StoneToss Flurk NFT

Cryptocurrencies and blockchains are mutually exclusive. Additionally, these concepts are linked to the decentralized culture, which encourages a self-governed and inclusive mindset. In contrast, the top-tier NFT markets OpenSea and Rarible have delisted political cartoonist Stonetoss’ Flurks NFTs. The censorship issue involving the cartoonist and his well-known “Flurks” NFTs has called into question the decentralized nature of digital assets.

A group of NFTs referred to as “Flurks” from the famed pseudonymous political cartoonist Stonetoss comics have been removed by OpenSea and Rarible. Stonetoss is renowned for his works, such as “blast the fash,” which parody awakened political culture.

What is StoneToss NFT

Due to the similarities between the content, the graphic style, and the patterns employed in both comics, StoneToss—also called by his enemies as MineralMotion, PebblePunt, RockThrow, GravelChuck, and other similar names—seems to have been created by the same person as RedPanels. When he switched to writing comics under the pen name “StoneToss,” what had first been a racist comic turned out to be an overtly white supremacist. He has a dreadful propensity to produce more innocent cartoons to cover up his more horrible ones. SlingStone Flurk StoneToss, a political webcomic artist, created a collection of cryptographic artwork called NFT. The characters with a similar aesthetic to his comics are known as “Flurks,” and each has a unique appearance. When the 5,000-piece NFT collection of Flurks sold out in 20 minutes and was eventually delisted less than 20 hours later, it garnered considerable media attention. 

Background

Using his well-known personas and other inside jokes from the online community to create their distinctive qualities, StoneToss joined the NFT area. On November 20th, 2021, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, the collection of his characters was scheduled to be on sale on the flurksnft.com website. Only 22 minutes after coming live, StoneToss tweeted that the collection was completely gone. This tweet and the following ones received more than 10,000 likes over 24 hours.

Ben Garrison, web comedian Ricky Berwick, and the comic Sam Hyde are just a few cartoonists who have publicly supported Flurks NFT. The cartoonist Stonetoss spoke with Bitcoin.com over the weekend and revealed one of the significant censorships that occurred with the release of the new Stonetoss NFT collection. Five thousand pieces of created generative Art make up the Flurks array. On Saturday, Stonetoss produced Flurks NFTs, which sold out in less than 30 minutes and brought in roughly $2 million in fees. Stonetoss referred to the launch as “wildly successful” in an email to OpenSea and accused those who called for his blacklisting of behaving in bad faith.

OpenSea and Rarible have not reacted to questions on the delisting of the Flurks NFTs yet. In contrast to this situation, Pharrell Williams and CXIP introduced DAO that month to safeguard artist rights. The idea was to give creators control and oversight over the NFT market’s destiny rather than other centralized marketplaces like Opensea and Rarible.

StoneToss Flurk NFT Accused of Political Censorship

On November 22nd, conservative cartoonist “Stonetoss,” who goes under the moniker Stonetoss, informed the public of censorship problems the artist was having on the largest Ethereum NFT marketplace platform, Opensea. “Good day, Opensea I’m writing to you because I worry that your website is being used to restrict political speech. This message was also sent to your support page. Please respond for my collector community,” Stonetoss tweeted. Since the NFT marketplace likewise prohibited the NFTs of the pseudonymous cartoonist, Stonetoss sent outreach to Rarible.

Flurks NFTs De-Platformed from Opensea, Rarible

The conservative cartoonist Ben Garrison, internet comedian Ricky Berwick, and comedian Sam Hyde endorsed Flurks NFTs. The artist Stonetoss chatted with Bitcoin.com News over the weekend and shared with our newsdesk some of the censorings about the most current Stonetoss NFT collection. According to Stonetoss, who spoke with our newsdesk, “On November 20th November 20th, a crew of mine and I began an auction of 5,000 NFT art pieces tied to my work.” “The project’s name was Flurks. The project was a collection of generative Art in the vein of the well-known NFT projects “Bored Ape” and “Cryptopunks.” Flurksnft.com is the project’s official website. The team then sold through their entire stock of NFTs in 22 minutes.

