"Then we created delayed confirmations to launch tokens before the mainnet starts," a satirical post triggered a war of words between crypto startups.
Movement Labs founder Rushi angrily blasted the former researcher of Ethereum Layer 2 Scroll on Twitter, enumerating the various misdeeds of the project. (The author adds: Movement's TGE will be conducted on the Ethereum mainnet, transitioning after the mainnet goes live, and since delayed confirmations are one of Movement's mechanisms, this article carries a bit of a sarcastic tone towards Movement.)
Rushi mocks EVM L2 for creating many useless buzzwords.
Under the post mentioning delayed confirmations, X user @seunlanlege responded: "Only Ethereum Foundation researchers would come up with some objectively meaningless bullshit agreements to be considered cool? This is a double standard." (The author adds: delayed confirmation is a major mechanism for Movement's performance, which allows Movement to achieve fast certainty, details can be found in the interview with Rushi about technical features)
(Exclusive interview with Movement founder Rushi: Partnering with National Taiwan University to cultivate developers, mobile devices and Gen Z are key to widespread applications)
Rushi also stated: "Only Uniswap and flashbots are allowed to do this because it aligns with the interests of Ethereum (by the way, I am a fan of this architecture)" and ironically added: "The thousands of buzzwords we wove for useless EVM L2s are still more proper."
Former Scroll researcher pointed out that Movement merely copied code from Aptos.
In response, former Scroll researcher Toghrul Maharram expressed disapproval of Rushi's rejection of EVM L2, stating: "Do you want to name the buzzwords created by EVM L2? After you mocked Movement's architecture as fast finality aggregation, you brought up delayed confirmations (which later rebranded as pre-confirmation). You can't even decide whether Movement is optimistic rollup or a sidechain (these two structures are mutually exclusive)."
He stated that he once said Rushi was talking nonsense, but at that time Rushi only responded: "No one is using it, so we can't think about these issues first."
He continued to attack Movement's technology, stating that the entire codebase of Movement was forked from Aptos with minimal additions. While you are struggling with EVM compatibility. Those you call "useless EVM L2" created some infrastructures that everyone uses (Polygon invented Plonky2, Arbitrum built generic fraud proofs based on Wasm, etc.). Put down your arrogance.
Movement founder enumerates the five sins of Scroll
And the smoke started from this, Rushi first stated that he tried to remain calm during the debate with Toghrul and let everything become a discussion about technology issues. Then he began to enumerate the various sins of the Scroll team:
"Arrogance? Are you kidding? I respect some members of your team, but Scroll and you might be one of the worst people in this field (so much so that at least half of your six colleagues have left to apologize for your behavior)."
Then he began to name Scroll's five sins:
Long-term exploitation of the community, launching a predatory 'branding plan', and ultimately shifting the pressure onto retail investors.
The team continued to sell tokens in the secondary market for several years before the official launch.
Other team members were forced to purchase tokens at a valuation of $1.8 billion, while the core leadership cashed out on them.
Directly airdropping to their own wallets and then dumping the tokens.
Designing the most predatory token economic model, harming the interests of every community member.
And then said: "Today, almost no one wants to be positioned as EVM L2, and it is all because of you."
It is obvious that after delivering the worst product and being hated by the entire community and ecosystem, you feel very bored. I won't comment on the technical content because researchers will figure it out. And you have been following my every move for several months, I have remained silent and respectful towards you.
Technical debates are one thing; I'm sure we can improve. This is untimely, but if you want to jump ship with Franck (head of Movement's research department), then go ahead. Otherwise, just improve your own damn broken chain and make it not a blatant scam.
In a previous interview with Rushi, it was mentioned how the project ensures the ecosystem remains active even after the airdrop. Rushi mentioned that the community is the key to everything. In contrast to Scroll, which invented the term electronic panhandler and saw a drop after the TGE, Movement is indeed much more generous in community management and even token distribution, with a 10% share allocated for airdrops in the recently announced tokenomics. Rushi has also repeatedly expressed: community and ecosystem first.
(Movement Network launches $MOVE token, attempting to bridge the Move ecosystem with Ethereum)
Toghrul implied that Movement provides a lot of listing incentives to exchanges.
