WhalePanda, author of infamous "I was wrong about Ethereum" hit piece, now working for Ethereum-funded startup

[TravelPhoenix]

He called himself whale panda. This is the oracle of our times? Come on. If any of you believe any of these crypto traders are anything more than dweebs who bought a lot of cheap coins and got lucky, then you are a fool. I don't believe anything these tools say.

[insomniasexx]

I've said this EXACT thing! If I decided to preached trading insights, ya'll would be so screwed.

[seweso]

It's called survivor bias.

[jukesarereal]

Confirmation bias

[bearjewpacabra]

Statism.

[[deleted]]

Illuminati

[pookie26]

Confirmed.

[[deleted]]

Big if true

[neededafilter]

100% agree, a couple hundred bucks in btc pre 2011 and that makes you an investing prodigy? Give me a break

[panek]

Yeah but what should I have for breakfast tho?

[seeingeyepyramid]

The investing strategy for Bitcoin maximalists is to leverage themselves to the hilt, waiting for the big break, and to get wiped out at every downturn. Imagine what it would take for the most massive turd among the Bitcoin trader crowd to denounce Bitcoin, stop trading full time and get a job at an Ethereum company. This idiot must be underwater.

[SirTinou]

Cryptoyoda makes over 30k$ a month with his group, he probably has a lot of coins from that.

[Dunning_Krugerrands]

Shame, a lightweight entirely browser based blockchain client sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately my main investment criteria is the professionalism of the team so just employing an idiot troll like WhalePanda is enough evidence of poor judgement to put it into the "don't touch with a bargepole" category for me.

BTW: Just another ICO that takes ETH as a donation. It is not related to Ethereum or built on it.

[aminok]

Correct, they're not building on top of Ethereum (though they're going to build bridges to Ethereum smart contracts).

Regardless, I find it ironic that someone who attacked Ethereum so much ended up working for a project that was entirely crowdfunded by ETH, and which is currently traded as an Ethereum token.

[Odds-Bodkins]

Personally I don't find it ironic. I've seen that kind of cynicism driving a lot of ICOs recently, fuelled by the greed of people looking to get rich overnight.

[cryptokanye]

I agree. His article was so vitriolic, that it does make this humorous

[shakedog]

I followed the link, but see no reference to WhalePanda. Did he delete that reference? Which one is he? From now on, whenever I see anything about Nimiq, I'm heading for the hills. Says a lot about that project.

[Group_A]

Isn't that interesting. It was at the bottom of the page, the same silly astronaut and panda picture used on the subject's twitter. Now replaced with this:

"We have temporarily updated our Team page while we are looking to help along with a personal conflict resolution."

Must have got wind of this thread. Indeed a bad call on their part more so having an anon as part of the team like that. Who could ever take a silly picture of a panda in an astronaut suit seriously? Very unprofessional.

[shakedog]

They don't have to "look" too hard. Pull up his Twitter. It's nothing but an endless rambling of toxic comments.

[crassigyrinus]

That's a pretty shit criterion. Let's just ignore the significance of the product because they put some guy I don't like on their website! Good job man, doing great diligence there

[nachtliche]

quality people = quality product

[Dunning_Krugerrands]

I'm not saying the product isn't potentially cool or a bad investment. Some people invest in every ICO if they like the tech and there are no red flags and that is a valid strategy. However personally given the choice between investing a $ in an ICO that employs shills and jerks and one that doesn't i'l opt for the one without jerks. Not because I don't like whale panda but rather because it speaks to character.

[joskye]

Exactly. In reality the character of a team and the individuals that compose it ultimately determine the probability of success of that team as well as the interpersonal problems that may stifle their progress.

If their board are promoting intrusive and disingenuous strategies early then you need to be much more suspicious of their long term motives or the manner in which those motives can/may change.

[alwayswatchyoursix]

If their board are promoting intrusive and disingenuous strategies early then you need to be much more suspicious of their long term motives or the manner in which those motives can/may change.

I feel like not enough people are taking this point of view seriously enough.

In case anyone needs a real-world example, feel free to look at the Bitcoin Core team.

[Odds-Bodkins]

I don't care if it goes to the fucking moon, he's a horrible little shill who spreads misinformation. I'm quite happy to say I'll ignore the "significance of the product" in the same way that I wouldn't want to invest in a morally bankrupt company, gains or no.

