No NFTs or Crypto

opabinia

I am writing to express that, as a discord user, I strongly disapprove of discord implementing any sort of integration with NFTs or cryptocurrency. Discord is important to me (and the other users who I interact with there) as place for building community, playing games, and making meaningful connections - it is not a marketplace for risky get-rich-quick schemes, and me, and the other users of the platform who care about their communities on discord, will never want discord to be that. Adding NFTs of crypto to discord will add no value to me as a user - it will make my experience of the platform worse, will make me never want to ever buy nitro, and will make me likely to quit the platform entirely.

In addition to my business as a user, I also want you, the discord staff, to consider the environmental responsibility that falls on you as a major tech company. At this point in time, when we are beginning to see major catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, and when a new IPCC report has told us that we have 4 years to reduce carbon emissions to zero, it is patently irresponsible for any company to be investing in massively polluting infrastructure, like cryptocurrency. Most of discord's users are millenials and gen-z - people who will have to live with the consequences of climate change, and who don't want discord to play a role in destroying their future planet.

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Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • Fluxty
    • Edited

    Due to their financial nature, NFTs and crypto do bring with them financially interested, even the malicious, but NFT communities can often be vibrant places like anywhere else, where people find their homes, their families, and their online identities. It is customary in the space for all projects to donate a significant % of their proceeds after launch to charity, users get involved by contributing to and voting on which charities the money is dedicated to. The space is not inherently bad or wrong, the good actors should not be punished for the actions of the greedy profiteering that NOBODY welcomes.

    Additionally, while Ethereum does have a massive energy problem, it is because it is still on an archaic proof of work mining system that converts electricity to cash. There are many carbon neutral, and even a few carbon negative chains that are quickly growing and usable. On top of this, Ethereum 2.0 is scheduled to launch within the next year and will reduce energy consumption by 99.95%.

    I feel that there is a lot of misinformation out there about crypto/NFTs in general. I am on the tail end of the millennial generation, my 3 siblings are gen z and gen alpha, and the children I hope to have one day will be even younger. I care deeply about the planet, and, being deeply entrenched in the NFT space myself, I can tell you it's not at all what you hear about on social media, or see on the surface from profiteering scumbags trying to make a buck. There is a real movement going on and we are all working to cut through the noise. I hope that someday you will support us.

    Thanks for reading

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  • BoopDoop

    no, fluxty, we will never support an environmentally destructive technology. etherium may get a lot better but that's if they follow through on their promise, and even then it will still use massive amounts of electricity. and etherium is just one part of the crypto problem, bitcoin literally has a carbon footprint larger than some countries. 

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