Author: Foresight News

Yes, the Twitter account with the username MakerDAO is now in my hands. I want to tell you what happened from a first-hand perspective, as well as some random thoughts:

what happened

In order to bring the latest news to our readers, FN members always pay attention to various information sources. I am the same - so I learned about the "Maker brand rebranding" at the first time.

First-hand information is often "incomplete", and in order to provide readers with complete and effective information, FN members will explore in depth. I am the same - what has Maker been reshaped into? Click on its official Twitter, everything is the same; refresh, the nickname has become Sky, and the user name has not changed.

Like our users, FN members are very smart and can infer and extract executable actions from information. I am the same - my nickname has changed, so I have to change my username too. So if I change my username now, maybe I can take down this special username?

It went smoothly, surprisingly smoothly. Soon I was staring at the changed username and my slender jade fingers in front of the screen, lost in thought - am I really a genius?

Screenshot of Foresight News WeChat group chat

What might have happened

After I came to my senses, I suddenly felt a sense of fear.

This has to be considered Sky’s work error. If it weren’t for me, this could have led to a disaster. If North Korean hackers or anyone with bad intentions got hold of this username, they could change their profile picture and nickname to Maker or Sky, claim to conduct the “largest airdrop in crypto history” and attach a phishing link, or issue a Dogecoin themselves, pretending to be Maker and releasing a token contract… With Maker’s influence, it could have caused many users to be defrauded of huge amounts of assets.

Besides, I only need to sell this account to get a huge return, and I don’t even need to take any responsibility. “I don’t know what the person who bought my account will do.”

Fortunately, the members of FN are honest and selfless people who do not accept ill-gotten gains.

A little reflection

Why did all this happen? Putting aside Sky’s mistakes in execution, this actually reflects the common problems of centralized social networks.

In the decentralized industry of crypto, too much communication happens on the centralized platform X (Twitter). And we don’t have a “decentralized identity”.

This means that the loss of centralized identity, whether for technical or other reasons, can bring huge potential losses to projects and users.

For the industry to progress, we need to make changes.

Solution of the incident

On-chain detective ZachXBT said that a client with phishing tools offered a six-digit price for this username. To be honest, after seeing this price, I regretted being so honest and why didn't I just take the money and run away (laughs).

But in order to protect the industry, users, and my own conscience, I still abide by my bottom line. (I've given up so much money, and you still don't allow me to praise myself?)

In the end, I only used the @MakerDAO account to post some content for my own entertainment and did not do anything for my own personal gain.

And because I loved the company so much, I volunteered to bring in a wave of people to FN (if the boss saw this, please give me a raise directly without discussing it with me). This also led to Maker (Sky) approaching me through the company.

I prefer to keep this account for myself. On the one hand, I am also a crypto practitioner and DeFi enthusiast, and this special username is also worth collecting; on the other hand, this account is also likely to bring more traffic. Traffic is still very important for media workers.

If we can keep this account, FN and I will use it to discuss beneficial topics such as DeFi, decentralization, DID, etc., to achieve a win-win situation as much as possible; however, the Sky team contacted me and said that they wanted to regain control of the account, but they didn't seem to be in a hurry.

The incident is still under communication and processing, and this is the current situation.