DeFi, DEXs, Stablecoins, Chainlink – All Scam, Says Craig Wright

Pretty much the entire decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and platforms aiming to be decentralized oracle networks, namely Chainlink (LINK), and in addition to stablecoins – are all scams, said Craig Wright, a controversial Australian computer scientist, Bitcoin SV (BSV) backer, and Chief Scientist at research and development company nChain.

“DeFi is a complete scam,” said Wright during the virtual conference Reimagine 2020. “They are conmen. They are criminal a******s taking money, full stop!” What’s being sold is “a promise that I’ll make a promise to make a promise” of a product. “No delivery.”

Wright further called DeFi: “Illegal. Unregistered. Unlicensed.” Stablecoins have been described with all three adjectives as well, with Wright asking: “Where is the damn backing? What are you doing?” It’s one of the many points that had people in the Cryptoverse confused, arguably conference hosts included.

There is “no such thing” as decentralized exchanges, said the seemingly irritated entrepreneur, “full stop!” The exchanges are still owned by a person, he argued. “The distributed exchange by Binance is controlled by Binance. […] It is the best example. There is no less decentralized. Everyone is controlled by an individual.”

He goes on to argue that a node doesn’t help a network unless the person is a miner, and that “there is no such thing as individuals doing this stuff on nodes,” and that Bitcoin (BTC) “isn’t a decentralized network of every node running things.”

That wasn’t all, as he replied to the host’s question on oracles, specifically Chainlink, by saying: “scam people, full stop!” He suggested that there’s no such this as a decentralized oracle, adding with a show of the middle finger: “Sue me! Love you too!”

Lastly, he touched upon a rather long and complex episode in crypto history: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporter Roger Ver calling Wright a liar and a fraud, and the subsequent lawsuit filed by the latter. The lawsuit had been dismissed, resulting in an appeal, which Wright lost in late May.

“Unlike Roger Ver, I’m saying it,” said Wright during the conference with a smirk, “because I fight in court. I’m not a cowardly you-know-what who runs away. But I chase.”

Meanwhile, another even longer and more complex crypto story puts Wright and a lawsuit at its center: the family of David Kleiman, a deceased computer scientist and Wright’s partner, sued Wright, arguing that he attempted to hold onto Kleiman’s share of funds, though the two mined BTC together. The estate claimed that Wright had the keys to an encrypted file that may contain the private keys to over BTC 820,000. The judge had “rejected all [of] Wright’s testimony,” stating he believed Wright had committed perjury and “falsified documents.”

Meanwhile, in May, someone signed a message calling Wright a fraud by using 145 addresses the computer scientist claimed were his in the Tulip Trust. Wright made a counter-attack by claiming that no messages on the addresses have been signed at all, leaving the Cryptoverse baffled.