Key Takeaways:
- BTS fans blame the crypto industry for not being “green”.
- Sirgoo Lee promises to make NFTs featuring BTS eco-friendly.
- Luniverse also shares its reports with the fans.
South Korea is among one of the largest cryptocurrency hubs in the world. The head of the country’s biggest crypto exchange has pledged to make its non-fungible tokens featuring K-pop stars BTS will be “eco-friendly”. The recent fallout from the environment-friendly young fans of BTS has influenced this decision.
Upbit, after launching its crypto art marketplace in November, now has plans to collaborate with Hybe, the management team of BTS. In addition, they aim to launch a range of NFTs featuring members of the boy band.
BTS fans have always stood up for the right thing and now have criticised NFTs and the crypto industry for not being conservationists. They have raised their voice against the massive energy consumption involved in mining and tracking ownership of the tokens.
Addressing this situation, the chief executive of Upbit’s operator Dunamu, Sirgoo Lee, has told the Financial Times in an interview that this collaboration with Hybe will be using “low carbon, eco-friendly” technology to mint the NFTs. He further said, “We will try to explain to the fans that this is not environmentally harmful.”
The first token bought on the platform was “Mirage Cat 3”, an image of a painting of a girl holding a cat by artist Jang Koal. It was sold for approximately $173,000 of bitcoin in November.
Luniverse has also spoken on the issue raised by BTS fans and has declared that the energy absorbed for its entire blockchain network, including the NFTs, was estimated at “around 842.53kWh a year”. The amount is almost equivalent to the monthly electricity consumption of a US private utility consumer.
