Green NFTs: A Study on the Environmental Impact of Cryptoart Technologies

TL;DR

This paper models the environmental impact of Ethereum-based cryptoart transactions, quantifies emissions per dollar spent, and proposes techniques to reduce cryptoart's carbon footprint.

Contribution

It introduces a greenhouse gas emission model for on-chain activity and evaluates the environmental impact of cryptoart transactions before and after the London hard fork.

Findings

One dollar spent on transaction fees emits at least 1.305 kg of CO2.

The paper estimates the environmental impact of cryptoart transactions.

Several techniques to reduce cryptoart emissions are described.

Abstract

We introduce a model of greenhouse gas emissions due to on-chain activity on Ethereum, focusing on cryptoart. We also estimate the impact of individual transactions on the environment, both before and after the London hard fork. We find that with the current fee mechanism, spending one dollar on transaction fees corresponds to emitting at least the equivalent of 1.305 kilograms of CO2. We also describe several techniques to reduce cryptoart emissions, both in the short and long term.