One of the core developers of Bitcoin is disavowing an auction for an ordinal that incorporated some of the code he contributed to the digital asset protocol.
“I was not involved with the creation and sale of this or any other NFTs. I have not consented to the use of my code or my name for this purpose,” Luke Dashjr, one of the Bitcoin core developers, tweeted. "Due to the misrepresentation involved and actual buyer confusion, I strongly insist upon 100% of the auction proceeds to be refunded to the buyer."
I want to make public my concern about "NFTs" which are being sold utilizing my name. Recently, a picture of code I wrote was sold at auction for .41 BTC. It was advertised as my code in the listing and presented to the public for sale and profit. ??1/9 pic.twitter.com/5TcEJu4p5e
— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) February 27, 2023
NFTs have been plagued with forgery, plagiarism, and other copyright issues. As CoinDesk has previously reported, OPENSEA said that at one time nearly 80% of the NFTs on its shared storefront were “plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam.”
$23,251.26
$1,619.95
BNB$302.16
XRP$0.37317887
$12.01The auction was hosted on Scarce.City, a new marketplace for ordinal NFTs. Without identifying the auction winner, Dashjr said that the highest bidder won the NFT for 0.41 BTC or $9600.
Dashjr also said on Twitter that someone – again, not identified – purportedly with Scarce.City reached out to him to “donate” to him 90% of its value. He has been a vocal critic of the Ordinals protocol, telling CoinDesk in a previous statement that it was an “attack” on Bitcoin.
“Ordinals aren't _just_ a spam attack; they are also an attack on Bitcoin's fungibility, and if accepted would break at least Lightning and CoinJoin,” he also tweeted in mid-February.
For its part, Scarce.City has said that the buyer will be refunded.
$23,251.26
$1,619.95
BNB$302.16
XRP$0.37317887
$12.01DISCLOSURE
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