- Mt. Gox victims will be able to claim a free NFT to commemorate their use of the site
- The NFTs are meant to honor the ‘OGs’ that used the exchange in Bitcoin’s early days
- The suggestion has not gone down well with the crypto community
Victims of the Mt. Gox hack have finally got what they have been searching for all these years – an NFT to prove they exchanged there. Mark Karpelès, the CEO at the time of the hack in 2014, announced yesterday that all past Mt. Gox users would be able to claim the “commemorative NFT” which for some will do nothing but trigger PTSD over the loss of bitcoin that for many is now worth millions of dollars. The NFT will be airdropped to all Mt. Gox users through a verification process to ensure their claims are legitimate, with the NFT apparently serving “a number of purposes”, but not everyone has welcomed the move.
Mt. Gox NFT Will Be “OG Certificate”
Karpelès announced the commemorative Mt. Gox NFTs on Twitter yesterday, noting that the offer was even open to those who never conducted a trade:
You can claim your @MtGox NFT on https://t.co/uUVPsXtCYC if you were a MtGox customer between 2010 and 2014. The NFT is airdropped for free, and available no matter if you had a balance or filed a claim with the bankruptcy.
— Mark Karpelès (@MagicalTux) March 28, 2022
The NFTs will be an ERC-721 standard, meaning that recipients will have to pay an Ethereum gas fee to collect them, affording those who have already lost money through the Mt. Gox hack another opportunity to throw their coins down the drain.
Mt. Gox account numbers will be used to corroborate the claims, with the NFTs themselves to be “used in a number of ways to create new experiences” – the site says that it can act as an “OG Certificate” and will afford users other benefits, such as access to members only areas of a presumably rejuvenated Mt. Gox, airdrops, and DAO governance.
NFT Purpose Called Into Question
The announcement didn’t go over brilliantly with the crypto community, with many pointing out the various flaws in the concept, never mind the notion that an NFT with no secondary market is almost insulting to victims:
hey man, while i agree that its hilarious to have a commemoration of myself and others losing our money at mt.gox, its thoughtful that we get an NFT that will have no secondary market.
— Spoonman (@spoonmvn) March 28, 2022
Those willing to pay the gas fee for something they can’t sell on (unless Craig Wright wants further ‘proof’ that he is a Bitcoin OG) can sign up today.
