22/11/2021 The NFT Bay asks if you would steal all the JPEGs

In what may be one of the better pieces of performance art this year, Australian Geoffrey Huntley hascreated a websitethat promises to let you torrent an entire blockchain’s worth of NFTs. It’s called, appropriately, The NFT Bay, and it’s an almost exact replica of the famous pirating site (with an added cheekyDMCA takedownlink). As a site, it seems to do what it says on the tin, but as a statement it could spark an interesting discussion around what it means if you claim ownership over something on the internet.

Pretty much every link on the site (except for the one that’s a Rick Roll) will eventually lead you tothe description page, which would look right at home on the real Pirate Bay (according to my friend, who is definitely not me because I’ve never pirated anything). At the bottom is an actual download link — clicking on it will get you the torrent, letting you download a file called “preview.jpg” which shows off a bunch of Bored Ape images, as well as zip files that supposedly contain all the NFTs from the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. All told, the download is just under 20TB. That is, to put it mildly, alotof image files.

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A familiar argument is playing out in the replies toHuntley’s announcement tweet— NFT haters point to it as a triumph that proves NFTs have no value, and crypto fans try to prove how unbothered they are by replying in droves that it’s actually the proof of ownership, not the image, that gives NFTs their value. Thinking that you’re getting the same thing by saving the JPEG is a right-click mindset, as they say.

I mean, good art is supposed to spark discussion, right?

For his part, Huntley explains that part of his reasoning for making it was the fact that NFTs very oftendon’t store any mediaon the blockchain, instead just linking to a version stored on a potentially fragile web server. He also gives a much more in-depth explanation behind the influences for The NFT Bay inan FAQ on his GitHubandin an excellent interview withMotherboard.

What I enjoy most about The NFT Bay, though, is that it both takes NFT-boosters at their word and pokes fun at the concept. “You want to claim ownership over something,” it asks. “On the internet, that means someone’s going to pirate it.” And Huntley’s announcement message of “OMG WHO RIGHT CLICKED ALL OF THE #NFTs?” takes the “you wouldn’t download a JPEG” meme (shared by both supporters and critics alike) and says “bet.”

But there remains an obvious question:does it actually contain every NFT on the Ethereum blockchain? Regrettably, I don’t have an answer for you — trying to download the nearly 15TB zip file would put meso far over my data capthat Comcast would probably break down my door with a battering ram. However, others have shown that it is possible to download all the NFTs, so Huntley isn’t promising the impossible here (basically, your program would just have to find all the tokens on the blockchain and use the links they contain to download the media). Would it impact the artistic statement if someone finally finishes downloading it and discovers it doesn’t contain all the JPEGs? That’s probably something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Unfortunately, it seems like you would have to go through the download process to experience the collection — as far as I can tell, the NFT Bay’s search function just returns the same results no matter what you put in it, despite the tantalizing checkboxes promising to let you see only CryptoPunks or Bored Ape Yacht Club images.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re relying on outdated, centralized, Web 2.0 tech to distribute your stolen NFTs. That’s why I’ll be waiting for the web3 version of LimeWire to build my right-click collection.

Arts

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22790131/nft-bay-pirating-digital-ownership-piracy-crypto-art-right-click

Interesting NFTs
Michael Jordan - Crown Collection
“All you needed was one little match to start that whole fire.”- Michael Jordan. In regards to both the action on the court and everything that happened off of it, Jordan provided a spark that changed the future in so many different ways throughout his tenure in Chicago, and even decades after the fact. And, in the end, he got everything that he wanted when he began his NBA journey: he turned the team and organization as a whole into a respected program, like the dynasties he looked up to as a child. Having steered the Chicago Bulls to an incredible six championship rings in eight years from 1991-1998, scooping up five MVP awards in the process, Jordan is one of just a handful of superstars who have truly transcended their sports. Jordan and Scottie Pippen’s (right) relationship both on and off the pitch was arguably the foundation of the Bulls’ incredible success. Scottie Pippen was present with Jordan for all six championships in eight seasons. Dennis Rodman (left) His relentless and smart play perfectly suited what Jordan and Jackson wanted to do to take the Bulls to greater heights. Although his exploits off the court earned him special fame, Rodman was unquestionably one of the greatest basketball players of his generation and one of the finest defensive players in the history of the game.
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
Enhanced Interrogation
Continuing the exploration of well known algorithms, this work delves into pixel sorting. The works of several cubists were first averaged with custom averaging software and then sorted with a bespoke pixel sorting algorithm. All tools were written in javascript, for masochistic reasons.
DuCat Offspring
Hey cutie! I'm DuCat Offspring. I believe the world is flat. I am 9% hobbit, 51% Skydiving Instructor, and otherwise bad at math. Can't wait to eat hamburgers with you!
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