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Comment by foundart | Hacker News Reader

The Seth Green NFT theft was a malicious hack. It could just as well have been targeting his bank account. I think it’s a disservice to the process of calling out scams like rug pulls to categorize that incident as a cryptocurrency scam.

The fact that the NFT platform does not provide a way to rollback such thefts does not mean it’s a scam either. Is a car made by a scammer if the manufacturer doesn’t provide a way to shut off the car remotely if it is stolen?

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> The fact that the NFT platform does not provide a way to rollback such thefts does not mean it’s a scam either.

Maybe not a scam, but utterly useless for any true value store.

Reconciliation is ABSOLUTELY FOUNDATIONAL to a monetary system of value.

Literally some of the oldest writing we have is folks arguing over the details of a deal (~1750 BCE: Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir).

If you have a system where "Code is law" and trust can be violated and that violation literally cannot be addressed, then you don't have a system that works. Exchange literally requires some form of trust.

But this is about NFTs, it has nothing to do with a monetary system. You're buying a (link to a) JPEG.

If you buy a painting in real life, how exactly do you roll it back if someone steals it from you?

Can you buy NFTs with regular, real, "fiat" currency?

This is kind of a strange question, a bit like asking if you can buy something priced in pounds with euros.

Cryptocurrencies differ from fiat in all sorts of ways, but ready conversion at the point of sale is not one of them.

Edit: maybe it's more like asking if you can gamble at the casino with dollars instead of chips, either way there's some kind of misunderstanding involved.

> it's more like asking if you can gamble at the casino with dollars instead of chips

That's an apt metaphor for cryptocurrencies, for sure.

Sort of. BAYC is actually doing a bit more and is granting the owners of various NFTs a license to use the image of the associated ape. It is much easier to steal an NFT than to steal other forms of copyright license.

Stealing a copyright license file does not transfer the copyright…

I know. But stealing a BAYC NFT does steal the right to use that particular image, according to how BAYC is set up. This is supremely stupid, but it is how the project is set up.

Would that hold up in court? If I sell you a car via a contract that says "if anybody steals the keys they now legally own the car" I suspect that would be difficult to enforce. And the thief would have to reveal themselves to assert their contractual right to own the car, thereby inviting criminal charges.

I don’t know, but this is the reason why Green says he can’t make his bizarre show anymore.

In this case, Green apparently thought that possessing the NFT implied controlling the copyright for the artwork:

"Green was planning to use his ape as a character in an upcoming animated show."

What's stopping him? The image is still there at the same URL where it always was, and if he had a copyright license to use it before the NFT was stolen, then he still had it afterwards. There was no need to reacquire the NFT.

There are hardly any real details in the article about the Green theft. I wish I could find a source that described it in detail.

Green was targeted as he attempted to mint a GutterCat clone NFT, but the unlucky celebrity had inadvertently used a scam website that raided his wallet. [0]

And

Thought I was minting GutterCat clones- phishing link looked clean [1]

And In a follow-up tweet, Green went into more detail about the scam. The attack had taken place after clicking on a phishy link to an NFT minting platform, attempting to mint GutterCat clones. [2]

[0] https://www.btcc.com/en-US/coin-news/market-updates/seth-gre...

[1] https://nitter.net/SethGreen/status/1526693106606809088#m

[2] https://insights.masterworks.io/nft/seth-greens-stolen-bored...

I would say insurance is perfectly suited for that, but that has me thinking, is there NFT insurance?

> If you buy a painting in real life, how exactly do you roll it back if someone steals it from you?

Generally, if you manage to track down a painting someone stole from you, you don't have to buy it back for a six figure sum like Greene did for his beloved ape.

Buying or possessing stolen property is a crime, so police intervention is the closest equivalent to reconciliation that we have in the world of physical goods.

I buy insurance for my car. I guess the Toyota dealership could provide a private security force to recover my car in case of theft. I wouldn’t say the current system doesn’t work, though.

> I guess the Toyota dealership could provide a private security force to recover my car in case of theft.

Ummm have you heard of this public agency called "the police"?

Maybe he's a Libertarian, and he accidentally let his police subscription expire.

Bro, it's a digital baseball card.

It's a receipt for the card. The card is elsewhere (or has already 404ed,)

Sounds like you're projecting, the article does not say that crypto is inherently a scam, it's saying there's a lot of fraud going on within the crypto market.

If the title had said "We’ve only scratched the surface of how bad the credit card crime wave has gotten" that doesn't mean they're saying credit cards are a scam.

It's really the same thing isn't it? If your Tinder date asks for bus money, and then ghosts you (and probably wasn't the person they claimed to be to begin with) is that a scam or a hack?

If Seth Green goes to NotAtAllSketchyNFTTrader.com and confirms their ToS, only that was a transaction transferring his NFT to them, is that a scam or a hack?

could just as well have been targeting his bank account

It could have but only in a narrow technical sense. They didn't and don't because those types of direct abuses of the consumer-facing financial system are pursued with great vigor and perpetrators punished severely. It's the same reason it made sense to deploy 0 day exploits to thieve WoW gold but not actual money.

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