Beware Copyminters

author: chilltulpa

In the spirit of keeping artists and collectors alike safe, we'd like to explain what a copyminter is and what to do if you think you’ve encountered one.

A copyminter is someone minting an artist's work that is not theirs, nor do they have the rights or blessing to do so. With the advent of a genuinely decentralized art community, such things are inevitable, but education and being vocal about such things are vital to protecting our community.

If a mint seems highly suspicious to you, avoid purchasing from that account until you can verify their work.

Here's a list of red flags from copyminters:

• Work has no social profiles (not on the single OBJKT, nor on the profile page)
• A profile has social accounts, but those accounts never tweeted or posted about minting on Teia
• A work of a known artist like John Karel is selling at a very low price
• The account is relatively new (you can check its transaction history by pasting the address into tzstats.com)
• Use reverse search (in Chrome, right-click on an image and select “Search image with Google Lens”) to see who the original creator is. If it's a widespread gif or image, it's likely stolen.

If you come across an account with any red flags, please report this abuse to the #report-copyminters channel in the Teia Discord. One of the moderators will investigate the report and can restrict the account.

We are one of the fastest-moving inclusive platforms to arise in this current era of art, and it takes all of us together to uphold what makes Teia so great in the first place. Thank you in advance for your contribution.

PS. A profile made on Teia or tzkt.io provides NO verification. tzkt.io does not verify the authenticity of the information or the ownership of the social accounts.