Celebrating ‘Plastic Free July’ with Tezos NFTs and art

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The Tezos blockchain has become a favorite in the art world for its energy efficiency and low cost since its initial coin offering in 2017. AI artists, Refik AnadolAn internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in data and machine intelligence aesthetics, he uses Tezos to run peer-to-peer transactions and deploy smart contracts. The token is listed on crypto exchanges as Tezos (XTZ).

In addition to being a part of Art Basel since 2021 and collaborating with environmental gallery Serpentine Arts Technologies since 2023, this Plastic-Free July, for the first time, Tezos blockchain will be a part of Ribela Love Nature, an outdoor, sustainable art and music techno event featuring over 100 different artworks by over 30 visual artists, over 20 NFT artworks for sale, and music from over 15 live performances and DJ sets.

Plastic Free July draws attention to the impact of plastic waste on nature. The ‘Plastic Free July’ campaign was launched in Australia in 2011 to draw attention to the global problem of plastic waste, which causes serious health problems for animals, nature and people. The award-winning campaign is a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation, which works towards the vision of a world free of plastic waste, as detailed in the ‘2023 Impact Report’.

The Plastic Free July campaign was instrumental in the adoption of the world’s first Plastics Pact, supported by 175 countries at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting in Nairobi in 2022. UNEP’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution is still negotiating the terms of the Pact, so it could come into force as early as 2025.

My Plastic Free July art exhibitions are being held in two museums to draw attention to the damage that plastic pollution does to marine life:

Putnam Museum of History—Selva Ozelli’s Healing Waters Havre de Grace Maritime Museum—Selva Ozelli’s Grumpy Blue Crabs

Alongside its participation in the sustainable technology event, Tezos X vision also announced a major development in the Tezos ecosystem: the introduction of Jstz (pronounced ‘justice’), a JavaScript-powered smart aggregation that will make Tezos a scalable blockchain platform and an OP blockchain-based, cloud-like backend for any application.

Scaling the utility of blockchain is vital to its widespread adoption. After all, the fastest, most cost-effective blockchain won’t work if people have nothing to do and nowhere to go. And they’ll only get those things if someone builds them on Jstz. An L2 rollup built on Tezos, Jstz is designed to allow developers to use JavaScript and its vast resources, including JavaScript APIs, battle-tested JS tools, the npm ecosystem, and libraries that take advantage of the best of web3. Built-in identity, wallet, and payments Jstz GitHub repository.

On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service released final digital asset intermediary reporting regulations that mandate intermediary reporting for centralized exchanges and hosted wallet providers, providing comprehensive rules for reporting transactions in digital assets, including NFTs, in the U.S. However, the agency set aside related rules for decentralized finance and unhosted wallets while it continues to review 44,000 comments. Defi transactions and unhosted wallet providers will have to wait for their own rules later in the year.

The final regulations will go into effect for transactions starting in 2025 and will require digital asset brokers to track the cost basis for their clients’ tokens starting in 2026. They will also be required to file 1099-DA forms like their traditional investment firm cousins ​​and impose an annual threshold of $600 before NFT income must be reported.

The latest regulations provide needed clarity on reporting obligations for NFT platforms, creating transparency for both artist taxpayers and the IRS regarding tax reporting and compliance. It’s also a significant step toward closing the estimated $50 billion crypto tax gap and will further legitimize digital assets. Artists will now know what they need to report for activities conducted through a digital asset broker’s NFT platform, and the IRS will know what to expect on their tax returns.