I would like to clear up the misconceptions in this thread so that it’s clear where I stand on this.
GETTING HERE FROM THERE
This AIP isn’t really about @Lost.Admin . I don’t know who he is and like most of you, I only met him when I came here. But before I even get into that, let’s go to the beginning as I give you a complete picture of who and what you’re dealing with.
The Internet is full of posts by me and about me. Despite all the noise, I am notorious for being a fair and equitable person. I don’t go around picking fights. I don’t need to. I have very strong opinions and I am always in the middle of anything controversial whether or not it involves me specifically. I have always been this way.
As a public figure, harassment, derision, threats etc. all come with the territory. Those things don’t faze me because they have never - ever - stopped me from being who I am. That’s called bravery. When you have integrity, you don’t ever need to think twice about doing or saying the right thing.
A recent example of a massive uprising that I was in the middle of, was the gaming media fiasco, GamerGate from 2015. Much has been written about it. I jumped in when, as an OG gamer and game dev, I felt that gamers were being unfairly portrayed by the media in a bid to vilify all gamers. I actually went on stage with the likes of people I otherwise would never associate with in real life. But I did it because I strongly believed that it was the right thing to do. None of my friends and colleagues in the game dev scene would do it. I went and did it anyway. That one ended abruptly in Miami when some idiot phoned in a bomb threat and caused chaos.
Society of Professional Journalists AirPlay Event
That same year, I was involved in yet another gaming firestorm. The infamous Star Citizen fiasco. That too made the news headlines with me right in the middle of it because I said something controversial about the game, the media picked it up - and an army of crazy Star Citizen fans decided to create an attack campaign because I dared say something negative about their terrible choices. I stood my ground because I knew that I was right and nothing anyone said or did was going to change my position.
It’s all well documented. I received death threats by phone, email, Twitter DM, in forums etc. They would review bomb my games, threaten me and my family, friends etc. It was relentless. But, for years, undeterred, I continued to write about what I believed to be a scam. And the end result is that, 8 years later, I have been proven right - every single time. Literally even single mainstream publication, including Forbes (1, 2) picked up on the story and ran with it.
The Museum Of Art & Digital Entertainment
Despite the fact that I literally grew up on Usenet (if you know what that is; congrats, you got old), I never really made public my many struggles with anxiety, functonal autism - and bullying. I did an interview for a foreign magazine (re-published by Kotaku) shortly after writing a detailed blog about bullying.
Throughout the years, and in all instances, the subsequent attacks over my opinions, research etc were relentless. But I stood my ground. As someone who has battled with medical grade anxiety, being on the autism spectrum, bullying etc. it creates an overwhelming burden to engage with people in general. Without meds, I would never make it out of my home, let alone be in a large group of people. So, I rarely do it. And when I do, it’s for good reason. The majority of my life exists online. Since Usenet.
In my career, I have taken on three substantial publishers over various issues with my games - and won. In fact, the first such battle in 1996 is what started my foray into the gaming industry - and the resulting infamy. Shortly after that issue over my first game, you couldn’t open a game magazine, print or online, and not see something about me in it. I have been in every single one at some point or another.
You could go to your search engine right now, put my name in, and you probably wouldn’t have enough years left on your life to be able to read all of it. In other words, I have never lived a life less ordinary. And long after I am dead and gone, people will remember me. And not for the books, articles, research papers, games etc. but for who I was, what I stood for, and why I never backed down.
That, my friends, is who I am.
NOW WE’RE HERE
When I first game to the ApeCoin DAO on June 27th, it was for a specific reason. I wasn’t bored, cruising the Internet etc. Like I did with other Web3 communities, I have been popping in and out of here since Mar 2022, shortly after creating a startup studio (Wide Span Ventures) to build Web3 games - separate from my Web2 studio, 3000AD. For me, it was a new frontier to explore, and I wanted to be a part of that by pioneering something that, once again, would be notable and legendary. And when I introduced myself - because you can’t be a public figure and enjoy anonymity - I knew that it was bound to create some consternation among people here who knew who I was. I didn’t care because I tend not to focus on what people think of me because my mind is usually occupied by more important things.
