16/02/2022 NFT marketplace suspends most sales, citing 'rampant' fakes and plagiarism

London—The platform which sold an NFT of Jack Dorsey's first tweet for $2.9 million has halted most transactions because people were selling tokens of content that did not belong to them, its founder said, calling this a "fundamental problem" in the fast-growing digital assets market.

Sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, soared to around$25 billion in 2021, leaving many baffled as to why so much money is being spent on items that do not physically exist and which anyone can view online for free.

NFTs are crypto assets that record the ownership of a digital file such as an image, video or text. Anyone can create, or "mint," an NFT, and ownership of the token does not usually confer ownership of the underlying item.

Yuga Labs restructures, NFT prices grow: what’s next for the market?
CryptoPunk sells for 4,000 ETH ($12.41 million), sixth-most expensive ever
Burberry Gets Into the NFT Game
Reports of scams,counterfeits and "wash trading" have become commonplace.
The Cent website is seen on a laptop. The NFT marketplace has suspended buying and selling, citing "rampant" fakes and plagiarism.
The U.S.-based Cent executed one of the first known million-dollar NFT sales when itsold the former Twitter CEO's tweetas an NFT last March. But as of Feb. 6, it has stopped allowing buying and selling, CEO and co-founder Cameron Hejazi told Reuters.

"There's a spectrum of activity that is happening that basically shouldn't be happening -- like, legally" Hejazi said.

While the Cent marketplace "beta.cent.co" has paused NFT sales, the part specifically for selling NFTs of tweets, which is called "Valuables," is still active.

Hejazi highlighted three main problems: people selling unauthorized copies of other NFTs, people making NFTs of content which does not belong to them, and people selling sets of NFTs which resemble a security.

He said these issues were "rampant," with users "minting and minting and minting counterfeit digital assets."

"It kept happening. We would ban offending accounts but it was like we're playing a game of whack-a-mole... Every time we would ban one, another one would come up, or three more would come up."

"Money chasing money"

Such problems may come into greater focus as major brands join the rush towards the so-called "metaverse," or Web3.Coca-Cola(CCEP)and luxury brand Gucci are among companies to have sold NFTs, whileYouTubesaid it will explore NFT features.

While Cent, with 150,000 users and revenue "in the millions," is a relatively small NFT platform, Hejazi said the issue of fake and illegal content exists across the industry.

"I think this is a pretty fundamental problem with Web3," he said.

The biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, valued at $13.3 billion after its latest round of venture funding,saidlast month more than 80% of the NFTs minted for free on its platform were "plagiarized works, fake collections and spam."

OpenSea tried limiting the number of NFTs a user could mint for free, but then reversed this decision following a backlash from users, the company said in a Twitter thread, adding that it was "working through a number of solutions" to deter "bad actors" while supporting creators.

"It is against our policy to sell NFTs using plagiarized content," an OpenSea spokesperson said.

"We are working around the clock to ship products, add features, and refine our processes to meet the moment."

To many NFT-enthusiasts, the decentralized nature of blockchain technology isappealing, allowing users to create and trade digital assets without a central authority controlling the activity.

But Hejazi said his company was keen on protecting content-creators, and may introduce centralized controls as a short-term measure in order to re-open the marketplace, before exploring decentralized solutions.

It was after the Dorsey NFT sale that Cent started to get a sense of what was going on in NFT markets.

"We realized that a lot of it is just money chasing money."

Arts

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/13/tech/nft-marketplace-plagiarism/index.html

Interesting NFTs
CryptoKitties
*hissing noises*! Kitty #449762 here. I'm here to enjoy reciting poetry and being a nevernude. My great-great-great-great-great-great grandkitty lived with Amelia Earhart. I like your face.
The dirty cape
Personal project
The King
Part of a series of three artworks entitled "The Rulers". Inspired by the rulers of the animal kingdom, african mandalas & diamonds. A very complex digital illustration, each lion consists of hundreds of custom diamond shapes. Each background is an intricate custom mandala that compliments the lions facial features.
#47849
By OthersideDeployer
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.