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Is the future of Twitter decentralized?
Is Do Kwon (still) on the run?
Trending articles
NFT of the Day
IS THE FUTURE OF TWITTER DECENTRALIZED?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Elon Musk’s plan to buy Twitter is… BACK ON!
After initially offering to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, Elon spent months trying to backtrack his decision. He claims that it was because Twitter had lied to him about their bot count.
However, many speculate that Elon tried to back out of the deal, after realizing that he was massively overpaying for Twitter (this was before the stock market had crashed). Fast forward to this week, and it appears that Elon’s lawyers convinced him that it was a losing battle.
At first glance, this may not feel like a crypto related story. That is, until you read some of the texts that leaked as part of the legal dispute. Specifically, there was an exchange Elon had with Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey, that raised some eyebrows in the Web3 community:
For years much of the focus around blockchain innovation, has been on decentralizing the financial system. However, in recent years, we’ve seen a number of projects arise that are attempting to decentralize social media as well.
There’s an argument to be made that social media is just as centralized (if not more centralized) than the financial industry. Just a few companies control online discourse, and this has led to problems ranging from censorship to predatory revenue share agreements with creators.
By moving users’ social graphs & content onto blockchain networks, it could disrupt the centralization of social media and tip the scales back in favor of users & creators.
Among the projects attempting to solve this problem are teams like DeSo blockchain, Lens (by the AAVE team), Farcaster, and even Jack Dorsey’s pet project Blue Sky.
So far these projects have struggled to overcome the powerful network effects of apps like Twitter. However, with new use cases like content portability & social tipping, that may soon change.
One key question is whether Elon will keep the status quo at Twitter, or if he will join these teams in the race to decentralize social media.
IS DO KWON (STILL) ON THE RUN?
It’s been almost 4 months since the “stablecoin” Terra lost it’s peg to $1, and brought down not only the Terra/Luna ecosystem; but also, the entire crypto industry’s marketcap with it.
The crypto market still has not recovered from the event, and neither have many of the investors that lost significant portions of their life savings along with it.
Ironically, one person who appeared to be bouncing back quickly from the collapse was the man responsible for it all, Do Kwon.
In late May, Do Kwon and the Terraform Labs team launched a new blockchain, and their new token now sits in the top 100.
Do Kwon seemed intent on acting like nothing had happened, and even returned to his sh*tposting ways.
However, events in recent weeks have many starting to question whether or not Do Kwon is really in the clear. What has since played out, is a wild game of back and forth, with authorities/news outlets claiming one thing & Do Kwon claiming another:
First came the arrest warrant from South Korean authorities in mid September.
Do Kwon responded with tweets 2 days later claiming that he is actually not on the run from authorities & even mocked the notion that he was:
Later it was reported that Interpol had issued a red notice for Do Kwon, since Singapore authorities claimed that he was not in the city-state.
He then sent a tweet denying that he had tried cashing out $67 million worth of Bitcoin, just days after the arrest warrant was issued:
What has been probably the most surprising in all this is the amount of misinformation that gets spread. There is no “cashout” as alleged, i havent used kucoin or okex in at least the last year, and no funds of tfl, lfg or any other entities have been frozen.Do Kwon reportedly tried cashing out $67 million worth of Bitcoin, just a day after an arrest warrant was released against him on Sept. 14. https://t.co/7Flen2rW1nCointelegraph @CointelegraphA new media report was then issued today, claiming that South Korean prosecutors had frozen $39.6 million of his cryptocurrency assets. To which, Do Kwon once again denied the validity.
At this point we have more questions than answers… Who is actually telling the truth here? If Do Kwon is not on the run, why does seemingly nobody know his location? If South Korean authorities do get a hold of Do Kwon, which crimes will he be convicted of?
What we do know, is that Do Kwon has created a lot of damage to our industry and many of the participants in it. We can only hope that justice is eventually served.
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[Decrypt] Yuga Labs Forms Bored Ape Community Council—But Not Everyone in Community Approves: The company appointed seven holders of the coveted Ethereum NFTs to help manage community feedback.
NFT OF THE DAY
The RENGA collection on Ethereum, has been on fire in recent weeks. This RENGA #8375 sold for a whopping 8.90 ETH on Opensea.