NFT marketplace OpenSea is Not Secure

Why phishing and FOMO undermines our belief in the Bitcoin Religion

NFT marketplace OpenSea is investigating a “phishing attack” that wasn’t exactly a small one. The company, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, said that 32 users had NFTs stolen on Saturday.

As phishing hacks continue amid the Second bull market of Bitcoin, the business model of NFTs is also being questioned. In a world of virtual real-estate, a piece of paper can be used to create a legal contract and it can be used to fake a legal contract. The paper is not to be blamed — the malicious users are.

Sure, they boast harmonious communities and an eye-watering amount of financial backing, but the viability of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is increasingly being thrown under scrutiny. When the biggest NFT platforms aren’t safe, you need to begin to ask questions.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have surged in popularity over the past year. But so have reports of pumping prices and young people making $millions of dollars seemingly overnight.

Opensea co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer, has denied rumors that the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace’s codebase was breached and that attackers had stolen $200 million. If you cannot take responsibility for security risks, how can we trust your non-fungible token marketplace?

Company officials on Sunday tried to reassure users that it was safe to mint, buy, list, and sell NFTs on OpenSea, although they maintained that an investigation was ongoing. There are so many NFT platforms and now mainstream companies from Walmart to Salesforce want to get into them as well. It’s a frenzy and must be very appealing for hackers and cybersecurity criminals.

The appeal for fraudsters is at an all-time high since ICOs back in 2017, NFTs have all the hype for extremely lucrative hacking. Users are now advised to be wary of all communications from OpenSea in addition to revoking all permissions about the migration to the new smart contract. Say what?

In short, NFTs are inherently neither a scam nor a digital bubble, but scams and bubbles are sure to manifest. Are you sure?

I remain skeptical of crypto products that have no real-world purpose or correlation to value. Speculative virtual real-estate is neither real or permanent. While I can appreciate digital art, I do not appreciate profiteering by crypto startups just to pump value. These aren’t sustainable business models but many won’t exist and will escape into a neither realm with our funds.

Leaks of user IDs makes us all susceptible to phishing. OpenSea is trying to defend its reputation but the reputation of all NFT platform is under threat. Just like ICOs in 2017, the amount of lasting innovation occurring is very debatable. Crypto has created a FOMO environment on the part of both makers and consumers that is fundamentally corrupt and misguided.

Think about it, bubbles are a product of human psychology and greed. NFTs aren’t guaranteed to lead to a bubble. But at some point, sooner or later, the prices of some of the most hyped NFT collections are likely to experience some downward volatility. Unfortunately the crypto industry attracts greedy people, all around. NFTs are therefore likely to attract some shady people and projects.

Whether you like the concept of NFTs or not—these digital collectibles in the form of art, GIF, videos, music, etc, cannot be ignored. But NFTs are no exception to scams. We’re all victims to a fear of missing out environment brought upon by the manipulation of Bitcoin’s price. It isn’t magic, it’s crypto-capitalism.

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