Digital ownership and trading: NFTs and open source/access
- celineframpton
- Jun 16, 2021
- 2 min read
An NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens are unique, digital items with blockchain-managed ownership including but not limited to collectibles, game items, digital art, event tickets, domain names, and even ownership records for physical assets.[1]
fungibility can be defined as an item which can replace or be replaced by another identical item, and so non-fungible means that the asset is unique and cannot be replaced by a like item. [2]
"Blockchains provide a coordination layer for digital assets, giving users ownership and management permission. Blockchains add several unique properties to non-fungible assets that change the user and developer relationships with these assets. . By representing non-fungible tokens on public blockchains, developers can build common, reusable, inheritable standards relevant to all non-fungible tokens. These include such basic primitives as ownership, transfer, and simple access control."
` [3]
While NFT's provide a means to own and distribute unique digital assets utilising cryptocurrencies and are in there infancy, there are some notable consequences to them. Though digital assets are perceived as virtual and non-material they "use" storage on computer drives, hard drives, USBs, cloud storages and in data centres. Additionally, The electricity it takes to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum used to sell or purchase NFT is monumental, the average NFT has a footprint of around 211 kg of CO2 equivalent. [4] More carbon emissions are produced from the electricity required to mine new Bitcoin than the entire nation of Aotearoa. And, A single piece of artwork sold as an NFT uses a minimum of the equivalent of two weeks of household usage of energy in a single transaction.” [5] here is also growing evidence that NFTs favour artist's who have established followings or are famous, and buyer's who are wealthy and therefore mimic the exclusivity of the traditional art market. [6]
What then are alternatives to digital assets ownership and trading that minimises financial aspect? Open source and open access.
https://about.smartify.org/blog/nfts-vs-openaccess
https://blog.metalpay.com/proton/proton-market-goes-open-source/
JumpNet (https://jumpnet.enjinx.io/eth/assets) is an alternative platform that aims to democratise NFTs, by making them accessible and usable by anyone, anywhere, anytime. JumpNet allows users to mint and trade NFTs for free, and in addition, more carbon-friendly than Ethereum is currently. [7]
[1] - [3] - OpenSeas Blog, "The Non-Fungible Token Bible: Everything you need to know about NFTs," Open sea, 2020, https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/
[4] - Anna Lowe, "NFTs vs OpenAccess," Smartify, 2021, https://about.smartify.org/blog/nfts-vs-openaccess
[5] & [6] - Ben Jardine, "The Dark Side of NFTs," Big Idea NZ, 2021, https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/the-dark-side-of-nfts
[7] - Patrick McGraw, "The Rise Of Free Nfts," High Snobery, 2021, https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/free-nfts/
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