The Ghozali effect: Indonesians are selling their ID cards and random stuff as NFTs

The success of Ghazali in the NFT world prompted people to follow his path by selling random stuff as NFTs on OpenSea. Some sell food, while others sell clothes, cupboards and many more. Some even decided to sell a photo of their identity cards. 

As reported by CNN Indonesia, account Yahya_kids sold his selfie while holding his electronic identity card (e-KTP) as a NFT for 0.5 ethereum, equivalent to Rp23 million. This type of selfie is known as one of the requirements for verification and validation (verivali) in almost every online-based application or service.

The Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration warned the public to be aware about the importance of personal data protection. 

“Selling photos of documents and taking selfies with e-KTP is a very risky act as it may lead to fraud/crimes by data scavengers or irresponsible parties as such data 'can' be resold in the underground market or be used for online economic transactions such as online loans,” said Director General of Population and Civil Registration Zudan Arif Fakrulloh.

Metaverse expert from Indonesia Digital Millenial Cooperatives (IDM Co-op) MC Basyar also warned Indonesians about the danger of selling identity cards as NFTs.

“If you sell your ID card, then put it on the NFT marketplace, the ID card will be connected to blockchain technology which has a smart contract,” he told detikcom. Once purchased, data included in the NFT will become the buyer’s universal intellectual property rights. 

Zudan also said that according to Article 96 and Article 96A of Law No. 24/2013 on the Amendment to Law Number 23/2006 concerning Population Administration, those who post personal documents including photo of electronic ID cards on online media can be sentenced to 10 years in prison with a maximum fine of Rp1 billion.