- The Pirate Bay version for NFTs is here—NFT Bay.
- It gained 1.2 million users after 10 hours of launch.
- Creator dubs this ‘prank’ as an educational art project.
Geoffrey Huntley, an Australian software developer, created a ‘Pirate Bay’ for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Called the “The NFT Bay”, the repository has 17.96 terabytes of NFT image copies. These JPEG versions received a total number of 1.2 million in just 10 hours after launch.
The website has the same logo and layout as ‘The Pirate Bay’, a torrent website where users can download pirated media like films, music, and video games.
In an official statement, the Aussie NFT skeptic explained that the stunt has an artistic purpose. Huntley describes it as an educational art project, where users will understand and reconsider what they really are “buying when purchasing NFT art.”
He further noted:
Fundamentally, I hope through http://thenftbay.org people learn to understand what people are buying when purchasing NFT art right now is nothing more then directions on how to access or download an image. The image is not stored on the blockchain and the majority of images I’ve seen are hosted on web2.0 storage which is likely to end up as 404 meaning the NFT has even less value.
Meanwhile, CEO and founder of NFT development agency WestCoastNFT Steve Mitobe disputed Huntley’s idea. He said, “the standard for most NFTs is to use decentralized network storage technology such as IPFS or Arweave.”
IPFS or InterPlanetary File System is a peer-to-peer network for sharing and storing data in a distributed file system. Consequently, Arweave is a global permanent storage solution that uses proof-of-access technology.