible for is an enormous carbon footprint.
Most creators still useEthereum, a blockchain secured using asimilar proof-of-work systemto Bitcoin.
This involves an energy-intensive computer function called mining.
The computer that correctly guesses the combination wins a reward paid in a cryptocurrency called Ether.
The digital lock resets roughly every 15 seconds, and the competition continues.
Ethereum uses about31 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricitya year, about as much as the whole of Nigeria.
Its very difficult to calculate exactly how much responsibility the NFT industry should take for Ethereums carbon emissions.
Ethereum was going to run with or without NFTs.
The sale would use, in just ten seconds, enough electricity to powerthe artists entire studiofor two years.
Alternative technologies exist that enable NFT markets without the carbon headache.
Damien Hirst isdue to release a collectionof NFTs called The Currency Project using the Palm sidechain.
Hirst will still beaccepting payment in Bitcointhough, so his NFTs could still come with hefty carbon baggage.
For NFTs, evidence shows this approach isunlikely to work.
TheOffsetra companyprovides an emissions calculator and sells carbon credits to offset emissions triggered by NFT transactions.
The NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway recently auctioned eight carbon net-negative NFTs inspired by Earth and the climate crisis.
The artworks received 60 carbon credits.
Each offset was itself an NFT.
