You may encounter the term “doxxing” on the Internet or in virtual space. Being a victim of doxxing is not a pleasant experience. Doxxing, on the other hand, can also be used to fight scammers.

How do you know that you are a doxxing victim?

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Simply put, doxxing (or doxing) is the act of involuntarily disclosing identity or personal information. According to many, doxxing is a form of cyberbullying.

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What did the name doxxing originate from?

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Scammers and hackers abbreviated documents to “docs” and then “dox” in the early days of Web 1.0. Doxxing is thus the involuntary “release of personal documents”, containing data such as addresses, phone numbers or financial records.

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Interestingly, the iconic hacker collective Anonymous is responsible for popularizing the term. They are infamous for doxxing prominent people to expose their wrongdoing.

What does it mean to become doxxed in the NFT space?

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As with many internet subcultures, anonymity is a guarded domain in the NFT and cryptocurrency industry. In the era of KYC and various restrictions, maintaining anonymity is increasingly difficult.

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Virtual space makes it possible to communicate online without people showing their faces or using their real names. For some, it is for security reasons, for example, so that they are not an easy target for hackers and other criminals. For others, it is simply more comfortable and pleasant.

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However, with scams on the rise in crypto, NFT, and the metaverse, there is pressure for people to doxx themselves rather than remain anonymous.

Unfortunately, this is the result of human abuse of anonymity for fraudulent activities and money laundering. Because of this, it is increasingly difficult to trust projects whose authors are unknown, and anonymity seems rather suspicious these days.

This leads to a situation where more and more people are being doxxed (often simply by showing their face), especially project founders.

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Are people being pushed to doxxing?

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In short - yes. This mainly concerns the publication of names and faces. It is rarely necessary to publish addresses or other information.

We don't have to go far for an example. We at Charlie Gaming are also exposed to doxxing and encounter it daily. If we want to collaborate on a project, it is customary to meet in person or organize a video call where we reveal our faces and names. On the contrary, if we evaluate a newly emerging project, we focus on whether the team is not ashamed of the project and does not hide behind avatars and fictitious nicknames. Doxxing automatically adds credibility to such projects.

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