Cloudscape Comics has been dedicated to helping up-and-coming independent artists in British Columbia since 2008. We were very excited when Kickstarter came to Canada in 2013, and we’ve been using them to assist us in our publishing projects since then. To date, we’ve published eighteen successful projects with their help.
We were thrilled to see Kickstarter become a public benefit corporation in 2015 and were glad to see their union succeed in forming in 2020. It felt good to be in partnership with an ethical company. We are so grateful for the support our projects have found through Kickstarter, and for the help Kickstarter’s staff have offered us when launching our projects.
Though we appreciate that Celo claims to be one of the better blockchain systems in terms of its environmental impact, as well as recognize that a blockchain is a tool that can be used for more than just NFT’s and Cryptocurrency. Our publishing house is situated in a province that has seen first hand the devastating impacts of climate change: from a heat dome that killed hundreds this summer, to the now yearly forest fire season that covers our skies in smoke, and the catastrophic floods that cut our city off from the rest of the country by road. We are uncomfortable with the environmental impact of NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology, regardless of claims that anyone’s version is “green” or “more ethical”, and we feel that such technologies add little to no value for artists and creatives using Kickstarter.
It’s also important to acknowledge that since April blockchain technology has been primarily utilized to steal from and otherwise harm independent artists. The current atmosphere of wild speculation and hype has fostered a deep distrust from a community that has been continually harmed by “disruptive” systems like this in the past.
For that reason, Cloudscape will be investigating alternatives to Kickstarter for future projects until the ethics of this system can be properly understood.
Most likely we will be returning to Indie gogo in the short term until a permanent solution can be found.
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