JAWBREAKER SEASON 2, EPISODE 4:

WTF IS THE DEAL WITH NFTS?

A crash course in cryptocurrency, how the future of the digital art market is having detrimental effects on the environment, and why you should know about it.

Transcription:

Georgia Tooke: The episode we’ve all been waiting for… no one asked, but we’re giving it to you… “Hi welcome to all of our content - where no one asked but we’re doing it anyways!”

Shae Myles: Trademark: Shae Myles/Georgia Tooke aka Jiggle n Juice.

GT: Ummmm, basically, I’m excited to share this with everyone bc my poor roommates have been subjected to my rambles on cryptocurrency and NFTs lately, and now I get to impart this knowledge on the rest of y’all!

SM: And like we said before - you didn’t ask for it, but here u fuckin go!!

GT: Here u fuckin go!!!

GT: Hello everyone, welcome to/welcome BACK to JAWBREAKERS! My name is Georgia Tooke and this is my beautiful Shae Myles! I’m here in Canada, and Shae is in Scotland, and together we are Jiggle n Juice! This episode of JAWBREAKERS is called “WTF is the deal with NFTs?” This is gonna be a crash course on crypocurrency, how the future of the digital art market is having detrimental effects on the environment, and why you should know about it! 

So everyone is talking about NFTs… what the hell is going on? So painter and digital artist Emma Stern (@lava_baby on IG) has now auctioned off a couple NFT works and that’s kinda where I first heard of them. It wasn’t until the loml and renowned art critic Jerry Saltz and then also my art school bff Christian McGinty started talking about NFTs that I was like “ok fine… we gotta look into this.” So Shae and I wanted to do a JB on this bc I wasn’t gonna do all this research for nothing, and we wanna help you guys understand what’s going on with NFTs, and hopefully save you some time researching. The world of crypocurrency seems like an inaccessible land gatekept by techy douchebags, so we are gonna try and explain it as simply as possible! So first tings first!!! We need to know what we’re dealing with here, so we’re gonna go over some general lingo before we get started! So my lovelyyy Shae is gonna go over some definitions before we get started, and I just wanna say: disclaimer before we get into this… I cannot stress this enough!! If you feel overwhelmed by this, that is totally okay! When I started my research on this I was like… what?!!! Like every other word I had to look up, I was so confused.. there was just so much information, it’s such a foreign land of cryptocurrency to artists like ourselves. So try and stick with us, I feel like the more we use the terminology when we’re explaining things, the more it’ll start to make sense. So, it’s okay, just stick with us pls!!
But also feel free to comment below, DM us, if you have any further q’s, we’d love to have a discussion with you! So! On with the show! Shae - start us off with some definitions!

SM: Sure!! So, I just wanna start off by saying that I literally came into this knowing ZERO, and I still to some extent… feel like I know zero. So if you also come away from this episode thinking ~oh dear gawddd~ you’re very much allowed to feel like that! Unless you’re like in the know about these termonolgies, and .. it seems like a whole entire universe that we’re just not aware of! And I say we and I mean.. me. So the first thing I’m gonna talk about is the definition of a cryptocurrency. 

So: “Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography (cryptography = method of protecting information and communications through the use of codes, so that only those for whom the information is intended can read and process it. The prefix "crypt-" means "hidden" or "vault" -- and the suffix "-graphy" stands for "writing."). Using cryptography makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend.

A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.”

So this is where it starts to get… crazy. Bc in that regard.. if there’s no overarching system in place.. some ppl might think of that as a good thing, you know? There’s nothing “systemic” about it… but then as we get into it further in the JB we’ll talk a lil bit about that as well. 

The next thing we’re gonna talk about is just wtf an NFT actually is: so, NFT stands for non-fungible token. And the first time I heard this being used was in a podcast, and I thought, bc I wasn’t reading it, and the title was just NFT, I thought they were saying “non-FUNDABLE” token. So I was like “oh I know what non-fundable means!!! yeah! I know what that means!” And then I was like.. “oh wait… fungible? I’ve never even heard that word in my LIFE!!!” SO, 

If something is fungible, it is interchangeable with another good or asset - non-fungible means it is not. So for example, a fungible asset would be: oil, gold, money. They possess fungibility if they have identical value and properties of other items.

GT: Another example of that would be say if you had to identical cereal boxes and they were unopened - like if Shae and I both had one, we could exchange those two assets bc they’re exactly the same, they hold the exact same value, so that’s kinda what a fungible asset is. 

