With the hype that has been going though the NFT space, a lot of terminologies and attacks started popping up everywhere.

In this blog post, we will be talking about how the Sleepminting attack works and how NFTNDX will help you to prevent and avoid such type of attacks on your solution or platform in the future.

What's a Sleepminting attack?

If some of you isn't aware about the type of attack, in simple terms, the hacker tries to fake the provenance of a token by faking the initial minter/buyer addresses and then transferring it to himself later on in order to sell it on NFT marketplaces as the "original token".

How does it work?

Essentially it's done by faking the provenance of a token and simulating fake mint and transfer transactions coming from a known address that the hacker doesn't control.

In order this type of attacks to work, a pre-requisite needs to take place:

A "back-doored" Contract:

NFTs implementations should always respect the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 industry standards, but of course you can't force all developers to follow these standards.

Depends on the terminology that could be used here, some might call it "non respected convention", some might call it a "back-doored contract" or even a "buggy" contract, it all depends on the perspective and intention of the developer in the end.

By the industry standards, once a token has been minted and now it's owned by an address and only a couple of actors who are able to initiate the transfer:

• The owner of an NFT
• The approved address of an NFT
• An authorized operator of the current owner of an NFT

Basically, It's like the hacker is a "SuperAdmin" that has the highest permission level who could initiate such types of transactions.

To sum it up, the attack process looks like this:

• The hacker creates a contract that he controls (which is completely different than the original contract where the original token has been minted on)
• Initialize a mint process to the same address of the original token creator on that contract and does a couple of fake transfers if he wants to simulate some liquidity.
• Lists the fake token minted on his contract on other NFT marketplaces as the "original token"

In case someone is more interested to learn about this type of attack, you could definitely check the post that has been published by Tim.

Example of a Sleepminting attack:

Beeple's $69 million NFT has been minted on a different contract than the original one where the hacker has "simulated" the provenance of the token 40914 like it's coming from Beeple himself.

Rarible's Listings:

Original Authentic Beeple's NFT: https://rarible.com/token/0x2A46f2fFD99e19a89476E2f62270e0a35bBf0756:40913

Accessible also on NFTNDX: https://nftndx.io/token/0x2A46f2fFD99e19a89476E2f62270e0a35bBf0756-40913

Fake NFT (No longer publicly accessible): https://rarible.com/token/0x5FBbACf00ef20193a301a5BA20acf04765fb6DaC:40914

How does NFTNDX prevents such type of attacks?

All Contracts are authenticated:

All contracts that are listed within our platform are verified and authenticated after an extensive audit process, so an attacker's contract or other types of contracts where the provenance isn't proven aren't listed on our index.

ERC-721, ERC-1155 Standards:

We make sure that the contracts listed on our index are authenticated and respect the industry standards, with of course some occasional exceptions that we should consider within our system, but the provenance is always proven.

In order to prevent such type of attacks with your solutions/platforms that use NFTs, you could soon integrate our APIs in order to verify the authenticity of the NFTs that we are tracking, feel free to sign up on our form to keep yourself updated on https://nftndx.io/api-signup, or you could reach out to us for further partnership on contact@nftndx.io.

We are glad to announce to you that we joined the Content Authenticity Initiative as a member of the consortium in order to bring more transparency and visibility and tackle the misinformation and lack of authenticity that's happening in the NFT and the blockchain space across the different platforms and sets of media.

The CAI partnership was announced by Adobe in 2019 in partnership with Twitter and the New York Times. CAI is building a system to securely preserve provenance and attribution data for digital content to counter the rise of misinformation. Take a closer look at the technology behind our end-to-end system, which adds a layer of verifiable trust to the internet.

With the increase of popularity of the NFTs in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and also the number of fraudsters minting fraudulent NFTs, NFTNDX was created to resolve this issue by only listing the authenticated NFTs in the market and tracking them on the platform.

The fact of having such type of validated information makes it valuable to either buyer, creators, and also enthusiasts in the space, therefore we decided to make that information easily accessible by providing a plugin that will help the different outlets to include those NFT details like Twitter's Tweet cards directly in their WordPress posts in a very straight forward manner.

How to use it?

Using the plugin is quite straightforward, you just have to follow these simple steps:

1- Install the plugin

The plugin is currently available on WordPress's official listing, You can install it from the "Plugins" section on WordPress directly by putting "nftndx" in the search box. After the installation, don't forget to activate the plugin.

