On Twitter, it was suggested this action may have been taken by someone who wanted to stop ZachXBT from performing further investigations.
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Confusion is swirling within a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) after plans to donate 100 ETH to a well-known, on-chain crypto sleuth were suddenly canceled.
Nouns is a project that releases a new computer-generated artwork every 24 hours — and every person who wins an auction for one ends up becoming a member of its very own DAO, which also receives 100% of the proceeds.
Members of the community had voted to donate the lump sum — worth $128,000 at current market rates — to ZachXBT, rewarding him for his work in uncovering crypto scams. The proposal was first initiated by Hong Kim, the co-founder and CTO of Bitwise Asset Management.
Just some of ZachXBT's scoops this year include releasing a spreadsheet that showed how much major influencers allegedly charged to promote crypto projects — and an investigation claiming Lark Davis promoted low-cap altcoins to his audience, only to dump them shortly after.
ZachXBT had said he was grateful for the donation, writing:
"It will mostly remain unspent in case the bear market lasts for an extended period of time. Also plan on hiring a dev intern in the coming months. Potentially will upgrade some of my equipment too."
All seems in order so far. But things soon got a little murkier after it emerged that the proposal had been abruptly canceled — meaning the funds were not sent to ZachXBT.
Governance client House of Nouns claimed a technical quirk meant the proposal could be canceled by an anonymous wallet — and on Twitter, it suggested this action may have been taken by someone who wanted to stop ZachXBT from performing further investigations.
Undeterred, it confirmed that a new, identical proposal has been created to ensure that ZachXBT receives this 100 ETH reward — and House of Nouns added that it is a "near certainty" that the vote will pass once again. Further explaining what happened, Hong Kim wrote in the newest proposal:
"I had delegated my nouns to the House of Nouns team without knowing that until a prop reaches execution (even after voting passes) removing voting power from the proposer's address can mean that anyone can cancel the prop. Unfortunately it was canceled as a result. My sincere apologies for the need to revote."
Why Is ZachXBT Receiving This Cash?
Hong Kim argued that ZachXBT "is a public good serving the ecosystem through tireless research exposing countless scams" — adding:
"Recent events have highlighted the dire need and importance of such work."
But they acknowledged that giving donations to individuals can prove controversial in the event that there's a conflict of interest — and said one doesn't exist here.
"I attest that I have no prior (or planned future) relationship with ZachXBT and that today was the first time I contacted them (via Twitter) to ask for their permission to make this proposal."
House of Nouns has expressed confidence that ZachXBT will receive their reward "in about a week" after voting ends.
