Tracy Wang
1 Jan 2022
The parody projects expose the absurdity of NFT communities and intellectual property concerns surrounding digital images.
It’s a Bored Ape face-off.
On Wednesday, two Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) parody projects gained momentum on crypto Twitter, igniting plagiarism accusations, several trading bans and a robust supply of ape-themed memes.
The two collections – both named PHAYC, a play on “fake” and “BAYC” – appear to be identical copies of the original BAYC collection, but with each ape’s profile mirrored to the opposite side, or “left-facing”.
One PHAYC collection’s Twitter bio read: “PHAYC IT TIL YOU MAKE IT.” The other read: “Apes phace left on the right side of History.”
Within hours, profile pictures boasting left-facing cartoon primates saturated crypto Twitter with members tweeting self-deprecating NFT humor.
“I think the project is a satirical take on the current state of NFTs and members of the NFT community who might be taking the NFT market a little too seriously,” said Twitter user @rootslashbin (“root”), a member of the PHAYC community.