‘NFT’, short for non-fungible tokens – the digital assets that have exploded in popularity and price this year, but which have also come under heavy criticism for their contribution to global warming – have rightly won out. climate anxiety ‘for Collins’ Word Dictionary Editor of the Year.

In one blog postCollins defined NFT as “a unique digital certificate, stored in a blockchain, which is used to register ownership of an asset such as a work of art or a collector’s item.” The publisher said it picked “NFT” as the word of the year because of its ubiquity and how the mix of technology, art and commerce has “captured the public’s imagination.”

Indeed, over the past year, NFTs have grown from a niche interest in crypto communities to million dollar companies. They took the traditional art world by storm – the rights to a work by artist Bettle were sold at Christie’s for $ 69 million in March – and have also become increasingly popular in the field. music, where industry figures and artists see the potential for new revenue streams and ways to engage fans.

But NFTs – like another Collins Word of the Year competitor, “crypto” (short for cryptocurrency) – have also come under scrutiny for their significant environmental impact. A April Analysis, for example, estimated that typing and sending an NFT on the Ehtereum blockchain required the same amount of energy needed to power an average American household for a day and a half. There are a handful of more eco-friendly options for typing and selling NFT (such as processes like lazy typing and layer two, which you can learn more about in this article). Rolling stone part), and the damage from NFTs is just one part of the technology’s much larger environmental footprint.

Yet it seems fitting in these modern times, that what is essentially a new asset bubble making the privileged few rich while contributing to the destruction of our planet, would outweigh “climate anxiety” for the word of the lord. ‘year. Collins devoted a few sentences to the issue, including: “The climate crisis remains a concern, especially in light of this year’s COP26, so it’s no surprise that climate anxiety is on the list. “

More words about Collins’ List of words of the year include words related to Covid like “double vaxxed”, “pingdemic” and “hybrid work”. There is also “metaverse”, “cheugy”, “neopronom” and “regencycore”.