Web3 promises a better, decentralized world, not controlled by “Big Tech” Internet platforms like Facebook.
Blockchain is at the center of this movement to decentralization.
But, when something goes wrong, it’s difficult to undo. Transactions on blockchain are permanent. And the names of recipients of transactions on blockchains are not readily identifiable. Anonymity reigns supreme.
As Coindesk reports, Timothy McKimmy finds himself in such a predicament. On February 7, 2021, his Bored Ape #3475 accidentally sold for only 0.01 ETH due to what some have called a glitch or bug in OpenSea’s system: “if you had an open listing that you never cancelled, or didn’t hit its expiration, it still exists.”
In order to avoid paying the cancellation fee, intrepid NFT traders came up with a workaround of transferring the NFT to another wallet. Since the NFT was no longer in the original wallet, all listings pertaining to it would be rendered invalid and automatically removed from OpenSea’s website.
OpenSea stores listings and offers in an off-chain database in order to save users gas fees. This is why listings and offers only require a signature.
When an NFT with active listings is transferred, the listings disappear from the OpenSea website, but remain in the database. These listings remain active until their set expiration dates and can be accessed through OpenSea’s API. Rarible, a competing NFT marketplace, is another source of listing data.
If the NFT is subsequently transferred back into the original wallet, the old listings can be used to purchase the item.
Citing a lawyer’s analysis on Twitter, the CoinDesk article suggests some deficiencies in the Complaint, including the failure to identify OpenSea by its legal name (Ozone Networks).
