NFT marketplace platform OpenSea has reversed its controversial policy to limit the number of NFTs and collections that creators can mint using its smart contract. Earlier, OpenSea allowed unlimited collections and items.
The Context
On January 27, 2022, OpenSea tweeted that it would allow only five NFT collections with 50 items per collection when using its collection storefront smart contract. It said the decision was taken to address feedback it had received about its creator tools.
The follow up tweet, seeking responses from users on how it may affect the latter’s creative flow, had led to many users and creators hit back at OpenSea, with some lamenting that their unfinished collections would never be completed now.
Although creators could still deploy their own smart contracts to circumvent the limits imposed by OpenSea, but the smart contract deployment would cost them US $1,000 to US $2,000 in gas fees. With such high costs posing a hurdle for many creators, some of them threatened to move their collections to competing marketplaces.
The Response
The threat to move to rival NFT marketplaces seemed to have worked in favour of the creators on OpenSea. A day later, on January 28, 2022, OpenSea tweeted apologies to the community for not previewing their decision with the community but also explained the decision to put limits was because over 80% of the items created with storefront contract tool were plagiarized works, fake collections and spam.
To this, one Twitter user urged OpenSea to take down accounts that steal art from legitimate and incredible artists with a screenshot image of another user who complained that someone made a fake profile and selling his art as NFT.
The NFT marketplace also tweeted that it was working through a number of solutions to ensure support to creators while deterring bad actors and promised to preview any changes with the community before rolling them out.
