In January 2022, the NFT community was taken by storm with the launch of the Azuki collection: a series of avatars with a distinct look that’s equal parts The World Ends With You and Thrasher. In the months since its launch, it has built up enough momentum to threaten the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s position atop the NFT food chain — at least, according to some ranking metrics. However, all that momentum came in very real danger of coming to a halt when Zagabond, Azuki’s creator, published a blog post discussing how his last three projects before Azuki came to […]

One of the earliest points of criticism levied at NFTs was the potential toll their continued production and distribution could have on the environment. Most of this was attributed to the increased strain the NFT ecosystem placed on the Ethereum blockchain. Thankfully, several groups have uncovered the key to making NFTs — and blockchain tech as a whole — more environmentally sustainable: shifting from a proof-of-work verification model to a proof-of-stake model. With the release of Algorand, an energy-efficient blockchain that’s offsetting its carbon footprint in partnership with ClimateTrade, and other environmentally-friendly blockchains such as Tezos, those concerns may slowly fade. […]