SM: Totally! So a non-fungible asset would include things like football trading cards and plane tickets for example. Although two plane tickets may look the same, each one will have a different destination, seat number and airline class, meaning they cannot be swapped like for like.

So that’s just some context for you there, to make it a lil bit easier to visualise.

And then token, the definition of a token = A crypto token is a virtual currency token or a unit of a cryptocurrency. Like a Canadian loonie or a British pound - it’s a signifier of that currency face value.

I’m also gonna talk a lil bit about blockchain, which is something that we refer to in this episode. So a blockchain is basically a digital record that acts as a public ledger (another word for record) to verify ownership status.

“A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (think of this like a family tree - it also kinda looks like a family tree, if that helps with your visualisation fo this, and each different uncle and grandma has their own block on the blockchain). By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of its data. This is because once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks.”

Crypoart: is a piece of metadata (metadata is a data that describes other data) (this includes- an image or link to an image/file, the creator of that file, datestamps, associated contracts or text, and the purchaser of the piece) which is attached to a “token” (which has monetary value on a marketplace) and stored in a blockchain.

And finally, for this section, I’m gonna talk about “minting an NFT” so, this obvs sounds like… what in the world? what is that? So: minting an NFT is basically the act of “creating” an NTF, i.e. registering the token on the blockchain, and associating it with your media, and uploading a file or whatever it is you actually want to list as an NFT. 

GT: Thank u so much my dear!! For all the definitions! So now that we’re familiar with some lingo, let’s get into why everyone is talking about them! So in section one, we’re gonna be talking about general confusion around NFTs, and also some positives of NFTs. So back in March 2020 Christie’s (which is a prestigious British art auction house) auctioned off a digital collage by the artist Beeple for $69 million. 

So like, it’s hard enough to conceptualise a painting or sculpture to be worth tens of millions of dollars. But now something INTANGIBLE!! a DIGITAL FILE is worth that much money??? Like how is that even possible? How can that even be displayed? How can that file not just be shared endlessly or even screenshotted? What’s the difference between the image we just showed you and the one that’s now owned by the collector who paid nearly $70m for it? These are all the q’s we had running through our minds when we heard about this! So I’m gonna try answer as many of these as we can!

So while these works can be copied and shared, it’s no different from the physical world where copies are not the original. An example would be: say I go online, find a photograph that Cindy Sherman did, I take a screenshot of it, print it off at home, frame it and put it on my wall. I now have an image of a Cindy Sherman, but i don’t own a Cindy Sherman. To the naked eye, maybe no one would think the wiser, and I could fool some people, but if I were to take that to an auction house, they would be like “are u kidding? we can’t sell this for anything, this is a worthless piece of paper!!! It doesn’t hold the same value!” So, possibly the biggest barricade for folks like us, who work in a physical world, is the divide between the physical and the digital. But if you were to talk to any serious gamer, they’ve probably paid money to buy special clothing, or weapons, or maps, or upgrades in their video games. And I know ~some people~ might have bought characters for their Animal Crossing.

SM: Not naming names or anything….

GT: Not naming any names!!! But that’s like spending your money on something for a digital space. So in a sense, it’s no different from things we already know of. That’s the thing with NFTs, the biggest confusion… it feels like something incomparable to your real life, but I’m sure we’ve all spent money on a digital thing before. 

SM: Yeah totally!!! 

GT: So there’s also a whole demographic of people who just don’t have the same interest in physical object as they do digital assets. On that note, I never thought I’d be learning about NFTs from Paris Hilton, but here we are! In a way, I’m not surprised, she’s always been a brilliant person at the forefront of pop culture. Paris Hilton and artist Kevin Abosch both talk about the “democratising nature” of NFTs. So what they mean by that is, anyone can log on and purchase goods, and while the world of crypto art may ~seem~ inaccessible, it’s actually way more transparent than the actual art market is. Like, you can see a public, visible record of that NFTs entire history - when it was created, who made it, who purchased it, how much did they buy it for? These sorts of things aren’t public information in a traditional art sense. 

SM: That’s something that we’ve already addressed as being sooo problematic, like that contributes to the art world being corrupt, which we’ve already gone over. And so I think that’s so interesting that this space exists where art is being traded in, and that’s not adopted that.