Please note that you can also download the Zip file of the plugin from the official WordPress listing if you want to proceed with the manual installation: https://wordpress.org/plugins/nftndx-io-embed/

2- Choose the NFT

You can use our explorer NFTNDX.IO to search for the NFT that you are looking for, once you find it, please copy its link.

3- Publish it on your website

You can either create or update a post by pasting the NFT link you copied previously with your content.

You can use the "Embed" block provided in the visual editor, or you can follow the short-code approach as well.

Example: EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS - (Beeple's $69 Million NFT)

[embed]https://nftndx.io/token/0x2A46f2fFD99e19a89476E2f62270e0a35bBf0756-40913[/embed]

NFTNDX.IO is always aiming to make the data authenticity, accessibility, and transparency of NFTs straightforward for all the members of the community, and this WordPress plugin is just the beginning of future tools and integrations.

If you are interested in contributing with us, feel free to reach out to us at developers@nftndx.io.

The team is always hearing and we are always listening for your feedback, you can contact us here or visit our Telegram channel to get notified of the latest updates.

Individuals can create work, turn it into an NFT on the Blockchain (in a process called 'minting') and trade it on a platform of choice, and even fix a price to their artwork, which can pay every time someone buys the piece in the secondary market, through this process plenty of artists have made a fortune from their creation on NFT space. This article will target the 10 most expensive NFTs.

1. EVERYDAYS (THE FIRST 5000 DAYS)

This assembly of works is dubbed “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS”. In its first-ever digital art auction, the house Christie's and Mike Winkelmann referred to as Beeple took the globe all at once by surprise to create and sold a large compilation of artworks to Singapore-based NFT collectors Metakovan and Twobadour for a record-breaking sum of $69 million.

2. CRYPTOPUNK #3100

Cryptopunk #3100 is the most extensive of the Alien Punk. The Alien masterpiece wears a blue-and-white headband (nearly 406 of the 10,000 characters possess these). Cryptopunk #3100 started its journey from $76 in an exceeding 2017 bid, continuing to be priced at 2 million, and eventually its sold for $7.58 million in March 2021.

3. CRYPTOPUNK #7804

This is sold $100,000 lesser than cryptopunk #3100, it’s one among the sole 9 Alien cryptopunk created by Lavar Labs. Cryptopunk #7804 was sold for $7.57million.

4. CROSSROAD

This was created by Mike Winkelmann Crossroads attributes of a huge sprog that bears a resemblance to Trump, as his body is scribbled with some comments like "Loser". Crossroads was sold for $6.6million via Nifty Gateway.

5. FIRST TWITTER TWEET

CEO of Twitter put up his first-ever tweet that contains few words "just setting up my twttr." To NFT space through a platform called Valuables. Sina Estav, CEO of Bridge purchased this tweet for the amount of $2.9 million.

6. CRYPTOPUNK #6965

Cryptopunk's creator create each cryptopunk to vary from each other giving each cryptopunk a singular visual artistic appearance. Cryptopunk #6965 is one among the Ape cryptopunks and it’s sold for $1.6million.

7. AXIE INFINITY VIRTUAL GAME “GENESIS” ESTATE

A game that involves buying and raising fantasy creatures called Axies on the Ethereum network. Danny a virtual property seller ended up selling an estate to Flying Falcon from the game at $1.5 million.

8. CRYPTOPUNK #4156

CryptoPunks are special with thousands of unique characters with evidence of proprietorship save on the Ethereum blockchain. They were the earliest NFTs on Ethereum and stimulate the ERC-721 standard that powers most digital art and valuables. Sold for $1.25million.

9. FOREVER ROSE

Designed by Kevin Abosch, the piece is a distinctive digital picture. On Valentine's Day, 2018, Abosch sold one among his captures, a rose, for $1 million. Sold as an NFT on an Ethereum blockchain.

10. METARIFT

Comprises a bunch of globular objects congregated together “in what look likes an outline of specks like protons in chemistry” en-wrapped by an infinity symbol moving against a black background designed by Pak and sold for $904.413.

NFTNDX.IO team is thrilled to announce their new partnership with NFTCalendar, a release and event calendar for the growing Non-Fungible Token industry, they cover the most interesting events and NFT drops across the different marketplaces and platforms.

