Over the last few years, we have witnessed a rapid and exponential emergence of various new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, blockchain, precision medicine, etc., which have radically changed almost all aspects of our lives (social, professional, etc.) (Morrar, Arman and Mousa, 2017).
Also, these transformations were not limited to individuals as they touched many sectors and industries such as education, retail, medical, commerce, etc., under what we call disruptive innovations. (Christensen, McDonald, Altman, and Palmer, 2018).
Indeed, these outcomes of the 4th industrial revolution have always been the subject of continuous, heated debates in media, parliaments, and research labs.
The recently publicized NFTs, which stands for Non-Tangible Tokens based on Blockchain technology, has been one of the most radical, ironic, and insane technological transformations. Through this outlet, a single JPEG has been sold for sixty-nine million dollars, whilst the first tweet was purchased for two million nine hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.
While over 150 million additional people are expected to be living in poverty by the end of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (World bank, 2021) and two billion people around the world do not have access to clean water, sales of NFTs have reached over $2.5bn in 2021 (Reuters, 2021).
NFTs use the Ethereum blockchain, which consists of executing complex mathematical operations through advanced servers. (Ante, 2021) These servers consume about 33 Terawatt of electricity, the same amount of power as the country of Nigeria (Wadar and Dubey, 2021). The process of electricity generation, which comes from fossil fuels that eject carbon into the atmosphere, poses terrible consequences globally (Holliman, 2021).
While many debates about the potential usage of renewable energy for such tasks are still at the early stages and not yet mature others about how could NFTs be used for charity activities, the impact on the environment is getting more dramatic. This puts all the global, regional, and local bodies and actors (organizations, governments, individuals) in front of a watershed moment to make an ethical decision about the future of successive generations.
References
- Morrar, R., Arman, H., & Mousa, S. (2017). The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0): A social innovation perspective. Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(11), 12-20
- Christensen, C. M., McDonald, R., Altman, E. J., & Palmer, J. E. (2018). Disruptive innovation: An intellectual history and directions for future research. Journal of Management Studies, 55(7), 1043-1078
- Ante, L. (2021). Non-fungible token (NFT) markets on the Ethereum blockchain: Temporal development, cointegration and interrelations. Available at SSRN 3904683.
- Wadar, A., & Dubey, A. (2021) Are NFTs Here To Stay?.
- Holliman, Q. (2021). Measurement Study of Energy Impact on Blockchain Technologies: Cryptocurrency Mining.
- https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/first-open-beeple/beeple-b-1981-1/112924 (Links to an external site.)
- https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021 (Links to an external site.)
- https://www.reuters.com/technology/nft-sales-volume-surges-25-bln-2021-first-half-2021-07-05/