Hacker Fakes the World’s Most Expensive NFT
A hacker known as Monsieur Personne set out to prove that, despite the media hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs), they are not as unique or secure as many believe. To highlight what he calls the “absurdity of the NFT craze,” the hacker has been creating counterfeit versions of the world’s most expensive NFTs. Notably, he forged an NFT of the digital artwork Everydays: The First 5000 Days by American artist Michael Winkelmann (known as Beeple), which sold at Christie’s auction last month for $69.34 million.
After several unsuccessful attempts to warn media and cybersecurity companies about the vulnerabilities of NFTs, Monsieur Personne decided to take matters into his own hands. Initially, he shared his concerns with a small group, but when no one believed him, he chose to demonstrate his concept in action.
It’s important to note that this isn’t about forging the content of the NFT itself—anyone can download an exact copy of Beeple’s artwork from the internet by simply searching for its name. Anyone can view or own a reproduction of the digital artwork, just like owning a print of a famous painting. The real challenge is providing cryptographic proof that a specific person owns the original piece of art.
This cryptographic proof is provided by a unique NFT created by the artist. Since the token is stored on the blockchain, it’s expected that its transaction history is securely protected. However, Monsieur Personne set out to dispel this belief.
The hacker created his own NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, where Beeple’s original NFT is also stored. He configured the components of his NFT so that its identifier and transaction history closely resembled Beeple’s token. In other words, while the hacker does not own the original NFT, to the average viewer, it might appear otherwise.
Importantly, the token created by Monsieur Personne does not threaten the authenticity of the original artwork. However, it does make it much harder for users to distinguish between the genuine piece and a fake.
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