Salesforce’s recent announcement that it plans to enter into the NFT space has been met with anger and suspicion by some employees, according to internal company documents obtained by Thomson Reuters Foundation:
More than 400 employees have signed an open letter addressed to the company’s co-CEOs, raising concerns about the high energy use of some blockchains and the significant risk of fraud and criminality in the NFT market.
The announcement that sparked this reaction outlined a plan by Salesforce to launch an NFT sales platform, called NFT Cloud, which would allow users to create and sell NFTs:
NFTs Undermine Company’s Core Values, Employees Claim
Coming just days after Salesforce aired a Super Bowl ad touting its commitment to sustainability, employees perceive this foray into NFTs as hypocritical and not in line with its stated values:
In the letter, the employees argue that the sale of NFTs conflicts with the company’s five core values of trust, customer success, innovation, equality and sustainability.
With Market Growth Comes Increased Scrutiny
It’s no surprise that large enterprises are starting to show interest in NFTs given the global market has exploded in the past 18 months, growing from US$95 million in 2020 to around US$25 billion in 2021, an approximate 250x increase.
This explosive growth brings with it increased scrutiny and pressure for the NFT space to clean up its act, especially with regard to fraud and energy use.
Recently, several organisations have faced criticism over their intentions to sell NFTs: the WWF was forced to rethink its strategy to create and sell NFTs following supporter backlash; and video game companies Sega and Team 17 both recently abandoned plans to use NFTs in their games following player anger.