And before I got here, I was already waging a silent war against Web3 scam artists posiing as game devs. You can read my LinkedIn articles as well as my Web3 articles on Medium. Sadly, I don’t get to write as much as I used to, but the fact remains that you can - right now - go and look at the dates of each Web3 article that I have written, then go to your search engine, put in key words - read. You know the result? I have been right about every single thing that I have written regarding Web3 gaming. Specifically that you’re never - ever - going to succeed with a Web3 game if you don’t build the game first. Web3 is just tech. There’s nothing special about it. I regard blockchain as I would backend tech like networking, graphics, AI etc. It doesn’t matter the tech, if the game sucks, it’s going to fail. That’s it. All of it.
So, when I came here, I had a simple plan - and I was very vocal about it. That being, to integrate a worthy Web3 community into my new Web3 gaming initiative and to see if in fact I could make a difference. I was never part of the Web3 NFT craze for the same reason that I collect stamps not bottle caps, have expensive oil paintings, but not over-priced JPEGs. In fact, most of the NFTs that I own were either gifted to me or they were free. I never saw Web3 as a money-making venture. Then again, financial gain has never been a big motivator for me. It’s why, if I build a game that 10 people buy, I will continue to build games for those 10 people - and never jumping to whatever trend there is so I can sell to 15 people. It’s why I release my games for free after a few years of them being for sale. I have done this routinely. And the day I die, as per my will, all my works and IP will be in the public domain - free.
With Web3, I just wanted to prove that, as a seasoned gamedev, I could build a Web3 game that wasn’t the cash-grab crap that’s out there. I didn’t care about the price of tokens, the trends etc. None of that interest me. It’s specially why, for the APE community which is about 0.472% (no kidding) of my worst selling game, didn’t matter to me. If any of my games had sold less than 130K (APE wallet count - including multiples) copies, I would be out of business by now. In other words, I didn’t come here to boost my Web3 image, I didn’t come here to create an army. I didn’t come here looking for clout. I didn’t come here to sell anything. I have done all of that - and more - by myself. You know how? By building things. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve always done. And I got exceptionally good at it - even with all the hate directed toward me at some point or another. That’s a measure of SUCCESS.
More importantly, I believe that you can’t build a game for Web3 without being in a Web3 community to see what they like, what they do, what they want etc. Sure, there’s overlap with gamers in both spaces, but the fact is that when the likes of Yuga Labs is getting nowhere despite their best efforts and buckets of cash and experienced people, you know that something isn’t working. You don’t use Web2 gamers to make a Web3 game. And you don’t make a Web3 game without taking into account Web2 gamers. Doing that is how you end up with failures of every Web3 game - including Yuga Lab’s own games.
When I created the above AIP idea thread, it was to test the waters and to see if this was worth doing, or if I should go to another Web3 community and experiment there. In fact, less than a week of my being here, it became clear to me that the people who actually do engage in the community, have little or no interest in games. Don’t take my word for it, here are the metrics.
List of gaming AIPs
Approved by DAO vote
AIP-280
AIP-105
Rejected by DAO vote
AIP-179
AIP-219
AIP-103
AIP-78
Enough said.
I wrote a detailed analysis of the APE metrics in another AIP thread. I will copy and paste the relevant parts.
When I joined ApeCoin DAO on June 29th, 2023, the ApeCoin hodlers were at 123,508 ,. A few days ago, it was 129,666 . You can see the metrics. I am on Edge and can’t run metrics using my Metamask wallet because it doesn’t work. But you can run it yourself for today’s snapshot.
