Crypto exchange Binance has been accused of “blatantly” copying hackathon winner BNB Chain after launching Bicasso – an AI-based nonfungible token (NFT) creation tool. Binance allegedly removed the tool created by Chatcasso just two months after giving the first prize at the BNB Chain hackathon held in Seoul between December 17 and 19, 2022.
On March 1, Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao declare the launch of Bicasso, an artificial intelligence (AI) product that can be used to “turn your creative vision into NFT with AI.” However, members of the ggoma community believe that Binance copied the Chatcasso project and presented it as its own offering.
“Keep building” – @cz_binance said.
What they didn’t say – “If you build it well, we’ll blatantly copy it and ship it as our product!”
The story of Binance stealing our project, we won 1st place in the BNB Chain hackathon https://t.co/ejc5Z7w9o1
— ggoma (@0xggoma) March 2, 2023
Binance, on the other hand, denied the theft allegations. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Binance spokesperson said that Bicasso is an experimental project built by a small team at Binance as a test and that NFT and AI are common concepts that many industry players are working on.
Chatcasso won first prize in the BNB Chain hackathon for creating an AI-powered tool to create NFTs and won $5,000 in Binance USD (BUSD).
However, ggoma was surprised to see Binance create a similar platform in two months, as he said:
“Big companies like Binance copy everything down to the name? It’s not only unethical, but also confusing for users. Their names are so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart.
In addition, ggoma shared screenshots of the two projects in an effort to showcase the similarities between the user interface and capabilities.
Binance, however, maintains that similarities do not mean stealing ideas. A spokesperson for the exchange told Cointelegraph:
“However, after conducting an internal review, we believe that Bicasso was designed and developed independently more than two weeks before the BNB hackathon.”
Additionally, Binance and BNB Chain operate separately and the Binance development team did not participate in the BNB Chain hackathon, the crypto exchange said. On the other hand, ggoma shows his distaste for the same name of the two platforms:
“Big companies like Binance copy everything down to the name? It’s not only unethical, but also confusing for users. Their names are so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart.
Binance clarified to Cointelegraph that the name Bicasso was derived after inspiration from the OpenAI tool ‘Dall-E,’ which is a reference to the artist Dali, adding “Our team loves this concept.”
The whole episode made ggoma skeptical about entering future hackathons because he wondered if the idea would be replaced by the market leader at a later stage. “I hope Binance understands the impact of its actions and takes steps to correct its mistakes,” added ggoma while warning developers that “there are companies out there that will try to steal your hard work.”
Binance’s Bicasso became an instant hit among NFT investors as the AI-powered NFT generator recorded 10,000 minutes in 2.5 hours.
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CZ recently warned investors that a photo of misinformation was being circulated on WeChat, a social media platform in China.
Someone took this photo, and it went viral on WeChat in China. They said I was shot by the FBI, who worked with our team… ♂️ 4. pic.twitter.com/2Iz7c1QgA8
– CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 3, 2023
CZ further highlights the importance of dispelling fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) and advises investors not to ignore false allegations that arise from time to time.