Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, Cent, has shut down citing ‘rampant’ fakes and plagiarism problems.
Cent’s which sold ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet as an NFT, has put the transactions on hold because of of counterfeits, inauthentic content that people were selling on the platform. The founder of the platform called it a “fundamental problem” that has gripped the digital asset marketplace. While the Cent marketplace, “beta.cent.co” has paused NFT sales, the part specifically for selling NFTs of tweets, which is called “Valuables”, is still active.
The Three Major Problems
According to reports, Cameron Hejazi, CEO and co-founder of, Cent, said there seems to be three main problems which have been disrupting the industry. For one, people selling unauthorized copies of other NFTs. Secondly, people making NFTs of content which does not belong to them and last but not the least, people selling sets of NFTs which resemble a security. He said these issues were “rampant”, with users “minting and minting and minting counterfeit digital assets”. He went on to add,
“It kept happening. We would ban offending accounts but it was like we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole… Every time we would ban one, another one would come up, or three more would come up.”
Hejazi believes that this seems to be a common issue with Web3 and said the issue of fake and illegal content exists across the industry. He has emphasized that his company is keen on protecting content-creators, and may introduce centralized controls as a short-term measure in order to re-open the marketplace, before exploring decentralized solutions.
Cent- A Brief Primer
Cent, is a platform that provides the tools to create, curate, or collaborate for a living. With Cent, content feeds are meant to be replaced by immersive galleries of creative work with communities forming from the individuals that subscribe to a gallery, subsequently providing an income for its creators. The platform had quoted,
“As humans transition to a more digital existence, new social norms will develop. Life will evolve faster online than it does offline, because the blockchain enables an impossible velocity to relationships never before seen. Creativity is about to explode on the internet.”
Recently, athletics giant Nike filed a lawsuit in New York against shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs based on the brand’s products without permission. The company’s lawyers accused US-based StockX of “minting” NFTs using Nike trademarks and trading on the brand’s “goodwill” to market them. Such problems may come into greater focus as major brands join the rush towards Web3.