GT: Yeah, exactly! I can’t remember where I learned this from, but there’s so many sus things that happen in an auction house when people are bidding. Like when the bids are going on, there’s people in the room and they’re holding up their paddle and bidding up the price, and then there’s also a whole bunch of collectors who are on the phone with people who work for the auction house, and they’re also bidding up, and if there’s not enough people bidding up the price in the room, the auctioneer will make a sign, like point to the ceiling, and then the people on the phone will talk to the collector and be like “someone’s bidding up the price, you have to bid it up!” So it’s like, artificially raising the price of the work that’s being bid on! So there’s just so many shiesty things happening in a traditional art sense.

SM: Yeah that’s so … it sounds dodgy saying it out loud like that, but that clearly is just the reality of it in these spaces. That’s something that … especially if it’s known - like if these certain signals are known to mean something. Surely that gives you an idea of how scary that is.

GT: Yeah totally! So already, I’m liking the whole public record thing, that sounds nice!! So, another plus is, this kind of technology is really empowering “the little guy” and giving them as much power as massive entities such as major art institutes or even, in another sense, Wall St. For example the whole GameStop Reddit Wall St controversy that happened earlier this year, which I actually watched a really good video on, so I’ll link that below. But basically how all of these Reddit users mobilised, as individual investors, and they completely changed the stock market. So it’s a really interesting time we’re living in in this sense. 

So translating stock exchange into the art sense, with NFTS… So can empower individuals to influence the market for art. NFTs aren’t exclusive to wealthy people or insiders. Anyone can make their voice heard by creating a piece of digital work, and on the flip side, anyone can own one. So It’s not the big names in the art world saying “oh these are the artists with the most value” - it's the people in the crypto space saying “these are the artists that I like!” Which is why we’re seeing, for lack of a better term, shitpost memes being bought and sold for a lot of crypto! And it’s bc it’s not a traditional art historian, art collector being like “oh this is valuable art in a cultural context!” It’s like people in crypto are like “I just like this, it’s funny, I want to spend my money on it!” 

SM: Totally! I was watching Frenemies, and Trisha was saying that she had listed just a jpeg, like a screenshot… I can’t even remember what it was that she said, her eating something or a mukbang still or something, and she listed it. They were talking about the fact that she had no idea how much she listed it for, and so… does it even matter if you don’t actually understand the space - I’m not sure if anyone has actually bought that that yet, but at the time they were talking about it it had just been listed for a ridiculous amount of money. But it is just that thing of being like “well fuck it, let’s just see if it’ll sell! You never know!” It’s crazy, you know, Kate Moss has jumped on this bandwagon, @lava_baby like you were saying… who else?

GT: Grimes! 

SM: Of course, yeah! So it’s just such a foreign, new space, and people are just experimenting and that’s something that’s probably quite good at this point.

GT: Yeah definitely! And then as a side note on accessibility, and on the democratising nature of it and how anyone can hop on and buy/sell/mint an NFT… is kinda like how it seems like it’s only for wealthy people. That’s because we’ve only seen these insane headlines of like “this just got bought for $25,000!!! This just got bought for $70 million!!” It seems really inaccessible, but there’s lots of different platforms where you can buy NFTs for super super cheap. And I can link that too.

SM: But not even just like “cheap,” but like, affordable art! Like if you’re making an investment in a physical piece of art, you’re aware of the price not being like a fiver! You know? You’re still paying to own that piece of work, and the fact that it’s in a digital space, if that resonates with you, it is still affordable! And you can be a proud owner of a work by one of your favourite artists, on a much more accessible budget. 

GT: Yeah totally! So we’ll link that, which website that is so even broke hoes like us can start our lil NFT collection! 

And then, going back to artist Kevin Abosch, he goes on to say that there’s two main factors thats really ignited the NFT craze: 

1. that the technology is legitimately interesting and useful

2. and that any new shiny item that is making people get rich quick can easily draw attention.

So a lot of people who are buying NFTs are from the crypto world, so they’re buying something with the intention of holding onto it, in hopes that it’ll become more valuable over time. This is not new in the art world, like this is not exclusive to ppl who are in the crypto world. Like lots of art investors and collectors will purchase an artwork solely for holding onto it so they can sell it for more money later. There’s tonnes of art collectors that will say, buy an Andy Warhol, package it up in a warehouse, hold onto it for 20 years, and then sell it again at the auction. Again, this is not limited to crypto. But I just wanna share a ~fun crypto fact!~ In terms of holding onto something in the hopes that it’ll become more valuable. So this time, April 2011, one Bitcoin was equal to $1. 10 years later, in April 2021, one Bitcoin is worth $54,414.40 USD. 

