A bitcoin (BTC) developer, Luke Dashjr, has taken to social media to denounce an auction site that has used his name and code without his consent to create and sell a “misleading” NFT.
The developer said that he hasn’t been the first bitcoin developer to see his name or work used in this way.
In a February 27 post on Twitter, the developer revealed that a non-fungible token with an image of the code he wrote sold on an auction site for 0.41 Bitcoin (BTC), or approximately $9,500. at the time of writing this article.
I want to make public my concern about “NFTs” which are being sold using 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
I want to make public my concern about the “NFTs” that are being sold using my name. Recently, an image of a code written by me was sold at auction for 0.41 BTC. It was advertised as my code in the listing and presented to the public for sale and profit.
“It was advertised as my code on the listing and presented to the public for sale and profit,” Dashjr explained.
“Let me be clear: I was not involved in the creation and sale of this or any other NFT. I have not consented to the use of my code or my name for this purpose.. Instead, third parties are trading my name and code for their own monetary gain,” he added.
Dashjr revealed that the auction winner ended up contacting him and had to inform him that he was not involved in the sale.
Dashjr claims that someone, either the seller or the auction site, contacted him and offered “a donation of 90% of the auction proceeds,” which he declined.
The public should also know that the seller and/or auction site offered me a donation of 90% of the auction proceeds “if I chose to accept it.” I think this is a clear attempt to (1) bribe me into silence; and/or (2) obtain my consent after the fact”, explainedadding:
“I will not accept that payment at the expense of the public, who are being deceived. I will not accept any such ‘donation’.”
“Due to the misrepresentation involved and actual buyer confusion, I strongly insist that 100% of the auction proceeds be returned to the buyer,” Dashjr said.
According to Dashjr, “other bitcoin developers” have been in similar situations and have been offered “significant” donations for their cooperation; however, he did not give specific details.
“Stop using my name to mislead the public to make a quick buck. It’s wrong,” Dashjr said.
“I do not consent to my name or code being used for this scam. I want the public to know where I stand,” he added.
At the beginning of last year, the decentralized market OpenSea reported that more than 80% of the NFTs minted using their tool were “plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam.”
Apparently, Dashjr was the unfortunate victim of a hack on the last day of 2022 that caused him to lose “basically” all of his BTC.
Hackers accessed your PGP key (Pretty Good Privacy), a common security method that uses two keys to access encrypted information.
The news ignited a debate around self-custody, which became a hot topic after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
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