OlympusDAO Co-Founder Doxxed? Lawsuit Claims to Unmask 'Apollo'

2 years ago

Sam is simply a newsman astatine CoinDesk focused connected decentralized technology, DeFi and DAOs. He owns ETH, BTC and MATIC.

A suit filed Thursday alleges that co-founders of the OlympusDAO (OHM) decentralized concern (DeFi) task cheated an aboriginal funder retired of astir 4 cardinal successful OHM tokens, worthy astatine slightest $20 cardinal today.

In what whitethorn beryllium an unprecedented lawsuit of a ineligible filing investigating the limits of pseudonymity successful decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), the suit besides names a Connecticut nonmigratory arsenic the expected individuality down “Apollo,” 1 of Olympus’s pseudonymous co-founders.

CoinDesk has not independently verified the individuality of the alleged Apollo and has reached retired to the idiosyncratic named successful the suit for comment.

The Ethereum-based OlympusDAO task has been 1 of the astir talked-about – and astir arguable – experiments to participate the satellite of decentralized concern (DeFi) successful the past year.

The task sought to found its autochthonal OHM token arsenic a integer reserve currency done a premix of memes and crippled theory, but its terms famously tanked 95% successful a fewer abbreviated months this past winter.

The OHM token presently sits astatine $28 according to CoinMarketCap, down from a $1,300 highest successful October.

The complainant successful the suit filed Thursday, Australia-based capitalist Jason Liang, says helium agreed to beforehand OlympusDAO and paid $50,000 successful DAI (a U.S. dollar-based stablecoin) successful a backstage backing statement successful speech for 4 cardinal pOHM, a precursor to OHM. According to an Olympus Medium post, investors similar Liang were aboriginal capable to mint 1 OHM successful speech for 1 DAI and 1 pOHM.

In his suit, Liang alleges that the astute contracts enabling him to redeem pOHM for OHM were rendered inoperable by the Olympus squad aft Liang started selling disconnected immoderate of his Olympus tokens, resulting successful a quality betwixt Liang and Olympus’s founders.

Liang says the Olympus team’s quality to meddle with cardinal astute declaration functionality undermines claims that they are decentralized.

According to the lawsuit, the Olympus squad besides utilized pseudonymity to support them from ineligible liability.

Liang alleges that a token acquisition statement (TPA) betwixt him and Olympus stated that wealth raised successful the backstage backing circular would spell to a institution that did not really exist. With the identities of Olympus’s founders a secret, the deficiency of an officially-registered institution down the fundraiser was, according to the lawsuit, designed to marque it hard for an capitalist similar Liang to prosecute ineligible enactment against the project.

OlympusDAO: An ‘honest Ponzi’?

When it launched past year, OlympusDAO’s unsocial bonding and staking mechanics promised staggeringly precocious returns to investors successful the realm of 10,000% yearly percent output (APY). In bid for the strategy to work, OHM holders were encouraged to interact with Olympus’s astute contracts according to a acceptable of crippled mentation principles memefied by the project’s community.

‘Hodling,’ buying, and staking OHM would theoretically warrant steady, sky-high returns for the full community. Selling, similar Liang did, was sacrilege.

A flock of vocal critics dismissed OlympusDAO arsenic a Ponzi scheme from its precise start, but the DAO inactive managed to spur an full “DeFi 2.0” question – inspiring fashionable spin-offs similar KlimaDAO and WonderlandDAO to leap successful with their ain high-yield token systems.

As OlympusDAO has grown into 1 of the astir fashionable projects successful decentralized finance, its creators – the pseudonymous “Zeus” and “Apollo” – person remained anonymous (until now, perhaps, successful Apollo’s case).

Pseudonymity of a project’s halfway contributors is not uncommon successful the satellite of DAOs, and it has been framed arsenic a mode for a decentralized assemblage to sphere meritocracy.

Liang’s suit suggests determination are different reasons wherefore DAO creators mightiness privation to fell their identities, and the filing comes a mates of months aft the pseudonymous creator of WonderlandDAO, OlympusDAO’s largest spinoff, was unmasked arsenic a well-known convicted felon.

This is simply a processing story. Check backmost for updates.

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Sam is simply a newsman astatine CoinDesk focused connected decentralized technology, DeFi and DAOs. He owns ETH, BTC and MATIC.

Sam is simply a newsman astatine CoinDesk focused connected decentralized technology, DeFi and DAOs. He owns ETH, BTC and MATIC.


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