You may have seen them in the past on the Hive chain promising the "best blockchain game ever built", while putting on their portfolio someone else's work just to then delete it once called out.
Well, after 2.5 years "working" on it...
{yep the slow rug has been going on that long.. the failed kickstarter went out back in July 2021}
...they put out only a generic FPS with ZERO BLOCKCHAIN INTEGRATION for their NFTs and token.
You may have also heard some of your friends getting hyped about their web2 discord minigame with purchases of "I owe you" NFTs and deposits of their Hive-Engine token DBLN.
(yes, deposits. Good luck getting anything out as they keep changing rules.)
And it seems like the ponzenomics didn't last long anyway..
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In this post we'll dig more into their unethical behaviour, in particular focusing on..
The PsyberX NFTs
Here we have what seems to be a somewhat complete list of their NFTs.
Land and Alpha passes are missing, but it is a good start.
@psyberx/all-psyber-x-nfts-available-by-classification
[Note: this list lives forever on the Hive blockchain, it cannot be taken down]
Let's dig into their "original" assets.
These so far have only been integrated into what was first a THIRD PARTY card game, developed by a member of the Hive community that was then lured into becoming part of the @psyberx team, since the latter realized that they couldn't deliver a blockchain game, despite promising so and selling $ 100 K of their token.
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** FINDINGS **
At the very least, a dozen of such assets were/are at the very least immorally (and most likely illegally) sold as NFTs without the slightest form of consent from the authors.
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Here are some that we verified:
1. SPIDER ROBOT
I'm sure you've seen this guy in a lot of their posts. And it's even the logo of their token.
So why not start with that...
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Here is the Original Asset:
https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/character/sci-fi-character/hydraulic-spider
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CGTrader License:
NOTE:
This is used as example in most replies claiming that there are minor edits to the 3d models used in the NFTs.
- Not really.
- This is the most flexible license of the 5 different platforms they used (keep reading).
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Plagiarized 3D artist: Yevhen Bielik (in-app messages only) - awaiting reply
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2. ALIEN SOLDIER
You may have seen this guy around a lot, as it was part of various marketing material like banners and trailers:
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...and it's one of the main characters displayed on the home page as well:
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Well, here it is in all its glory!
Asset link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/rewind-cyborg-f76cbddd677a4593a370647113f5af90
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License:
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Plagiarized 3D artist: marleenvijgen@gmail.com - awaiting reply
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3. DRONE
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Original Asset: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3dNwwg
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Plagiarized Author: msgdi@yahoo.de
Reply from the victim:
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4. DOG SOLDIER
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NOTE: this was also one of the stolen assets put in their portfolio when @psyberx was raising their first $ 100 K from the Hive community: @tuck-fheman/re-jesustiano-r0fy84
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Reply from the plagiarized artist at that time:
The Original Asset:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/humanoids/elite-soldiers-pack-153265
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Plagiarized Author: 3d.artist@mail.ru - awaiting reply
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5. ROBOT SOLDIER
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Here is the original: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/profile/Marcelo+Barrio
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Author: marcelobarrio2@gmail.com
Reply:
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License:
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6. BIKER GIRL
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Original Asset link: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/lady-biker/questions
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Author: magicboxes@yandex.ru - awaiting reply
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MORE ITEMS that most likely they do not own and sold/sell as NFTs:
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How much was illegally made out of these stolen assets?
According to their homepage over 7,500 crates were sold for about $ 10 each.
ie. ~ $ 75,000
Plus they got/get a royalty fee (usually 5%) every time any of their NFTs was/is traded.
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These assets are on the blockchain forever, the images cannot be replaced, and people can never be prevented from trading them and generating fees for the account owner holding the private keys.
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Analysing the various licenses from the various portals those assets are listed on, this is the summary of the conditions:
- The buyer cannot sell reproductions of the assets to others.
- The buyer cannot use the 3D assets in a way that violates anyone's intellectual property rights (e.g., copyrights) and cannot claim to be the creator or copyright holder of the 3D assets they purchased.
Besides being most likely illegal, such actions are highly UNETHICAL.
Taking credit for someone else's work and making money from it without giving proper credit or compensation to the original artist is considered a form of PLAGIARISM and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY infringement.
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Just one more confirmation from ChatGPT reviewing the various TERMS AND CONDITIONS from the multiple portals:
CGTrader - https://chat.openai.com/share/492913d8-8d50-4696-a2ce-f6924fd81790
Sketchfab - https://chat.openai.com/share/84a2658f-f169-45f6-8b8c-1dcbd85cfcc3
Artstation - https://chat.openai.com/share/83d2b103-b9f9-4d54-ac59-19f3fffa4f29
Unity Asset Store - https://chat.openai.com/share/d3e6a4ab-c092-43e2-a648-7e9ab7e1135b
Unreal Engine Store - https://chat.openai.com/share/d3e6a4ab-c092-43e2-a648-7e9ab7e1135b
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Psyber-x may now play dumb and reply "Oops sorry, we didn't know we couldn't sell them".
We say it's BS. Just BE ETHIC and don't sell other people's work without their permissions pretending it's your own and hope to make a ton of money screwing over the original authors.
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I hope Hive users use more caution next time, and listen to more experienced users like @tuck-fheman @pfunk and @ats-davis that raised red flags from the very beginning.
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What do you think the next steps should be on this matter?
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Mention spam: @hivewatchers @steemcleaners @adm @guiltyparties @azircon @themarkymark @ausbitbank @gtg @blocktrades @baah @acidyo @arcange @risingstargame @theycallmedan
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Why anon?
Exposing the dirty laundry of projects could cause me to drop from the high ranks of witnesses. I don't want to be swayed by powerful votes or un-votes
So who are we? Intro post HERE
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Do you want to join this initiative and review or suggest DHF proposals, projects, games, or guilds to be reviewed to strive for quality on Hive?
Join this new Discord server and post your suggestions: https://discord.gg/NsGbjENX
(slowdowns are in place as we prefer discussing things on-chain)
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Post rewards will always be burned. Tips are appreciated and will be shared among HD reviewers.
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PS. buried under all the self-voted comments at the top:
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Favourite Comments:
- The summary meme
- If the IRS knocks on our door, we never sold crates. Magic.
- Hey, I'm not a liar !!
- Psyberx is decentralized . . . . . . . . 🤡 . 🤡 . 🤡. . . . . . .
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UPDATE
I have now made sure that the artists know that psyberx will forever receive royalties on every trade of those NFTs.
The images that they were not allowed to use can be replaced in the psyberx website and game but they cannot be changed on the blockchain. Every current and future app consuming this metadata will need to be aware of the issue and add some "customizations" to their logic to point to the new "legal" images.
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- As we dug more dirt and start asking more questions, 3 team members of the psyberx team dropped already.
New posts soon.