Photokeratitis, often called “snow blindness” by climbers, is essentially a sunburn of the eye caused by prolonged exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays. This condition damages the cornea, which is the outer lens responsible for directing light to the retina. Reasons can range from extended snow trips without proper eye protection to attending fading NFT industry gatherings.
On Tuesday, the creator of the second most valuable set of non-fungible tokens confirmed that he had received numerous complaints from Bored Ape NFT owners who may have developed photokeratitis after dancing all night in their home. Epfest Last week in Hong Kong, I then downplayed its importance.
“Based on our estimates, we believe that well under 1% of event attendees and staff have these symptoms,” the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s official account said, after “proactively reaching out” to attendees.
Instead of using harmless black fluorescent lighting to make an impact, organizers appear to have used germicidal disinfectant lamps, either by mistake or negligence.
These produce a form of ultraviolet rays powerful enough to kill organic matter at the cellular level, and are commonly used in the food and beverage industry as a chemical-free sterilization method. Their high-powered lamps likely burned the corneal epithelium, causing pain.
Fixed this post for you pic.twitter.com/KcFSQzXU1S
– ZackXPT (@ZackXPT) November 6, 2023
Layoffs at leading NFT trading platform
Last week’s unfortunate incident is emblematic of Silicon Valley’s libertarian tech bro culture interested in taking shortcuts to make a quick buck rather than accountability.
This was best demonstrated this spring after venture capitalists and founders launched a historic $140 billion run on their private banks before then demanding a government bailout to make their deposits whole.
Like the bulk of NFTs, Bored Apes are a series of 10,000 generated images using a common theme that are “minted” on the blockchain by an algorithm and sold as investments and collectibles.
Before last May’s crypto crash caused by the collapse of Do Kwon’s TerraUSD stablecoin, the minimum price for Bored Ape exceeded $400,000 with versions featuring more rare attributes trading for much more. Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz ended up investing $450 million with Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape, early that same year.
The Apefest infections are just the latest low point in a virtual collectibles market that has been a major beneficiary of the Federal Reserve’s digital money printer working overtime.
Just last week, leading NFT trading platform OpenSea said it would cut every second job at the company amid declining interest.
The scene has become so synonymous with scams and “scams” that Yuga Labs and its affiliates placed a disclaimer after their social media posts on There may be spam or phishing attempts by scammers.