- July 16, 2022 - Yuga launches 1st Otherside trip → 81,719
- Mar 25th, 2023 - Yuga launches 2nd Otherside trip → 114,764
- June 29, 2023, Yuga launches HV:MTL game → 123,508
- July 27, 2023, Today’s Snapshot → 129,780
So, between June 29th and July 27th, almost a month later, only 6,272 $APE “wallets” have entered the ecosystem.
And those metrics don’t even tell the whole story because individuals can have several wallets that hold $APE. I personally now have 3 wallets with $APE. Long story.
Add to that the fact that even with 129,780 wallets, Discourse and Discord combined, don’t even represent 10% of the Ape community proper. In fact, Discourse barely represents 6%.
Basically, the metrics tell me that the APE community, even backed by a massive corp like Yuga Labs and their deep-pocket VC, isn’t even the size of the smallest Web2 community. So, ask yourself this: why would I even waste my time on this? I could spend all of one month and write a dubious cash-grab expansion pack for any one of my games, throw it up on Steam, and sell over 100K copies. No effort.
Amid all that, I also knew that wherever I went, the minute the word got out that Derek Smart was coming to Web3, that it would be news. And so, I had to prepare for that. When things make the news, it’s not always positive. No matter how great it is, there will always be that one writer or writers looking deeper to find something negative to write about. And once that happens, it tends to snowball. So, with me, the narrative could very well go from “Derek Smart is bringing Web3 games via APE” to “Derek Smart is part of the ApeCoin DAO that’s mirred with self-dealing, illegal activity” etc. See where I am going with this?
And guess what? Once the SEC and the CFTC finally go after all Web3 enterprises that even did anything that looks or smells like offering tokens as a security, the ApeCoin DOA will die, and the token will be at $0 by the time the dust settles. I have friends everywhere. So believe me when I tell you this: it’s coming. And sooner than any of you think.The latest issue with Quantstamp is nothing. The SEC charged those guys on June 21st. They settled it less than a month later. And that was the beginning of the end of Quantstamp. And the SEC is already going after accounting firms that aid crypto firms because crypto firms have routinely used dodgy accounting practices to build confidence in their scams. There’s a LOT of that going on right now, and it’s only news when it leaks out to the media or when the US govt makes a big deal out of it.
So, when - not if - the inevitable eventually happens, Derek Smart being a member of the ApeCoin DAO, gets to be part of the news cycle because besides Alexis and Yat, I am the only other known entity here. If you saw all the news furor over AIP-277 (I wrote a detailed synopsis) and which resulted in even Yat addressing it publicly, then you see where this is going.
And that, my friends, is why I started looking deeper into and engaging with the community regarding the processes here, how they can be better etc. I gain nothing from doing this. Instead, I have put in an exceptional amount of my valuable time into it because I believe that it’s the right thing to do. It’s why I have created AIPs that specifically target issues which I believe are holding the DAO back, putting it in legal jeopardy etc and which need to be improved upon in order to - at least - setup the DAO for survival when the legal fight comes. And it’s coming.
So, when the crap does hit the fan, who do you think is going to be out there fighting for this DAO and for the community? Do you think that’s going to be Alexis or Yat - who have more to lose than anyone here? Or do you think it would be any number of the anon people here? No. It’s going to be someone like me - because I have no fear. None whatsoever. And so, what leg do you think I would have to stand on if I end up being in a DAO that’s not legally sound, doesn’t have even the most basic of best practices in place?
And while we’re on the subject, as I’ve written before, you need to be aware that here in the US being in a DAO doesn’t shield you from legal liability. The govt and private parties can go after each and every member of the DAO for anything that the DAO is involved in. Do you think that Webslinger or the Ape Foundation are going to get away with blowing off or stone walling a legal process of govt investigation?
I CAN STAND ALONE EVEN AS I STAND APART
You can look at my post activity and see that I have basically engaged in topics that either affects the DAO’s survival or it’s prosperity.
A quick review of what I am talking about.