Subsequently, Toghrul Maharram also began to tear apart both sides' bottom lines: "Brother, speaking of private messages, how many people do you want me to reveal to show how stupid you are? As for the predatory behavior you mentioned, do you want to leak how much you provided to big exchanges for token listings? That's right, don't pretend to be noble over here."
Rushi also responded: "Brother, even my private messages have it. You completely avoided all my comments because you know your founder has abandoned you and your teammates. I'm not blaming you from a moral high ground; I never bothered you before and have always been patient. But you launched an attack on my team." And attached a screenshot of a chat, seemingly someone revealing to Rushi that he knows many people who left Scroll.
Rushi mocks Scroll for cutting even their own employees.
Additionally, Rushi also quoted @redhairshanks86's article:
"This is the tragic reality faced by about 20 to 30 people in the world (implying Scroll team members):
Finding a job at the top L2 blockchain company Scroll, with an annual salary of about $70k-$150k (my own estimate, I'm not sure either).
First, you feel ecstatic to find a good job in the cryptocurrency field. One day, founder Sandy appears before you and says: "Kid, we really value your contribution of updating CoinGecko several times a day as part of Scroll. You can also participate in investments with venture capitalists at a valuation of $1.8 billion."
At this moment, you are extremely happy: "Oh my god, I can also play the role of a venture capitalist and enter at the same time as them, even though I have to lock up for two years!" So you bought very useful governance tokens at a price of $2 per token. You invested a large sum of money because everyone around you was doing it, and you thought this was your ticket to financial freedom. Now most of your net worth is staked in Scroll.
After the TGE, management decided to destroy their own community. They thought that being listed on Binance would be enough to skyrocket the price, but everyone hated them. The price kept falling, and you lost 80%, currently priced at $0.62.
You find yourself basically paying to work for one of the worst companies in the world for free, thinking it was a great opportunity. As a result, you wasted an entire year. And now you have to start from scratch to rebuild financial independence. Sandy's only response to all the questions was to post the photo below.
Movement positioning issue, Rushi: Don't call me Layer 2.
Additionally, Toghrul Maharram also joked: "So… after three hours of nonsense, I still haven't heard a single idiot answer this question: Is it a sidechain or L2?" He then wrote: "Also, I don't know what buzzwords EVM L2 created? Can someone help me? I'm sure I'm not very familiar with this topic."
However, regarding Movement's positioning issue, Rushi absolutely will not say he is L2. He has stated: "Due to market conditions, I no longer identify as L2. Sidechains, L1, and blockchains are all preferred options." And: "Call me whatever you want. Just don't call me EVM L2." He has also publicly stated his position: "I love Ethereum, but I hate most EVM L2s and believe alternative scaling solutions benefit a better UX/DexEx."
In response, he also retweeted an article stating: "It's reasonable that the project no longer wants to position itself as L2. The term L2 implies that Rollup is an extension of L1, as if there is some hierarchy. But that's not the case. Rollup is an independent chain, that's the point. Positioning as L2 is to underestimate one's own value."
And talking more broadly about the L2 part, he also said: More L2s will transform into L1 (or adopt similar alternative architectures):
Unichain uses TEE and the Unichain validator network.
Plume announced the launch of their L1 blockchain.
Celestia promotes sovereign Rollup technology.
The era of following established routes is over. Users are tired of the lack of differentiation, useless governance tokens, and endless mutual praise culture. ETH is still a valuable asset, and many ecosystems will find ways to utilize it to kickstart liquidity. But this won't always be achieved in a textbook manner. Follow the trend and think outside the box!
And in subsequent articles pointed out that the focus is not really on L2 transforming into L1. He stated: "I'm not sure if things will really develop this way, and I think there are many unique features in Ethereum's scaling roadmap that cannot be found elsewhere, and Ethereum itself still holds high value. The real point is that apart from the currently centralized sorters' Optimistic Rollup, there should be other Rollup or scaling architectures that will be accepted, and this is what should happen."
As a supplement, Toghrul Maharram also admitted on Twitter that he has left the Scroll team, and Crescendo Ventures' @zepump revealed in the comments that he heard founder Sandy is ready to start a new project, in other words, the Scroll project can be considered dead.
This article, Crypto Eight O'Clock: From Technical Disputes to Macro L2 Value Issues, What Are Rushi and Former Scroll Researchers Arguing About? Originally appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