SM: Sooooo… can I just say. This is a really good point to highlight just how limited my knowledge of this was. Bc, yeah, I’ve heard the term Bitcoin being thrown around, and I was completely unaware of what it was, but up until literally last week, one Bitcoin was £1 or $1… like I genuinely… I thought that was the way it is. It’s not like I thought it was that from the get go - in 2011 I wasn’t like “oh cool!! this is the way it is!” I was just under the impression that like… why would it not be? So this is fucking insane!!! To me!!! The limited knowledge I had, like when I heard this I was just like… I’m so wrong! This is so out of my depth, and I was just so oblivious to the way this has spiralled, and like how this has even happened? I just can’t get my head around it!!! 

GT: Yeah, honestly.. like when I was watching that video on the Reddit vs Wall St with the GameStop stock, they talked a lot about the stock market and how it works, and I’m just like SOOOO out of my depth when it comes to that kind of stuff… just how little I know about economics honestly. But with that being said, with Bitcoin being worth so much, almost $55,000, it wasn’t just a steady increase the entire time, it’s gone through so many ebbs and flows, but I just thought I would point that out just so ppl could be like “omg I should invest in Bitcoin rn!!!” That’s not what this video is about lmao. 

A positive on this type of “investment art” is that, unlike with a traditional physical work, the artist will continue to receive royalties from their work if it is resold at a higher price. So the artist will continue to make money from their work. So this doesn’t happen in the physical art market. Once something has been sold out of my possession, I am no longer receiving royalties if it continues to get sold and sold and sold. 

SM: Also, there’s no way to track where it goes.. like you sell it once, and then you don’t [always] have the means to find out what happened to it after. Maybe some people are nice and they tell you, but that’s not necessarily something that happens very often. And another thing, when I was first hearing about NFTs… you and I always talk about the fact, like why have we chosen to be digital artists. Both of our work is very much video or photography based, so we always talk about like “why can’t we just make money, like physical work that’s sellable!!” So when I first heard about NFTs, I was like “omg I might be able to make it now!!! as a working artist!!! If I can sell my videos, if I can sell my photos in a completely new way, that is revolutionary for my practice!” And so that was something that was so interesting to me, the fact that this is opening up and answering some questions about whether or not I can actually sustain myself as a video artist! 

GT: Yeah!! Absolutely!! Like you can actually finally sell your digital work, which yeah, you and I have chatted about multiple times. So, the last thing I wanna say while we’re on part one, the positives, is a quote from Ashley Ramos, who is a senior producer at Nifty Gateway gallery. So this gallery is one of the largest NFT commercial galleries. So she says: "I would argue that many people have always loved experiential art, not just something physical or tangible, but experiential art," she says. "Some would say that [Japanese contemporary artist] Yayoi Kusama is a great example of that. Her infinity rooms, those are experiences, those are not things that you can take home and put on your wall. Or the Mark Rothko room in the Tate Modern, too, that's an experience. People love going to museums just to take in the art, not to take it home with them.” 

SM: And I totally agree with that! Like that’s so interesting, and I think that Kusama is a really great example of that, bc yeah, it isn’t a tangible thing that you put on your wall. It’s something that you really have to be there, and people are  so attracted to that work bc of the experience. People will travel… lmao ~people~ I have traveled thousands of miles just to see that work! You know, it’s an incredible experience, and one that can’t be replicated. I love that quote, I think it’s an amazing way to look at art.

GT: Yeah exactly! Like think about all that art can be! It’s not just merely a thing on your wall!


SM: Totally!

GT: So rounding off part one, I feel like, honestly…. NFTs are sounding pretty good right now. And in the words of our lord and saviour Paris Hilton…

SM: ~that’s hot…~

GT: That’s hot. But NFTs are hot in another way. Like really hot. Like now a major contributor to global warming. Yikerrrs!!! So let’s get into the juicy problematic T of NFTs. 

So I’m gonna start off with a quote from artist Joanie Lemercier, they say: “With no travel involved, and a mostly digital distribution, this new model looks like it has the potential to become a sustainable practice for artists. That’s until you understand the magnitude of the environmental impacts of the current blockchain: It is a DISASTER.”

So you might be having the same reaction that I did when I first heard this, I was like “whaaaat? it’s online… and online = no environmental impact bc it’s not a physical thing??” And it was at this moment that I realised.. I don’t know how anything works. 

