Bitcoin Core Developer Luke Dashjr Calls Out Unauthorized Ordinal NFT With His Name

The auction for the ordinal was being hosted at Scarce.City, a new ordinal marketplace.

AccessTimeIconFeb 28, 2023 at 7:31 a.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:09 a.m. UTC
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One of the core developers of Bitcoin is disavowing an auction for an Ordinal that incorporated some of the code he contributed to the digital asset protocol.

“I was not involved with the creation and sale of this or any other NFTs. I have not consented to the use of my code or my name for this purpose,” Luke Dashjr, one of the Bitcoin core developers, tweeted. "Due to the misrepresentation involved and actual buyer confusion, I strongly insist upon 100% of the auction proceeds to be refunded to the buyer."

Non-fungible tokens have been plagued with forgery, plagiarism and other copyright issues. As CoinDesk has previously reported, OpenSea said that at one time nearly 80% of the NFTs on its shared storefront were “plagiarized works, fake collections and spam.”

The auction was hosted on Scarce.City, a new marketplace for Ordinal NFTs. Without identifying the auction winner, Dashjr said that the highest bidder won the NFT for 0.41 BTC or $9600.

Dashjr also said on Twitter that someone – again, not identified – purportedly with Scarce.City reached out to him to “donate” to him 90% of its value. He has been a vocal critic of the Ordinals protocol, telling CoinDesk in a previous statement that it was an “attack” on Bitcoin.

“Ordinals aren't _just_ a spam attack; they are also an attack on Bitcoin's fungibility, and if accepted would break at least Lightning and CoinJoin,” he also tweeted in mid-February.

For its part, Scarce.City has said that the buyer will be refunded.

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