Preface: I'm not endorsing NFTs nor do I know much about them and personally I would never buy one.
> Why can't NFTs be done without a blockchain?
In the physical world it is rather involved to check wether eg. a painting is the original one and not a copy. A simple way to define original is that it came first, before any of its copies. In the digital world the blockchain acts as the canonical timeline. You or anyone else can always tell what came first.
> Why do you need to dump tons of CO2 into the atmosphere just for this purpose?
In short we don't. The author of the article conflates blockchains and PoW:
- There are blockchains that don't rely on PoW
- The ones that are currently PoW might not be PoW in the future
- The ones that stay PoW might solely use non-CO2 producing methods in the future
Everything is life uses energy. We can only minimise the harmful effects of energy production, not (yet?) eliminate it. I first and foremost want global warming to slow/stop and imho for that we need a global restriction and/or ban on harmful ways of energy production. I can't see any other way. Everything else is either a distraction or ideologically driven, eg. "crypto wastes energy" really means "I think crypto is useless hence is deserves no energy". Once everything is forced to run on renewable energy sources then we will be in a much better position regardless of crypto.
Blockchains can't and won't enforce it. They will be forced to rely CO2-neutral renewables when fossil fuels are taxed to oblivion and/or outlawed. This also points to the absurdity of blaming energy usage of things rather than attacking the root of the issue.
> Why can't NFTs be done without a blockchain?
In the physical world it is rather involved to check wether eg. a painting is the original one and not a copy. A simple way to define original is that it came first, before any of its copies. In the digital world the blockchain acts as the canonical timeline. You or anyone else can always tell what came first.
> Why do you need to dump tons of CO2 into the atmosphere just for this purpose?
In short we don't. The author of the article conflates blockchains and PoW:
- There are blockchains that don't rely on PoW
- The ones that are currently PoW might not be PoW in the future
- The ones that stay PoW might solely use non-CO2 producing methods in the future