Straight from the Scene
Digital artworks from RTFKT and Nike's Ethereum NFT collection vanished without a trace.
Things went dark for Nike's RTFKT NFT collections early Thursday. The culprit? A snag with cloud service provider Cloudflare, according to RTFKT's Head of Technology, Samuel Cardillo. Multiple Ethereum NFT collections, including the much-loved Clone X and Animus, had their vibrant images replaced with a drab black background and chilling white text. Needless to say, NFT enthusiasts took notice and weren't shy about poking fun.
Apparently, the issue resulted from a premature ending of a Cloudflare contract, causing the artwork to disappear from the Ethereum NFTs. Cardillo shared the news on social media and promised action to prevent such mishaps in the future.
No secret that the storage of images and other data associated with NFTs has long been a hot topic. The fact that such data isn't stored on-chain alongside the tokens themselves is a lesser-known Truth for many users. This off-chain storage puts the digital art's non-fungibility and uniqueness at risk, as projects depend on third-parties to keep the data hosted and accessible.
Take, for instance, the $11 million NFT music album that mysteriously vanished after purchase or the NFT collections that ceased to be accessible when the crypto exchange FTX crashed. Fortunately,Cardillo's plan for RTFKT is to dump the off-chain storage model and move the CloneX and Animus collections to more stable, decentralized options.
The battleground for decentralized storage? AR Drive, an open-source app using Arweave's popular decentralized network. This switch would cost around $2,800 to store around 200GB of files, according to AR Drive's price calculator. Cardillo is all in to make this a reality, citing RTFKT's commitment to ensuring continuous access to fan-loved digital art.
The curtain fell on RTFKT in December, just three years after it was acquired by Nike. The sportswear giant has yet to comment on the recent glitch. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on their storage strategy.
[1]ROPSTEN: Decentralized NFT Storage Solutions Gain Traction https://medium.com/@ropsten/decentralized-nft-storage-solutions-gain-traction-69c8c4b602ad
[2]Long-Term Storage Solutions for NFTs https://medium.com/@blurtnetwork/long-term-storage-solutions-for-nfts-cedda19aa42e
[3]Why Decentralized Storage is a Game-Changer for Web3 and NFT Projects https://medium.com/@animal_protocol/why-decentralized-storage-is-a-game-changer-for-web3-and-nft-projects-40f08c9e0665
- RTFKT's Head of Technology, Samuel Cardillo, has allegedly planned to move the CloneX and Animus collections from an off-chain storage model to more stable, decentralized options.
- The switch to decentralized storage for RTFKT's NFT collections could potentially cost around $2,800 to store around 200GB of files, according to AR Drive's price calculator.
- There has been increasing traction in the use of decentralized NFT storage solutions, as evidenced by the ROPSTEN article about decentralized NFT storage solutions gaining traction.
- The off-chain storage of NFT data puts the digital art's non-fungibility and uniqueness at risk, as showed by incidents such as the $11 million NFT music album vanishing after purchase and NFT collections becoming inaccessible when the crypto exchange FTX crashed.
- Decentralized storage is a game-changer for Web3 and NFT projects, as suggested by the Animal Protocol article on why decentralized storage is a game-changer for Web3 and NFT projects.
- Long-term storage solutions for NFTs are crucial for ensuring continuous access to fan-loved digital art, as demonstrated by the RTFKT's commitment to making this switch.
- NFT enthusiasts have been quick to respond to the recent glitch with Nike's RTFKT NFT collections, with many taking to social media to poke fun at the situation.
- The sportswear giant, Nike, has yet to comment on the recent glitch with RTFKT's NFT collections, but it remains to be seen how they will address the issue and whether they will adopt a more decentralized storage strategy for their NFT collections in the future.
