OpenSea’s extremely anticipated OS2 replace and the launch of its $SEA token airdrop have generated widespread controversy throughout the NFT neighborhood.

With OS2, customers can now earn XP by means of bidding and itemizing NFTs, a system designed to distribute $SEA tokens in an upcoming airdrop. Nonetheless, merchants have rapidly recognized methods to recreation the system, partaking in high-frequency flipping of NFTs with minimal losses to maximise their XP rewards.

This has led to rising issues that OpenSea has prioritised quantity and charges over the long-term well being of the NFT ecosystem.

What has been the neighborhood response?

On the core of the controversy is OpenSea’s XP system, which rewards merchants for putting bids and itemizing NFTs slightly than making real purchases. This has led to an explosion of high-frequency buying and selling, with high XP farmers flipping NFTs in seconds, pushing market quantity to synthetic highs while inflicting vital harm to NFT ground costs.

Waleswoosh described it as “Blur farming on steroids” as he highlights OpenSea’s lack of a cooldown interval—a measure Blur carried out previously to curb extreme wash buying and selling— and famous one farmer executing speedy trades to build up XP with minimal losses. Based on the publish, this dealer was in a position to cycle by means of NFT bids, dumping them onto the following farmer in beneath 24 seconds, while paying simply $5.38 in OpenSea charges per transaction.

Many sees OpenSea’s technique as a determined transfer to spice up engagement numbers and safe investor returns and extra members is criticizing the platform for prioritising income over the well being of the NFT ecosystem and calling it “an absolute disgrace” that copied Blur’s farming mechanics without any consideration for collectors and creators.

The frustration is additional echoed as one other member describes the upcoming $SEA airdrop as as nothing greater than “a last-minute liquidity play before the cycle ends.”

How did OpenSea responded to the controversy?

Regardless of the rising outcry, OpenSea has circuitously addressed these issues.

Co-founder Devin Finzer briefly commented that XP rewards lengthen past bidding and itemizing, however no additional particulars have been offered on how the corporate plans to mitigate issues about wash buying and selling and declining ground costs.

For now, OpenSea’s wager on farming-based incentives is pushing the NFT market into one other high-risk cycle. Whether or not the platform listens to its neighborhood and makes changes stays to be seen, however as historical past has proven with Blur’s earlier farming seasons, unchecked speculative buying and selling can depart lasting harm to the NFT ecosystem.