The Dark Side of NFTs


Written by Ryan Green
4 mins, 4 secs Read
Updated On December 22, 2023

In recent years, NFT was one of the hottest and most discussed topics. Repeating the success of cryptocurrencies, NFT is growing at a rapid pace. According to NonFungible, this market’s annual transactions have risen from only $40.96 million in 2018 to over $300 million in 2020, and it doesn’t seem to stop growing.

Due to its rapid growth, the NFT market has quickly captured the attention of students and educators. At this point, it is already being integrated into academic programs of leading business schools to let students learn this topic in real-time. And, even in schools that don’t follow this trend yet, students themselves get so interested in NFTs that they start learning this topic on their own.

Needless to say, this market is so extensive and ever-changing that studying it takes plenty of time. Besides, there are still plenty of controversies. Thus, students who are overloaded with their academics barely have any time to study this market thoroughly. Luckily, you can ask professionals to write a research paper for them to save time and keep their grades high. And while expert writers will be handling your papers for you, use your free time to discover the dark side of NFTs with us!

There is No Way to Prevent Duplication

The core idea of crypto art was that when someone buys an NFT, they receive full, exclusive ownership of a particular piece. But, if you look at the heart of the Internet, you will see that the idea of such sole ownership is basically impossible in the digital world.


If you delegate your academic matters to WritePaper.com and get more free time, you can use it to search for the most popular NFT projects on the web. And what would you find? Tons of .jpeg duplicates that can be easily downloaded by literally everyone in the world. And the fact that someone owns it doesn’t make any difference.

Now, compare it to physical art. Famous paintings, like the ones housed at The Louvre, also have duplicates. But, the difference is that the copies of physical artworks are never as good as the original, whereas duplicates of NFTs are identical to what you can buy with money. Respectively, the very idea of purchasing and owning something unique, worth millions of dollars, and yet available for download to everyone is quite absurd.

This is the first reason that proves that the dark side of NFTs is really there and can’t be ignored.

Another massive problem surrounding NFTs is the sale of unauthorized tokens. Since the start of 2022, there have already been two loud cases related to the market. Namely, a famous luxury brand Hermès was suing an artist over the unauthorized use of their iconic bags as tokens. Then, just a short time ago, the worldwide famous sports brand Nike sued a shopping platform for using their brand and logo to create and sell tokens.

If you can get online homework help on Writepaper.com and devote your free time to researching this matter, you can find even more cases like that. The big issue is that this market is so young that there is a lack of legal definitions concerning what makes NFT artworks and how they should be addressed from the perspective of law.

The more this market grows, the more legal issues arise. And more cases of unauthorized sales pop up here and there. So, this is another part of the dark side of NFTs.

Scams

There is no secret that the Internet has always been full of scams. Whenever you buy any services or products online, there is always the risk of being scammed and losing your money. The same is true for NFTs.

This market is young, but it is already flooded with scams and fake tokens due to its popularity. The biggest problem is that the fake artwork is being actively promoted and sold even on seemingly trusted apps and platforms. This basically means that scammers and hackers can lure completely unsuspecting buyers. And, since there are so many legal issues, there are very tiny chances of addressing NFT scam cases adequately.

Another thing worth noting is that scams affect not only buyers but sellers, too. There are the so-called bidding scams in this market that can speculate on NFTs prices. Such bidders can even change the seller’s preferred type of cryptocurrency to the one that is lesser in value. This way, scams can affect everyone.

Energy Issues

Lastly, speaking of the dark side of NFTs, it is impossible to avoid mentioning the energy problems that surround this market. There is no secret that NFTs exist on the blockchain, just like cryptocurrencies. What is more, all NFT transactions at this point involve crypto. And this is a massive issue.

As you should know, both blockchains and cryptocurrencies have been proven to be highly energy-consuming. Both technologies are leaving a huge carbon footprint. Such a massive consumption of power involved in supporting blockchains and cryptocurrencies puts an enormous burden on our environment, causing plenty of energy issues.

Thus, the more the NFT market grows, the higher is the need for cryptocurrencies. And, the higher the demand for cryptocurrencies, the more environmental issues we will face in the long run. In a world actively fighting climate change, this is a big problem.

The Bottom Line

NFTs have taken the world by storm. There is no doubt about that. But, despite the rapid growth and increasing popularity, this market does have a number of issues.

Now, after reading this article, you know more about the dark side of NFTs. 

Just like the fate of cryptocurrency, the future of NFTs is still a bit shady and surrounded by controversies. There are scams, legal issues, energy problems, and many other pitfalls that weren’t mentioned in this article.

Yet, this market is currently on the rise and is predicted to get even more substantial soon. So, all we have left to do is address the current issues — and figure out where this will take us.

Author: Ryan Green
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