Since the end of March, a small corner of the Web3 Twittersphere has been playing a fun and frantic game of NFT trading.
It’s called Stealcam and it looks like this: users connect their crypto wallets to the platform and upload images or videos that instantly become NFTs. These are pixelated beyond recognition by anyone but the owner. Users are encouraged to steal NFTs from each other, with the price increasing by 10% with each forced transfer.
The victim of the NFT theft is refunded the price they paid with the excess amount – call it a crypto tithe – split between the creator of the image and the former owner, who both receive 45%, and stealcamwhich claims the remaining 10%.
Stealcam calls its NFTs “souvenirs” and has gained traction largely through social posting on Twitter. It’s like the brash blockchain cousin of BeReal (the social media app that asks its users to share a picture of themselves at random times throughout the day), but laden with the financial dynamics of crypto and the social dynamics that are unique to it. Stealcam’s tagline? “Fly to reveal.”
Works on Stealcam by [clockwise from top-left] blua_discordia, rkeinwold, erogwen and 0xPresley. Photo: Stealcam.
If this sounds like a comment on the ever-fluctuating values of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, this is an unintended consequence of the success of the web application. Stealcam was started by pseudonymous developers known as Racer and Shrimp due to an interest in building social apps for crypto platforms.
“We didn’t intend the platform itself to be a commentary, although I see where that’s coming from,” Racer told Artnet News. “We wanted to focus more on empowering creators than trying to be artists or creators ourselves.” One aspect of this idea is that people’s daily moments have value, which can be measured in ETH.
The scene on Stealcam, as Racer described it, is made up of crypto natives, who see it as a playful extension of already established social media circles, and “net artists” who push the app to its artistic limit. by playing with concepts such as pixelation and interactivity (image descriptions are, inevitably, a secret). quoted rider SHL0MSStealcam’s top performer, as a good example.
One of the most active artists on Stealcam is Ben DeMeter who creates abstract geometric art using AI models under the name ArtGhost. DeMeter came to Stealcam by chance, having struggled to gain traction on established Web3 platforms.
“It was like in the early days of Web3, ‘a thing’ was being built, but nobody knew what to do with ‘the thing,'” DeMeter told Artnet News. “People were experimenting. Drop sketches or practice pieces or photos of themselves wearing clothes. I saw an opportunity to do something bold: deposit an entire collection.
Ben DeMeter, Dunescape #6: Vapor City (2023). Photo courtesy of Ben DeMeter.
As this suggests, compared to other NFT platforms or marketplaces, Stealcam is decidedly low stakes and low barrier to entry, partly due to low prices. This extends to the art created on the app, which Racer describes as poor, often in-progress production quality and an extension of the “underrated ethos.”
Activity on Stealcam may have cooled off a bit in recent weeks, but Racer and Shrimp plan to expand Stealcam further by offering workarounds to crypto wallets so any artist can join. Next, Racer hopes to launch adjacent projects related to text, audio, or social media profiles with similar dynamics.
“Gamification,” Racer said, “is vibe.”
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