To doxx (oneself) or not to doxx? That is a question faced by many operating in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, including developers, influencers, and investors.<\/strong> Does one use one\u2019s own name when venturing into the often chaotic and largely unregulated crypto world \u2014 or don an alias?<\/span><\/p>\n Consider Embrik B\u00f8rresen, developer of RobinHood Inu \u2014 a reflection token that was launched in February. Like many crypto and blockchain founders, he considered using a <\/span>nom de guerre <\/span><\/i>when starting out. But B\u00f8rresen, 22, raised in a small town, had also served in the Norwegian military where he <\/span>says<\/span><\/a> he learned some lessons about the value of trust.<\/span><\/p>\n So, when it came time to launch his new coin project, he opted to use his real name. \u201cFor me, it is the moral thing \u2014 to present yourself as who you are,\u201d he tells Magazine. Many of his peers disagree, however. \u201cPseudo-anonymity has been a fixture of the internet since it began, and I believe it will remain this way,\u201d Ghostbro, a Generation Z developer for the DogeBonk project, tells Magazine. For Ghostbro (a pseudonym), revealing their true identity \u2014 or \u201cdoxxing\u201d themselves \u2014 makes little sense.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt would essentially put a target on my back to people who might have lost money trading DogeBonk, or wish to steal from me either online or by actually coming to my house and threatening me or my loved ones.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n They have already received threatening messages, they tell Magazine, and have been subject to some \u201cextremely obsessive behavior from people who genuinely \u2018hate\u2019 our cryptocurrency.\u201d They\u2019re in no rush to make themselves \u201ca flesh and blood figurehead these people can mess with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It is a debate that has been going on in at least some form since crypto\u2019s beginning: To what extent does one really need to reveal one\u2019s personal identity in a decentralized world? After all, one\u2019s transactions are already on display in the form of a public key for any and all to see. Does one really need to put a bullseye on one\u2019s chest, too? Moreover, aren\u2019t assumed names a part of the crypto ethos going back to Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto \u2014 who assumed an alias that has never been penetrated?<\/span><\/p>\n It may seem that pseudonymity just comes with the turf in the cryptoverse. How many \u201cinfluencers\u201d on Crypto Twitter use assumed names \u2014 e.g., PlanB, Cobie, The Crypto Dog, Rekt Capital? Twitter personality Cobie is actually on their second handle \u2014 until 2021, they went as Crypto Cobain.<\/span><\/p>\n But pseudonymity arguably has some social and economic costs. It can provide cover to \u201crug pullers,\u201d fraudsters, money launderers and other less-than-trustworthy types. This was nakedly displayed in the recent Wonderland saga where it was revealed that one of the founders of that DeFi protocol, going by the alias Sifu, was actually Michael Patryn, a convicted felon and co-founder of QuadrigaCX, the Canadian crypto exchange, whose collapse under murky circumstances led to a loss of $169 million in user funds.<\/span><\/p>\n While the crypto space today has become safer and more user-friendly as it approaches mainstream acceptance, many still believe that anonymous scammers run rampant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1\/ This needs to be shared @0xSifu<\/a> is the Co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn. If you are unfamiliar that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169m<\/p>\n I have confirmed this with Daniele over messages. pic.twitter.com\/qSfWNnQPhr<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 zachxbt (@zachxbt) January 27, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis pseudonymous stuff is so dangerous,\u201d Brian Nguyen, a crypto entrepreneur who lost $470,000 in what might have been a crypto \u201crug pull,\u201d <\/span>told<\/span><\/a> CNBC.com. \u201cThey could be a good actor today, but they could turn bad in two or three years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It makes one wonder what they\u2019re hiding from.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s time then to rethink this pseudo-anonymity thing? \u201cIf we want crypto to be taken seriously as a community, then we must start unveiling identities,\u201d Hadar Jabotinsky, a research fellow at the Hadar Jabotinsky Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Financial Markets, Crises and Technology, tells Magazine. It is important because this remains a new, unregulated market, Jabotinsky continues. \u201cIt\u2019s based on trust, but it is subject to rumors \u2014 so, it\u2019s beneficial to use real names.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Failure to supply one\u2019s true name is traditionally a cause for suspicion, and it remains so still in many quarters. \u201cIf people must be anonymous, it makes one wonder what they\u2019re hiding from,\u201d University of Texas finance professor John Griffin tells Magazine. Meanwhile, B\u00f8rresen adds, \u201cIf someone asks about a person, and they are unable or unwilling to answer, a lot of the time, that indicates some murkiness in what is being presented, even if it is not an outright scam.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, some project founders choose anonymity to further their fraudulent activities, acknowledges Amy Wu, a well-known venture capitalist who was recently named to head FTX Ventures \u2014 a $2-billion VC fund to invest in Web3 projects \u2014 tells Magazine, but \u201cthis is a tiny percentage of crypto founders.