A developer of the DeFi Llama analytics platform, writing under the pseudonym 0xngmi, on behalf of the team announced the launch of a fork of the project named llama.fi.
The DefiLlama team is forking Defillama@Defillama is undergoing a hostile takeover
There is an ongoing attempt to launch a token that does not represent us. We don’t want to be associated with it
Use https://t.co/G0h4uBo2mL and @llamadotfi instead!
— 0xngmi (llamazip arc) (@0xngmi) March 19, 2023
He cited disagreement with the decision to issue the platform’s token, which was made by “the person who controls the Twitter account and the Defillama domain.”
«The attempt to launch a token that does not represent us continues. We don’t want to be associated with it», — the developer said.
In response, the owner of the llamaintern account, described as an intern at DeFi Llama:
«0xngmi and several members of the team have become scammers. They actively seek to seize the IP and the Defillama community, incorrectly claiming that the rightful owner is conducting a hostile takeover».
0xngmi and a few team members have gone rogue, they are actively looking to seize Defillama IP and community while inaccurately claiming the rightful owner to be doing a hostile takeover https://t.co/rc5Fx68KD4
— LlamaIntern.eth (@llamaintern) March 19, 2023
Some community members sided with DeFi Llama founders Charlie Watkinson and Ben Hauser. Andre Cronje, founder of yEarn.finance написал:
«It’s easy to stick to ideology when you don’t pay the bills. Charlie has been funding all the project’s expenses out of his own pocket for many years, it’s not cheap».
According to him, Watkinson’s idea to issue a token is “not greed, but an attempt to achieve sustainability”.
«Let’s see how long they will last without funding. They will soon start seeking financing or add advertising», — Cronje said.
Web3 developer going by the nickname AnonBuilder noted that paying the bills does not cancel the team’s work.
He has been paying the bills, but the rest of the team has been doing the work and contributing their time and dedication. Just because he wants to stop the bleeding doesn’t mean he has the right to put the whole project at risk. But that’s something that seems not important to… https://t.co/XZliygxHsN
— AnonBuilder (?, ?) (@anonbuilderok) March 19, 2023
«To, что он [основатель] хочет остановить истощение средств, не означает его право подвергать риску весь проект», — добавил он.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams reminded that the DeFi dashboard platform began about three years ago as a fork of the information platform behind the largest DEX. He noted that he had to press the founders to abandon the use of the original OSS.
The domain, brand, etc are IP but obviously not open source (nor should they be) and I would guess parts of the backend
Originally started as a fork of our GPL info site. I remember pressuring it to go OSS years ago, which they did https://t.co/v7CK6AqwSm
— hayden.eth ? (@haydenzadams) March 19, 2023
As of writing, the llama.fi site is live, presenting an exact copy of DeFi Llama.
«When there is no company behind it, but a bunch of anonymous people, then none of them really owns the brand», — noted the founder of the DeFi project Rotki, Lefteris Karapetsas.
When there is no company behind it, but a bunch of anons then none really holds the brand.
Which brings the question of ownership of domain too as indeed something that could be seen as IP.
Defillama has any org behind it? I remember seeing this: https://t.co/Uz59bagy3B
— Lefteris Karapetsas | Hiring for @rotkiapp (@LefterisJP) March 19, 2023
In 2020, one of the sector’s notable events was the launch of the Uniswap fork SushiSwap. At the time, the leading DeFi platform lost more than 70% of liquidity due to migration to a competing protocol.