AIP-277. I joined this AIP as co-author not because I supported it, but because I saw another DAO member being unfairly vilified just because they dared to question the status quo. @Moonlyght could be me, you, or anyone of us here. And you know what? Even though most here have been silent, I am absolutely certain that they too are thinking how outrageous it is.
In fact, imagine my shock yesterday when I found out - quite by accident - that the Special Council salaries are even worse than imagined. To the tune of $250K per year for working 3 hrs per week. That’s literally $1,650 per hour!! And that was in yet another accountability related AIP. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, it took something like @badteeth AIP-282 - which is about to pass - to even get an idea of what the SC actually does for that kind of money.
And @Moonlyght, the author of AIP-277 has yet another accountability related AIP that’s about to go up.
AIP-Idea. I created this AIP because of what I saw happening with AIP-277 in which the Special Council was stone-walling us over request for docs. And once I found out that, for a DAO that touts accountability and transparency, there had to be something going on, I decided to engage.
Not only were they stonewalling us, but not even the Webslinger group that we’re paying $75K per month to, bothered to respond to either myself or my co-author. Not a single word.
AIP-Idea. I created this AIP because I believe and I am convinced that not only is the pre-existing voting system defective and unfair, but also because it is in fact being gamed and manipulated.
Shocking nobody here, it’s also the reason why AIPs which are clearly in the best interests of the DAO, tend to fail. Why? Mostly because some are focused on protecting their $APE bags and have very little interest in the ops of the DAO nor its prosperity. It’s why if you run the stats of voters against that of Discourse, you will see that most voters don’t even engage with the community. They seemingly have no interest in it. They’re only interested in what they can get (e.g. via sustained $APE value) from the DAO, not how they can build it up. If the DAO keeps doling out $APE, that gets converted to fiat in order to engage in whatever the grant was for. What does that do? It drains the $APE liquidity pool.
For some reason, I keep asking myself whether or not this DAO was created to succeed, and if perhaps it was created as a way to skirt legal accountability and scrutiny due to the $APE token ICO etc. But the demise of Ooki DAO and others have proven - beyond a doubt - that you can’t skirt the authorities by creating a DAO. When they come around, the investigators are going to put their best researchers and forensics team - some of what I do in my spare time as a White Hat btw - to the task. They’re going to draw up metrics of every dime the DAO has spent, how it was spent, where it went, who got paid what, when, how etc. And then, massive Red flags like this AIP-209 (Forj, an Animoca Brands corp), and which I wrote about here, are going to come up. And they’re going to make a very big deal about it once they start connecting the dots.
I also withdrew from my plan to actively participate in the Ape Council and also the Metaverse Working Group because the voting system is rubbish, and it won’t yield the best results in hiring the best people. It will just be the same nonsense of placement via a dodgy voting system
AIP-297. I was very vocal in this one because, again, I saw massive Red flags which would later come back to haunt the DAO. Ignoring the fact that it was authored by @yatsiu - who we all have the highest respect for - I am of the opinion that, like AIP-209, this was yet another instance whereby an exec of a major investor in Yuga Labs (upon which this ApeCoin DAO is based) could be seen as self-dealing by extracting money from the DAO to prop up NFT assets which are currently vastly depressed.
There’s no way that we can ignore that or not play devil’s advocate so that the logic can be clearly outlined. And Yat did just that. If someone like me didn’t ask those tough questions, and Yat didn’t articulate his reasoning to me as he did, what do you think happens down the road? You just can’t bury your head in the sand. You just can’t. It shouldn’t matter that it’s Yat because the DAO - this ApeCoin DAO - is bigger than any one person.
AIP-Idea. I created this one, not because I have anything against @Lost.Admin, but again for accountability and process. I am sure that Lost is a standup and much-loved guy - which is basically what no less than 6 people have said to me in DM here and on Discord after the incident. I will not name them, but they know themselves and are welcome to attest to this as they see fit.
None of that is relevant.