SM: Honestly….. same tho.

GT: This whole time you and I were like.. energy consumption??? Economics???? What??? So before we get into part two, which would be the negatives of NFTs, my wonderful ravishing Shae is gonna give us some more definitions! 

SM: I am indeed. So, I’m gonna start off with “mining for Bitcoin.” Honestly, this just sounds so funny, idk why I just imagine like Minecraft, not that I’ve played before, but just like really pixally lil guys like *hammers the air*  - yeah it’s not that! Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoins are entered into circulation, but it is also a critical component of the maintenance and development of the blockchain ledger. It is performed by using very sophisticated computers that solve extremely complex math problems.

Cryptocurrency mining is painstaking, costly, and only sporadically rewarding. Nonetheless, mining has a magnetic appeal for many investors interested in cryptocurrency because of the fact that miners are rewarded for their work with crypto tokens.

By mining, you can earn cryptocurrency without having to put down money for it.

Bitcoin miners receive Bitcoin as a reward for completing "blocks" of verified transactions which are added to the blockchain.
Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to a complex hashing puzzle first, and the probability that a participant will be the one to discover the solution is related to the portion of the total mining power on the network.

So not only is it something that… you really don’t have that much control over when it works or when you’re gonna actually be able to mine successfully, so just the nature of it being so sporadic is probably quite anxiety inducing, or maybe it makes you really pumped? Like idk how that would make you feel. Especially if it’s maths related, and kinda more computery, techy, problem solving… I think that the reason they say it’s magnetic, is bc the reward is so great and they have to like, reap a lot in order to get… but the reward is so good you know?

GT: Yeah, I would even compare this to gold mining. 

SM: Right!

GT: Like, how in terms of the sporadic reward, of how hard you have to work and then you get your reward… I feel like one of the ideas behind it being “magnetic” is the sort of monetary gain, and also almost like gambling in a sense. Like that sort of mindset? Like you think this next thing.. you’re gonna strike big. 

SM: Totally! I’m also gonna talk about Proof of Work, which is shortened to PoW. So Proof of Work is used widely in cryptocurrency mining, for validating transactions and mining new tokens.
Due to proof of work, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions can be processed peer-to-peer in a secure manner without the need for a trusted third party.
Proof of Work at scale requires huge amounts of energy, which only increases as more miners join the network.
Proof of Stake was created as an alternative to proof of work, which is what I’m talking about next! Proof of Stake, which can be shortened to PoS. The Proof of Stake concept states that a person can mine or validate block transactions according to how many coins they hold. This means that the more coins owned by a miner, the more mining power they have.

Proof of Work requires huge amounts of energy, with miners needing to sell their coins to ultimately foot the bill; whereas Proof of Stake gives mining power based on the percentage of coins held by a miner.
Proof of Stake is seen as less risky in terms of the potential for miners to attack the network, as it structures compensation in a way that makes an attack less advantageous for the miner.

And then finally, I’m gonna talk about Ethereum. Ethereum It is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, after Bitcoin. Ethereum is the most actively used blockchain.

Launched in 2015, Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based, decentralised platform used for its own cryptocurrency, Ether.

Ethereum is currently on PoW but the platform will ~allegedly~ move to ETH2 which will be PoS BUT...Ethereum has “been moving to proof of stake” for almost as long as it has existed (about 6 years). As a result of that it has actually become an ongoing joke that “Eth 2.0 PoS Coming Soon!” Soooo.. unsure about that! So that’s all my definitions for you!!

GT: Thank you my love!! So, now we’re gonna talk about the detrimental effects on the environments. The first thing I wanna say is… I think we’ve just mentioned that PoW uses a lot of energy, I don’t think we’ve mentioned specifically what it is. But it runs on electricity, and the crypto infrastructure relies mostly on fossil fuels, so coal oil and gas. It’s not good. The main article that I’m gonna be siting throughout this next section is by Everest Pipkin, and this is a fantastic, very dense article on crypocurrency, crypto art, and everything associated with that. It is definitely a bit of a read, but very well worth it. So this article is called: “HERE IS THE ARTICLE YOU CAN SEND TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY SAY: BUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH CRYPTOART WILL BE SOLVED SOON, RIGHT?”: Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are an absolute disaster for so many more reasons than the ecological.

