Can NFTs solve their massive carbon footprint problem?

NFT可以解决自己庞大的碳足迹问题吗？

Sustainable NFT art is possible, but it's not a simple fix.

NFT艺术可持续是可能的，但这不是一个简单的解决方法。

If Bitcoin and Ethereum joined together to form their own country, the United Nations of Bitcoin and Ethereum would have the twelfth highest energy consumption of any countries, sitting just behind the UK and France.

如果比特币和以太坊联合起来形成自己的国家，那么这个国家将在能源消耗榜上位列第12位，成为仅次于英国和法国的能源消耗国。

That is an incredibly high level of consumption, but not altogether surprising. As of late November 2021, Bitcoin’s value was equivalent to 2.9 per cent of the world’s money supply, meaning a total market value of $1.03 trillion, and Ethereum is rapidly gaining popularity.

这个消耗水平高得令人咂舌，但也并非那么令人惊讶。截至2021年11月底，比特币的价值相当于世界货币供应量的2.9%，市场总价值为1.03万亿美元，而以太坊正迅速流行起来。

In fact, one of the big drivers for the rise in Ethereum’s usage is NFTs. Last year, rough estimates put NFT sales at a whopping $15.7 billion in total. But why does this cause such a large energy consumption?

事实上，以太坊使用增加的一大驱动力是NFTs。据粗略估计，NFT去年的销售总额高达157亿美元。但它为什么会造成如此大的能源消耗呢？

With Ethereum, vast amounts of processing energy are needed both to mine (create) the currency, and to confirm transactions on the blockchain (an unchangeable record of transactions).

使用以太坊需要大量的处理能力来挖掘（创造）货币，以及确认区块链上的交易（一种不可更改的交易记录）。

In the current format known as proof of work, this requires computers devoting a lot of power. “The Ethereum blockchain uses a global network of computers that compete to process your data for a fee. These millions of mining computers all around the world essentially play a game of guess-the-number,” explains Dr Pete Howsen, a senior lecturer at Northumbria University.

在目前被称为工作量证明(proof-of-work) 的形式中，这需要计算机投入大量的电力。"以太坊 "区块链使用一个全球计算机网络，这些计算机争着处理你的数据，并收取费用。诺森比亚大学的高级讲师皮特-豪森（Pete Howsen）博士解释说："这些遍布世界各地的数百万台挖矿计算机基本上是在玩猜数字的游戏。“

“They guess the combination to a long string of digits, with the most powerful crypto-bingo player winning a few thousand pounds worth of cryptocurrency, as well as the fees people pay to make NFTs and store transaction records.”

"他们猜测一长串数字的组合，最强大的加密宾果游戏玩家会赢得价值几千英镑的加密货币，和人们为了制作NFT和存储交易记录而支付的费用。"

This process is essentially playing the role of banks. Because cryptocurrencies aren’t on a central network, computers are needed to confirm a transaction is legitimate. But this process does come with a cost.

这个过程本质上是在扮演银行的角色。因为加密货币不在一个中央网络上，所以需要计算机来确认交易是否合法。但这个过程需要付出代价。

“Ethereum uses more energy than the Netherlands. Over 100 TWh per year. The blockchain has a carbon footprint larger than Singapore’s, around 50-60 million tonnes of CO2 per year, nearly twice as polluting as Europe’s biggest coal fired power plant (Belcatow, Poland),” Says Howsen.

"以太坊使用的电量比荷兰还多，每年超过100太瓦时。区块链每年产生的碳足迹比新加坡还大，约为5-6千万吨二氧化碳，几乎是欧洲最大的燃煤电厂（波兰贝尔卡托）所产生污染的两倍，"霍森说。

“If you watched 20,000 hours of YouTube, you would generate less CO2 than if you bought or sold an NFT once. That single transaction would require the same amount of energy as your average UK household uses in two weeks.”

"如果你看了2万个小时的YouTube视频，那么你产生的二氧化碳将比你买或卖一次NFT少。这一笔交易所需的电量与英国普通家庭两周使用的电量相同"。While these are some extreme numbers, it doesn’t mean that Ethereum is doomed to remain an energy consumption powerhouse. The company behind Ethereum has been very open about this issue, even stating themselves that the current energy expenditure is too high and unsustainable.

