Create a Smart Contract to "LOCK" funds (WAX) for Projects with Monthly Unlocks to prevent Rug Pulls
n
noneofyourbussiness
Hello fellow Wax NFT Collectors. As of the last 13 months we have seen projects Rug Pull completely and others using a slow Rug Pull method which has cause many MILLIONS worth of WAXP to go to the hands of "creators" and "project owners" leaving entire communities with worthless NFTS.
One such project was waxtorycards, a promising project with amazing looking NFTs and good concept; however, the three people "Developing" the project had a different idea of what a "community" is and when approached by the pink team they went awol and rug pulled:
Another project which in my opinion is a slow rug is journeytogod which was operated on a discord server than got "deleted" as it was reported to be a "gambling" server (no gambling ever took place though, and there's little to no info about it all.)
The latest of which in my opinion is the largest and most painful one comes from the company known as lgnd.art which recently pulled the funds of upliftword and left their community at a loss with assets that have depreciated in value by upwards of 80%. Of course there's much more behind the scene but this is another example of a "community" not "owning" anything since the "owner" can pull the resources and tries to "sell" it back so that it can continue "running" or so I am understanding.
I am not an investigator, but rather a collector and go by what I see and feel and base my opinion on this regard.
Here's the message from whom I consider to be the main representative of LGDN Team.
"Uplift Community,
I want to start off by saying that the entire LGND team is grateful for all that we have accomplished together. And we see a huge opportunity for The Uplift.
Think of this like the moment when a space station that has been successfully launched into orbit slowly begins to separate from the main ship, and they will begin to take their separate paths. They will need to depend on each other for a bit longer, as critical systems and controls are handed off to ensure that the space station will be operational. Finally, in time, the space station will fully disengage and embark on the next stage of its journey, but with a new set of support and control systems. Both spaceships can achieve their goals, but on separate missions, and they will be inexorably tied together as they survived a turbulent and rocket fuel powered liftoff to escape velocity, and will always be connected by that accomplishment.
As LGND has been preparing for the next stage of its journey, it is clear that our core development effort will be more focused on the art and music sectors than the metaverse. For this reason The Uplift is no longer strategically aligned as an internal platform, however it is still very much aligned as an ongoing partner and community. We see the metaverse space as one where there will clearly be massive growth, and specifically that the Minecraft metaverse is likely the next to take off with such a huge community base. LGND will continue to be a participant in this space in the future, and an ongoing partner and supporter of the Uplift.
For this reason, when we began discussing the need for a strategic shift, it became clear that there is an opportunity for the Uplift leadership and community to buy out The Uplift, take on full ownership, and become more empowered than ever as a future DAO. This buyout process is now underway, and our combined leadership remains committed to continuing to support critical needs and enabling The Uplift for success. We will still be in orbit for a bit together, handing off systems, powering up rockets, and ensuring the ship is ready for the next stage of space travel. To the future.
Thank you.
Michael BLU and the LGND Team"
I ask that the WAX team and the Pink team PLEASE consider adding smart contracts for projects and have unlock periods so that they don't up and run with funds because they make the decision that they made enough and now want to leave the bag held by their "community" who funded such success stories and then gets screwed.
If anything like this happens, there should be a DAO that selects that happens with the FUNDS that have not been "withdrawn" for certain projects, for example, distribute in even proportion to holders of said projects and blacklist collections and their respective "owners" from being able to move more assets until sufficient proof is provided that they have no ill intent to intentionally harm the community and the collective value of the NFT assets that communities hold. Markets will do what markets do but in my opinion people selectively deciding to end projects on a whim due to them having enough profit and in my opinion fundamentally slow rug pulling on their community is atrocious and should not be allowed in this ecosystem.
David Paras
You can say the same thing for Wax Arena, which is now transfering to SOL to do another rug over there screwing over everyone who bought their NFT's on wax - but the problem really lies with you as the indiviudal buyer and managing risk.
I'm saying this to my self as well, having also been burned on some of those projects - this is one of the downsides to a "decentralized" economy with no authority in charge - the plus side is the authority can't tax you or do the same thing to you - I really think it's best to leave it as is and for us to all do our best to try and educate ppl coming into the space on what to look for in a scam.
There is no real way to stop scammers - creating NFTs or an elaborate scam also costs time and money so asking atomic to just lock their funds would really only hurt legit projects and scammers would find a work around - cancel culture cant' really be applied to blockchain.
David Elvion
Hopefully this will drive people more towards DAO focused projects and away from making fast money. It is a learning experience in crypto, and sometimes it will be malicious intent that trips us up, other times it is incompetence or simply lack of experience.
n
noneofyourbussiness
David Elvion: One can only hope, but sadly, these things are far too common and can only be solved by providing REAL ownership to NFT holders and not allow COMPANIES to continue screwing those whom fund the success of such projects. DAOs are a solution for sure and we desperately need one in the WAXP ecosystem.
David Paras
David Elvion: DAO's can easily be devious scams as well - just and FYI... probably easier to scame with a DAO becaue it's a hot topic and most ppl don't understand how they work or how the contracts are setup - but those can literally be a "legit" rug - where you have by your own ignorace agreed to give all your funds to the DAO with no possible return. Gotta check who has control over the DAO and it's not always easy to tell.
Once you've been burned a few times your can smell a scam from a mile a way, but sadly there a lots of scams in the crypto space and I don't see that going away any time soon.
On the plus side - as it becomes more mainstream there will be more and more legal actions you'll be able to take to get your funds back.
Since crypto is all on a distributed ledger you can typically track and find out excactly who the scammer is, where they are and where they moved the funds to.
David Elvion
David Paras: I dont mean to say DAOs are the end all solution, but it adds a layer of community scrutiny (in an optimal case).