The NFT or non-fungible token market has exploded in recent times. Companies from various industries are using NFTs to sell their digital artwork. In addition, NFTs are also being used by artists with modest means to sell their artwork. This sudden surge in interest in NFTs has also caught the eye of fraudsters who are using tools to help artists easily create NFTs for theft and fraud. Case and point: OpenSea’s free NFT mining tool.
OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces online, recently changed its policy on finding NFTs using its free tool called ‘Lazy Minting’. The company announced earlier this week that users will now be able to make only up to five collections with 50 NFTs per collection using its free tool. “We know this change could impact our community, so please don’t hesitate to share how it affects your creative flow,” the company wrote in a tweet that was first discovered by Vice Was.
The change was met with intense backlash from artists, who took to Twitter to share their concerns about the change, and users complained about being unable to upload their work or complete their collections.
Yo, the same plagiarism suffered in relation to my own old art!
What I really disliked about filing their DMCA notices is that they provide all of your personal data, including legal names and legal addresses, directly to the perpetrator. Like, they are making scammers more empowered??
— Underwater Astronomy? (@cloudshores) December 15, 2021
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Are you an artist who stole and molded your work as an NFT? Please collect your receipts and send them to CirenSongOfficial on Gmail – in the coming months I’m going to take legal action and take legal action against these platforms profiting from piracy work.
— John Niemester (@CirenSong) December 9, 2021
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The backlash from OpenSea’s artist community forced the company to rescind its changed policy and apologize to its users. “To all the creators in our community who have been affected by the 50 item limit we’ve added to our free minting tool, we hear you and we’re sorry. We’ve reversed the decision,” OpenC wrote in a statement. Tweet,
In subsequent tweets, the company explained the reason behind its decision. OpenSea said it originally built its shared storefront contract to make it easier for creators to onboard into the NFT space.
“However, we have recently seen a rapid increase in abuse of this feature… more than 80% of items created with this tool were piracy, counterfeit collections and spam,” the company tweeted. announced a reversal of policies.
Notably, while the company is reversing its decision to limit activity on its platform, it is working on creating alternative solutions to prevent fraud on its platform. “…we are working through a number of solutions to ensure that we support our creators while blocking bad actors. We are committed to previewing these changes with you before they are implemented.” added this.
More than 80% of NFTs created using OpenSea’s free tools are fake, fake or spam first appeared on BGR India.