虽然这些数字有点极端，但这并不意味着以太坊注定要继续成为耗电大户。在这个问题上，以太坊背后的公司一直非常开放，甚至自己说目前的能源支出太高，不可持续。

Looking to the future and how they can fix this, Ethereum is looking to move from a proof of work system to proof of stake. In essence, this simply means instead of computers guessing long strings of digits, human validators are used and they stake Ethereum as collateral to stop them becoming lazy and make sure they are authenticating correctly.

以太坊放眼未来，思考如何解决这个问题。他们正寻求从工作量证明系统转移到股权证明。本质上来说，这只是意味着使用人类验证者，而不使用计算机猜测长串数字，并把以太坊作为抵押品，以阻止他们变得懒惰，确保他们的认证正确。

However, while this sounds like an easy change to make, it does take time. “This move from proof of work to proof of stake has been in the process for years. It’s hard to move from a legacy system to something completely new, especially when it is something as big and popular as Ethereum,” Says Merav Ozair, a leading blockchain and financial tech expert.

然而，虽然这听起来像是容易可行的改变，但它确实需要时间。"从工作量证明转变为股权证明的过程已进行了多年。从一个传统的系统转变为一个全新的东西是很难的，特别是当它是像以太坊这样大而流行的东西时，"资深区块链及金融技术专家Merav Ozair表示。

But once Ethereum does manage to make the move, it will result in a drastic reduction in the energy consumption used. This could mean NFTs could be produced and transferred with very little impact on the environment.

但是，一旦以太坊实现了这种转变，它使用的电量将急剧减少。这可能意味着NFT的生产和交易对环境的影响非常小。

While Ethereum makes the move, there are other cryptocurrencies that are already ahead of the game on this. “Alternative’s to Ethereum already exist. These can enable NFT markets without the carbon headache because they use negligible amounts of energy on a more centralised platform. Costs are also much lower. CryptoKitties, one of the first ever NFT collections, no longer uses Ethereum. So perhaps we’re moving in the right direction.” says Howsen.

在以太坊做出这一转变时，其他加密货币已经在这方面走在了前面。"以太坊的替代品已经存在。这些货币不用造成碳问题就能实现NFT市场，在一个更集中的平台上，它们使用的电量可以忽略不计，成本也要低得多。最早的NFT集合之一CryptoKitties不再使用以太坊。所以，也许我们正朝着正确的方向前进。" 霍森说。

These alternative currencies (known as altcoins) started off on proof of stake systems, which allowed them to skip the environmentally damaging position both Ethereum and Bitcoin currently find themselves in.

这些替代货币（称为altcoins）一开始就采用了股权证明系统，不像以太坊和比特币目前一样破坏环境。

While future cryptocurrencies are already taking a more environmental approach, and Ethereum is working towards a similar route, both Bitcoin and Ethereum mining are currently at their highest environmental impacts to date.

虽然未来的加密货币已经在采取更为环保的方式，而以太坊也在努力走类似的路线，但目前比特币和以太坊的挖矿对环境的影响都是迄今为止最大的。

In mid-2021, China (one of the countries with the most miners) heavily cracked down on the mining of Bitcoin. However, recent research seems to show that this ruling increased the carbon footprint of this process, boosting the use of non-renewable energy for mining.

在2021年年中，中国（拥有最多“矿工”的国家之一）严厉打击了比特币的开采。然而，最近的研究似乎表明，这一裁决增加了这一过程的碳足迹，促进了挖矿时对不可再生资源的使用。

While Bitcoin looks to be stuck in its ways, Ethereum (and the rapidly expanding and very wealthy world of NFTs) still has the potential to adapt… it just depends on when that can happen.

虽然比特币看起来固步自封，但以太坊（以及势如破竹且非常富有的NFT世界）仍有适应潜力......只是取决于何时转变发生。

The move to proof of stake was originally intended to launch with ETH 2.0 back in 2019, then a 2021 date was suggested, and now this year is expected to be the year it happens. In which case, the world of NFTs could drastically dampen their dinosaur-sized carbon footprint.

股权证明的转变最初打算在2019年与ETH 2.0一起推出，然后日期推迟到2021年，今年预计是实现这一转变的一年。在这种转变下，NFT世界可能会大幅减少其数量庞大的碳足迹。