Thanks to The Merge, the environmental impact of NFTs issued on Ethereum is now much lower. A reproach that we heard a lot with the democratization of these digital tokens.
The Merge was successfully activated this Thursday morning, moving Ethereum to a much less energy-intensive transaction validation mechanism: proof-of-stake. The Ethereum Foundation estimates that the update makes the blockchain greener with 99.95% less energy consumption.
NFTs launched on Ethereum have come under a lot of criticism from environmental activists and associations, and even the general public, in recent months.
A number of creators and companies then chose to offer their tokens on more environmentally friendly blockchains or layer2 like Tezos, Solana and Polygon. – Note that these 3 networks are also favored for their speed and lower costs. And for that, The Merge is not a game changer.
But the adoption of proof-of-stake now invalidates the green argument that non-fungible tokens issued on Ethereum are a disaster for the planet.
However, some critics didn’t even differentiate between NFTs hosted on less voracious blockchains like Solana and those living on Ethereum. For the latter, NFT is often only synonymous with pollution.
Big brands are nowadays more and more concerned by the environmental impact of the technologies they exploit. The Merge should thus greatly benefit the current and future NFT Ethereum ecosystem.