DeviantArt finding 40,000 fake NFTs per month

So you got a great deal on your brand-new mutant ape yacht puppy NFT? But is it legit? DeviantArt is now scanning 5 million NFTs a week. Every month, it's finding  40,000 stolen, infringing, fraudulent NFTs. In other words, the people minting the NFTs don't actually own the images in the first place ... somewhat ironically since the whole idea of an NFT is prove ownership. NFTs are clearly the new gold rush (you have mine, right?) But where there’s gold, there’s thieves and opportunists, and apparently, that’s just as true of NFTs as crypto in general. DeviantArt is the world’s largest art community and has been around since 2000. It now has over 61 million members, and it's getting involved to ensure its members' art doesn't get stolen. In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with DeviantArt CMO Liat Karpel Gurwicz and COO Moti Levy. Sponsor: SMRT1, a Smart Vending Machine Platform that transforms traditional vending hardware into "Smarter, Better, Faster" automated retail kiosks, a convenience store without the store. Links: SMRT1: https://smrt1.ca/ DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/ Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier