⚠️ Notification of undeclared donation to Namecoin contributors
Recently we had a very nice discussion on Wikipedia about whether or not the newly created website at namecoin.pro should be used as a reference (after the Namecoin article has been blighted for over six years with a "multiple issue box" about missing sources and so on). One of the contributors around domob and biolizard89 appeared as IP, claiming "The added namecoin.pro links are spam and not relevant". Very revealing his statement "the imprint lists one "Uwe Martens", who is not a contributor to or otherwise involved with Namecoin". Why I can't help feeling again a déjà-vu?
Correction: For the personal view about the situation of the Namecoin project by someone who's not been involved in the project/community so far, see that link.
Very interesting again the proof why the concept of Wikipedia failed: an editor named "David Gerard", who regularly edited the article, reverted the edits and protected the article in his version with his extended rights as admin (which is not a sys-op, but just a simple moderator). The section Violation of WP:UNINVOLVED stucks and it seems that this behavior, normally considered a violation of their rules, is accepted in this case (because for the user "David Gerard", a hobby writer about crypto stuff, special rules apply). While I don't care any longer about Wikipedia and its failed concept, I care much more about the Namecoin contributor who appeared anonymously. This made me think about another nice notification of the last time:
Well, this time I thought it might be really time to discuss with a broader audience who has been involved in the project/community "so far", who will be involved in the future, and who will not:
It could have been so simple. But now we do it my way. All other previous funders will be informed shortly as well.
I'll be back!
Info: About the actual situation of the Namecoin project please see this summary!
Very interesting again the proof why the concept of Wikipedia failed: an editor named "David Gerard", who regularly edited the article, reverted the edits and protected the article in his version with his extended rights as admin (which is not a sys-op, but just a simple moderator). The section Violation of WP:UNINVOLVED stucks and it seems that this behavior, normally considered a violation of their rules, is accepted in this case (because for the user "David Gerard", a hobby writer about crypto stuff, special rules apply). While I don't care any longer about Wikipedia and its failed concept, I care much more about the Namecoin contributor who appeared anonymously. This made me think about another nice notification of the last time:
As we have uncovered, the Namecoin contributors on GitHub, namely and most notably Daniel Kraft, Jeremy Rand, and the user under the pseudonym yanmaani, received an airdrop of 10.2 million HNS in February 2020, according to Handshake's whitepaper. We need to clarify here that most of the listed contributors, and thus the members with the most contributions such as laanwj, MarcoFalke and sipa, have never contributed a single line of code directly to Namecoin. For example, since the Namecoin Core wallet is forked and regularly imported from the Bitcoin Core repository, the original contributions to the Bitcoin Core wallet are automatically shown in the Namecoin fork as well, without these contributors even knowing it. The members active exclusively on the Namecoin repository can be found e.g. in the open issues.
The huge airdrop for the Namecoin contributors was sent to the Handshake multisig address hs1qme9hk473uwkgk8293pyjea2dysrrweedk3jfcdnmzey432ctl06q4nk370. This airdrop was intended as a personal donation to active and previous Namecoin contributors and has been spent on February 20, 2020 at block 2872, worth approximately $1 million USD at the time of the airdrop. In order to obtain this airdrop, the Namecoin contributors had to apply for the pseudo TLD (top level domain) .bit within the Handshake network with the DNSSEC proof of ownership of the subdomain bit.namecoin.org. The claim was then made with the TxID 4cf79769efba09e0eb1ed446f8d8200579fd67967eb9252b834475eb5c2878a9, which was symbolically rewarded with 503 HNS (in addition to the airdrop of 10.2 million HNS).
Referring to the news section on namecoin.org (see also the current Wayback archive), this airdrop has never been publicly declared by the Namecoin contributors, nor was it ever declared how the airdrop was split and who received which amount. For further details, see the discussion in the Handshake Telegram group. By the way, recently we had a very nice discussion with J.R. & Co....
The huge airdrop for the Namecoin contributors was sent to the Handshake multisig address hs1qme9hk473uwkgk8293pyjea2dysrrweedk3jfcdnmzey432ctl06q4nk370. This airdrop was intended as a personal donation to active and previous Namecoin contributors and has been spent on February 20, 2020 at block 2872, worth approximately $1 million USD at the time of the airdrop. In order to obtain this airdrop, the Namecoin contributors had to apply for the pseudo TLD (top level domain) .bit within the Handshake network with the DNSSEC proof of ownership of the subdomain bit.namecoin.org. The claim was then made with the TxID 4cf79769efba09e0eb1ed446f8d8200579fd67967eb9252b834475eb5c2878a9, which was symbolically rewarded with 503 HNS (in addition to the airdrop of 10.2 million HNS).
Referring to the news section on namecoin.org (see also the current Wayback archive), this airdrop has never been publicly declared by the Namecoin contributors, nor was it ever declared how the airdrop was split and who received which amount. For further details, see the discussion in the Handshake Telegram group. By the way, recently we had a very nice discussion with J.R. & Co....
Well, this time I thought it might be really time to discuss with a broader audience who has been involved in the project/community "so far", who will be involved in the future, and who will not:
Quote
To:
NLnet Foundation
Science Park 400
1098 XH Amsterdam
Netherlands
bureau@nlnet.nl
Mr. Joost Agterhoek, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mr. Bob Goudriaan, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mr. Michiel Leenaars, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mrs. Hanneke Slager c/o Cordemeyer & Slager / Advocaten B.V., xxxx@xxxx.nl
Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI)
info@ngi.eu
European Commission
Department Next-Generation Internet (CNECT.E.3)
Mr. Olivier Bringer
Beaulieulaan 33
1160 Brussel
Belgium
cnect-e3@ec.europa.eu
Review of a donation by NLnet to the Namecoin project in May 2021
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
in the name and on behalf of the Namecoin community (i.a. Telegram group @Namecoin, currently around 820 active members) I hereby request the review of a donation by NLnet to the Namecoin project in May 2021.
Recently Jeremy Rand posted online on his personal blog at namecoin.org that NLnet funded the Namecoin project in May 2021 with 50,000 Euro, taken out of the funds of the European Commission. In the meantime, we revealed that these same Namecoin contributors received a faucet, a kind of airdrop, from the Handshake project back in February 2020, worth approximately $1 million USD at the time of the airdrop, currently around 2.2 million USD. This airdrop was intended to encourage the development of the Namecoin project. On February 20, 2020 this donation has been split among undefined and unknown recipients and has nowhere been publicly declared from the Namecoin contributors.
Therefore we kindly ask
1. if this kind of donation in February 2020 has been brought to your attention during the application for a public fund through NLnet,
2. if NLnet would still have approved the application in case of point 1,
3. whether NLnet would subsume the concealment of the Handshake donation and thus the deliberate untruthful pretense of financing worthiness under the criminal offense of subsidy fraud under the jurisdiction of all eligible nations.
In case of point 3 is fulfilled, we request:
1. that the subsidies granted will be reclaimed,
2. to file a criminal complaint for subsidy fraud in the jurisdiction of the applicant(s[/url],
3. to decline any future requests for donation.
Independent from the legal assessment we kindly request a public declaration which amount has been sent to which recipient. For details and proves on the Handshake blockchain please see the appendix. In the Telegram channel @namecoin_online of our connected Namecoin blockchain explorer you get further documents and all info regarding the general situation of the Namecoin project.Of particular note, the website at namecoin.org has turned out to be Jeremy Rand's personal blog, especially after he arbitrarily deleted the Namecoin wiki without consulting the other contributors first. Our new website at namecoin.pro replaces this deleted wiki and provides now the absolute “how to” basics along with two browser add-ons for .bit blockchain domain resolution.
Kind regards,
signed,
Uwe Martens
September 16, 2021
Appendix: Links to the relevant groups and websites
__________________________________
Uwe Martens
Email: xxxx@namecoin.pro
Web: www.namecoin.pro
Telegram: @Uwe_Martens
• Project site of the NLnet Foundation:
Namecoin: ZeroNet and Packaging
https://nlnet.nl/project/Namecoin-ZeroNet/
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210127230928/https:/nlnet.nl/project/Namecoin-ZeroNet/
• Announcements by Jeremy Rand:
Funding from NLnet (project site of Jeremy Rand):
https://www.namecoin.org/2021/04/30/funding-from-nlnet.html
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210618052747/https:/www.namecoin.org/2021/04/30/funding-from-nlnet.html
Twitter announcement (account maintained by Jeremy Rand):
https://twitter.com/Namecoin/status/1395373241699422214
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210618053637/https:/twitter.com/Namecoin/status/1395373241699422214
Announcement on Bitcointalk (by biolizard89):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.msg57045417#msg57045417
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210613081342/https:/bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.1900
• Notifications by Uwe Martens and Michael Cook:
Notification on Bitcointalk (by The Scam Removers aka Trade Runner):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.msg57222123#msg57222123
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210613081342/https:/bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.1900
Notifications on Telegram (Channel @namecoin_online):
https://t.me/s/namecoin_online
NLnet Foundation
Science Park 400
1098 XH Amsterdam
Netherlands
bureau@nlnet.nl
Mr. Joost Agterhoek, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mr. Bob Goudriaan, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mr. Michiel Leenaars, xxxx@nlnet.nl
Mrs. Hanneke Slager c/o Cordemeyer & Slager / Advocaten B.V., xxxx@xxxx.nl
Next Generation Internet initiative (NGI)
info@ngi.eu
European Commission
Department Next-Generation Internet (CNECT.E.3)
Mr. Olivier Bringer
Beaulieulaan 33
1160 Brussel
Belgium
cnect-e3@ec.europa.eu
Review of a donation by NLnet to the Namecoin project in May 2021
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
in the name and on behalf of the Namecoin community (i.a. Telegram group @Namecoin, currently around 820 active members) I hereby request the review of a donation by NLnet to the Namecoin project in May 2021.
Recently Jeremy Rand posted online on his personal blog at namecoin.org that NLnet funded the Namecoin project in May 2021 with 50,000 Euro, taken out of the funds of the European Commission. In the meantime, we revealed that these same Namecoin contributors received a faucet, a kind of airdrop, from the Handshake project back in February 2020, worth approximately $1 million USD at the time of the airdrop, currently around 2.2 million USD. This airdrop was intended to encourage the development of the Namecoin project. On February 20, 2020 this donation has been split among undefined and unknown recipients and has nowhere been publicly declared from the Namecoin contributors.
Therefore we kindly ask
1. if this kind of donation in February 2020 has been brought to your attention during the application for a public fund through NLnet,
2. if NLnet would still have approved the application in case of point 1,
3. whether NLnet would subsume the concealment of the Handshake donation and thus the deliberate untruthful pretense of financing worthiness under the criminal offense of subsidy fraud under the jurisdiction of all eligible nations.
In case of point 3 is fulfilled, we request:
1. that the subsidies granted will be reclaimed,
2. to file a criminal complaint for subsidy fraud in the jurisdiction of the applicant(s[/url],
3. to decline any future requests for donation.
Independent from the legal assessment we kindly request a public declaration which amount has been sent to which recipient. For details and proves on the Handshake blockchain please see the appendix. In the Telegram channel @namecoin_online of our connected Namecoin blockchain explorer you get further documents and all info regarding the general situation of the Namecoin project.Of particular note, the website at namecoin.org has turned out to be Jeremy Rand's personal blog, especially after he arbitrarily deleted the Namecoin wiki without consulting the other contributors first. Our new website at namecoin.pro replaces this deleted wiki and provides now the absolute “how to” basics along with two browser add-ons for .bit blockchain domain resolution.
Kind regards,
signed,
Uwe Martens
September 16, 2021
Appendix: Links to the relevant groups and websites
__________________________________
Uwe Martens
Email: xxxx@namecoin.pro
Web: www.namecoin.pro
Telegram: @Uwe_Martens
• Project site of the NLnet Foundation:
Namecoin: ZeroNet and Packaging
https://nlnet.nl/project/Namecoin-ZeroNet/
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210127230928/https:/nlnet.nl/project/Namecoin-ZeroNet/
• Announcements by Jeremy Rand:
Funding from NLnet (project site of Jeremy Rand):
https://www.namecoin.org/2021/04/30/funding-from-nlnet.html
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210618052747/https:/www.namecoin.org/2021/04/30/funding-from-nlnet.html
Twitter announcement (account maintained by Jeremy Rand):
https://twitter.com/Namecoin/status/1395373241699422214
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210618053637/https:/twitter.com/Namecoin/status/1395373241699422214
Announcement on Bitcointalk (by biolizard89):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.msg57045417#msg57045417
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210613081342/https:/bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.1900
• Notifications by Uwe Martens and Michael Cook:
Notification on Bitcointalk (by The Scam Removers aka Trade Runner):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.msg57222123#msg57222123
WayBack:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210613081342/https:/bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6017.1900
Notifications on Telegram (Channel @namecoin_online):
https://t.me/s/namecoin_online
It could have been so simple. But now we do it my way. All other previous funders will be informed shortly as well.
I'll be back!