Myths and Fallacies About NFTs | All Your Questions Answered
My collaboration with Trese has drawn negative responses from the local comics community so I want to dispel the most common fallacies about NFT.
My #Trese x #Cryptopop NFTart drop has drawn some negative responses from the local comics community and I wanted to help dispel some of the most common fallacies about NFTs.
Luis is the country manager for the Philippines at Yield Guild Games, co-founder of BloomX, a licensed virtual asset exchange provider in the Philippines, and founder of the Cryptopop Art Guild. This article is republished from his post here. For any comments and questions, please message Luis directly on Twitter.
I can just right click and save an NFT?
“I COULD JUST RIGHT-CLICK, SAVE-IMAGE-AS”
In philosophy, we call this type of logical fallacy a “Thought-terminating Cliche,” i.e., something that people repeat in order to shut down a discussion, even though it’s probably inaccurate. People who took the time to educate themselves on NFTs are so tired of the right-click-save-as joke, but there are still folks out there who think this is an insightful criticism.
So let’s clarify this one again: an NFT is a way to certify your ownership of a digital edition of a piece of art. It’s never been a way for you to stop people from screenshotting your work. I welcome people who screenshot, print out, and otherwise share my NFTs. They can do whatever they want with those screenshots because they don’t own my art any more than they own Juan Luna’s “Spoliarium ” when they take a photo of it in the National Museum. Only the person who OWNS the NFT has the right and the ability to sell it and make a profit from it.
I have a 2-hour workshop on this topic here.
Is NFT Destroying and Bad for the Environment?
“THEY’RE SUPPORTING POLLUTION BY DOING NFTS.”
A few months ago, the #Trese creators contributed work to an anthology called “10 Years to Save the World” which was a response to the climate crisis.
Fans are criticizing what they believe to be a 180-degree turn in terms of environmental awareness. NFTs only consume electricity when they are created or moved; they do not consume electricity when they are viewed or experienced. (Their precise electricity consumption is not even fully known, because all the research is built on top of hefty amounts of extrapolation.)
If you want to help save the world, turn off your 50″ television and watch Trese on your phone instead. Read my essay on #NFTart and the purported environmental impact for more details. (Tagalog version on BitPinas)
Can 13 ETH Really Knock Out Palawan’s Power Grid?
“13 ETH NFTs TO KNOCK OUT PALAWAN’S ENTIRE POWER GRID”
This type of logical fallacy is called “Fallacy of a Single Cause” and attempts to draw a direct connection between the Trese drop and Typhoon #OdettePH, as if NFTs are somehow the singular cause of climate change.
It’s simply not logical.
However, since we’re talking about Palawan: if you’d like to support our ongoing Typhoon Odette relief efforts, please see the pinned tweet at twitter.com/yggpilipinas. We’ve extended 30 million pesos in direct financial assistance to over 3,000 affected households, and have also sent 20M pesos to non-profits like World Food Programme, World Vision Philippines, ACCORD Incorporated, Waves For Water, etc. 100% of those donations were sourced from the international NFT community.
Can NFT Trigger an Energy Crisis?
“NFTs ARE CAUSING KAZAKHSTAN TO SPIRAL INTO AN ENERGY CRISIS”
This is a “Fallacy of Composition,” where you argue that something is true for the entire system (the blockchain industry, in this case), even though it’s actually only true for a component of it.
The Kazakhstan energy problems are related to #Bitcoin miners, who were orphaned last year when China banned them. The #Bitcoin blockchain doesn’t have NFTs, so how could NFTs have caused any kind of crisis in Kazakhstan?
Does NFT Hurt Small Time Artists?
“NFTS HURT SMALL-TIME ARTISTS”
This logical fallacy is generally called an “Appeal to Emotion,” or more specifically a “Galileo Argument.” It attempts to win an argument by inducing pity in the reader. Small-time artists are NOT hurt by NFTart, and I can prove it:
*I* am a small-time artist. So is Caroline Dy. So is Jopeter Arias. So is Sevi Loves Art. So are most of the artists in #cryptoartph.
NFTs have allowed us to share our work with a global community and, unlike your Instagram feed, allows us to earn a reasonable living from our art. There are artists from all corners of the country finding opportunities in NFTs. In fact, I launched an entire organization with 200 underprivileged Filipino artists to prove that NFTart could put Pinoy talent on the map.
If you’ve spotted any other criticisms about #NFTart that you’d like me to respond to, please mention them in the comments. NFTs are a new concept and we’re here to educate, not shame, so it’d be good to black-out the names of the original posters.
wagmi, #cryptoartph!
PS. The TRESE x CRYPTOPOP genesis collection is on sale now at Opensea https://opensea.io/collection/trese-cryptopop
This article is published on BitPinas: The Ultimate FAQs About NFTs for Philippine Artists and Enthusiasts