Stonetoss emphasized, “The project received a total of about 420 Ethereum, [which] is comparable to about 1.8 million USD. The artwork was instantly the subject of speculation on secondary marketplaces like Opensea.io and Rarible.com, as is customary with NFTs (the two largest markets in the NFT space). Undoubtedly, the startling sell-out moment was a sign of tremendous demand, according to Stonetoss. The anonymous cartoonist added: The total trade of the Flurks NFTs on Opensea hit 100 Ethereum within around six hours of the sell-out. Around that time, Opensea reportedly delisted Flurks from their site, prohibiting additional purchases for reasons we don’t understand. We were later removed from Rare for unexplained reasons at some point after that.

Stonetoss claims the form of Art Is ‘No More Dangerous

Stonetoss said that the Flurks NFT collection was relisted on Rarible the following day but was immediately removed again. The cartoonist believes political censorship is to blame for Rarible delisting the NFTs twice despite not knowing why. “We think that the political censorship attempts behind this deplatforming on Opensea and Rarible. Due to the political nature of my cartoons, I have frequently been the focus of deplatforming operations by individuals who disagree with me. I have responded to several of the allegations that individuals trying to deplatform my work have made against it, the cartoonist added.

I specifically reject being associated with political extremism, such as being a “nazi” or having any form of violent personal convictions. I believe that speaking jokes that some people don’t want to hear is no more harmful than what Dave Chappelle does,” the musician continued. The cartoonist continued by saying that the artist’s team addressed the complaints through its formal outreach to the sites on Twitter and sincerely tagged the founders of Opensea and Rarible. “Despite contacting Opensea and Rarible via their official support systems and Twitter, we have not gotten a response regarding the reason for the de-platforming. We posit that it might be because some of the NFT artworks in the collection were randomly assigned the trait of a Confederate flag, Stonetoss told Bitcoin.com News. “As stated in the Twitter post, we added Pride flags, Gadsden Flags, and a blouse with a hammer and sickle as attributes. We think it’s clear that, in this situation, adding a Confederate flag doesn’t support the Confederacy any more than wearing a hammer-and-sickle shirt does, the cartoonist added.

Online Reaction

The NFT community quickly reacted online, with many claiming that NFTs were being “co-opted” and utilized by someone embedding political symbols, like the Confederate flag, in NFT format. On November 20th, 2021, just after the initial sell-out, Twitter user Andrew Wang noted this in a tweet. His tweet was the first of several that questioned the collection and how it was deemed appropriate to sell. Others who weren’t as knowledgeable about NFTs were furious that StoneToss, who has been involved in numerous scandals throughout his multi-year career creating political webcomics, was able to make about $1.8 million in 22 minutes, as demonstrated by a tweet sent on November 20th, 2021, by user @McFilly, which received 260 likes in two days and was ratio’d by StoneToss in a QRT.

Delisting

About five hours after the Flurks were first sold, on November 20th, 2021, it was stated that OpenSea had formally delisted the collection, making it impossible to purchase, sell, or even display it on the marketplace. The next action was to transfer Flurk’s sales to Rarible, which did the same thing the next day by eliminating Flurks from its marketplace. It was intended to remove and close down the collection, but what happened is what is known as the “Streisand Effect.” Though neither OpenSea nor Rarible have provided a specific explanation for their delisting decisions, it is assumed that Flurks were deleted due to the StoneToss debate.

Then, as shown in the tweet by RemigiusCrypto on November 20th, people on Twitter started to criticize OpenSea and Rarible for their censorship of a collection solely based on politics, even though the blockchain technology upon which they were built is supposed to be decentralized. The delisting was subsequently utilized as a marketing strategy by StoneToss and other project supporters. Future tweets from StoneToss and others refer to the Flurks as “illegal memes” and claim that P2P is the only true way to purchase them right now. Some have claimed that this is because P2P is more following the original cryptocurrency network. Flurk owners and enthusiasts compared Flurks to a “persecuted and in danger class”, as evidenced in the tweet by JoelNeumann the same day, declaring that “Flurk Lives Matter” as a result of StoneToss and Flurks being both accused of Nazism during the release.

Conclusion

Because NFT has lately gained popularity, people are attempting to devise work strategies to obtain certification in the NFT business centre. In any event, there are mixed reactions to the NFTs made on stoneToss via web-based media. While it is evident that the stoneToss flurks  NFT collection was not well received by fans, he is still doing more to prove the correctness and the importance of the flurks NFT in the crypto marketplace.