Ornella Hernandez

NFT marketplace OpenSea has been delisting the accounts of NFT artists located in Cuba and other countries facing US sanctions for the past few months.&nbsp;



OpenSea <a href="https://twitter.com/nftcubaart/status/1602301816749842433?s=20&amp;t=tqNPe3G6sw_t-uIKjRiz1A" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a> the reason was “due to activity that goes against our Terms of Service,” in an email written to accounts such as NFTcuba.art on Twitter.



Its terms of service <a href="https://opensea.io/tos" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">state</a> that use of OpenSea is prohibited for persons “located in, ordinarily resident in, or organized under the laws of, any Embargoed Jurisdiction” or “subject to any sanctions administered by an agency of the U.S. Government.”



Some of those sanctioned countries include Syria, Iran, Venezuela and the Republic of Cuba — an island that the United States has maintained a trade embargo with since the 1960s. However, despite OpenSea operating since 2017, it didn’t target Cuban-based accounts until recently.&nbsp;



OpenSea’s recent moves may be part of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/as-opensea-flexes-marketplace-influence-some-users-are-worried">recent policy ch</a><a href="https://blockworks.co/news/as-opensea-flexes-marketplace-influence-some-users-are-worried" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a</a><a href="https://blockworks.co/news/as-opensea-flexes-marketplace-influence-some-users-are-worried">nges to make its verification processes more stringent</a>. The result is a string of delistings of smaller creators with little to no clear explanations.



“We comply with US sanctions law,” an OpenSea spokesperson told Blockworks via email.&nbsp;



When asked why OpenSea seemed to be backtracking on their support of Cuban artists, the spokesperson added, “We continue to holistically evaluate what other measures need to be taken to serve our community and comply with applicable law.”



Artnet has <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/nft-marketplace-opensea-delisting-cuban-artists-us-sanctions-2235440" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> that more than 30 artists and collectors have been banned on OpenSea so far. Some of those now-banned artists had even participated in OpenSea’s second-ever Twitter Spaces in 2021, according to the artist David Ollua.



Another smaller NFT marketplace called KnownOrigin has followed OpenSea in geoblocking Cuba-based accounts.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MetaMask’s similar moves</h3>



Ollua’s OpenSea account was suspended back in August, <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidUlloaCuba/status/1563519273368031234?s=20&amp;t=pSA9kSqOYX6rpG05Z0UCRA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deleting</a> four of his collections. In December, he received an error message when he tried to send one of his NFTs to a customer via the ConsenSys-backed crypto wallet MetaMask. “This is by far no web 3,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidUlloaCuba/status/1601578718392000512?s=20&amp;t=XK3SZ3Hl1Qebxzfdkkja2Q" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>.



It appeared that not only did OpenSea block access for Cubans in December, but so did MetaMask’s default settings.&nbsp;



In the comments of Ollua’s tweet, he said that he found a workaround for the Ethereum Main Network restriction by switching the default <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#remote-procedure-call-rpc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Remote Procedure Call</a> (RPC) node in MetaMask to a custom node, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/consensys-wants-your-ip-address-crypto-wallet-bank-account" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bypassing the default</a> provided by Infura.&nbsp;



A similar issue occurred earlier this year when MetaMask users in Venezuela reported trouble connecting to Ethereum decentralized apps using Metamask. They speculated that it was due to the US sanctions on the country, although at the time, MetaMask and Infura <a href="https://twitter.com/MetaMask/status/1499448223399759896?s=20&amp;t=-pO3JJ9HAhRHOWv-GRj3Ig" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that there had been an incorrect configuration that led to the problem, which was swiftly corrected.



MetaMask did not immediately return Blockworks’ request for comment on whether the incidents are related.



This raises concerns as to how decentralized marketplaces like OpenSea or wallets like MetaMask truly are if users may lose access unexpectedly at any given time.



Generative NFT artist Ivona Tau, who mainly sells her work on the Tezos-supported NFT marketplace <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/miami-art-week-but-crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fxhash</a>, said the situation “saddens” her. She posits that the bright side would be “if tomorrow an alternative platform emerged that would be fairer for artists, it would be possible for everyone to switch to that — this is the power of Web3.”&nbsp;



“The blockchain is not owned by these platforms and we don&#8217;t have to use them. There are alternatives,” Tau added.