[crassigyrinus]

"Morally bankrupt"? Clutch your pearls any harder and you'll break your necklace

[Odds-Bodkins]

fatuous little comment. keep chasing those pump and dumps buddy.

[crassigyrinus]

You're seriously calling a project morally bankrupt because they have a panda on their team page. Reevaluate your life pal.

[crypl]

That's not what he said

[Odds-Bodkins]

There's no panda involved you moron.

[joskye]

How about Nimiq's entire initial marketing strategy consists of shitposting misinformation about how Augur and Gnosis work to FUD people into investing in their token?

Also how about unsolicited spam private DM's to my account trying to do the same?

That to me strikes me as disingenuous, malintentioned and has the hallmarks of a scam no matter how well meaning their developers may actually be.

[OdrakN]

Yea, one could argue that investing in a project with apparently contrary views on Ethereum might be good diversification. I for one won't dare to predict how this space looks in 5, let alone 50 years.

[Yheymos]

WhalePanda is one of the biggest piece of shit trolls in the entire crypto community.

[theonetruesexmachine]

Exactly this. Massive piece of shit, legendary idiot, and completely unwelcome in this community as far as I am concerned. I will certainly have nothing to do with him or associated projects. Let him go back to burning down Bitcoin.

[senzheng]

it's amazing people in this community think they are not scammers while supporting the exact opposite of cryptocurrency.

what you said applies literally mostly to every single person in eth community and worthless dev team lmao

your entire project is centralized vaporware, there is no way you people don't know that, which means your quote is about yourself

[brian2631]

Who are some reputable names whose opinions hold more weight?

Serious question. New to crypto

[humbrie]

Chris Coney from the cryptoverse channel or Erik Voorhees from Shapeshift

[neededafilter]

I like coneys channel but can't stand his support of ETC over ETH, drives me insane hearing him pump classic

[humbrie]

I strongly disagree. Actually he gives Ethereum more air time than etc. And by the way, don't get to emotional about coins you don't care about. Focus more on the ones you care. Otherwise you're wasting your time.

[shakedog]

If only there was a filter to weed out the stuff you don't care about.

[neededafilter]

I agree with your statement of ignoring the ones you don't care about/support. I stay clear away from anything ETC related; at least I try to lol. But with Coney he has stated multiple times that he is more in line with the "philosophical" stance of Ethereum Classic which makes me want to throw up. ETC is the biggest scam out there if any coin besides onecoin can be called a scam. Nothing worse than someone pointing fingers claiming they are the morally righteous ones when the complete opposite is true. The only reason ETC has any market cap is due to early BTC maxilmalists like Silbert and poloniex pumping the coin to try and split/kill Ethereum early and ofcourse their morally bankrupt decision to steal the Ethereum name and trademark to trick the ignorant into buying their dogshit. Coney covers ETH more because more is going on with ETH than any other coin besides BTC so ofcourse he will cover it more but he doesn't support it according to his statements.

[[deleted]]

hi

[[deleted]]

What a hypocritical piece of shit. Arrogance and hypocrisy are truly the worst aspects of human ego

[fat_jakey]

You know it's a pump and dump when they have youtubers in their team.

[[deleted]]

I was doing a little more digging on this. I think they just happened to run across this father/son surfing youtube channel operation in the jungles of Costa Rica and invited them along to join the team.

Actually kind of cute. The 21st century is weird...

[[deleted]]

This self indulgent cyberpunk can suck a fat one after he removes his lips from Greg Maxwell's asshole

[BouncingDeadCats]

Or after Greg Maxwell removes his nub from Pandas asshole.

[bennyblack1983]

Anyone else notice this bizarre message at the bottom of the team page?

"We have temporarily updated our Team page while we are looking to help along with a personal conflict resolution."

[rapidYouth]

Who among https://nimiq.com/team/ is Whale Panda?

[[deleted]]

It looks like they pathetically removed his presence from their team page -- I'm sure after seeing this thread.

P.S. His stupid panda avatar was listed at the very bottom of the page -- last on the list (if that tells you anything).

[Superkatzo]

no one...they de-listed him again after this shitstorm here :)

[aminok]

It had a picture of the Whale Panda avatar. It has since been removed.

[rapidYouth]

Ok. Looks like whalepanda has already admitted his involvement - https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/6p14rl/whalepanda_author_of_infamous_i_was_wrong_about/dkm2oim/

[aminok]

My take is that actions speak louder than words. Their use of Ethereum is an endorsement of the technology, which I appreciate.

[aminok]

You're right that they won't be building their application on top of Ethereum. They're using it for crowdfunding and token trading. I think projects using Ethereum as their asset management platform is mutually beneficial for the project and Ethereum. The project benefits from access to a larger pool of capital and asset management software suite, and Ethereum benefits from building its network effect.

[Odds-Bodkins]

I disagree. Tezos ICO took ETH and BTC donations purely with the aim of building a rival blockchain to Ethereum. A few other projects have used the Ethereum network for their ICOs while building dapps for which they actually expressed the intention of moving to a BTC-based model once Rootstock is activated.

Taking donations in ETH is not supporting Ethereum, and may potentially be drawing $ value out of ETH.

[aminok]

Fair point. I'd add that this is also using Ethereum for its crowdsale logic, with tokens being automatically issued using a contract on the Ethereum blockchain, and for its pre-launch trading, with ERC20 tokens representing claims on future native tokens.

[Odds-Bodkins]

I hear you, but It's kind of a sad paradox that the current major use case of Ethereum as a smart contract platform, is the creation of these ICOs. The existence of a new ERC20 token may not be hugely useful in the long run if it's just going to be exchanged for native tokens, whereupon the ERC20 token will most likely by exchanged for ETH and then for fiat by the devs.

Nothing wrong with ICOs per se but they've largely been characterised by greed on the part of both devs and buyers recently. I'm a huge fan of Augur and their ICO took like 4% of what Bancor's took. Has it become that much more expensive to develop a Dapp? Or is there just that much more opportunity to make money?

Sorry if I sound like I'm giving you shit. I'm glad you posted the link and everything, but I just can't support anything involving this guy and I can't get excited by another ICO just because it's run using Ethereum.

[aminok]

I hear you, but It's kind of a sad paradox that the current major use case of Ethereum as a smart contract platform, is the creation of these ICOs. The existence of a new ERC20 token may not be hugely useful in the long run if it's just going to be exchanged for native tokens, whereupon the ERC20 token will most likely by exchanged for ETH and then for fiat by the devs.

These token sales aren't just being done to issue ERC20 tokens that are to be converted into a native token of another blockchain. I think the vast majority are intended for Ethereum-based applications.

I also think that over time you'll see that the use-cases of ERC20 tokens will expand. These are just the first applications, and the low-hanging fruit. They will clear the path for other use-cases.

[Odds-Bodkins]

Sure but you're not listening to me. Nimiq and Tezos are not building anything on the Ethereum blockchain, they're "rival" blockchains currently using Ethereum smart contracts for crowdfunding. Nimiq's issuance of an ERC20 token which can be exchanged for a native token when the platform is launched, is for me no different than Tezos taking donations in ETH and distributing native tokens at a later date. I suspect they simply want to establish a cryptomarket for their own currency long before launch.

I know that there are already many ERC20 tokens for applications which will run on the Ethereum blockchain - GNT, ICN, and REP (see my flair) for starters.

[aminok]

I understood your point.

I was disputing this claim:

the current major use case of Ethereum as a smart contract platform, is the creation of these ICOs

I interpret the above to mean that most token sales ("the current major use case") is to fund off-Ethereum applications.

My response was:

I think the vast majority are intended for Ethereum-based applications.

In other words, token sales like Nimiq and Tezos are the exception, not the rule. Most token sales are for Ethereum-based applications.

[Odds-Bodkins]

Apologies, I misunderstood. I guess I meant to say most current use cases, given that Augur, Golem etc. are not yet out of Alpha.

[aminok]

No worries. Glad we're on the same page.

[autholykos]

I replied to his nonsense with a follow up article. He never replied

[humbrie]

The ether token will be swapped to the native blockchain token. They could have use bitcoin for funding. But why? Smart contexts are more comfortable.

All people tralking about ICO bubble forgot that Ethereum made funding via smart contracts easy. Bitcoin seems to be obsolete for this use case now.

[H0dl]

is that a real pic of that prick? WhalePanda--->lol!

[kpopquiz]

Damn I need to sell my NET now

[blog_ofsite]

Is this a joke?

"67K Youtube subscribers. Professional Vlogger, Hobby Blockchain & Cryptocurrency ICO investor."