NFTCalendar and NFTNDX will collaborate in different areas that will make sure to bring more value to the NFT enthusiasts and the NFT ecosystem, by offering all the needed tools and insights for collectors and visitors.

NFTCalendar will also be listed as an official partner of NFTNDX.IO.

Alex Metzger, NFTCalendar creator’s thoughts on the partnership:

“NFTNDX & NFTCalendar join forces for a new way of providing valuable informational services to the digital collectors, eliminating the unwanted trust issues, challenging the status-quo together, putting another brick in the foundation of the better NFT Ecosystem.”

NFTNDX’s Founder Ayoub Dardory added:

“The new partnership between NFTNDX and NFTCalendar will bring more value, transparency, and trust to the ecosystem, by providing a seamless experience to collectors through the journey of the NFTs they are interested in starting from or even before their listing date, which will make us an essential service in the NFT space.”

For a long time, the print industry has been dwindling while their digital editions have gathered an increased readership. Be it in print or digital format, traditional media continues to be relevant and is adapting to trends to ensure multiple revenue streams. The latest trend magazines have been hopping on is that of non-fungible tokens, or as they are popularly called- NFTs.

TIME

Time Magazine entered the world of NFTs by releasing three special editions of NFT magazine covers for auction. These included their iconic covers which asked “Is God Dead?”, “Is Truth Dead?”, and the latest, “Is Fiat Dead?”. Till now, TIME has released 12 NFTs in all which include covers from the 1950s and 1960s. According to Time’s President Keith Grossman, both the news website and the magazine will start accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for their digital subscriptions. According to Keith Grossman, the President of TIME Magazine, media companies will be reluctant to jump into digital currencies which go beyond collectibles. He will be paid in Bitcoin as the company is officially planning to put Bitcoin on its balance sheet. However, TIME is comfortable with this new trend and aims to be the first one in the race to make the most of it. With investment from Grayscale, TIME is creating a series of educational crypto videos to explain the process to the masses.

Forbes

Forbes is the latest in line to join the trend of NFTs. They sold an NFT of their latest issue cover for $333,333 in an auction which took place of the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway. This NFT featured Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron, and was titled “Merchants of the Metaverse”. The proceeds from this sale will go to the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). According to Forbes COO Randall Lane, with the rise of cryptocurrency across the world, it is important to capture this unique moment in time and play our role in it as well. He states that their covers which portray the world’s billionaires and next-generation entrepreneurs are those who are shaping the world in real-time.

New York Times

Kevin Roose, a New York Times journalist recently entered into the world of NFTs by turning his column about NFTs into an NFT and putting it up for auction itself. All the proceeds from the auction will go to The New York Time’s Neediest Cases Fund which is an effort started by Adolph S. Ochs, the former Times Publisher over 110 years ago. He held the auction of an NFT marketplace called Foundation, the same platform on which the famous “Nyan Cat” graphic sold for almost $600,000.

Playboy

Playboy has been promoting a series of NFTs after partnering with Nifty Gateway. The NFTs consist of erotic digital art created by various artists, the first of which will be Slimesunday. Blake Kathryn will follow this sale by launching a pride-themed collection for June. This partnership between Playboy and Nifty will encourage and support emerging artists, it will endorse their photography archives and existing art, and will establish a new revenue line. Entering into the NFT market seems like Playboy is making the most of a big opportunity, especially as they stopped publishing their print version in March 2020. Till now, their largest source of revenue has been licensing their brand. NFTs can establish a new source of revenue with better artist protection, artist compensation, collector protection, and the democratization of both distribution and collecting, according to Rachel Webber, the Chief Brand Officer of PLBY Group.

NFTs have the potential to promote intellectual property and digital content. It is providing a new source of income to many publications that are struggling to keep their print versions afloat and now they are trying to experiment with other sources of revenue especially with the royalties these NFTs could offer them in the secondary market. What we need to observe is whether this is a trend that is going to die down in the time to come, or will it continue to profit not only the rich but the newcomers too.

