Friends, something has been bugging me for a while. The world is burning. We have unsustainable habits that need to change. And changing old habits is hard, really hard. But has to be done. And yet, it seems we are also adapting *new* unsustainable habits ... 1/2

I find the rise of #cryptoart (& crypto-everything for that matter) mind-boggling. I've been looking for quantitative metrics re ecological cost - excluding production of works, & isolating minting, sales, transactions etc, but info seems sparse. I'm open to pters & thoughts 2/2

The fact that a single ETH transaction costs 25 kWh, and the fact that this is legal, seems to me a sign that we as a civilization just don't learn, or don't really care, and are doomed.
https://digiconomist.net/ethereum-energy-consumption /via @JakubValtar

To be clear, my aim is not to single-out #cryptoart or #crypto-XYZ, as we all have our sins. Instead, this is more a reflection on the fact that we as a society can be emphatic about the urgency of radical *change*, while simultaneously embracing *new*, nullifying practices. 4/2

I'm not against #cryptoart per se. If #crypto-sales can generate enough income to negate the need to *fly* to an exhibition opening, then that's great & potentially a huge net positive (from CO2 persp at least). But how is this not a topic that's being discussed in this climate?

And isn't it a shame that a single transaction needs to use the equivalent of boiling a kettle 200 times? Just so we can pretend to own an 'original' of a digital copy? I mean is it me or has the whole world gone mad. (It's probably just me. It's good to be back on Twitter) 6/n

In short, I guess my pt is more for the collectors. It's absolutely *great* that you're buying purely digital art, & supporting the artists. I personally wld love to go purely digital. But does it rly need to go through this bonkers pipeline for it to be worthy of you investing?

Training FOUR 1024x1024 #Stylegan2 models, and then generating FOUR MILLION images, consumes the same energy as a SINGLE #cryptoart ( #Ethereum) transaction.

(50x models & 150x million images for 1 #BTC transaction)

In case anybody was curious.

(Yes I know PoS #ETH2 is coming)

I've been collecting estimated kWh / kgCO2e of different aspects of my practice.

Of course by far the worst offender is #flying, closely followed by #projectors.

I LOVE the idea of purely digital art income, but the mechanisms behind #CryptoArt rn seem so absurd & reckless.

The spreadsheet is here for those who want to see the figures. This is by no means comprehensive, & only covers major aspects of my own practice.
The link is readonly, as there are many fragile eqs. But comments are enabled & welcome (esp wrt TPUs, GPT3)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hzzxMbytOZ1mYl9kLh_SvM6kne6JI_mdCfHIoNapr5M/edit?usp=sharing

(Ofc it's important to note that not all kWh are created equal. Energy srcs are key. The kWh to KgCO2e conversion I use is based on the average 2018 US EPA eGRID data https://www.epa.gov/egrid/data-explorer. However, in reality, some kWh are likely to be greener than others based on srcs).