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Amid NFT boom, artists worry about climate costs
When the South African artist vonMash started thinking about selling his work as crypto-art on a blockchain, he hesitated.
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Visual artist vonMash poses for a portrait in his studio in Springs, South Africa, on February 7, 2022 as he covers his face with a painters' palette. (AFP/Luca Sola)
D
igital art is nothing new to vonMash, who describes his blend of painting, video and sound as "afro-delic" -- a psychedelic twist on Afrofuturism.
But when the South African started thinking about selling his work as crypto-art on a blockchain, he hesitated.
"I'm not fully for it because of the energy consumption that it takes," he explained.
Selling art as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, uses the same technology as crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. The buyer receives a verified digital token, which proves the artwork is an original.
The boon for artists is that if their work goes up in value and is resold, they receive a portion of every future sale.
"If another person buys my NFT, I automatically get a share of that," vonMash said. With traditional art, if a buyer pays 100 dollars, and then "sells it for 100,000, I would not get a cent of that."
Warehouse of computers
