In a bid to extract profit, Justin Sun is willing to compromise moral principles and challenge authorities. At the heart of his business is not technology but marketing that is supposed to operate like a “brothel”. Such conclusions are contained in an investigation by The Verge, based on comments from 18 former and current employees of the BitTorrent acquisition.
The founder of the TRON ecosystem is depicted as a spoiled and selfish leader who fostered a stifling working environment with elements of violence.
Sources point to Sun’s attempts to impose a Chinese corporate culture, where he looks up to his idol — the hard-working Alibaba chief Jack Ma. Employees are “encouraged” to work by the “9-9-6” principle: from nine in the morning to nine in the evening, six days a week.
According to those who worked in China, Sun’s philosophy more closely aligns with the practices of local internet companies.
China in Silicon Valley
Sun insisted on dropping Slack in favour of the Chinese DingTalk, which became a tool for spying on staff. His tendency to control manifested itself in pressure on the team from his closest associates in China.
The publication mentions a case where the TRON Foundation founder censored a list of questions addressed to him by staff. One of them, about the company’s future if the price of TRX fell to zero, drove him into a rage.
“Whoever asked that question, we will track and kill their entire family,” he yelled at the moment.
Most employees heard Sun scream at subordinates, banging doors during emotional outbursts.
Subsequently, fired and suing developer Łukasz Jurasek recalls incidents where he heard the crack of a laptop, the sound of a slap or a hand strike, and even a spit. Before a company-wide meeting, there was fear of being fired. Staff note high turnover at the company.
Bigger than Bill Gates
Sun regards himself as a famous and powerful figure, heir to Chinese elites, destined for greatness. He has set himself the goal of becoming richer than Bill Gates. In Verge’s coverage, in all morally questionable situations and relations with the state, he always replies with the oft-quoted line “I think it’s all OK”.
A vivid example of his approach was the high-profile lunch with investor Warren Buffett. It came during the escalation of the US-China trade war. Initially, Chinese authorities welcomed the initiative. Later, when the TRON Foundation founder invited Donald Trump to it, he ran into trouble.
Insiders report a made-up story about “kidney stones”. The employees summoned for questioning during a raid at the Beijing office were instructed not to mention the lunch with the US president in the press. Then followed a confession on Weibo, where Sun pledged not to violate “national interests”. He later deleted the post.
Marketing Ahead of Technology
A $4.57 million payout to win the auction for the Buffett lunch, which corresponds to the price of 130 Tesla EVs, underscores the business’s foundation. Interviewed employees say that technology plays a subordinate role. They say the internal strategy resembles making a “copy of Ethereum”.
Above technology stands marketing, which he once described as needing to resemble a brothel.
His business ideas are not to strengthen decentralisation but to use the idea to profit, regardless of harm. Sources note that decentralisation for Sun is only an ideology through which he can continue to avoid accountability.
After the Tesla prank exposure, Sun planned to generate even more buzz and was prepared to pay any amount to keep talking about himself.
The founder of the TRON Foundation carefully monitors his reputation. Sources note that he paid Reddit moderators to remove a thread with negative comments about the company.
“He has succeeded in simply attracting attention to himself. Like what happens with children,” one of the interviewees said.
Decentralisation — Only a Front
The patience of many employees was exhausted by the BLive development. They feared the app being built would contain prohibited content and pirated copies.
One informant explained that Sun’s plan was to create a porn app that could bypass censorship laws and the Great Firewall. The key lay in using the BitTorrent protocol.
Sun intended to open Pandora’s Box — in a live stream, not only thoughts about freedom, democracy, political reforms, but also what should not be there — terrorism, child pornography or even killings in real time. The authorities would have no chance to stop it. Everyone would buy TRX to use BLive.
Sun Ready to Defend
Justin Sun responded to this article with a thread on Twitter. In it, he stated that he supports the values of respect, freedom, and equality. Thanks to the development team, he managed to build a multi-million-strong TRON audience that meets the highest standards.
A thread to anyone who cares to read
(1/12) I have devoted myself to being a responsible, global citizen throughout my entire life, spending significant portions of my personal and professional life to activities promoting universal values of respect, liberty & equality.
— Justin Sun? (@justinsuntron) September 29, 2020
“The success of the ecosystem is linked to supporting freedom of speech, user privacy, protection of intellectual property, a diverse working environment, and compliance with legal standards,” he noted.
(5/12) It has done this by respecting diversity and individuality, and a culture that cherishes fundamental values of freedom of speech, user privacy, intellectual property protection, kindness, a diversified working environment, and compliance with legal standards.
— Justin Sun? (@justinsuntron) September 29, 2020
Sun urged readers not to take the words of former employees at face value. A court verdict will reveal how things stood in reality.
(11/12)There is no merit to the false claims by Łukasz Jurasek, Richard Hall, & Cong Li, who are our former employees. Our legal counsel submitted all of the evidence to the court, & the dispute is currently pending in arbitration. We believe the decision will speak for itself.
— Justin Sun? (@justinsuntron) September 29, 2020
Behind Justin Sun lies a trail of scandals and ambiguous situations. The latest occurred in September, when he said that the number of TRON Foundation users had surpassed 10 billion, and that a goal of 100 billion would follow, even though the planet’s population had not reached 8 billion. He later deleted the post.
Earlier, the TRON founder spoke of hiring a troll to promote TRX and of pledging $1 million to back environmental activist Greta Thunberg for this purpose.
In July, Sun rode the hype around the Twitter hack. He promised $1 million for information but later refused to pay the informer, citing involvement in an FBI investigation.
Read more about how Sun built his business in ForkLog’s material.
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