What Happened To Skycoin? How Crypto Pioneer Fell Victim To Blackmail
Categories: Crypto News US
Skycoin began developing its first blockchain to address some of the shortcomings inherent in both Bitcoin and Ethereum, such as centralized mining and a lack of a description language. It officially launched the Skycoin token, SKY, in 2012. Over its ten years of activity, the company has created a developer friendly ecosystem consisting of blockchain and Web 3.0 solutions.Skycoin’s flagship products are Fiber, an infinitely scalable and highly customizable parallel 2P2 network architecture; CX, a multifunctional programming language specialized for developing blockchain applications; and Skyminer, equipment for running Skywire network nodes, as well as zero-configuration hardware and blockchain solutions for enterprise networks. Skycoin co-founder Brandon Smietana is a crypto space pioneer who participated in writing code for the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. In the early crypto community, Brandon was well known by his Internet name ‘Synth’Crypto Bubble Craze CrimesAmidst the ICO bubble of 2018, when crazy money poured into the crypto market, Skycoin’s token reached a market cap of $5 billion. While innovative cryptocurrency crowdfunding gave worthwhile projects a chance to develop, there were also a lot of scammers in the market who eventually discredited ICOs. Over 96 percent of ICOs failed to list on exchanges after taking money from the public, resulting in a complete loss to participants. Essence of Skycoin’s 2022 Lawsuit On February 8, 2022, Skycoin filed a federal RICO lawsuit (Skycoin v. Stephens, 22-cv-00708, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Chicago) against former contractors and several other defendants who had launched a deliberate attack on the company and its leader in 2018. The main defendants are Bradford Stephens and Harrison Gevirtz, aka ‘HaRRo’, who is presumed to be the founder of blackhatworld.com, and whose company Eagle Web Associates was subject to US Government FTC action concerning illegal marketing practices in 2014 and 2016.Skycoin entered a contract with their company in early 2018 to manage a marketing and brand awareness program, as well as SEO optimization for its website.The group received $1 million for its services, but then Stephens and Gevirtz attempted to extort more money from Skycoin. The blackmail campaign began with spam attacks. When the conspirators’ demand for $100,000 - $300,000 per month to stop them went unmet, the extortionists demanded $30 million in BTC and $1 million in cash, threatening to keep SKY from being listed on leading exchanges if they weren’t paid.The ability to anonymously attack people online has created a hostile environment in the crypto industry, where anything goes, leaving worthy projects like Skycoin vulnerable to nefarious opportunists. The company hopes its lawsuit will restore its good name and see its token rise to its true potential, after it fell from a peak of nearly $50 to 20 cents under a barrage of misinformation.