App for private texting In a piece of playful prankery, Signal’s founder Moxie Marlinspike has released a non-fungible token (NFT) that appears differently depending on the platform you’re viewing it on, and that, if purchased, will purportedly show up as a poop emoji in your wallet.
Signal’s Founder is Trolling NFT
NFTs, which are supposed to serve as a permanent record of ownership of a piece of art or media, appear to be a source of concern for him. Even while they are recorded on the blockchain as “unique digital tokens,” in most cases, all that exists is a record; the image is stored elsewhere. Those that shell out thousands of dollars for them could be at the mercy of image hosts that operate outside of the blockchain’s jurisdiction.
The servers that host a large number of NFTs would be at risk if they were to fall offline. For the most part, they are not saved on the blockchain; rather, the art is merely a reference. The way he’s doing it, according to Marlinspike, is by making the image render differently depending on the IP or user agent requesting it.
On Rarible and OpenSea, the NFT is displayed Differently
To be sure that the tokens on both the Rarible and OpenSea pages are the same, I double-checked. Rarible’s “View on OpenSea” button may be found in the “…” menu if you have any questions.)
The fact that Moxie Marlinspike is no stranger to trolling and IRL pranks should come as no surprise. There are rumours that he bought a hot air balloon and crashed it, or that he used a picture of himself wearing an asparagus-shaped hat as his conference profile picture. The Instagram ads that Signal attempted to run to show what Facebook’s advertising profile thought about you were also memorable.
For his political views, Marlinspike has long been dubbed an anarchist (he told us years ago that it was complicated when we asked him whether or not it was correct). He has also pushed against law enforcement and claimed that their jobs should be difficult.
For the sake of argument, let me explain why I don’t find it odd that he makes fun of NFTs and how they operate: It’s odd, though, that he doesn’t seem to understand why anyone would bid on an NFT that transforms into a faeces emoji. Some of the NFTs that folks purchase are just mind-boggling. For the time being, a 400-dollar offer on an ever-changing NFT looks entirely reasonable.