What the Funge?

Non-fungible tokens also known as NFTs, are unique digital addresses assigned to digital files of ‘original’ digital works of art. These files are attached to a blockchain making them immutable (guaranteed authentic and unaltered), and non-fungible (not salable without the digital key).

NFTs are intended to be a boon for digital content creators who have been searching for a way to protect their copyright and profit from digital work. In fact, the artist Beeple, actually sold a collage of original digital artwork for $60 million!

OpenSea is an online gallery and marketplace for digital creatives to promote and sell their works. Potentially, a utopian dream designed by the promoters of blockchain-based cryptocurrency to guarantee digital asset ownership. However, it seems that OpenSea has enabled NFT fraud and theft – the polar opposite of guaranteed authenticity.

Screen Shot

As reported by VICE, most of the ‘guaranteed authentic’ NFTs posted for sale are actually fake.

More Than 80% of NFTs Created for Free on OpenSea Are Fraud or Spam, Company Says

Imagine being a digital artist promoting your work on OpenSea. You proudly post a creation that likely took a great deal of effort to produce hoping to sell the original file for a certain price. Instead, you wake up the next day only to find multiple copies of your artwork advertised for sale by others on the very same platform!

It turns out the non-fungibility supposedly guaranteed by NFT technology and blockchain is as easy to defeat as taking a simple screen shot. This has been the main criticism of the NFT concept since its inception. There is only one Mona Lisa in the world and if you want to see it, you must visit the Louvre in Paris. Of course, there are countless versions in cyberspace to view for those less travelled. But how do you guarantee there is only one original version of a digital file or picture? Well, you can’t.

The Sting

NFTs do not guarantee that you have the original copy of anything. Non-fungibility is a myth, a scam perpetrated by cryptocurrency and blockchain promoters to create and inflate a brand-new market. NFTs can’t exist without a blockchain, and blockchain can’t exist without a willing market to turn crypto into cash.

It’s far too easy to promote a fantastical idea (NFTs), with a dubious value proposition (non-fungibility), to sell more crypto coins that generate more fees. That is the essence of all this NFT nonsense. Digital scammers have convinced nervous investors that cryptocurrencies actually have real value. 

NFTs have been promoted to struggling artists and musicians as a panacea to make up for the decades of having their online creative content stolen. The promise of easy money and freedom from digital servitude is alluring. But when you look closely, you’ll see a scam that Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorff would be proud of.