NFT theft is the new challenge digital asset owners are dealing with, and OpenSea is doing its part to combat the problem by creating new policies to create additional measures against asset theft.
In a recent announcement, the company noted that its policies were made with the United States laws, which prohibit any platform from knowingly allowing the sale of stolen items. However, the marketplace also admitted that buyers who unknowingly bought stolen digital assets were sometimes penalized even when they were not at fault. This and the NFT community’s feedback have prompted the marketplace to adjust its policy to give police reports more use and coverage.
In an announcement on August 10, OpenSea’s official Twitter account tweeted: “Can we address the elephant in the room? We want to provide you more clarity and transparency around our stolen items policy.”
1/ Can we address the 🐘 in the room? We want to provide you more clarity and transparency around our stolen items policy ↯
— OpenSea (@opensea) August 10, 2022
In the past, users could use police reports on the platform in escalated disputes. However, the new update will now enable users to use police reports to confirm stolen items reports within the NFT platform. In addition, if there is no police report within seven days, OpenSea will activate the buying and selling of the reported item to put an end to fake reports. As a result of this, once the stolen items are recovered, the process of re-enabling the buying and selling features has become easier.
As part of its further assurance, OpenSea has revealed that it is working to create other solutions to fix the problem of NFT theft from its roots. Part of its plans for a solution is to automate threat and theft detection. “In the long term, our key focus areas continue to be on finding solutions that tackle this problem at its root. Efforts are already underway to better automate threat and theft detection, such as blocking suspect URLs earlier,” the company tweeted. “Beyond that, we are collaborating closely with ecosystem partners to help prevent and disincentivize theft and building better education resources to help users stay safe in web3.”
Many Twitter users have recently expressed dissatisfaction with how the platform handled their cases of stolen NFTs. For example, a Twitter user claimed in a tweet that they unknowingly purchased a stolen NFT and the support staff at OpenSea advised them to sell it on another marketplace.
Another Twitter user praised OpenSea’s latest moves in a tweet, describing it as a step in the right direction for any platform serious about tackling the issues of NFT theft.
In June, OpenSea announced additional security features to protect users from NFT scams. The feature automatically hides NFT transfers that are flagged as suspicious and ensures that only legitimate transactions are visible to every user in the marketplace.
The NFT space can expect other platforms to take the issue of theft more seriously, just as OpenSea has done, and take proactive steps to reduce their occurrence. “We care DEEPLY about enabling users to operate safely on our platform. Allowing the sale of stolen items and operating with stolen goods is no sign of a healthy ecosystem…but neither is a lack of trust from those of you who got us here,” OpenSea said in another tweet.