[NetBehaviour] The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #CryptoArt

Sun Jan 24 12:18:35 CET 2021

Hi Graz and Alan,

I suggested a close reading of some cryptoart because my superficial
observation is that nearly all the big price sellers are works "about"
money or crypto memes, and the visual references tend to be either from
games or from modernist or the renaissance art memes.

The reason I think this is important is that it opens up questions about
what social and economic characteristics of "Art" are being used to boost
and speculate on prices in the cryptoart scene. So I think it's a mistake
to refuse to discuss anything but its carbon footprint'?  Systems need to
be understood to on their own terms (as well as their external effects) if
we want to know how to react to them effectively.

 We definitely need better tools to understand and discuss the
environmental impacts of technology though!

If we are to have any chance of addressing catastrophic climate change we
will need to see a profound change in beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
around money, speculation, culture and value and human relation to other
life systems, and art has a part to play.
As I explained in my earlier post the environmental impact of blockchain is
going to improve in the next couple of years because there are lots of
people who think it's important and are working diligently at the problem.
There are also a lot of people and companies who do not care and who seek
to accumulate personal fortunes - they should be challenged (probably
through regulation and law). We need to proliferate new strategies.
Projects like DisCO https://disco.coop/ are a really good example of
brilliant people doing this work and communicating really well about it. I
like how they discuss the multiple problems of blockchain techs now. If you
are interested you can download and read their recent publication DisCO
elements.

It is not utopian to engage with and shape the tools and discourse that
engage these topics. It is realistic. It is also very important to me.