So as we’ve mentioned in our latest set of definitions, PoW uses a massive amount of energy. This is because the miners specialised computers have to solve harder and harder math equations, and it can be a warehouse filled with computers that are just running constantly using so much electricity. After just over a decade of the growing cryptocurrency market, the amount of energy emitted for this infrastructure is more than the amount of energy than Argentina uses. 

SM: Which is… that is crazy. The first thing you think is that’s mental.. but the second thing you think is like, that is so depressing and sad and scary. We’re trying to do all of this good work with the planet in mind, but this is becoming the next craze. Like how??? This is why people need to be talking about this, it’s a big fuckin deal. This is gonna be soooo bad! 

GT: Yeah exactly, if it’s not already, this will be the leading contributor to  carbon emissions. 

SM: For sure, yeah without a doubt. That’s why it’s so scary!

GT: Yeah, and like as we were saying before, there’s no regulatory structure or federal oversight whatsoever. And this is bc it is it’s own sovereign thing. There’s no outside government, which is why crypto is so attractive to people, is bc it doesn’t have that government structure in it.  

So, if you’re having a discussion about PoWs effect on the environment, it won’t be long before PoS gets brought up. Now, just bc PoS uses significantly less energy, doesn’t mean it’s all peaches and roses. This is bc PoS makes it easier for miners to validate blocks, meaning it’ll use less energy, if they already have existing coins in their crypto wallet. So the issue with this that it’s favouring people who are already wealthy, who have already bought into, and have a foot in with crypto, and it’s giving power to those who are already powerful! 

SM: Does that not sound a lil bit familiar??? #theartworld 

GT: #theartworld and also #thecurrentgovernmentandcorporationseverywhere. 

SM: Well yeah!! 

GT: So moving right along to crypto art, and just a fair warning that our lovely author Everest Pipkin does not have a good outlook on crypto art, so lemme just give you the Cole’s Notes real quick. 

They talk about how digital files really don’t have a lot going for them, just in terms of the rich cultural and anthological history of traditional materials and mediums. But! What they do have is duplicability. There is no original. For example if I were to send Shae a video file or a 3D model or something, and she opens it on her device, we are now experiencing the same thing. First hand. And we are engaging with the work wholly and through second hand documentation. And Pipkin says that that’s the one true benefit of working in a digital space. 

Pipkin goes on to describe a whole bunch of reasons why they don’t like crypto art. I picked my fave three, so:

1.Cryptoart remakes digital artworks as primarily tokens of monetary worth, content and concept secondary to an asset that has market value.
2. Cryptoart creates artificial scarcity for digital objects, creating an “original” which can be owned for the purpose of resale.
3. Cryptoart recreates some of the worst aspects of existing art markets, pitting the super-stardom of those who have gotten lucky or who already had money and connections to play with against the realities of countless others who will see no such return. 

SM: So it’s basically just simulating… the simulation! Like before we were already being like “ooooh this sounds so good, it’s gonna be so positive bc artists like us are gonna be able to actually thrive and be a working artist!!!” It won’t be such a terrifying concept if you want to make work that’s maybe not “traditional” or tangible. It sounded like such a good thing, but when you actually dive into it, it’s the same fuckin issues that are just being copy and pasted over to this digital space.

GT: Exactly! So that just leads into the conclusion that Everest Pipkin will make, and they take a very strong stance on this so I’m just gonna read this last part. They say:

“The only viable option is total moral rejection. [...] Many would call me unrealistic and naive for this, unwilling to make compromises in the world we are living now because of an idealistic vision of a tomorrow; and to them I would like to say that we literally invented an extra-sovereign monetary system that within 10 years has generated trillions of dollars of worth and is held up with the power consumption of a small country. Let this whole horrible chapter of history convince you that money is fake, we can do anything with it we want, and that we do not want cryptoart.”

SM: How do you feel about that personally? Do you agree with that?

GT: I’m gonna tell you how I feel about that in just a moment.

SM: Oh okaiee!! 

GT: I like… this research has really taken me on a ride!! I have one more point that I wanna make and then I wanna talk about how we’re feeling. Unless you have any thoughts right now that you wanna share?

SM: Nono!! I just think that was just such a bold and very… not in a bad way, I really love it, and I think that it’s definitely opened our eyes to this kind of separate realm. But yeah, it’s just very well put, and it’s just like how can you argue that, really? Like when they’ve highlighted these things, how can you argue that they’re wrong?

