According to some, the biggest fear of NFTs collectors is to lose the images associated with their precious tokens. Thanks to an Australian programmer, it is now possible to find them on a 17 TB torrent. What can we learn from this experience?
Growing anger against the NFT ecosystem
NFTs are beginning to be increasingly distrusted outside their natural ecosystem. Since last year, there has been growing concern about the environmental consequences of NFTs. But due to the lack of studies on the subject, the debate has crystallized around the issue of the Proof of Work.
Moreover, due to the fault of some unscrupulous sellers, some artists present on Deviantart or Instagram have seen their works sold on Opensea without their agreement. The anger has therefore risen a notch and the Furries community in particular has shown its fangs towards artists using NFTs.
Their attack? The “right click save as” or the art of saving the image contained in NFTs. Behind this very symbolic act, the Furries want to make people aware that the notion of digital scarcity is just a smoke and mirrors.
The defensive response came from a Pepe fan: Vincent Van Dough. Having downloaded 100 profile images of Furry to make a provocative NFT, it sold for 20.35 ETH ($94,007). The NFT has since been delisted from Foundation for copyright infringement.
The episode could have ended there, but the turn of this battle took another dimension. Geoffrey Huntley, an Australian programmer decided to strike a blow by downloading all the NFT images of Ethereum and Solana to put them online.
A 17.76TB torrent file containing images of NFTs
Geoffrey Huntley created The NFT Bay, taking the interface of the torrent site The Pirate Bay. Here, no movies or video games for illegal download but the possibility to download 17.76 Terabytes of images from NFTs.
The programmer considers this action as a work of art to send a message: to make collectors aware that the image of their NFT could disappear overnight. And that NFTs are an environmental disaster.
According to him, images are still mostly hosted on centralized servers. This implies that if the server closes tomorrow, the NFT will no longer display the image. Fortunately, all images present before November 18, 2021 are now saved on The NFT Bay!
What to remember from this episode?
In the long-running series that pits the NFT community against the rest of the world, this new episode is enlightening to say the least. On the one hand, it teaches us that the outside world’s ignorance of NFTs is blatant.
Contrary to popular belief, art marketplaces like Foundation, MakersPlace or SuperRare use IFPS solutions to host images. But they can also comply with external complaints if a copyright has been infringed.
Also, there is nothing to prevent you from downloading the image contained in an NFT. The important thing is to be able to check on any block explorer if the creator of a work is indeed at the origin of the mint, thus guaranteeing its uniqueness and authenticity.
Artists using NFTs seem to become collateral victims of a war they are not responsible for. That said, at some point, the outside world will have to communicate more peacefully with web3 users in order to be heard.
Because just like cryptos, for the moment nothing seems to stop the inexorable adoption of NFTs.
