invezz.com
OpenSea, the largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is reversing its previous decision to place a limit on the NFTs and collections that users can mint using its smart contract.
In an earlier announcement, the platform noted that only five NFT collections with 50 items per collection can be minted through its storefront contract.
OpenSea’s decision leads to backlash
Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis? Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.
On January 27, OpenSea issued an announcement saying that it had placed limits after receiving community feedback on its creator tools. The marketplace further asked the community to “share how this affects your creative flow.”
The decision was met with heavy criticism from NFT creators using the marketplace. Some argued that they would not complete their collections following the change. Others argued that they were in the middle of creating collections exceeding the set limit.
Despite the restriction, users could still go around it by using their own smart contract. However, this is too costly, as it would cost them between $1000 and $2000 in gas fees. Some users stated that the decision would make them move to other NFT marketplaces.
Following the community backlash, OpenSea tweeted that it had reversed the decision. The platform noted that it had imposed the limit due to the misuse of its smart contract. It added that it was “working through a number of solutions to ensure we support our creators while deterring bad actors.”
To all the creators in our community impacted by the 50 item limit we added to our free minting tool, we hear you and we're sorry.
— OpenSea (@opensea) January 27, 2022
We have reversed the decision.
But we also want to offer an explanation ↯ pic.twitter.com/Y3igaE1RM2
Vulnerability on OpenSea exploited
Recently, a bug on the OpenSea marketplace was exploited, which allowed hackers to purchase NFTs through old listing prices. OpenSea sent an email to users with “inactive listings”, asking them to cancel their old listings.
However, this email was heavily criticized by “dingalingts”, a popular crypto influencer. In a Twitter thread, the influencer stated that the email sent out by OpenSea could trigger more exploits and “makes things 100x worse.” Dingalingts noted an attacker can pay high gas fees to execute an order before it is cancelled, thereby buying the NFT at a cheaper price.
Dingalingts warned users who wanted to cancel their orders to transfer their inactive listings out of their address before cancelling the live listings. “Only after all the listings are cancelled are you safe to transfer it back,” Dingalingts added. OpenSea noted that it addressed the issue by changing the default duration for a listing from six months to one month. The platform also added a feature that alerts users when an NFT previously transferred from their wallet has a linked active listing.