In Brief:
- The developer of the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Nick Johnson, identified a bug in OpenSea
- Bug destroys NFTs addresses, which makes it ‘Unreachable’
- 32 transactions with 42 NFTs, worth $100,000, got affected
A bug in the online nonfungible token auction house OpenSea has accidentally destroyed around 42 NFTs (non-fungible tokens), worth a minimum of $100,000.
This issue was highlighted by Nick Jhonson, the lead developer of Ethereum Name Service (ENS). ENS allows blockchain addresses to be associated with the domain names.
According to Johnson’s statement, when he was trying to transfer an ENS name on NFT, it got erased or in more specifically it burned the address. This means it was accidentally sent to an address that nobody can access and can no longer move again.
Johnson was trying to register the ENS name ‘rilxxlir.eth’, the first ENS name registered, with his fund. It was currently held by an ENS account, so he was trying to register & renew with his personal funds. He went to the OpenSea for the name transfer. However, it got transferred to the NFT’s burned address.
Johnson tweeted, “A frantic call to OpenSea later, it transpires I was the first and apparently only victim of a bug introduced to their transfer page in the past 24 hours, which affected all ERC721 transfers to ENS names. Ownership of rilxxlir.eth is now permanently burned.”
Though Johnson is still the controller of the ENS name and can modify it in terms of blockchain addresses. He’s just unable to move the name itself. According to Johnson, OpenSea has already fixed the bug.
Later on, Johnson had received many reports with the same issue. In total, 32 transactions were affected with 42 NFTs. The total worth of these NFTs is $100,000.
It is known that OpenSea has gained more than $1.5 billion in trading Volume on Ethereum in August. OpenSea is expanding its reach in several other blockchains services. To accomplish this goal they have already raised $100 million in a Series B funding round.