Kyle McDonald

Background & Biography

Kyle McDonald is a Los Angeles-based artist who works with code, interactive systems and the social effects of technology. He runs IYOIYO Studio, whose work spans machine learning, computer vision and creative technology for cultural and commercial projects. His practice includes installations, online experiments, workshops and open-source tools that invite people to examine how technical systems shape everyday experience.

McDonald's own biography records earlier work as an adjunct professor at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, a member of F.A.T. Lab and a community manager for openFrameworks. It also lists artist residencies at Carnegie Mellon University's STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and Japan's Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media. These are previous affiliations, rather than claims of current employment.

Ethereum Emissions Research

His direct engagement with cryptocurrency includes Ethereum Emissions: A Bottom-up Estimate. First submitted to arXiv in November 2021 and revised in December 2022, the report examines Ethereum's proof-of-work history through the network's transition to proof-of-stake. Its approach connects mining hashrate with estimates of hardware power consumption and mining locations, then uses emissions factors to estimate the associated climate impact.

The accompanying website explains uncertainty in inputs such as mining hardware, operational overhead and electricity supply. It also cautions against interpreting a network-wide estimate as the incremental emissions caused by one additional transaction. Allocating responsibility among users, investors and marketplaces is a further judgment, distinct from estimating electricity consumption.

This is historical research into proof-of-work Ethereum. The dashboard explicitly says it stopped updating after the transition on 15 September 2022. Its earlier figures should not be presented as measurements of the network's present energy use. The report is a publicly available research preprint, not a certification of any particular NFT's environmental footprint.

Amends and NFT Art

Amends brought this research into an artwork using the market it examined. In a 2022 interview published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, McDonald explained that the project required him to mint NFTs rather than remain an outside commentator. He questioned whether NFTs provided an appropriate model for supporting artists while using their conventions to explore responsibility for historical emissions.

The original project comprised three digital sculptures associated with OpenSea, Rarible and Foundation. Its published framework linked their prices to proposed carbon-removal and emissions-prevention work. A collector could exchange a token for its corresponding physical glass sculpture by destroying, or burning, the NFT. The artworks therefore made the relationship between a digital collectible and a physical object part of the decision facing the owner.

Pioneer Works' 2023 interview documents collaborations with Robert Hodgin on digital visualizations and Kazuki Takazawa on glasswork. It records that the original works were listed in September 2022 and describes how their materials represented different mitigation approaches. These documented intentions and listings do not establish that the proposed purchases or environmental outcomes occurred.

Recent Work

The current Amends site records a 2026 extension, Amendment, addressing SuperRare's allocated share of proof-of-work emissions. The work depicts a refrigerant cylinder painted as a duckling and connects its persistence or deterioration to its sale price. The published plan names Tradewater as its mitigation partner. It is another example of making a financial mechanism visible within an artwork, rather than treating the token only as a certificate of ownership.

The project's marketplace allocations depend on its stated transaction-fee accounting method. Katharos.ai does not treat those allocations as independently audited causal measurements or the proposed mitigation as a completed result. Auction prices, fees and partner availability can change; inclusion is not a recommendation to purchase a token or an environmental claim on a buyer's behalf.

McDonald's wider work continues beyond blockchain. IYOIYO's current portfolio includes a private-jet emissions tracker, participatory portrait installations and technical collaborations with other artists. These provide context for his interest in measurement and public-facing systems, but are not automatically cryptocurrency projects.

Why Katharos.ai Follows

Katharos.ai follows McDonald's combination of hands-on NFT production, open technical research and criticism of digital-market incentives. His work helps frame questions about who pays for a network's environmental costs, how those costs are estimated and whether an artwork can make a proposed remedy legible. His relevance comes from this direct engagement, not from operating an exchange or promoting a financial product.

Areas We Follow

- Historical blockchain energy and emissions accounting. - NFT art and the design of ownership mechanisms. - Environmental responsibility and evidence for mitigation claims. - Open-source tools that make technical systems understandable.

Current Position

Artist; IYOIYO Studio, Los Angeles, United States. Verified 5 November 2026.

Photo Credit

mrphcr (Flickr user morphcore), This Happened Hamburg 2013, 6 September 2013. Source photograph and cropped versions: CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped to 16:9 and resized for the card; historical portrait. Source and license are listed in Sources 8–9.

Source Notice

Prepared from artist, project, research and cultural-institution sources checked on 5 November 2026. Historical estimates, project intentions and verified outcomes are distinguished throughout. The portrait does not imply endorsement.