Kraken became the latest NHL team with an NFT partnership when it announced on Monday that it would work with a company called Orange Comet.
Working with the NFT (short for non-fungible token), such as naming the Home’s Climate Pledge Arena as an organization that has publicly led the NHL’s climate issues, is generally said by environmental experts. It is considered harmful to the environment.
However, Kraken states that he did due diligence when choosing an NFT partner.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm generated by some of these other NFT launches,” said Todd Humphrey, Senior Vice President of Digital and Fan Experience at Kraken. “So we really want to do two things. One is to provide fans with the same experience we’ve seen on several other launches, while at the same time making sure they make the right choice. We have a great commitment to sustainability and we really wanted to make sure we were firmly rooted around it. “
Some NFTs (proprietary digital currency formats such as art, trading cards, photos) sell for thousands of dollars. The industry, sometimes referred to as CryptoArt, has taken off in the last year. NFTs by lesser-known artists sell for a lot of money. New York IslandersAccording to the Orange Comet website, Kraken likes to work with the Oakview Group and has partnered with the same company to expand into NFTs, earning over $ 100,000.
Unlike other internet art, NFTs have more value in the form of validated tokens that provide proof that the art is theirs, like digital signatures. It is provided in the form of code stored in a virtual ledger called a blockchain.
The sports world has entered this market because of its economic potential, and Kraken quoted the desire to be involved in the powerful Seattle tech scene.
According to climate scientists, the energy required to store NFTs on physical servers can have a significant impact on the real-world environment if they are very small and virtual.
“If it’s virtue signaling, we need to ask a question. It doesn’t really do anything,” said Aseem Prakash, founding director of the Center for Environmental Politics, University of Washington. “Now it’s a digital world. That’s why people want to collect digitally rare things of digital shortage. But not only Kraken and collectibles and NFTs, but all this blockchain has happened. The direction is completely different and I think it’s the wrong direction. “
Dave Bloom, CEO of Orange Comet, was used to produce the NHL Awards show for television. The company approached the Kraken to form a partnership.
“I see why fans are worried,” he said. “We understand it, we understand it completely. It’s important for Seattle fans and fans everywhere …. It’s important that not all NFTs are the same. I think. You can’t put them together. They aren’t all the same. You need a line that distinguishes what the blockchain is using from what’s happening behind it. “
Orange Comet, the company that builds these NFTs, uses the Avalanche Blockchain, which claims to have zero net impact on carbon. Kraken donates a portion of its proceeds to the OneRoof Fund to fund “a pillar of environmental justice to support and enhance the voice of communities affected by climate change.”
Humphrey refused to disclose the exact part, but called it “important.”
According to the New York Times, 300 NFT Digital Art “would have burned the same amount of electricity that the average European would use in 20 years.”
Orange Comet was co-founded by Bloom, Kurt Warner of the Professional Football Hall of Famer, and Grammy Award-winning Gloria and Emilio Estefan... Their blockchain, Avalanche, became the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization in 2021. According to cointelegraph.com..
Avalanche states that his website uses Proof-Of-Stake. As a consensus algorithm, you can reduce the impact on the environment. Compared to other blockchains, it claims to be “incredibly fast, low cost and eco-friendly”.Proof of stake blockchains are generally considered to be good, but still Wide range of environmental impact, According to a study at University College London.
Bloom said Orange Comet has partnered with Nori to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, even with good intentions, it may not be possible to leave a negative trace on the NFT. Nori, Seattle-based company, Says to remove carbon to offset NFT energy.
“Simply put, they bought what’s called Nori Removal Tons (NRT) from Nori, which describes CO2 removed and quarantined by farmers sold through Nori’s platform.” Nori’s CEO Paul Gambril wrote in an email. “The way carbon is removed is for farmers to adopt so-called regenerative farming practices, which include no-tillage, planting of covered crops, and the implementation of complex crop rotations. Can increase the amount of organic matter growing in the soil, and increasing carbon can effectively reverse soil erosion. “
Still, climate experts do not believe it is sufficient to offset climate emissions.
“In my opinion, it’s a very superficial way to think about climate issues,” Prakash said. “The fact is that even if you go to the sun and the wind, you support the sun and the wind that need a lot of (materials) …. I think you have a broader question, or that first. Do you have an unsustainable business model? This is known to increase our energy consumption and say, “Well, it’s all zero emissions.” .. It’s a very narrow way to think of it (as), probably zero emissions, but it creates zero emissions. … How much energy do you have? Will it be used in that process? “
Bloom said there is an independent study to be published in January from the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) that supports these claims. Orange Comet says he was able to access this report before selecting an avalanche. CCRI said it could not comment on “corporate carbon dioxide emissions or offsetting activities,” but for comparison, estimated avalanche carbon dioxide emissions to be 230 tonnes. This is significantly less than Bitcoin’s 57 million tonnes.
According to the study, Avalanche “uses carbon equivalent to 46 households in the United States, compared to Ethereum equivalent to 1.63 million households and Bitcoin equivalent to 8.46 million households,” according to Orange Comet. .. The Seattle Times was not given access to the study.
The avalanche is built on the blockchain Ethereum, but it doesn’t work. That’s what Bloom emphasized.However, the avalanche Can I transfer NFTs to Ethereum?..
Many blockchains claim to be environmentally friendly, but there are not many independent sources to support that claim. At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Avalanche announced that it is Net Zero.There was no other Independent confirmation released However, the CCRI report will be published in January.
Net zero is also a general estimate, Still, it means high carbon dioxide emissions. The term means offset, which means that there is still a significant amount of fossil fuels present.
“Net zero is the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere,” said Jennifer Wong, a curator at the Seattle NFT Museum. “If the amount of carbon added does not exceed the amount removed, a net zero carbon is reached.”
Humphrey referred to the UKCOP26 conference as an issue that Orange Comet brought to them as a certification.
“We dug deeper into the avalanche as a blockchain. We saw them knowing the markets they exchanged, where the websites operate, and how they are housed. Are you powered? “Humfrey said. “And what we found was that they were using renewable energy to power these exchanges and markets, so wherever we turned around, They approached us very thoughtfully. They knew that it was sustainability at first and that would be a problem for us. “
Even with the green blockchain, some of the environmental community continue to be concerned.
“Basically, we’re kicking the can,” Prakash said. “We are not fundamentally addressing the issue of () overconsumption climate crisis. (And this) reflects the broader issue of resource overconsumption. And this business model is simply sustainable. Not. “