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are a growing trend in the music industry. The artist can create a selective number of NFTs of a particular work, be it one or many. COVID-19 created havoc across industries, especially the music industry as no live concerts could be held. Live concerts and in-person interactions are a major stream of revenue for artists and their labels. As this wasn’t possible anymore, artists had to look for a new way to connect with their audiences in their own homes. NFTs not only allowed these artists to connect with their fans but also enabled them to do so without paying a major chunk to anybody else, especially with the secondary sales.

Whoever owns the NFT can still copy the work, but not its ownership, he can only transfer it. The enticing factor about these NFTs is that they use blockchain networks like Ethereum where transactions are secure and almost instant. In the music industry, artists end up paying a lot of money to middlemen. NFTs bridge the gap by eliminating middlemen and as a result are considered extremely convenient for fans and artists alike by keeping also the fees of secondary sales of these NFTs.

Why purchase NFTs?

In the music industry, fans exchange limited-edition experiences, merchandise, concert tickets, music, and digital content. As there are limited NFTs of a particular work, the demand is higher amongst fans. The concept behind purchasing NFTs is the same as purchasing physical goods. It is a product in high demand because there are limited copies of it in the whole world and only a few have it. As these are comparatively rare, there is a certain sense of status associated with them which creates hype around the product. Applying the same concept to NFTs, a lot of people purchase them as an investment that will pay off in the future.

How NFTs are sold

NFTs can be sold in auctions, on crypto-marketplaces, or at a silent auction. The seller can choose which method he wants and whether he wants to sell it at a fixed price or wants to bid. The general model of payment for these marketplaces is cryptocurrencies. During these exchanges, fans get a scarce, unique piece of an artist of their choice and the artist walks off by raising a bunch of money without paying a penny to record companies.

Advantages of NFTs

There are numerous benefits to owning an NFT. To begin with, they are extremely convenient. All you need is a digital wallet and then you can proceed to participate in an auction. The artist can choose which items they want to auction. It can be digital art, merchandise, concert tickets, sound bites; both virtual and physical. As these experiences are rare, fans are ecstatic to get their hands on them and don’t mind paying more as they’re getting something that only a select few do. As NFTs are a direct transfer between the artist and the participant, a lot of money that went to middlemen such as ticketing agents and record companies straightaway goes to the artist. The fan gets his unique experience and the artist gets his due.

Disadvantages of NFTs

There a lot of emerging artists who haven’t been able to make use of NFTs as NFTs are generally in demand due to the popularity of the artists. If an artist hasn’t reached that status of fame, the demand is less or non-existent. Certain marketplaces do not consider NFTs from lesser established names, creating a massive barrier for new artists. The reason NFTs are popular is that they are limited. However, a concert experience that catered to thousands of people but now is only catering to hundreds is a deliberately created scarcity. Even though this adds an air of exclusivity, it ends up excluding a lot of fans. Even though NFTs might seem like a very good investment, they might just be overvalued and turn out to be non-profitable.

A lot of artists have jumped on the bandwagon are making the most of NFTs, such as the EDM concept artist Grimes sold NFTs worth $5.8 million, 3LAU sold $11.6million, Steve Aoki sold $4.25 million worth of NFTs. They sold digital collectible versions of records, short music videos, fan experiences, and much more. NFTs seem to have a great promise for minting money for artists as they don’t have to pay millions of dollars to large corporations.

NFT markets have blown up in recent weeks and the hype has seen some tokens sell for record-breaking amounts, reaching tens of millions of dollars. Today, more users are minting and selling NFTs on various marketplaces. Consequently, verifying the authenticity of NFTs has become more complex as scam artists flood the marketplaces with fraudulent artwork aiming to sell NFTs of fake or duplicate artworks.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) Index, known colloquially as NFTNDX.IO, is an NFT explorer that allows users to transparently access and verify the authenticity of NFTs on the blockchain. NFTNDX.IO lists verified profiles of top personalities in the NFT market, tracking the NFTs they have minted and who owns them in real-time. The list aggregates the list based on multiple contracts including marketplaces and private platforms.

NFTNDX Team

NFTNDX is headed by Ayoub Dardory, who is the index's founder. The team members are blockchain experts with experience in the NFT ecosystem. The team built NFTNDX to function similarly to Etherscan.io, the Ethereum network’s blockchain explorer.