GT: Exactly! And like, I gave you the bare minimum of that article, there’s so many more points that this author makes. But after that harsh stance, but very illuminating take, after reading the whole paper, I was like no ma’am, no ham no peanut butter and jam … no NFTs in this household. I was like… cancelled, no NFTs, not looking into it any further, I know everything I need to know… Well…. so!! I’m reconsidering! And the reason I’m reconsidering is two words. Kelly Richardson. Kelly Richardson was my video art professor at UVIC and she’s one of the main reasons that I am the artist I am today. She is a Canadian digital artist but she also worked at Newcastle University for basically the past 14 years, teaching art over there as well, but now she’s teaching at UVIC. So Kelly makes these massive… she called them ‘collapsed narrative’ video installations, and a lot of her work.. she also does photography, she dos so much she’s amazing pls go and look at her work! But she’s been dealing with things like climate change in her work for years now, so for example, her series Pillars of Dawn, that work imagines what a landscape might look like after the inevitable humans causing mass extinction. And then two years ago she was invited to use iMax cameras to shoot and document the remaining old growth forest here on Vancouver Island. So when I saw Kelly was joining the NFT discussion I knew she would have done her due diligence in finding a green solution. So I want to point out and read what her latest IG post was, bc it’s about NFTs. So Kelly says:

“I’m thrilled to be part of The FEN, an initiative by curator Juliette Bibasse, visual artist Joanie Lemercier and more than 35 pioneering digital media artists in response to the outrageous greenhouse-gas emissions of CryptoArt releases on the Ethereum blockchain (PoW).
Our goal is to encourage the community to transition their NFTs to a low-energy platform, such as hic et nunc (Tezos Blockchain, PoS). Minting an NFT on hic et nunc has associated emissions equivalent to an email.
The calibre of artists contributing to this initiative is incredible. For this week’s drops (including my own) visit > thefen.io
As part of this project, #TheFEN invites each creative to donate 10% of the proceeds to a project of their choice (local project, NGO, activism, etc..). Mine will be donated to Endangered Ecosystems Alliance who are working to produce an "Amazing Ecosystems of Canada" mini-documentary video series for social media that will aim to engage and mobilise millions of Canadians to support protected areas expansion across Canada (aiming for 10 million viewers), starting with "The Battle for the Coastal Old-Growth Rainforests of BC.” 

Ok!!! That was my last point!! Let’s conclude! 

SM: So you read the article, and you were scarred and shitting yourself about how detrimental this could be… and then you saw what Kelly had posted. Did you feel a lil bit more reassured that there is a way for you to potentially try out selling stuff as NFTs if you were to do your research and kinda go along with this more green approach?

GT: I think so! I feel like yeah, it just needs to be done in a very critical and conscious way. And I thin that with everyone - anyone who is gonna embark on the NFT journey, it is going to be imperative to do this in a green way bc the amount of energy waste is just so astronomical that we just don’t have time to wait around. We need to move towards a green platform. 

SM: No totally, I’m very much on board with it but I’m still very wary about… I would like to maybe try it and see, but knowing all that I know now.. like do I want to contribute to that? Like I don’t think I do. But at the same time if I can do it in a green way, make money and achieve my dream  of being a working artist, as long as it is done in line with my morals which, this would definitely not be in line with my morals, you know, contributing to this absolute shitshow thats erupted. I think for me, I would have to really think about it and I would encourage everyone watching to do the same. Just to really think about it and do your research. But yeah! That is all for this episode. Is that your closing remarks?

GT: Yeah! I would say so! I feel like Shae and I really talked more about cryptocurrency and kinda the background, and we didn’t really get into what’s happening in the art world, like talking about actual NFT art. So if you guys are interested, if you like what you heard, we can totally get into that in another JB episode so just let us know!!

SM: Like for part two!! Comment below!! But also do not forget to hit that subscribe button, and also turn on the bell notification- is that still a thing? 

GT: Yeah I think so :) 

SM: Ok!! Turn on the bell notification to be notified every time we post, we post usually every fortnight, sometimes we sprinkle in some juicy extras!!! But thank u so much for watching! We hope that this has given you a better idea of what the f is going on with NFTs… comment below your thoughts, how you feel, if you’ve tried selling an NFT, if you’ve bought an NFT, pls let us know we are just sooo interested in the subject!!! But yeah if you want a part two, comment below!

GT: Amazing!! Thank you everyone so much for making it through this doozy of an episode!! We will see you next time! 

Both: Byeeee!!!!