After Friend.tech's rapid growth, netizens and the media began pointing fingers at the founding team's decision to remain anonymous. Friend.tech is a new social media platform where users follow others by buying their profile shares. The team, led by developers 0xracer and Shrimpepe, has partnered with venture capital firm Paradigm.
Anonymous creators are nothing new. Historically, Victorian literature has often been published under pseudonyms. However, it is considered very controversial by cryptocurrency critics. While the New York Times reporters
If we want to protect others from wrongdoing and fraud, perhaps we should focus on financial literacy and education rather than enforced anonymity. The decision to assume another identity should not necessarily be a red flag. Eventually, notorious scammers Bernie Madoff and Sam Bankman Fried used their names to pull off some of the biggest scams Wall Street has ever seen.
Anonymity has played a crucial role in the emergence of alternative, decentralized, user-controlled cryptocurrencies. The pseudonymous character who invented Bitcoin
The Association for Progressive Communication and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have long campaigned for the right to communicate over encrypted channels and to maintain anonymity. The right to anonymous publication is so important that the APC conference called on the United Nations' David Kay, who reported to the Human Rights Council in 2015, to include information about anonymity as a key to freedom of expression.
It is no surprise, then, that in the cryptocurrency landscape, the ability to remain anonymous is protected and defamation is frowned upon. In July, Arkham Intelligence, a company that wants to anonymize blockchain users, sparked controversy by developing a Doxx earning program that allows people to reveal the identities of others in exchange for rewards.
The NFT artist known as Shl0ms was an outspoken critic of the defamation program. "This anonymity gives the artist a rare opportunity to create a character that is pure and reflects an essential and deep part of their human identity, without the bizarre traits of a character's identity." Shl0ms was spotted in the interview. Blow up a $250,000 Lamborghini and create 999 NFTs with videos of the car parts. The carousel is destroyed. This group has been scathing about the greed of the cryptocurrency industry. In an equally clear move, Shl0ms responded to the Arkham plan by launching a campaign to reveal details about the company and its founders who use their platform. On the subject of freebies, Shl0ms noted that while Arkham Intelligence did not implement safeguards in its original book to prevent it from becoming a "free-for-all," it has since "put in place certain controls intended to prevent the promotion of freebies . criminals or corporations”. .
It is common for NFT artists to start their careers under pseudonyms. Yuga Labs, creators of the world famous NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club, also launched as an announcement. Buzzfeed unwillingly revealed the identities of two co-founders in 2022 and claimed in an article that the NFT pool had extremist symbolism. Despite this, Yuga Labs continued to grow, professionalizing the team, launching a lifestyle brand, Metaverse, an ERC-20 token, and acquiring the most valuable project in the NFT space, CryptoPunks. Yuga Labs is currently worth $4 billion following a recent funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Also, being anonymous or semi-anonymous does not prevent people working in the blockchain industry from interacting with other people in the real world. During my time at FWBFest, I've had the opportunity to interact with many people I respect, such as Brazilian-born artist Goodmin, an artist whose title I've been following for over two years. Godmin is a one-man show who is single-handedly developing code and visuals for two NFT projects while also running his own NFT community.
Another well-known anonymous artist, 0x113d, creator of the ambitious NFT-scale Mathcastles Terraforms project, told me in an interview that creating a pseudonymous artist “really helped me immerse myself.” It allowed me to make every connection to lose to my past that had nothing to do with my past. to do with success in this new world. " Art. 0x113d also has a free tutorial for aspiring NFT artists who want to learn creative programming and smart contract development.
A few other founders decided to step out of their unknowns as part of their company's roadmap. An example is the Franco-Iranian artist Sasan Behnam Bakhtiar, a well-known artist and a leading figure in the Middle East art market. When he entered the cryptocurrency industry, he initially worked for two years (along with his co-founder) named Kensho Kenji on his project called The Futures. Futures are now offered to the public through the evolving NFT marketplace, Magic Eden. Bakhtiar and co-founder Kevin Benharbon (aka Moses) decided to start the project as a limited company and incorporate a legal entity in Monaco.
Meanwhile, in 2021, Bakhtiar was simultaneously working on his first NFT residency program alongside the Nifty Gateway platform in collaboration with rapper Tinie Tempah.
"I come from a politically charged family that brought me pain, torture and trauma during my childhood and adolescence and instilled in me a rebellious mentality," Bakhtiar explained in an interview why he decided to work temporarily in Abaga. Title “During my teenage years I learned a valuable lesson: to provide as little information as possible. I've applied the same mindset to my career as a contemporary artist and to my work for the future.”
And with the Guardian reporting that Bakhtiar was previously imprisoned in Iran, it's no surprise that he decided to work in secret for a while. Anonymity is a form of preservation and protection, and a powerful way to block out the outside noise and see the future unhindered.
Cryptocurrency companies’ HR departments have also learned to respect anonymity; Just because you choose to hide your identity from others doesn't mean you can't find a job. This is not a non-profit initiative. Sometimes the most talented of all are the anonymous programmers, such as the pattern researcher Samchun, whose identity has been well preserved over the years. Samtzun started out as a hacker and is now known to have saved tens of millions of dollars by hacking cryptocurrency malware by constantly revising open-source code rules. More recently, Samchun has worked to find a way for hackers and stalkers to responsibly disclose security vulnerabilities while maintaining their anonymity, an initiative of Seal 911.
In short, a controlled society is enslaved. It is a natural and healthy choice for cryptocurrency founders to remain anonymous, even temporarily, and it is not a sign of malicious activity. Other parts of the technology industry are likely to benefit from the creativity of the NFT market because of this culture of flexibility. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, it points out that anonymity is a human right; Respecting the privacy of others is essential to freedom of expression.