After allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot last year, APPER tory lanez nft has been working hard to establish himself as an online entrepreneur. He may be able to work out a bargain in his felony assault case. Before deleting his Instagram account in preparation for his next album, Alone at Prom, Lanez vigorously promoted several cryptocurrencies and NFT companies on social media. He would practically scream at his viewers in videos, promising them the chance of a lifetime with the goods he was hawking. His level of ferocity remained constant, and he frequently used all-caps when posting on Twitter, which is text-based.
When It’s Dark, Lanez’s most recent album was made available as an NFT, or “non-fungible token,” last month through a collaboration with the E-NFT platform. The plan was to create unique tokens for each copy of the CD that would serve as a secure record of ownership. NFTs have value because of their observable scarcity. Even though a digital file can be copied, as some critics of the technology note, the blockchain verifies the file’s provenance. The plan was also for Lanez’s NFT record to become more valuable once it was made possible to resale it on the E-NFT marketplace. The album sold one million copies in under a minute, according to a video that Lanez shared on Twitter the day of the release, and one of his NFTs had already been sold for $50,000.
Numerous users who purchased the project hoping to resell it for a profit have been left holding the bag, according to complaints made on Reddit and Twitter about platform bugs and inconsistencies that have made it difficult to sell the NFT. Even amateur YouTube videos detailing fans’ complaints about their purchases exist.
NFT artist Frag Anthonio Vasquez claims he spent $10 total on ten copies during the NFT presale period. The 27-year-old crypto aficionado claims that although the procedure initially appeared to be regular, as soon as the marketplace for the record opened up, everything “began to roll downhill.” For starters, the website crashed immediately, and according to Vasquez, it took more than 24 hours to recover fully. At that time, he found other inconsistencies. He said in a Twitter direct message that only “this website that was recommended by tory lanez nft charges 15% on every sale, not any other platforms where he has purchased and exchanged NFTs.
Vasquez criticized Lanez on Twitter, claiming that the transaction fees make earning from the NFT seem improbable. Many folks received WAY more return than they invested, Lanez said in response to the Tweet, “but even if I was taking what your [sic] saying seriously… The NFT sold for $1; you would still double your money even if it resold for $2. He concluded the message by adding two clown face emojis.
Vasquez remains opposed. Not at all, he responds, as you would hardly make 50 cents after gas costs and the 15% going to E-NFT. He refers to a “gas fee” for Ethereum transactions, which covers the cost of the computational power used to create the currency. Gas prices generally fluctuate throughout the day depending on the number of transactions being processed at any given time on the blockchain. According to Vasquez, E-NFT added 15% to seller transactions.
Numerous inquiries for comment went unanswered from Lanez.
The parent firm of E-Chief NFT’s Strategy Officer, Brian McFadden, claims to Rolling Stone that all technical difficulties have been fixed. “There were some small and temporary site functionality issues due to the huge number of the E-NFTs transactions, but all known transactional issues are now fixed.”
Bianca “Binx” Petruzzelli, another purchaser, was professionally intrigued when she first learned about the CD. The 43-year-old businesswoman wanted to explore if the platform Lanez utilized for the release may be a fit for her artists because she is a co-owner of the New York-based NFT agency Third Planet Studio. She tells Rolling Stone via email, “We bought several CDs during presale to see what features they offer and whether this was a platform we would consider employing for our performers.” She claims to have paid $1 for ten copies of the record.
When the website’s first crash was resolved, Petruzzelli tried selling the CD for $1,000 on the marketplace because the $50,000 asking price she’d heard on social media “seemed like a long shot.” She claims that after following the website’s instructions, the browser window went blank, and she initially didn’t receive any confirmation. Afterward, Petruzzelli received an email from E-NFT three hours later stating that the NFT had indeed sold and the proceeds, in the form of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, had been cleared. The item was afterward taken out of her collection. She still needs to be compensated.
Although the E-conditions NFTs state that seller transactions can take up to 30 days to process, Petruzzelli has been waiting for more than a month to either get the money from the sale or have the NFT returned. She claims she has tried contacting customer service, but to no avail. The only answer, according to her, is the identical auto-generated email promising to reply.
That 30-day processing time frame is not typical for NFT releases, claims Catherine Zhu, special counsel at Foley & Lardner LLP and a law firm’s NFT Task Force member. She told me over the phone, “If you go on any other platforms, the fund’s transfer should be fairly swift, if not the same day.” “Typically, a smart contract is used to complete the transaction. It involves updating the blockchain record. Therefore, the company does not add a processing time to that. That is unique.
Because they accept other forms of payment in addition to cryptocurrency, according to McFadden, the processing times are a result of this. He claims that not all financial transactions take place on the blockchain because Immersive provides credit card transactions for the primary and secondary markets.
However, the problems persisted despite the long wait times. Petruzzelli claims that she ran a different test after her NFT sale appeared successful. This time, she tried to transfer two of her NFTs from the system to her cryptocurrency wallet. She claims she eventually got word that the NFTs had been transported successfully. However, they still need to be added to her cryptocurrency wallet.
According to McFadden, customers may withdraw NFT purchases to their cryptocurrency wallets and view them in real-time on the blockchain using Polyscan, which keeps track of blockchain transactions. Petruzzelli reports that a page linked to the Polynesian record for the withdrawn tokens has just recently appeared on her account. But she was returned to Lanez’s NFT page when she clicked on the link. “The ones we sold and the ones we withdrew vanished. They are not given any contract addresses, says Petruzzelli.
Vasquez claims that in addition to problems with withdrawals and transactions, he also discovered inconsistencies in the market’s structure. When other NFT collections disappear, they typically limit transactions, which deters hoarding and encourages more participation in the project’s community building. Vasquez observes that without those restrictions, purchasers of the album in large quantities could flood the market and effectively control prices.
According to an examination of E-ads, when It’s Dark has hundreds of NFTs available from a variety of dealers for prices ranging from $15 to $1.10. NFTs Only verified users, according to McFadden, are permitted to transact on the website. He claims that there are many buyers, but they are all confirmed individuals.
The issues ultimately come down to a few dollars for Vazquez, Petruzzelli, and others who purchased Lanez’s NFT, but Petruzzelli isn’t prepared to give up. She claims she is still awaiting word from the platform’s support staff. According to her, “many folks are simply accepting it as a defeat and moving on.” But I am a business owner in this industry. That’s not right.
