One of the largest NFT trading platforms is once again at the center of the hype. Just months after some employees at online marketplace OpenSea were forced to quit when they were caught insider trading, management made a surprise decision this week to limit free NFT generation. This feature allowed the creation and placement of NFTs without paying a tariff for “gas” – a certain amount that crypto-miners charge for writing new data to the blockchain.
OpenSea management announced this week that they will be limiting the amount of items generated by the free tool to a maximum of 50 items. This decision turned out to be extremely unpopular among users and the company quickly abandoned the changes. But at the same time, representatives revealed extremely important information.
To all the creators in our community impacted by the 50 item limit we added to our free minting tool, we hear you and we’re sorry.
We have reversed the decision.
But we also want to offer an explanation ↯ pic.twitter.com/Y3igaE1RM2— OpenSea (@opensea) January 27, 2022
In Tereda twitter the company said that more than 80 percent of all NFTs created through the free option are either stolen from someone or spammed.
This is a shockingly high figure, which once again highlights the fact that the situation with the sale of NFTs is even worse than it seems. And much worse than NFT enthusiasts describe. However, for artists, photographers and animators, this is not news. Many artists have been complaining for months that OpenSea is not taking the necessary steps to combat scammers and bots that sell other people’s creations. A special Twitter account was even launched, where they list only some of the stolen works.
OpenSea has stated that it is working on several potential solutions, but there is no guarantee that they will work or reduce the incredible percentage of fraudulent activity.