RTFKT Causes Controversy After Changing LeBron James’ CloneX NFT
RTFKT Causes Controversy After Changing Lebron James’ CloneX NFT.
Changes To Lebron’s NFT
Recently, big blue-chip NFT project RTFKT stirred up controversy in the NFT community after a number of users noticed some changes that were made to one of the NFTs in their collection.
The NFT revealed to be CloneX #7968 was made specifically for basketball player Lebron James were given two specific trait and metadata changes, including being given a new “Chosen One Crown” as well as “LBJ Beard” to mirror that of Lebron James’ real life features.
. @RTFKT x @KingJames?
they updated this clone and now it has 2 1/1 traits
🔥 LBJ BEARD & CHOSEN 1 CRWN 🔥https://t.co/7QalWpXhcM pic.twitter.com/FzYzfhdGma
— Gushy (@Nft_Gushy) September 8, 2022
Community’s Response
The community were split with opinions at the news of these sudden metadata changes to the NFT, with some being against it while others voiced their opinion that it may not be a bad thing.
Those in the community viewed these trait changes to be a negative thing criticized that the idea of being able to change traits in a collection anytime a creator wanted to would defeat the whole purpose and idea of having rare traits in the first place.
Some popular NFT influencers, like Twitter user @Degentraland doubled down on this opinion, tweeting “Changing a collection’s metadata almost a year after launch sets a horrible precedent. Are any assets actually rare if the company can clone your exact traits? Do we really own anything if metadata is stored off-chain?”
Changing a collection’s metadata almost a year after launch sets a horrible precedent.
Are any assets actually rare if the company can clone your exact traits? Do we really own anything if metadata is stored off-chain?
That said… I’m down to make an exception for Lebron.
— Degentraland (@Degentraland) September 8, 2022
However, some members of the RTFKT community have defended these changes, saying that it’s only natural for a big star like Lebron James to have their own 1 of 1 NFT and making changes to the metadata for instances like this won’t affect the collection that much as a whole.
Aside from that, RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo has also recently opened up on the controversy, defending his teams decision to make these changes.
Secondly, we are deploying a unique approach, totally innovative, leveraging both web3 & web2, with metadata on chain which are ONLY fully controllable by the owner of the Clone. I don't get how this is not more praised, but anyway. https://t.co/auht6UoLLC
— SamuelCardillo.eth – RTFKT (@CardilloSamuel) September 10, 2022
Cardillo explains that since it was first created, RTFKT’s CloneX collection was created to be an innovative project where holders will be able to control and change their metadata in the future.
Not everyone is satisfied with this answer, however, as a number of CloneX holders have continued to voice their concerns and protests on Twitter, like user @RandyHercules who says “Reading from the feedback on twitter it’s more of a question how many celebs/athletes get a clone with 1/1 traits, since that will not be beneficial for (rare) clone holders in terms of rarity. Some people are against the ethos of changing metadata at all after mint.“
With such divided opinions within the community on the act of changing Clones’ metadata, it seems like this will continue to be an ongoing debated issue for the RTFKT team and their community.
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