Hating NFTs Won't Save The World.
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All new technology can be used for good or for evil. That's just a fact - from the first invention of tools that could create fire to the blockchain, the story of human interactions with technology is one of pros and cons.
As a species, as we have evolved as human beings, as we have advanced from sharp rocks to build fires for illumination and cooking to the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), technology has been used more or less alike. We've created things that help us advance our lives and developed weapons of destruction.
At the birth of the internet, it was a tool of connectivity and transparency. Its potential use for good is boundless, from helping people in need to the world's prosperity. However, since its creation, it has been adopted by different groups with an agenda. I can't and won't argue the benefits and net negatives of the internet; pandora's box has been opened, for better or worse, and philosophical litigation will not help to screw that lid back on.
The point is that we cannot stop the advancing tide of technology, and we should not try to interfere in that natural process. We can only do our best to guide it in the right direction and maybe, by doing so, help shape a future where good prevails over evil.
I'm not going to call myself an ETH maximalist. But I think there is a certain naivete in rejecting technological advancements in cryptography through talking points that are obtuse at best and bad faith at worst. It's a nonsensical point of view that denies the power of technology and its ability to be used to shape life in ways unimaginable.
The trend towards a total rejection of blockchain-based platforms, ideas, movements, etc., speaks more to a sense of frustration with a capitalist system, frustration with a lack of institutional action on climate change, and a deep aversion to change that offers an uncertain future. Attacking ETH users for their impact on climate change through energy use is unhelpful; energy use will happen regardless. Energy is used through gaming, through the use of iPhones, through the chargers that give power to EVCs. That power use is not the problem because growing and scaling power use is unavoidable with a growing, scaling population. The problem is a lack of action on renewable energy that will not be taken by limiting our energy use in the first place.
Eth supporters know that the world is changing. We know that ETH isn't perfect, but the fixation on its flaws takes away from other, more pressing issues. The conversation about blockchain-based tech should be less about the tech itself and more about how it can be used for good.
With that being said, I am a massive proponent of decentralization and other aspects that have been adopted by Ethereum. Is there a significant disconnect between what the crypto community wants and its ability to help make this world a better place? In some cases, yes.
But it should be studied, researched, and adopted for what it is: a technological advancement intended to better protect individual sovereignty, liberty, self-determination, privacy, and freedom from incumbent financial organizations that are inherently antagonistic towards their users.
The broken systems that enrage anti-chain activists on Twitter deserve to be criticized. Bad actors in banking. Bad actors in government. Bad actors in big tech and web3. Bad actors in corporations. But every one of those bad actors has at their core a profound disrespect for the good of the community and the rights of the individuals within that community, preferring instead to place their own wellbeing and power as organisms over the humans that they should be protecting, serving and providing utility to.
There is a sense of outrage that fuels the anti-crypto crowd, and it has its roots in pretty obvious places: Fear, greed, selfishness, an inability to change their mode of thinking. I can understand this. But the pathway out of our social, financial, and ecological technical debt isn't re-affirming the status quo. We shouldn't be looking at the old paradigms to create a new future; we should instead look at technologies that can make a better, fairer, and more efficient system.
This is the way it's been since we learned to use technology, and as new tools were created, they would change our world. But what some people don't seem to understand is that where advancement is concerned, all too often, those who follow never catch up with those who lead. It takes a sort of visionary to be able to see
This is amazingly poor. The potential of the crypto community to do some nebulous good is not somehow an argument against the intense environmental damage of NFTs, or their lack of grounding in any kind of intellectual property law or right to ownership, the ridiculousness of claiming exclusive ownership over easily duplicated goods on a decentralized network.
Hating NFTs will not save the world. But it is another step towards making sure we don’t normalize its destruction any further.