According to critics, anyone making money from NFTs should seek anonymity because what they are selling is worthless. However, the creators are concerned about putting their loved ones in danger.

The two lifelong friends from Florida had never sought fame, but when they built a multimillion-dollar empire selling digital art, everyone wanted to know who they were.

They created the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" under the aliases "Gargamel" and "Gordon Goner," a collection of 10,000 cartoons of apes with various hairstyles and outfits.

These images are sold as digital tokens (NFTs), and it is now difficult to find one for less than $280,000, thanks in part to celebrity endorsements from Paris Hilton to Serena Williams.

BuzzFeed, a US news outlet, did some digging earlier this month and discovered their true identities, sparking an outpouring of rage among fans on social media.

"Doxing is wack, putting people in danger," one Twitter user said, using internet jargon for identifying someone against their will.

The story has re-emphasized the importance of anonymity in the world of cryptocurrencies.

While the creators of "Bored Apes" may prefer to remain anonymous in the crypto world, they are the owners of a company called Yuga Labs, which requires them to follow all of the usual rules of company filings, including providing named beneficiaries.

"Using an alias does not make you anonymous," says Alexander Stachtenko, a cryptocurrency expert at KPMG.

The possibility of robbery

It's unclear why the Bored Apes founders wanted to remain anonymous, given that they'd given several interviews under aliases.

According to critics, anyone making money from NFTs should seek anonymity because what they are selling is worthless.

Fans, on the other hand, enjoy being a part of a community where NFT ownership is frequently a gateway to games and other perks.

In any case, anyone amassing significant wealth in this field has compelling reasons to remain anonymous.

"I don't need the public in crypto to know who I am, what I look like, or my origins," says "Owl of Moistness," a creator.

"I don't want to put myself in danger of being robbed or having my family harmed."

In the Philippines, where the NFT craze has taken hold, he co-founded Yield Guild Games, a startup focused on NFT video games.

He emphasises that the blockchain technology, which underpins cryptocurrencies and NFTs, is a ledger where anyone can trace transactions.

By linking his crypto and real-world identities, anyone would be able to discover his wealth.

However, the greater the scope of a project, the more difficult it is to remain unknown.

"It becomes more difficult if you want to expand your team," Soona Amhaz of Volt Capital, a cryptocurrency-focused fund, says.

The most equitable method

Creating a DAO is one of the most popular ways to remain anonymous in the crypto world (decentralised autonomous organisation).

DAOs enable people to collaborate and act in the same way that a company would, essentially acting as shareholders but without formal legal standing or named owners.

Anyone making a profit would still have to pay taxes, but tying real-world people to these entities is a much more difficult task than, say, searching public records to find the Bored Apes founders.

From "Zeus," the creator of the Olympus cryptocurrency, to "Code Monkey," the creator of the Port Finance cryptocurrency, this model has served anonymous entrepreneurs well.

However, many people take advantage of the expectation of anonymity for nefarious purposes.

According to Chainalysis, DAOs and other decentralised entities are particularly vulnerable to fraud.

AnubisDAO was one such entity, founded last October by anonymous programmers with nothing more than a Twitter account and a logo.

According to Chainalysis, it vanished less than a day after it launched, stealing nearly $60 million from investors.

In the crypto world, it appears that the tide is turning against anonymity.

To combat this type of fraud, most of the larger cryptocurrency exchanges now require identity checks.

Soona Amhaz, on the other hand, believes there are still benefits to the DAO concept, arguing that they are policed by the blockchain.

Anyone can investigate the transactions of a specific DAO to determine whether they are legitimate or suspicious.

She also mentions another significant benefit.

"It doesn't matter if you're a pseudonymous person if you didn't go to the right school," she says.

"It is only your work and reputation that are being evaluated. And it is one of the most objective ways to assess someone."

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