According to Odaily Planet Daily, Riccardo "Fluffypony" Spagni, the former chief maintainer of the privacy blockchain Monero, has launched a new mining application called Tari Universe. The application uses an ASIC-resistant hashing algorithm to enable users to mine with ordinary computers.

Tari Universe aims to make mining easier for everyone, emphasizing user power rather than suppressing it, said Spagni, who is promoting the L1 protocol despite facing allegations of fraud and counterfeiting from his former employer, Cape Cookies.

Spagni reportedly defrauded Cape Cookies of approximately $83,400 between October 1, 2009 and June 8, 2011. South African authorities requested U.S. authorities to arrest him in August 2021. Since his arrest and transfer to South African authorities, Spagni has maintained his innocence and attempted to quash the arrest warrant, but South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal rejected the request.