Ruth

On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 7:50 PM Graziano Milano <grazmaster at googlemail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Ruth,
>
> I did research what Async Art is and how it works as I never heard of it.
> I found out that Async Art is a new online platform for artists to create
> and sell rare, programmable art:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZbUJeYzgsc
>
> Async Canvas is an all-in-one uploader tool. It allows the artists to
> create, preview, and mint their programmable art from within their
> personalized dashboard. Here is an introduction video which walks the
> artists through the basics of how Async Canvas works:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRR7k0uXiPk&feature=emb_logo
>
> Apparently they will be adding more and more templates to Async Canvas as
> the tool grows.
>
> The question is what kind of ecological impact each digital artwork
> uploaded and sold at Async Art will have as a result of blockchain-based
> transactions.
>
> Graziano
>
>
>
> On Sat, 23 Jan 2021 at 11:17, Ruth Catlow <ruthcatlow at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Graziano,
>>
>> These are the things I observe about the Cryptoart scene - and that
>> puzzle me
>> - no one talks about the imagery, meaning, concept - evva!
>> - and prices are always given in $$$s not a cryptocurrency
>>
>> Anyone want to volunteer do a deep reading of a piece of high-price
>> crytpoart? Perhaps this one
>> https://async.art/art/master/0xb6dae651468e9593e4581705a09c10a76ac1e0c8-807
>>
>> It would be great to know if these artists are cashing out their crypto
>> immediately after the auctions. If not why are we not hearing about the
>> prices in the cryptocurrencies with which they were bought?
>>
>> warmly
>> Ruth
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 4:53 PM Graziano Milano <
>> grazmaster at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In 2020 the crypto artist "Beeple" (Mike Winkelmann), that is mentioned
>>> in “The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #CryptoArt (Part 1)”, has broken
>>> records on Gemini’s Nifty Gateway platform by selling a collection of 20
>>> artworks for a sum of $3.5 million:
>>>
>>> https://fullycrypto.com/digital-artist-beeple-sells-nft-collection-for-3-5-million
>>>
>>> By the end of this century the value of these 20 Beeple’s artworks may
>>> increase or completely collapse as it may happen to Bitcoins and other
>>> crypto currencies.
>>>
>>> On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 at 10:50, Ruth Catlow via NetBehaviour <
>>> netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> re: http://cryptoart.wtf
>>>> I mean... It's a great troll but it's not good enough!
>>>>
>>>> The meme of blockchain's outrageous energy use is a barrier to more
>>>> diverse people entering the development space.
>>>>
>>>> Blockchain technologies are important because species collapse and
>>>> climate emergency is an effect of the global political economy. Blockchains
>>>> tech like cryptocurrencies, tokens, and smart contracts are the only tools
>>>> we have (as yet) to organise directly p-2-p at a planetary scale.They are
>>>> still new but they offer a way to imagine and realise both money and
>>>> governance at a global scale, independent of states and corporations.
>>>>
>>>> The debate about blockchain's environmental impact usually focuses
>>>> around its high energy use.
>>>>
>>>> [EXPLAINER: Blockchains' level of energy use are due to the consensus
>>>> mechanisms (CMs) they use to verify transactions, and to "mine" currency.
>>>> The amount of electricity used varies according to the CM. The two dominant
>>>> CMs are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS)
>>>> Bitcoin uses PoW and infamously consumes the same amount of electricity
>>>> as 159 countries. Ethereum (the platform for programmable money - and
>>>> therefore the focus of a lot of work on new forms of governance) is moving
>>>> to Eth2 a PoS system which uses far less energy. But this is still 2 years
>>>> off.]
>>>>
>>>> Questions about the environmental impact of blockchain are important
>>>> and difficult to answer.  It's right that we assess the impact of
>>>> Blockchains but we need better ways to compare all emerging digital
>>>> infrastructure ecosystems - including other financial techs, IoT, ML AI,
>>>> 5G.
>>>>
>>>> A focus on reducing energy use is not enough. As @alsodanlowe put it
>>>> "It would be crazy to ban or dissuade colleagues from participating in an
>>>> effort to decentralize money away from the forces that create the priority
>>>> for fossil fuels (much of it built on debt) just because those forces
>>>> exist. PoW is agnostic. Banks and existing oligarchy is not."
>>>> https://twitter.com/alsodanlowe/status/1317444999361957891
>>>>
>>>> Blockchain is a future technology. It is built for use in a world of
>>>> clean, limitless, renewable energy.
>>>>
>>>> Efforts need to focus here...and on the political economies and the
>>>> cultural adoption patterns that they can support and grow beyond
>>>> accumulative self-interest and extractive capitalism if we are avoid
>>>> accelerating climate collapse.
>>>>
>>>> This morning I retweeted this from Sarah Friend "If I hadn't spent the
>>>> past five years working in crypto, I'd probably be moralizing about it too,
>>>> and this is perhaps part of why I am so profoundly annoyed by its
>>>> superficial detractors - my shadow selves, who know so much less than me
>>>> and are so much more sure they're right"
>>>> https://twitter.com/isthisanart_/status/1352288565850492928
>>>>
>>>> There's so much more to  say about all of this. Especially about the
>>>> role that art has to play.
>>>>
>>>> Soon!!!!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 9:35 AM Annie Abrahams via NetBehaviour <
>>>> netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The website http://cryptoart.wtf pulls in random blockchain-based
>>>>> CryptoArt from the web, and estimates the ecological impact of each
>>>>> work
>>>>> in terms of energy consumption (kWh), and greenhouse gases released
>>>>> (KgCO2) as a result of blockchain-based transactions relating to the
>>>>> work.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> https://memoakten.medium.com/the-unreasonable-ecological-cost-of-cryptoart-2221d3eb2053
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>>>>> NetBehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org
>>>>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Co-founder & Artistic director of Furtherfield & DECAL Decentralised
>>>> Arts Lab
>>>> +44 (0) 77370 02879
>>>>
>>>> *I will only agree to speak at events that are racially and gender
>>>> balanced.
>>>>
>>>> **sending thanks
>>>> <https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2019/november/think-before-you-thank-if-every-brit-sent-one-less-thank-you-email-a-day-we-would-save-16433-tonnes-of-carbon-a-year-the-same-as-81152-flights-to-madrid.html> in
>>>> advance
>>>>
>>>> *Furtherfield *disrupts and democratises art and technology through exhibitions,
>>>> labs & debate, for deep exploration, open tools & free thinking.
>>>> furtherfield.org <http://www.furtherfield.org/>
>>>>
>>>> *DECAL* Decentralised Arts Lab is an arts, blockchain & web 3.0
>>>> technologies research hub
>>>>
>>>> for fairer, more dynamic & connected cultural ecologies & economies
>>>> now.
>>>>
>>>> decal.is <http://www.decal.is>
>>>>
>>>> Furtherfield is a Not-for-Profit Company Limited by Guarantee
>>>>
>>>> Registered in England and Wales under the Company No.7005205.
>>>>
>>>> Registered business address: Carbon Accountancy, 80-83 Long Lane,
>>>> London, EC1A 9ET.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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