Or perhaps a creator is found to be a swindler, leaving those who bought their IP in limbo. Or worse yet, maybe an unsolicited NFT was airdropped into a user’s wallet without consent. The Junkyard is a service somewhat parallel to tax loss harvesting that offers users the opportunity to both dump their NFTs and win NFTs that have been dumped.
- Because anyone can send and receive tokens to and from a wallet address on public blockchains, unwanted NFTs will occasionally appear in your wallet.
- This article explains what a spam NFT is, why they are problematic to NFT dApp developers and users, as well as how to filter spam NFTs using Alchemy’s NFT API endpoints and getNFTs filter.
- Alchemy combines the most powerful web3 developer products and tools with resources, community and legendary support.
If the token is on the Ethereum platform, you can add them to the Private Token Ignore List. As a security rule, you should always be the one ‘requesting’ for an airdrop, in one way or another. But what danger could come as a result of swapping some innocent-looking coins? Yes, this might be an unconventional way to “get rid” of an NFT, considering that liquidity pools are more often used to bolter trading and collector rewards. But it beats trying to hide a crap NFT for all eternity — even if it means losing out on profitability in return. Perhaps it isn’t saving money that you’re worried about, but rather saving face in getting rid of your terrible NFTs.
How to Filter Spam NFTs with Alchemy’s NFT API
Spam NFTs are unsolicited Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are sent or airdropped to your wallet address that you didn’t purchase and do not want. Cryptocurrency start-ups usually use it to fast-track their development and community adoption. An example of this is the $ROPE airdrop in the first week of April 2021. In few cases, airdrops may come as a way to reward users of a particular decentralized exchange. A recent example is the airdrop of dYdX tokens to long-time users of its exchange.
NFT minting platforms are no-code tools that anyone, regardless of developer experience, can use to mint NFTs in bulk or as individual, 1-of-1 NFTs. The 5 main types of NFT minting options include marketplaces, minting APIs, gaming NFT minting tools, curated minting websites, and DIY platforms. The isSpamForContract NFT API endpoint checks if a particular contract has been classified as spam. You can filter for contract addresses, which means you can also look for the owners of a particular NFT and check to see if that’s the only one they own. Spam NFTs are free, unwanted airdrops, while free NFTs that are airdropped to your wallet from a project that you support may not be considered spam. This article explains what a spam NFT is, why they are problematic to NFT dApp developers and users, as well as how to filter spam NFTs using Alchemy’s NFT API endpoints and getNFTs filter.
Don’t worry; we won’t ask why, but just know you aren’t alone. There’s a multitude of reasons a collector might want to make an NFT vanish, with one of the most popular undoubtedly being for tax loss harvesting purposes. Whatever the case, these unwanted NFTs can exist as a hindrance, a shameful reminder of the unsavory parts of the NFT space that enthusiasts often prefer to keep under wraps.
But sending them to junk wallets or using marketplace features to hide them from the public is only a band-aid fix. Surely, there are better ways for collectors to rid themselves of unwanted NFTs. The incident led to a rumor that accepting bids on airdropped NFTs or listing them for sale, both of which require a contract approval, could lead to wallets being emptied.
Types of NFT Minting Platforms
Airdrops are some of the sweetest things that happen in the cryptocurrency world. Sometimes all you need to do is hold a particular token in your wallet or have an active wallet address on an exchange. Other times, you may need to ‘seek’ out airdrops by performing some tasks before you are rewarded. Regardless of how they come, everyone loves airdrops as they are basically free money. Chances are, there are other collectors out there who are holding onto a piece from the same collection as you and would also like to relieve themself of their unsatisfactory NFT. With services like NFT20, a user can deposit any NFT into an available pool or create a pool themself (likely a necessity for pooling trash NFTs) and receive platform-native tokens in return.
Of course, there are all sorts of considerations to be made surrounding NFTs and taxes. This includes charitable giving, which you can read about in our full guide on the topic. But for those looking to simply offload and offset, there are a few services to choose from. Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3.
WHAT IS THE POINT OF AN AIRDROP?
Grabbing NFT metadata usually requires developers to read and parse individual smart contracts, then sort through a sea of irregular data. The Alchemy NFT API normalizes the metadata, and makes it easy to query across different projects. This metadata can then be queried using isSpamForContract and getSpamContracts to filter out spam NFTs.
Alchemy combines the most powerful web3 developer products and tools with resources, community and legendary support. The getSpamContracts NFT API endpoint returns the list of all ERC 721 and ERC 1155 spam contracts on the selected chain. Some of these websites will use eth_sign, an unsafe method that allows arbitrary messages like “send your ether” to be signed and potentially hand over control of your account and assets. Alchemy’s open-source Account Abstraction SDK makes it easy for developers to build with ERC-4337 compliant smart accounts.
Well, there are options that could be just as rewarding. “Any ERC-721s that check ‘tx.origin’ for approvals could be vulnerable. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of those,” Foobar added. Key to AJ’s theory for how his wallet was drained is a feat of smart-contract wizardry that may well be impossible.
