Have you heard of the word Doxxing or Doxxed? Maybe you have? What we can see is that not only on the NFT space but throughout the internet doxxing someone is a big deal online now. Many also view doxxing to be cyberbullying but, and this is a very big but, in the NFT World Doxxing merely means a tool to help stamp out scammers and it is an important tool to help with that.
So now it begs the question, is it okay to doxx someone or still it is a taboo and a “should not?” Is Doxxing something very different in the NFT space and the rest of the internet? Why is it called doxxing?
What It Means To Doxx Someone
To doxx or dox someone means to put someone’s information to the public and that means to give out information that is not supposed to be online or is not meant for the public to see. According to many people doxxing is a form of cyberbullying and so it is a thing that is looked down upon when it comes to this.
The reason why it is called Dox is because of the pronunciations from the shortcut of the word Documents. As we all know by now it is called docs but we read it pronouncing it as Dox. So it means that whoever is doxxing somebody will write down or document the address, phone number or even financial statements, things that are not supposed to be or meant for the public.
What is more interesting to note is that the person to popularise this term doxxing comes from an anonymous hacker named Collective. Whoever is Collective whether he or she is an infamous hacker that reveals wrongdoings from major figures.
What Does It Mean Then To Be Doxxed In The NFT space?
The internet’s subculture is revolving around the ability or need to stay anonymous and this is something major when it comes to privacy in the NFT world and even in Crypto as a whole. Even though there are some claims and debates as to that changing.
It is true that many from the NFT space prefers to be anonymous and when they are on the internet online, communicating and do not show their face or even use their real names. This is to some, a safety concern. Safety concerns as in if they are to keep themselves anonymous then there will not be an easy task for hackers to know their true identity reducing risk of being hacked. Another reason is simply just a part of culture and it is a culture to give a nod to anonymity as well as to create a new identity for themselves in the Metaverse that is to come.
But there is also a push for people to reveal or doxx themselves in the NFT Space because there has been some scams lately and also rug pulls especially in the near few months.
Unfortunately enough there has been a few scammers that have used the benefit to stay anonymous to scam or to hack pretending to be innocent or pretending to be project founders and resulting in hacking others and so this has resulted in a lot of people doxxing themselves by showing their faces online especially project founders because as well people on the internet have slowly reduce trust online especially those that remain anonymous.
Do People Get Doxxed Without Their Consent In NFT?
To answer that, yes. Doxxing happens a lot more than you think in NFT. Although most of the reveals are only face and name, it is very rare for someone’s address or accusations posted on twitter as far as Anons go.
The most crazy incident that actually happened is on the Bored Ape Yacht Club or BAYC for short. What happened is a Buzzfeed reporter actually doxxed Yuga Labs and their co-founders Gordon and Gargamel in February and this is to make sure the growth of BAYC would also be known to the public sooner or later.
Anyhow, the reporter was being heavily criticised for this especially from the NFT space. It is especially when there are no wrongdoings or any suspects on red flags but yet their names are being revealed for no reason whatsoever.
There are doxxing happening much more regularly than people think especially when they are linked to an investigation to potentially what they did wrong and the people that are there to reveal are one the famous ZachXBT, a blockchain detective.
As well as a controversial account, NFT Ethics also regularly reveal identities of people suspected of wrongdoings or people potentially who are scammers. This account however also receives a lot of criticism as well especially when the people think that it is not necessary. This is also to show that doxxing is a from of taboo in the NFT Space. Find more NFT guides on NFTeller today.