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Cuba

Cuban NFT Artists Encounter Restriction of Web3 Freedom

Jacquelyn Melinek

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<div id="highlights-block_6137975cbee50" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bitcoin holders globally shared support for the country on Tuesday by advocating for users to buy $30 of bitcoin, to match the $30 given to Salvadorans</li>
 <li>But the positive movement faced opposite results as bitcoin fell 10.3% on the day to about $47,000 as of 12:30 pm ET, after hefty liquidations of about 2.87 billion in cryptocurrency occurred in the past four hours</li>
 </ul>
 
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Tuesday marks the official beginning of El Salvador adopting bitcoin as its national legal tender alongside the US dollar. Now, Salvadorans can use bitcoin to pay taxes, rent and lunch at <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1435243693515104256" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">McDonalds</a> while also receiving a paycheck in the cryptocurrency. 



The 40-year-old President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1435197879795212291" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared</a> on Tuesday that the country was off to a bumpy start with the roll out of bitcoin across the country as Chivo, the official wallet of the government for bitcoin and dollar purchases, faced technical difficulties. 



Bukele said he plans to spend more than $225 million for the country’s adoption of bitcoin and is giving $30 worth of bitcoin to individuals who download and use Chivo. With that, the government-owned wallet went offline temporarily as the capacity of the servers was being increased from its current levels, indicating that many citizens were trying to onboard.



Separately, the El Salvador government bought 400 bitcoins on Monday and an additional 150 bitcoins on Tuesday as the cryptocurrency market dipped, bringing its total holding to 550 bitcoins at the time of publication. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">It appears the discount is ending 🥲 Thanks for the dip <a href="https://twitter.com/IMFNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IMFNews</a>. We saved a million in printed paper. El Salvador now holds 550 bitcoin.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BitcoinDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BitcoinDay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BTC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BTC</a> 🇸🇻&mdash; Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1435263064933285898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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As with all innovation, the process of implementing bitcoin will have a learning curve and can take more than a day or even a month to roll out, Bukele <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1435029027434213383" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> in Spanish. “But we must break the paradigms of the past. El Salvador has the right to advance towards the first world,” he added. 



Bitcoin holders globally shared support for the country on Tuesday by advocating for users to buy $30 of bitcoin, to match the $30 given to Salvadorans. But the positive movement faced opposite results as bitcoin fell 10.3% on the day to about $47,000 as of 12:30 pm ET, after hefty liquidations of about <a href="https://www.bybt.com/LiquidationData" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2.87 billion</a> in cryptocurrency occurred in the past four hours. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Crypto proposals in Panama&nbsp;</h3>



While El Salvador makes its adoption of bitcoin official, other Latin American countries like Panama are also making moves to accept cryptocurrencies, too.&nbsp;



A Panamanian Congressman Gabrial Silva <a href="https://twitter.com/gabrielsilva8_7/status/1435259290676310022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> Monday that he was presenting “The Crypto Law” to make Panama “compatible with blockchain, crypto assets, and the internet.” The law has the potential to create jobs, attract investment and bring transparency, he added. The proposed <a href="https://www.gabrielsilvadiputado.com/cryptoeng" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">law</a> would promote the use of blockchain in public administration to make processes more transparent and efficient, it said. 



In the past politicians from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico and other countries have expressed interest and support for the cryptocurrency, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/el-salvador-approves-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-in-supermajority/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



While the Panama-based proposal is a step toward crypto adoption for the country, it is not the same as El Salvador’s implementation of bitcoin as legal currency. The proposed crypto bill does not aim to require bitcoin adoption across the nation in businesses like El Salvador, but calls for the allowance of cryptocurrencies to be accepted for taxes, fees and other payments in Panama. Additionally, the law aims to provide legal, regulatory and fiscal certainty to the use of crypto assets, but the use of cryptocurrencies would be optional, not mandatory, it said.&nbsp;



In July, JPMorgan put out a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/is-bitcoin-or-the-u-s-dollar-a-bigger-risk-to-el-salvadors-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> stating that El Salvador’s approval of bitcoin as a legal tender could create issues for the Central American nation’s economy and the digital asset. According to the document, JPMorgan cited illiquidity, high volatility, and U.S. dollar conversion as obstacles for bitcoin as a medium of exchange and questioned the illiquidities tied to bitcoin.



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