Thread by @polotek

Here's a description of what's happening with Opensea. See if you understand it and decide how you were supposed to avoid it as a casual user.

https://twitter.com/0xfoobar/status/1495324659604144131

Keep in mind, what you get from the community is that the way to avoid scams is "education". Can someone tell me what education was supposed to help people avoid this Opensea exploit?

So what failed here? Opensea has been around for years. And the educators have been in full force. What was supposed to happen here that didn't happen?

https://twitter.com/danieldurrans/status/1495492833280765955?t=svnfmfrKsKMT7DIjNd8vJg&s=19

It is a common phishing attack. What I'm getting from crypto advocates is "it's not Opensea's fault". And that's to be expected. In this new decentralized utopia, it's only your own fault if something bad happens to you.

https://twitter.com/galactic_ariel/status/1495496352444334088?t=CjKB1Ul9NdqKXUeNjMnzGw&s=19

The idea that someone can send you a simple link and that allows all of your money to be stolen. And people are like "that sucks but working as designed". And those same people are like "wait, why don't you trust me?!"

I just don't get it.

I have been told by crypto advocates that this is not the technical definition of an "exploit" and it's irresponsible to keep saying that. Just FYI. No solutions. No concern for those impacted. Just "shut up".

https://twitter.com/SrslyJosh/status/1495504215669497856?t=kRpmWIJrgl8zaFk3s8ryIQ&s=19

Reminder.

https://twitter.com/polotek/status/1488929985863708673?t=zYoLsdnCPidQMPuuFJ5u8Q&s=19

Maybe I misrepresented things here. The original thread doesn't tell you how to avoid the exploit. It only tells you what happened from a technical perspective. It's targeted towards technical people who already understand the ecosystem.

https://twitter.com/wkimeria/status/1495518216801509379?t=YcgcHDHknDiHBgjGMGWHIQ&s=19

I have yet to find a thread that talks about the actual phishing email and how to tell it wasn't legitimate. I mean I haven't been looking that hard to be fair. But crypto people always manage to find me when they wanna yell at me so...

Here's the Opensea CEO. Sounds clicking email links was not the problem. So I guess it's still a mystery. I apologize for spreading the misinformation that we actually had some idea what happened.

https://twitter.com/dfinzer/status/1495302787835432961?t=gRdEGMu2Ywst8Z6I4HdHSg&s=19

If you don't understand any of this shit, don't use it. That's all I've been saying this whole time and people have been so mad at me. I honestly don't understand it.

https://twitter.com/derekhodl/status/1495531468596170754?t=rWEXXV3zmNTAIZEYHrgW_Q&s=19

What I've been told is I'm keeping people from changing their lives by suggesting that this stuff isn't trustworthy. I've been told I'm "irresponsible" because I'm not diving into the technical details and instead telling people none of this shit makes sense.

What I've been told is "that's just gone project. Don't judge all of them."

What I've been told is "most of this is trustworthy. There is clear education to tell you how to avoid the scams."

Here is the Opensea CTO. They don't know what happened yet. And here's the thing. They don't have to know. The nature of this tech is that Opensea doesn't own anything. You can interact with this ecosystem without going through "trusted" portals.

https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1495509513167908864?t=rWEXXV3zmNTAIZEYHrgW_Q&s=19

And then you get this. Some technical jargon that I assume is the "education" we keep getting promised. If you can decipher this tweet, you will know how to prevent all of your money being stolen. Good luck.

https://twitter.com/NadavAHollander/status/1495509518834352129?t=rWEXXV3zmNTAIZEYHrgW_Q&s=19

Obviously you gotta know what a Wyvern is Rob. That's just common sense.

https://twitter.com/robchandhok/status/1495536227818348545?t=rWEXXV3zmNTAIZEYHrgW_Q&s=19

I was called "irresponsible" today for trying to surface this information to people. Because I'm not making myself responsible for how hard it is to navigate through this bullshit. By someone who claims that they "respect" me. I can't tell you how upset that makes me.

People like to use the word "respect". It's their way of telling me that they're losing respect for me because I'm not buying into this mess. But when I tell them to leave me alone because I'm losing respect for them, then I'm being a bully. It feels like gaslighting.

If folks honestly respected me, because I've shown my judgment to be trustworthy in the past, that would suggest that my judgment should get more consideration here. But that's not what's happening. This isn't about "respect". Folks think I'm gonna stop their bag.

So let me make y'all feel better. I don't actually have the power to stop this crypto trend. The current atmosphere of discrediting and dismissing any critical voices is incredibly effective. My credibility as an "old school" technologist is actually gonna become a liability.

Only people who have been in the game are gonna listen to me. And we can all be written off as just "resistant to progress". People new to the game will assume this is normal. They are ripe for the picking. I hope this helps some folks sleep better at night. You're welcome.