Ordinal Punks NFTs Called Out As ‚Sketchy‘
Summary:
- TheNorwegian expressed concerns about Ordinal Punks NFTs, asking if it was the biggest scam of all time.
- The rise of Bitcoin NFTs is due to novelty and provenance on the chain, but some are questioning its legitimacy.
- There is no infrastructure in place to verify information or support sales, leading some to believe that it is „sketchy“.
Background:
On Feb. 9, CryptoSlate reported on the rising popularity of Ordinal Punks, covering the sale of three NFTs according to social media posts, including #94, which reportedly sold for 9.5 Bitcoins ($215,800). The novelty of NFTs on the Bitcoin chain and the chain’s provenance seems to be driving demand for these NFTs. However, some are questioning the collection’s legitimacy.
Concerns with Ordinal Punks:
Given that the Bitcoin chain was not originally designed to accommodate NFT functionality, there is no infrastructure to verify information such as sales or even to accommodate sales in a click-and-buy process. Details about Ordinal Punks are restricted to people’s accounts of what happened rather than openly accessible data derived from on-chain information. Citing the Director of Research at PROOF Collective, who got this information from a „Google doc,“ TheNorweigan said Ordinal Punks have a current price floor of 55.4 ETH ($85,500). He added that this is the ballpark figure for a blue chip NFT collection but then questioned whether Ordinal Punks are worthy of being classed as blue chip. Supporting this point, TheNorweigan pointed out that everything is happening OTC and there is low transparency regarding these collections; you need to run a Bitcoin node in order to mint them and there’s an extreme information asymmetry with regard to them.
„Bitcoin Punk“ Clone Collection Taking Off:
@seanbonner tweeted that Bitcoin Punks – a clone of Ethereum’s CryptoPunks – is taking off right now. Despite using an inappropriate infrastructure on Bitcoin and lacking smart contracts or any kind of click-and-buy process for purchasing them directly from their website – people are still going crazy over Discord trying snap one up with FOMO (fear-of-missing-out). @seanbonner advised against falling for this FOMO due to lack market and reliance on OTC trading.