Daily Times

Paris: The two lifelong friends from Florida never sought the limelight, but then they built a multi-million-dollar empire selling digital art and people wanted to know who they were.

Under the pseudonyms “Gargamel” and “Gordon Goner”, they created the “Bored Ape Yacht Club”, a collection of 10,000 cartoons of apes with various hairstyles and outfits.

They sell these images as digital tokens (NFTs), and it is now hard to get one for less than $280,000, thanks partly to celebrity endorsements from the likes of Paris Hilton to Serena Williams.

US news outlet BuzzFeed did some sleuthing earlier this month and uncovered their true identities — sparking an outpouring of anger among fans on social media.

“Doxing is wack, putting people at risk,” wrote one Twitter user, employing internet slang for identifying someone against their will.

The story has refocused attention on anonymity in the world of cryptocurrencies.

While the creators of the “Bored Apes” may like to hide in the crypto world, they are owners of a business called Yuga Labs, so they have to follow all the usual rules of company filings, including providing named beneficiaries.

“Using a pseudonym does not make you anonymous,” says Alexander Stachtenko, a cryptocurrency expert for the firm KPMG.