What’s relevant is accountability. We absolutely cannot give people a free pass just because they’re our friends, family, co-worker or that one guy who shared his chips with you in high school. Accountability is more than that. More importantly, and though I didn’t at the time know that the Discord server wasn’t even owned/operated by the DAO entity, a DAO operating as a $750M small cap entity has to act like one. It’s not a country club. It’s an enterprise. And even social media enterprises such as Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn etc all have processes and procedures in place to deal with the community. And it’s crypto. So it already has all the odds stacked up against it.
What happened to me was inexcusable. It was uncalled for. And it was conduct unbecoming.
And this is why I created this AIP so that, at the very least, the DAO could hire a professional who would be able to manage these issues in both Discourse and Discord without creating an environment that favors the elites and friends, while alienating those of us who dare to stand up and say something because we saw something. Who do you think would come here, see that crap, then join? Why would they?
This is bigger than Lost. It just is.
My only [correctable] regret with this AIP is that it calls for the termination of Lost’s contract. That’s like arguing with someone on social media, then trying to get them fired. But that’s not the intent here. Lost will still have his Discord fiefdom, the DAO would still be paying him through his sweetheart (unlike the other two, he wasn’t voted in by the DAO community. But that’s another story) deal because it will still be using his Discord server etc. But he would no longer be in the position to put the DAO in a situation whereby the DAO has a larger legal liability if/when he takes actions like this - and hits up against the wrong person. How? Because with a pro in place, and working with the other two stewards, for as long as the DAO seeks to use Lost’s Discord server for it’s ops, he would have to adhere to guidelines written up and imposed by the DAO. Just like other corporations do. That’s it. All of it.
Right now, there are laws in Texas and Florida which, though flawed in some regard, are designed to counter this sort of action that Lost took. Anyone in one of many States, could pick up the phone right now, and less than 48 hrs later, this DAO would be facing both a lawsuit and a State investigation. That’s a fact. You wouldn’t believe the number of times - a day - that social media companies get sued. I should know because my IT friends and I are routinely called upon for assistance (verification, data forensics etc). So, what do you think happens when Lost or someone on contract with the DAO, causes a lawsuit because of some crap that spilled over into real life? The lawyers aren’t going to care about the merits of the case. They’re not going to care about how you feel about Lost. All they’re going to see are Dollar signs. That it’s a DAO. That’s in the crypto space. Boom! And just like that, war will come to these lands. And we WILL lose. You have no idea how invasive and time-consuming the legal discovery process is. And if it’s the govt, rest assured, they’re going to use it as a fishing expedition. Basically a cop looking for stolen goods, and finds a dead body in the garage.
That Web3 communities are so blase about pesky things like accountability, transparency and legal process, is specifically why there’s so much furor and hate towards Web3. Thus relegating it to scams and scam artists. Don’t any of you care about this? At all?
I want to be the one to prove that Web3 gaming hate is nothing but noise. And seeing as my Web2 counterparts dare not step foot into Web3, why wouldn’t I use my credibility, expertise and experience to build this? For you. For me. For all of us?
THE TL;DR
Those of you attacking me - in a classic case of victim blaming and mob metality - for taking a stand, are wasting your time because that stuff doesn’t faze me. Oh, so you get to attack Derek Smart? Or you got to point to similar online attacks in a attempt to create a picture that only exists in your head?Nice. Here, have a cookie. Now go stand in line.
So, hear this. It’s going to take more than 4-5 people who don’t like me here, to deter me from this course that I have laid out. Many have tried - and failed. I am still here. And you don’t stand a chance.
So, just stop already; and lets focus on securing the DAO and building something that we can ALL be proud off because we bucked the trends. I will only leave if one day I wake up and my access to the DOA has been restricted - or I decide that I am wasting time and that none of this is worth building nor saving. At that time, I will just quietly leave. No goodbye. No crazy long post. Nothing. Just gone. Like a…
