Recently, Magic Eden, the largest non-fungible token marketplace in Solana, responded to critics
A Magic Eden spokesperson responded to Decrypt’s questions about the platform’s security and custody practices
In June, Magic Eden, which launched last fall and now accounts for roughly 90% of Solana’s trading volume, was valued at $1.6 billion
Centralization is one of the criticisms that have been leveled at the platform by the Solana NFT community. In particular, developers and users have griped over the platform’s limitation of third-party tools and the way the marketplace handles NFT custody. Some critics say the platform has security flaws that could put user assets at risk for an attack.
“Marty”, the pseudonymous founder of Web3 studio Zion Labs told Decrypt that users should be made aware of the significant security risks:
People should be 100% aware that a hacker could get the keys to Magic Eden and ‘rug’ everyone of their NFTs. This wouldn’t happen if it was decentralized and if their code was open-source.
Magic Eden responded to its critics, telling Decrypt that the marketplace intends to transition to an escrow-less system in the future. However, the NFT platform says that the current technology is not “secure enough yet.”
The report highlights a recent tweet thread by NFT marketplace OpenSea that attempts to explain why OpenSea, unlike Magic Eden, does not “require sellers to custody their listed NFTs.”