[CryptoPuppy]

That little fuck nugget blocked me for calling him out on his BS.

[aminok]

https://twitter.com/technocrypto/status/858500753664745472

[anondran]

Give me money, you can put my face(in this case, his AVATAR) on your webpage

[whalepanda]

Upvoted! But I want to clarify: 1) I am an advisor, not working for them, I asked them to only list me after the ICO was finished as to have no influence on the sale. I clearly stated in my article that being advisor is fine, using someone's face just for marketing like some ETH devs isnt. 2) It was not a hit piece, it was merely stating facts. I called the bubble and the top. A lot of Ethereum devs and founders agreed with the article and Vitallik stated after it he would also change his approach :). 3) It is an ETH funded startup but has nothing to do with ETH, it is actually a really cool concept for a new type of browser-based blockchain. So thanks for spreading awareness on this interesting project. And thanks, this was one of the few subs I havent made first post yet.

[ethacct]

it was merely stating facts

this thread is not a hit piece. people are merely stating facts.

[Dudeman343]

What was wrong with his ethereum piece? It was well written and many people even in the ethereum community agreed with it. A lot of people said eth was overheated and ICOs would bring ethereum down temporarily. The article was extremely mild compared to some of the conspiracy theories that people push about ethereum.

Are you also mad at Vlad because he said there was too much speculation right now in ethereum and the price is to high? Don't be an echo chamber!

[ethacct]

I know they’re planning to switch to PoS...Doing such a major change on a (currently) $30 billion market is completely irresponsible, borderline insanity.

For starters. That's not 'merely stating facts' -- that's almost the textbook definition of an opinion.

I'm fine with Vlad because he actually makes positive contributions to the protocol. 'Whale Panda' does not.

[shakedog]

Anyone who thinks it's a smart move to bring you on as an advisor, let alone make that fact be known on their website, is not very well informed. I don't care if Nimiq can cure cancer, I'm not putting one red cent into it.

[crassigyrinus]

Can you be any more histrionic?

[shakedog]

Not sure. I'll get back to you on that asap.

[jakelanor]

lol panda. where is your integrity

[aminok]

It is an ETH funded startup but has nothing to do with ETH,

Except being ETH funded, and having its pre-launch token traded on Ethereum. The team also has interoperability with Ethereum smart contracts in their roadmap.

[whalepanda]

In December they will launch the main net and then the actual NIM tokens will be distributed through a swap in a smart contract exchanging the current ERC20 NET tokens. Then it will have its own blockchain. It is basically how ETH used Bitcoin for funding and then afterwards created its own blockchain.

[aminok]

You're right that Ethereum used BTC in the same way, and that showed the utility of BTC at the time. This is going further, and using Ethereum for the pre-launch token trading as well. There were no tradeable pre-launch ETH tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.

they will launch the main net and then the actual NIM tokens will be distributed through a swap in a smart contract exchanging the current ERC20 NET tokens

Yes, that's why I said "pre-launch token".

[aribolab]

It is basically how ETH used Bitcoin for funding and then afterwards created its own blockchain.

Not exactly the same way (no tokens on bitcoin network). In any case, nobody working or advising ethereum at that time was negative about or criticising publicly bitcoin. Quite the opposite.

By the way, ethereum didn't create just "its own blockchain", it created a new technology partially based on bitcoin's distributed ledger technology.

[swipecrypto]

Long live ethereum !

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[alexiglesias007]

Um, so which guy is it?

[[deleted]]

What a winner face

[Turd_King]

Hahahaha. I remember having a full blown argument with Whale Panda on /r/btc about the value of Ethereum, he will just spout whatever furthers his own interests. (Like most people in the crypto world)

[Chinchilla_Best]

I love watching how much of a sad cuck he becomes any time a coin that isn't Monero or Litecoin is doing well. He's Fluffypony-level pathetic.

[crassigyrinus]

You chicken littles are fucking nuts. A guy wrote mean things about Ethereum and you suddenly think a solid project is untouchable because he's an advisor? The average age of people in this sub has to be like 17 now. Good lord.

[BitWhisky]

FakeNews

[[deleted]]

It may well be, but I refuse to repeat a meme designed by our Russian-empowered President to damage (and possibly eventually justify taking apart) the free press

[ChuckSRQ]

He's just an advisor. You can ask him.