Binance Hackathon Winner Accuses the Company of Copying His AI-to-NFT Platform
The co-founder of Chatcasso has accused Binance of ripping off the idea behind the artificial intelligence NFT platform after it was presented in a recent BNB Chain Hackathon.
Binance revealed its eerily similar project Bicasso, an AI platform based on non-fungible tokens (NFT) on March 2, igniting the controversy.
Hackathon Winner Accuses Binance
Cho Young-hwi, the co-founder of Hunt and the designer of Chatcasso, took to Twitter to raise the issue. He was shocked at Bicasso’s launch and said, “Wow, I never imagined that Binance would copy my service presented during Binance’s BNB Chain Hackathon.”
He also shared the original pitch from the hackathon to strengthen his case. One Twitter user retorted that Binance might be able to claim ownership of ideas submitted at the hackathon. The user argued that while it is unethical, Binance could get away without paying for or crediting those ideas.
Per rules, Binance Hackathon submissions are only made on Binance Smart Chain. The company-associated judges evaluate the open-source submissions to invite them to later rounds.
Project7 shared the interview, confirming the Chatcasso NFT project incorporation on the first night of the hackathon. Notably, Young-hwi’s platform later integrated the idea.
Increasing Interest in NFTs
By solving the design issue, the platform allows anyone to implement their ideas as NFTs. Which, Young-hwi calls one of the ‘pain points’ in NFTs.
Just like Chatcasso, Bicasso uses AI technology on texts to mint NFTs. Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of Binance, launched the beta version on March 1, where users can mint one of 10,000 NFTs in the current version of the program.
That said, the hackathon winner also attributes the platform idea to increasing interest in the digital collectibles market.
He noted, “We believe that NFTs will be used more often in everyday life beyond web3.”
NFT TVL via DappRadar
For the first time since May 2022, the Ethereum blockchain exceeded $2 billion in NFT volume. Following the FTX crash, the NFT market has experienced somewhat of a revival.
However, research by DappRadar suggests that the launch of the Blur marketplace took the market back to a pre-LUNA era. Blur has dominated the market with $1.3 billion in trading activity, making it the primary driver of the resurgence.
