Axie Infinity
- NFTs for Axie Infinity have the highest carbon emissions among collections recently studied.
- The play-to-earn game's digital collectibles would need about 25.4 million trees to become carbon neutral, the study found.
- "All other collections studied produced less than a third of this figure combined," researchers said.
The hit play-to-earn game Axie Infinity is making its mark on the world — literally.
New research found Axie Infinity's NFTs have the highest carbon emissions among collections studied and would need millions of trees — which are known to reduce the greenhouse effect on the planet by absorbing carbon — to offset its climate impact. The study, conducted by tech firm NFT Club, found Axie Infinity's game-based NFTs have created more than 1.5 billion kilograms of carbon emissions.
"All other collections studied produced less than a third of this figure combined," the researchers said, estimating Axie Infinity would need 25.4 million trees to offset its emissions and become carbon neutral.
The head of Axie Infinity did not immediately respond to Insider's LinkedIn message.
The ethereum-based game has become popular in developing countries where players try to earn money for themselves by winning tokens called Smooth Love Potion or Axie Infinity shards by breeding, raising, and battling virtual creatures called Axies that trade as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The total number of Axie NFT sales has topped 18 million, according to the report.
NFTs are generally digital collectibles minted on the blockchain. As the study suggests, they have a "huge negative impact" on the environment because of the immense amount of energy needed for blockchain mining. The lifespan of just one NFT needs about 3.5 trees to offset its carbon emissions, the study found.
Take into account sales of digital collectibles swelled to $41 billion last year with at least 5 million NFTs in circulation — and the amount of carbon emissions is startling. The NFT collections with the highest climate impact after Axie Infinity were CryptoKitties, Sorare, Art Blocks, the Sandbox, and Decentraland, the study found.
While enthusiasts have said these digital collectibles are the key to unlocking the metaverse and the future internet dubbed Web 3, naysayers have argued against their value and pointed out the energy needed to mint and trade the collectibles.
The researchers for the NFT Club study estimated the carbon impact of an NFT from a Quartz investigation and calculated how many trees would offset that footprint based on research from a nonprofit focused on trees. The study noted while much of the carbon impact of NFTs remains unclear, the cost of the known elements "have a great impact on the environment."