2025-05-17
Update from Argentina
- From Argentina, he details the ADA voucher saga: sold via Attain in Japan, swept into a custodial account after Attain closed when Japan banned direct sales.
- 99.8% of buyers got their ADA, the forfeited remainder went to the Intersect Dev Trust, and everything will be in a forthcoming audit report.
- He asked the Cardano Foundation, which audited the KYC and sat in the Slack, to tweet that the 300 million theft claim is false, and it refused.
- The decentralized ecosystem thrives regardless, with Fluid Tokens shipping Babel fees and Midnight stealing the show at Consensus.
- After the report, critics get 5 days to apologize before he pursues defamation litigation.
31 entries
Opens from Argentina for the IO office opening, giving an update on ADA redemption and clarifying certain tweets.
ADA was sold via a voucher system through the distributor Attain in Japan across four tranches from 2015 to 2017.
IO built compliance software for Attain while the CF verified Attain's KYC, all to be released in the audit report.
Shows a March 2 2017 CF internal assurance audit of the tranche 4 token sale, to be handed to the auditor with Slack and email records.
His chief legal officer and chief of staff called the CF with a simple request: tweet that they were aware of the ongoing post sweep redemption.
A coordinated brigade, amplified by Ethereum influencers, claims hundreds of millions in ADA was stolen, and a CF tweet would cool it down.
Frames the ADA theft accusations as a Cardano brand issue, not an IO issue, since headlines say theft in Cardano and damage the ecosystem's high integrity reputation.
Shows a petty tweet from CF COO Andreas Fletcher telling him to solve it himself or call Fred.
The sweep happened after Attain went out of business when Japan banned direct sales, cutting the redemption lifeline.
IO tried to get the old CF leadership to take over redemption since it had audited the KYC and knew every buyer, but it declined.
The Genesis UTXOs were pending, not custodied, and the final redemption stage rotated addresses that could be reconstructed if entities colluded.
Redemption was meant to be finite, removed at the Byron to Shelley hard fork, since preserving an insecure mechanic burdened every wallet.
The sweep moved redemption UTXOs into a custodial account and made remaining buyers redo compliance, with the CF aware in the Slack channels.
All he asked was for the CF to confirm it was aware and that the 300 million theft claim is untrue, since off chain facts need a trusted auditor.
The regulated exchange RemixPoint let buyers self custody or redeem to an exchange, with law firms and legal memos on voiding transactions.
After 7 years counsel deemed pending transactions cancellable, with the unredeemed yen likely turned over to the Japanese government.
Dan Friedman, now Palmyra's leader, and Sarah Kell engineered this, and 99.8 percent of buyers got their ADA at a 70 million valuation.
There were constant fraud attempts, some salespeople trying to redeem for buyers, so publicizing it would have targeted vulnerable people.
The forfeited ADA was donated to the Intersect Dev Trust, its principal funding vehicle, with post donation use also in the audit report.
IO had no legal obligation and could have recused itself like the CF did, but that would have left buyers unpaid.
The brigade escalated things, so after the audit report there will be litigation, branding, and cleanup.
Andreas the CF is living in the house he built and failed its leadership test by not helping the buyers it had audited.
Joel Telner discussed these things with the CF in Switzerland, and all IO asked for was one tweet.
The silver lining is Cardano's decentralization, citing Fluid Tokens shipping Babel fees first and Sundial's Bitcoin bridge with no IO money.
Reflects on 10 years and 75 countries, losing John Woods to poaching then hiring the poacher as the Midnight Foundation's marketing director.
Midnight stole the show at Consensus as a Cardano native token, and the Draper University cohort shifted Silicon Valley's perception of Cardano.
It is hard to be called a thief daily when friends send links, but he stays patient waiting for the audit report.
The Argentina office next to Globant Tower will fill with politicians, engineers, and philosophers, which gives him hope.
Once the audit report is out he gives critics 5 days to apologize before pursuing defamation litigation in multiple jurisdictions and a possible class action.
Free speech is not consequence free speech, and slander with intent to cause commercial harm is quantifiable damages.
Thanks the near decade team and says this is his last video statement before the audit report, with Joel Telner taking over communications.