Yuga’s Bitcoin NFT auction is termed “scammers dream”

An Ordinals-focused Twitter account called Yuga’s auction process a “scammers’ dream” and said it sets a “REALLY horrible precedent.”

The cryptocurrency community, including the author of Bitcoin Ordinals, criticizes the Nonfungible Token (NFT) startup Yuga Labs for the manner in which it intends to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection.

On March 5, Yuga began accepting bids for its “TwelveFold” collection, which would have 300 NFT-like pictures written on satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol, with 288 from the collection being distributed to the top 288 bidders.

According to a news release issued on March 5, bidders must pay their whole bid sum in Bitcoin to a specific BTC address owned by Yuga.

Winners would simply pay the BTC they placed, while Yuga would refund BTC to those who did not place the highest offer.

Nevertheless, such a scheme has garnered the ire of some in the cryptocurrency community, with others pointing out that manually processing refunds for rejected bids is a “stone age.”

The individual behind an Ordinals-focused Twitter account described the auction mechanism as a “scammers’ dream,” adding that although they doubt Yuga will retain the BTC from unsuccessful bids, the manner in which it conducts the auction creates a “REALLY terrible precedent.”

Even the developer of Bitcoin Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor, chimed in on the topic, ordering Yuga to “get fucked” and referring to the auction’s behavior as “degenerate bullshit.”

If Yuga had a comparable auction, he would push people to reject the project, he said.

Some users pointed out the auction system’s flaws, stating that it is feasible for some to overpay for a TwelveFold owing to the possibility of a big price gap between the highest and lowest bids in the top 288.

Many were pleased to see a significant project such as Yuga, which grew in popularity thanks to many Ethereum-based NFT collections, transition to Bitcoin despite the criticism of others.

Ordinally, who had attacked the collection, then tweeted his gratitude for “the fact that Yuga attempted to arrange up this auction using Bitcoin.” 

Ordinal Pizza OG, a collection based on Ordinals, has praised Yuga’s Bitcoin collection as a “huge net positive for Ordinals.”

The complaints did not deter wealthy bidders from attempting to secure the top slot for Yuga’s first Bitcoin collection.

According to the TwelveFold website, the highest offer at the time of writing was 1.11 BTC (about $25,000), while the lowest bid recorded was 0.011 BTC (approximately $250).