The team at CaptainAltcoin.com only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our readers. Perhaps the tokens didn’t show any monetary value, but you can see thousands or millions of them. It could also be that the tokens show some sort of fiat value, and you can see that they are ‘worth’ thousands of dollars. If all else fails, even after you’ve considered or even made an attempt at the options listed above, you could always resort to the tried and true aforementioned band-aid fixes.
This article will explain what you can do if you receive some unwanted airdrops in your wallet and how to prevent yourself from being scammed by them. First, let us start by defining airdrops and what dust aidrop is. Sometimes floor prices plummet, and collectors are left with few options.
Alchemy’s NFT API can be used to filter spam NFTs using the getNFTs spam filter, the isSpamForContract, and the getSpamContracts endpoints. While these scam sites can be incredibly convincing, they often have red flags including using odd language or making promises that seem too good to be true. With the growth of the NFT market, spam NFTs have been an increasing problem. Monitor transactions with request explorer, request sandbox, mempool visualizer. CaptainAltcoin.com does not offer any sort of financial or investment advice. Please make sure to do your own research, make educated financial decisions and consult your Financial Advisor.
Build blockchain magic with Alchemy
By “dumping” an NFT into The Junkyard, a user will earn not ETH but Junkcoin, a platform native currency. That currency can then be used to “fish” for NFTs that have been dumped by others. For example, if an NFT collection has been marked as spam by getSpamContracts then a developer can direct those spam NFTs to a hidden tab to avoid cluttering the user’s wallet.
- Yes, this might be an unconventional way to “get rid” of an NFT, considering that liquidity pools are more often used to bolter trading and collector rewards.
- Grabbing NFT metadata usually requires developers to read and parse individual smart contracts, then sort through a sea of irregular data.
- Regardless of how they come, everyone loves airdrops as they are basically free money.
- Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3.
To make sure NFT holders and collectors have the best user experience, platforms need to use an NFT API that provides strong spam filters and custom settings. A cryptocurrency airdrop is the distribution of crypto tokens to several wallet addresses as a marketing technique to help drive awareness for a token and build communities quickly. It usually involves small amounts of newly-minted cryptos that are sent to wallets that fit predetermined criteria.
As of August, 2022, the Alchemy NFT API has marked over 5,000 smart contract addresses as spam. Two biggest reasons spam NFTs are problematic is that they’re often used by hackers and they promote a poor user experience for NFT collectors. To provide additional value to collectors, some generative NFT collections will create NFTs and airdrop them to collectors. While these NFTs typically have low re-sell value, they can be fun to keep in your collection as it demonstrates your participation in the community. In traditional tax loss harvesting, an investor would sell an underperforming asset at a loss, then use that loss to reduce their taxable capital gains, offsetting the gains they made on other investments. This can also be done with NFTs and is a considerably popular way to reduce taxes placed on digital collectibles.
Similarly, if you’re browsing another user’s wallet, a flag can be created using isSpamForContract to show if a particular NFT is spam and if the user has a pattern of sending spam NFTs. For developers building NFT analytics tools, galleries, or marketplaces, spam NFTs are also an issue because it can lead to incorrect data, and deceive unknowing users that a project is more popular than it actually is. Because NFTs are tied to art, utility, and creators, showcasing a collection is something to be proud of, and having spam NFTs in the same wallet as your most valuable NFTs creates a poor user experience. Scammers might airdrop an NFT into wallets with the hopes that the owner will follow a phishing link leading to a scam website. Scammers might then prompt the unsuspecting wallet holder to sign into their Ethereum wallet to approve this transaction and “claim” their free NFT.
Although the ecosystem could be used for tax loss harvesting, The Junkyard is more of a gamified trading experience powered by Axelar and running cross-chain on both Ethereum and Polygon. The platform also hosts a variety of in-development secondary and tertiary functionalities, like free-mint NFT collections, membership-based experiences, token staking, and more. The best way to protect your wallet is to never interact with an unknown smart contract. The safest thing to do when you find spam NFTs sitting in your wallet is to ignore them or send them to a burn address. Because anyone can send and receive tokens to and from a wallet address on public blockchains, unwanted NFTs will occasionally appear in your wallet. Sometimes, airdrops might prove to be trojan horses for malicious scammers to access your wallet and steal your hard-earned money.
There are countless other collectors out there who are still in possession of Bloot or some other sort of unsavory derivatives. The fact of the matter is that you don’t have to HODL for “historical significance” or for any other excuse. First, you could use the “hide” feature offered by OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces. These features are usually built directly into a marketplace’s interface and often only require a user to select which NFTs they want to hide, then submit and verify a transaction to hide them.
Spam NFTs can be used by scammers to lure people into sharing their private keys, signing messages, or confirming a transaction that sends funds to the hacker’s account. All content on CaptainAltcoin is provided solely for informational purposes. It is not an offer to buy or sell any security, product, service or investment.
