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⌐◪-◪ → OpenSea copies Blur’s playbook

OpenSea’s private beta for OS2 has introduced a controversial points system, incentivizing users to farm rewards ahead of an anticipated airdrop. The move has sparked outrage in the NFT community, with critics calling it a blatant copy of Blur’s farming model and an insult to OG users who built the platform.

Key complaints:

• Farming points via bidding, not buying, encourages wash trading.

• Rewards heavily favor top farmers, sidelining loyal users.

• OpenSea cleared billions in fees, yet is choosing this route.

CEO Devin Finzer addressed the backlash, promising OGs wouldn’t be forgotten, but many remain unconvinced. Some traders believe OpenSea is being lazy or unimaginative by copying Blur’s approach without learning from its pitfalls.

As for me, I’m screwed anyway—despite trading significant NFT volume back in the day, OpenSea banned me for using Tornado Cash. Turns out, I was on the right side of history.

⌐◪-◪ → A new AI token emerges with real utility

Erik Voorhees' Venice AI just launched its VVV token, securing a $1.6B valuation and a Coinbase listing on day one. VVV aims to reduce economic friction for AI agents while incentivizing builders through staking rewards.

Key details:

• 25% of the token supply was airdropped to Base wallets holding AI agents and other tokens.

• Staking VVV grants free inference access to Venice’s API and yields emissions, reducing the cost of AI inference to negative.

But not everything is rosy:

• Critics accuse Venice of overstating its privacy claims, which could mislead users into oversharing sensitive information.

• Prompts and data sent through Venice AI reportedly lack encryption, with GPU providers able to access user content.

Meanwhile, DeepSeek has raised concerns about user data being sent to China, prompting fears about AI-related privacy across the board. The irony is that OpenAI has similar issues. It’s a “pick your poison” situation for users. The real question is whether Venice—or someone else—can finally deliver a truly private solution.

⌐◪-◪ → Coinbase flips the script on token listings

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says evaluating the 1 million tokens launching weekly is infeasible, proposing a new system where all tokens are listed by default, with bad actors removed based on reviews and on-chain data.

Critics warn this could fuel speculation and scams. One CEO quipped, “There’s more skill in picking a horse at the races than guessing which meme token will pump next.”

The token explosion is reshaping crypto, with over 36.4M altcoins now compared to just 3,000 in 2017. Altseason might be a thing of the past.

This problem is massive, but Armstrong’s approach—focusing on what not to list—makes sense. The challenge will be creating a system that’s transparent, efficient, fair, and not easily gameable.

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