OpenSea disclosed that a huge bulk of free minted NFTs in the largest NFT marketplace are either fake, plagiarized, or a mere scam.
An illustration picture taken in London on December 30, 2021, shows gold plated souvenir cryptocurrency coins arranged beside a screen displaying a NFT (Non-Fungible Token) marketplace. - Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain with unique identification metadata that distinguish them from each other.
OpenSea Free Minted NFTs
As per a news story by Yahoo Finance, OpenSea is now backtracking its previous decision to give its free minting feature on the platform a limit.
The free NFT minting tool of OpenSea gives its users an option to list their digital artworks on the marketplace without having to initially shell out money to pay for the "gas price."
Instead, the buyer of the NFT would be the one who will shoulder the minting fees of the seller.
According to a report by InsideHook, although the free minting tool allows NFT creators to list their works without the need to have deep pockets, it has also become an easy route for scammers and art thieves.
On Jan. 27, Users of the platform were taken by surprise after OpenSea decided that the free minting tool would only be restricted to 50 times of use.
That said, after minting a total of 50 NFTs and skipping the payment of gas fees, OpenSea would no longer allow its users to use the free minting tool.
However, users of the NFT marketplace were quick to denounce the limit it has imposed.
So now, OpenSea has decided to reverse course and let its users enjoy its free minting feature for unlimited times.
Read Also: Selfie NFT Collection Now Sells For Nearly $1 Million! Indonesian Student's Photos $1,000 Each?
OpenSea Free Minted NFTs 80% Fake
But the largest NFT marketplace followed up with an explanation on why it imposed such a limit in the first place.
In which, the NFT marketplace admitted that about 80% of the NFTs in the platform that was minted for free usually comes as "plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam."
An illustration picture taken in London on December 30, 2021, shows a NFT (Non-Fungible Token) created by Nigerian digital artist FreddieJacobArt named "Oghenerukevwe" on Opensea NFT marketplace, displayed on a phone and Binance NFT marketplace displayed on a computer screen. - Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain with unique identification metadata that distinguish them from each other.
On top of that, OpenSea argued in its tweet that the updates in the platform that it is applying are decided with the creators in the marketplace in mind.
However, the platform said that its free minting features have been misused at an increasing rate, noting that a huge bulk is fraudulent.
OpenSea also took the time to issue its apology to its community, saying that "we hear you and we're sorry."
What's more, in an apologetic tone, the massive NFT marketplace also said that it should have made a preview of the changes in the minting tool before rolling it out.
Moving forward, OpenSea says that they will do so in the future updates that they will be implementing in the platform, further asking for its users' feedback for it.
However, we've recently seen misuse of this feature increase exponentially.
Over 80% of the items created with this tool were plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam.— OpenSea (@opensea) January 27, 2022
Elsewhere, a recent OpenSea vulnerability allegedly profited from massive NFT sales.
Related Article: Best NFT Marketplaces That Could Fare Better Than OpenSea in 2022 | Coinbase, Rarible, and More
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Written by Teejay Boris
