Nifty Gateway to Become Carbon Negative

Cryptocurrencies have ushered in a new wave of innovation that is helping to redesign the Internet, money, and even the art world through Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Digital artists, who could otherwise never participate in selling their art like artists in the traditional art world, can now do so. This is not just a watershed moment, it is an entirely new paradigm. It allows digital creators to not only make a living like offline creators, but it has brought in a whole new generation of collectors who’s interest and passion for the space will help propel it forward. It gives us great pride at Nifty Gateway to see so many digital creators thrive in this new medium, especially in the backdrop of the pandemic. Our overarching mission is to empower creators through crypto and we won’t rest until 1 billion people are collecting NFTs.

Environmental Concerns

That being said, we acknowledge the growing concern from some regarding the carbon footprint of the NFT movement. Ironically, because blockchains give the world such a transparent and accurate accounting of the energy consumption of our industry, they provide a tangible number to focus and dwell on, which has led to a double standard being applied to our industry. Because there is no blockchain to account for the carbon footprint of the traditional art world, which includes, inter alia, all of the private and commercial air travel to the Basels, Biennales, and countless other festivals around the world, not to mention the automobile traffic to gallery exhibitions, museums, and so forth, such criticism has not been leveled against the offline art world, despite the fact that its carbon footprint is orders of magnitude greater. Apparently, this is the price of transparency and accountability. Nonetheless, the good news is that the carbon footprint of the NFT industry is small when you take an honest look at all the contributing factors to climate change. The better news is that Nifty Gateway is committing to become a carbon negative platform.

Becoming Carbon Negative

Our plan is to calculate our emissions using the following site, which will allow us to estimate our total carbon footprint over time. At the end of every month, we will purchase offsets for 2x the amount of carbon footprint Nifty Gateway created from blockchain transactions that month, and thereby in theory Nifty Gateway will become a net remover of carbon.

In addition to buying offsets, we are already building a new NFT minting system that will be significantly greener. To be clear, trading NFTs and storing NFTs on Nifty Gateway does not affect Nifty Gateway’s carbon footprint. This is because these actions happen on our internal ledger, which means they are off-blockchain transactions. However, when we mint a creator’s NFT and put it on the blockchain, this is an on-blockchain transaction and does increase Nifty Gateway's carbon footprint. To that end, we have been developing a new minting system that will utilize EIP 2309 and make our minting process approximately 99% more efficient. We are already hard at work and look forward to deploying our new minting system in the weeks ahead. Once launched, Nifty Gateway will have a materially smaller carbon footprint and need to purchase even less offsets to remain carbon negative.

But that’s not all. Recently, we helped raise $6.5 million dollars for Open Earth Foundation via The Carbon Drop. All of the proceeds of this drop will go towards the development of blockchain technology for climate accountability. We’re going to continue to look for ways like this in which Nifty Gateway can have an even greater impact on our community and the world around us.

Ethereum 2.0

Nifty Gateway is built on top of the Ethereum network where much of the NFT phenomenon is unfolding. But to put things in perspective, only 1% of all transactions on the Ethereum network are related to interactions with NFT contracts. And the entire Ethereum network itself only accounts for .02% of the world’s total carbon footprint. That being said, the Ethereum community has never been one to settle. In fact, it has already been working towards becoming more sustainable since well before the recent mainstream interest in NFTs. For years it has been planning Ethereum 2.0, which uses a zero carbon consensus mechanism known as Proof of Stake, and this past December it already started migrating to Ethereum 2.0.

The Nifty Gateway team appreciates the passionate and diverse voices of our community and we look forward to continuing to build this magical new frontier of art and collectibles together. Here’s to the exciting days ahead.

Onward and Upward,

Duncan & Griffin Cock Foster
Nifty Gateway, Co-Founders