British video game YouTubers James Stephanie Sterling (also known as Jim Sterling), Caddicarus (aka Jim Caddick) and others have criticised NFTs after tokens were made without their permission.
They tweeted the following after finding that NFTs of their channels were made available on NFT marketplace OpenSea by user ‘StakeTheWeb’.
The ‘Jim Sterling on YouTube’ listing seems to have since been removed from the marketplace, but not before the YouTuber had their say:
An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique digital asset (usually an image or a piece of digital art), with the buyer receiving a digital receipt saying they own it. NFTs can be bought and owned and re-sold, usually for cryptocurrency.
James Stephanie Sterling has previously described NFTs as ‘the sale of intangible meaningless, dishonest crap’ and ‘Nasty Fucking Things’ in this recent YouTube video.
They said: “Every time I hear about NFTs, I question whether or not I understand them correctly, because they continue to, by all accounts, be less than fucking nothing. I hate talking about them, because they’re vile, poisonous, pointless little drains on the world and society.
“They’re artless, exploitative, environmentally damaging parasitic wastes perpetuated by and defended by complete fucking idiots. They’re the billionaires of cryptocurrency scams.”
“NFTs are an ingenious way that capitalism has been able to double dip on other people’s labour, by selling the rights to artistic works they don’t even necessarily own.”
James Stephanie Sterling
As mentioned, the Jim Sterling listing has been removed, but the Caddicarus NFT is still live at the time of publication.
An OpenSea spokesperson told TheGamer: “It is against our policy to sell NFTs using plagiarised content, which we regularly enforce in various ways, including delisting and in some instances, banning accounts (as was the case in this instance).
“We are actively expanding our efforts across customer support, trust and safety, and site integrity so we can move faster to protect and empower our community and creators.”
Australian YouTuber Alanah Pearce also said “I cannot wait for the lawsuits” after an NFT was made of her on a mock adult magazine cover without her permission.
Related articles:
- Ubisoft ‘not planning’ to implement NFTs in Rainbow Six Siege or to bring them to the UK right now
- LDN UTD launches NFT collection supported by the Rio Ferdinand Foundation
- Semper Fortis Esports move into Hearthstone and NFT game Axie Infinity, launch new ‘play-to-earn’ division
Related posts:
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
