Cryptocurrency

"BNB Chain hackathon winner accuses Binance of stealing AI-powered NFTs idea"

2023-03-01 [vendor] Developers accuse Binance of stealing their [chain] bsc
Primary Source ↗
Blockchain(s) Bsc

Incident Details

If you’re thinking about entering into a BNB Chain hackathon, you might want to think again. On March 1, Binance announced a new “Bitcasso” product: a tool for users to create NFTs via AI image-generation.Shortly after its launch, a group of developers accused Binance of stealing an idea they had presented at a December 2022 BNB Chain hackathon. Those developers had been awarded first place and $5,000 for “Chatcasso”, a nearly identical tool.Binance has refuted the allegations of theft, with a spokesperson acknowledging the “similarities” but claiming that “Bicasso was designed and developed independently more than two weeks before the BNB hackathon”.“It’s disheartening to see a company that claims to support innovation and development steal from the very people who are working hard to build the ecosystem. Who would feel safe entering a hackathon? I don’t.” wrote one of the developers from the team. The developer also stated that they had not signed any contracts that would have assigned the rights to their work to the company, as is the case in some hackathons.

Technical Details

Initial Attack Vector
AI-assisted attack or AI-generated exploit
Vendor / Product
Developers accuse Binance of stealing their

Timeline

  1. 2023-03-01 Breach occurred
  2. 2023-03-01 Publicly disclosed