War costs a lot of money. It always has been, which is why governments have had to come up with so many different methods to support them throughout history. For example, in the past, kings would frequently rely on a small group of super-rich bankers to fund their campaigns. Countries used war bonds to shore up their finances during World Wars I and II, basically receiving millions of micro-loans from the general population.
While Ukraine hasn’t forgotten about war bonds to help it fight the Russian invasion, it has also embraced some of the more modern funding alternatives available in 2022. Not only has the Eastern European country received almost $50 million in cryptocurrency donations, but the administration has also declared that NFTs would be issued shortly to pay the country’s military forces.
“Every day, more and more individuals are eager to assist Ukraine fight back the aggression,” Ukraine’s vice-prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in a tweet on Thursday. “Instead, we will shortly unveil NFTs to assist Ukraine’s Armed Forces.” He went on to say, “We DO NOT HAVE ANY PLANS to release any fungible tokens.”
NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens,” are among the most bizarre parts of the crypto world. They’re essentially invoices for “ownership” of some form of digital property – usually artwork or at the very least photographs, but an NFT might be for anything. Fedorov also said that previously disclosed intentions to “airdrop” bitcoin had been terminated in the same tweet. Airdrops are normally when consumers are given free crypto tokens in an effort to encourage usage, but it wasn’t clear exactly what this would have included.
We also don’t know exactly what NFTs the Ukrainian government intends to issue at this time. The tokens are known for their usage in scams and thefts, are bad for the environment, and are conceptually neutralized by the right-click button’s presence. But perhaps, just maybe, events in Ukraine will make people forget all of that — perhaps triumph will resemble a bored monkey this time.
Christie’s, the world’s most prestigious auction house, has sold its first “purely digital work of art” for a staggering $69 million. The buyer received a digital file of a collage of 5,000 photographs as well as a complicated legacy of greenhouse gas emissions for that money. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are individual pieces of crypto art, are at least partially responsible for the millions of tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions created by the cryptocurrencies used to acquire and trade them. Some artists, especially those who have already profited from the fad, believe it is a simple problem to address. Others believe the recommended remedies are unrealistic.
After receiving a lot of feedback from those who believe dealing in crypto art is immoral, ArtStation, an online marketplace for digital artists, abandoned its intentions to offer a platform for NFTs within hours. On Twitter, artists referred to NFTs as an “ecological nightmare pyramid scheme” and ArtStation’s attempts to offset emissions as a “scam.”
Mike Winkelmann, as Beeple, is a digital artist who believes in a more sustainable future for NFTs. “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” one of his works, fetched an eye-popping $69 million at Christie’s. He claims that in the future, his artwork will be carbon “neutral” or “negative,” implying that he will be able to totally offset emissions from his NFTs by investing in renewable energy, conservation programs, or technology that absorbs CO2. “I think a lot of other musicians are going to do the same,” Beeple tells The Verge. However, his NFTs continue to emit greenhouse gases for the time being. He claims that offsetting the emissions from one of his collections costs around $5,000.
