The Associated Press, or AP, announced work on its own NFT marketplace, with a focus on the work of its photojournalists. It is collaborating with US company Xooa. Don’t worry, we don’t know how to say it either.

The marketplace will serve as a way for collectors to “purchase the news agency’s award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism” as a series of virtual tokens. The AP says they’ll be released at “broad and inclusive price points” but says nothing of the price points of other resellers on their marketplace.

All aboard the NFT hype train

The decision to jump onboard the NFT bandwagon comes despite the general consensus that, as they currently exist, NFTs are bad for the environment. In order to skirt that, the AP will use the Polygon blockchain which it calls “environmentally friendly”.

According to sustainability statistics, the Polygon network contributes “only” 596.6 tons of CO2 per year. When compared to the 60 million tons of CO2 per year from the Ethereum blockchain, it sure looks friendly. But that’s still 600 tons more than there was before. Not sure if we’d call that friendly.

According to Reuters, NFT sales totalled R400 billion in 2021. That was mostly thanks to the art world, but it seems these days everyone and their mum is trying to cash in before the hype inevitably dies down.

Like it or not, NFTs are here and it doesn’t appear they’re leaving anytime soon. How long they stick around is up for debate, though.

Source: The Verge