Main Function of NFTNDX

NFTNDX’s primary function is to facilitate transparency in the NFT ecosystem, helping NFT collectors to verify the authenticity of NFTs before purchasing them. The index was built and released in March 2021 to meet the market demand for an NFT explorer as more collectors and NFT enthusiasts were trapped in fraudulent sales. The index enables collectors to safely explore and purchase NFTs. With the influx of NFT trading activities and barely any dedicated index for tracking activities on various NFTs, NFTNDX pioneers an essential service to the NFT ecosystem.

Like Etherscan, NFTNDX does not function as an NFT wallet. Therefore, the index neither stores individuals’ private keys nor regulates the NFT transactions via smart contracts on the Ethereum network.

Applications of NFTNDX

Users can explore NFTs on verified profiles at NFTNDX.IO to verify their authenticity before purchasing them at their favorite marketplaces. The index is freely accessible to all users and listed profiles are all verified. This ensures that the index lists no scam artists and their subsequent fake works.

NFTNDX also tracks the number of NFTs minted by the listed profiles in the past 14 days and the NFTs transferred in the same period. More details could be found on Charts & Statistics section. Collectors can also view a full list of NFTs minted by their favorite creators on the creators’ profiles. Other information you can view on the profile includes the number of minted NFTs, the latest minted, and the latest transferred NFT for a given contract or collection.

Beyond the verified profile, collectors can view specific tokens they are interested in, view the NFT’s metadata including the number of unique historical owners, the initial minted supply, and the number of times the NFTs have been transferred. The index also lists the transactions for each transfer, which can be viewed on Etherscan.

Each NFT on the personality’s profile is listed with a full description and links to their respective marketplaces embedded on the token profile. These verified links direct collectors and NFT enthusiasts to the marketplaces with authentic NFTs from their favorite personalities.

Exploring NFTs on NFTNDX

NFTNDX supports only verified profiles on its platform. Users can browse through the various categories listed on the platform’s sidebar to quickly access their favorite personalities. The personalities are grouped into five major categories: business, companies, entertainment, visual artists, and sports. There are multiple other sub-categories for each major category with a listed number of profiles under the sub-category.

The index’s homepage incorporates responsive design to enhance user experience and ease navigation as collectors browse through various profiles or categories for NFTs. The intuitive design of the platform includes a dark theme for dark-theme lovers. You can also navigate to full-screen mode for better accessibility through the website.

Features of NFTNDX

Etherscan Integration: NFTNDX leverages Etherscan’s functionality in its NFT transfer history section. This offers collectors an additional layer of authenticity for NFTs they plan to purchase as they can visit the page and view the transaction records to further validate the NFT’s originality. This feature complements the role of NFTNDX as a robust index of verified NFTs.

Verified Profiles: NFTNDX lists only verified profiles that have been validated by its internal team. Creators can submit their profiles to the team for verification and subsequent listing on the index. Creators will complete a form on the website, filling in their  information. Once verified, the creator will be listed in their respective category. With this listing on NFTNDX, creators secure their works against counterfeiting by scam artists who look to cash in on the chaotic NFT market scenes.

Marketplace Integration: For each NFT listed on NFTNDX, the corresponding marketplace link is embedded in the description to ensure the collector can directly view and purchase the right token in under three clicks. This feature minimizes the risk of searching and clicking on counterfeit tokens from con artists on the marketplaces.

Why NFTNDX?

Although top marketplaces also verify profiles, the platforms have been flooded by scam artists posing as the original creators. Artists like Derek Laufman and Devin Elle Kurtz have had their identities and works stolen and verified profiles created in their names on OpenSea and Marble Cards, some of the top NFT marketplaces.

NFTNDX provides a dedicated platform for verified profiles of creators. All profiles on the platform are authenticated by the team to ensure that collectors get the right NFTs. NFTNDX builds trust in NFT marketplaces and will drive the development of the NFT ecosystem. The index is a crucial element, complementing marketplaces and ensuring that creators get full rewards for their works.

Conclusion

NFTNDX is your go-to platform for top NFT personalities and creators. View profiles of billionaire Mark Cuban, digital artist Beeple, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, musician Grimes, among many others. The index integrates features to ensure fast and secure verification of original NFTs through its verified list of creators.

For creators, it is time to get verified and secure your artwork from cunning scam artists who may take over your identities and benefit from your hard work.

Contact NFTNDX here or visit their telegram channel to get notified of the latest updates.