\u201d Still, when they succeed \u2014 i.e., execute a scam or rug pull \u2014 \u201cit tends to anger many inside as well as outside the community,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And then what is one to make of the Wonderland fiasco? A serial scammer who had served 18 months in a federal prison for credit card fraud, Patryn (Sifu) was serving as Wonderland\u2019s treasurer. \u201cThe lesson is you have to assume the worst,\u201d Aaron Lammer, DeFi specialist at Radkl, tells Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEven if most people are well-intentioned in their anonymity, you may be masking a very bad actor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Asked why many crypto influencers, traders and developers post anonymously on Twitter and other social media, Lammer answers that each has their \u201cdistinct\u201d rationale. \u201cFor developers and project founders, anonymity can be a shield against regulatory uncertainty. For traders and influencers, there may be security risks. Anonymity is part of the ethos of crypto culture, and I don\u2019t necessarily think that people need to justify it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Still, as more institutional investors enter the crypto space and the deals get bigger, anonymity \u2014 if not pseudonymity \u2014 may lose some of its attractiveness. If one seeks to raise financing from a venture capital firm, it probably wouldn\u2019t help if you go by the handle \u201cLoves2party420,\u201d Justin Hartzman, CEO and co-founder of Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinSmart, tells Magazine, adding:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you are running a multi-million-dollar protocol, it\u2019s not wise to remain anonymous. You need to be visible to ensure that you won\u2019t suddenly rug-pull and get away with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A lot of VC firms won\u2019t invest in a project if the founder remains anonymous, adds Wu, but there are situations where the founder chooses to be publicly anonymous \u2014 maybe to keep with the Web3\u2019s spirit of egalitarianism \u2014 but the founder is still known by name by those within the more narrow investing community, including the enabling VC firm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Is it even right to assume that one loses credibility when adopting an alias? Can\u2019t one build a trustworthy brand around a <\/span>nom de plume<\/span><\/i>? Did it do lasting harm to Eric Blair (George Orwell), Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot), or Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), to name a few? \u201cWhen people\u2019s line of work becomes wrapped up in a pseudonym, then maintaining credibility there becomes just as important as maintaining credibility with their real name,\u201d says Ghostbro.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, in the internet age, people\u2019s behavior isn\u2019t always exemplary, particularly online. \u201cThe majority of my adult [survey] participants use pseudonyms on social media to avoid scorn from those who might deem their behavior \u2018unacceptable,\u2019 both within and outside of fan communities,\u201d <\/span>notes<\/span><\/a> social media researcher Ysabel Gerrard.<\/span><\/p>\n And if pseudonyms help to promote a more democratic spirit, is that necessarily a bad thing? Decentralized project founders often want to downplay their roles, Wu tells Magazine, \u201cThey don\u2019t want to let their personality get in the way of the community.\u201d They often prefer to be seen as just another member in a dynamic, new community, and to this end, a pseudonym can help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can still build up a reputation without revealing your identity,\u201d Samson Mow, CEO of Pixelmatic and formerly chief strategy officer of Blockstream, tells Magazine, continuing, \u201cand you can also accomplish and have a great impact on the world, as Satoshi Nakamoto demonstrated. Ideas and code are more important than a name and face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, it\u2019s difficult to deny that some scam artists are able to hide behind anonymity in order to \u201crepeat the same or different scams repeatedly,\u201d Griffin adds. \u201cA ton of this goes on in crypto.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Jabotinsky, who has studied financial failures in traditional markets, adds that anonymity can lead to all manner of market failures, given the asymmetricity of information in the crypto world. It facilitates pump-and-dump schemes, for instance, and other sorts of manipulation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then, too, scale matters when playing around with avatars and the like. \u201cWhen you are at a certain level\u201d \u2014 with a corporate treasury holding $1 billion, say \u2014 \u201cit is important for you to be visible for people to know exactly who they are dealing with,\u201d says Hartzman.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Still, viewed objectively, the amount of fraud in the crypto world is really quite small, Wu notes, and the number of really big projects \u2014 unicorns that have reached $1 billion in market value \u2014 while growing fast, are still relatively rare. These circumstances don\u2019t really describe the everyday reality of most projects where pseudonymity might bring useful benefits for the everyday developer or founder, as well as influencers and investors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dealing with complaints is tiresome, after all, and investors have been known to lash out when startups falter or fail. \u201cIf you are a protocol creator working 20 hours a day, do you really want to waste time and energy dealing with these complaints and, possibly worse, death threats?\u201d asks Hartzman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Depending on one\u2019s line of work, anonymity could be a wise choice, Hartzman adds. Case in point is Zachxbt, the alias of the investigator who exposed the Sifu\u2013Wonderland deception. \u201cA figure like that probably gets [serious] death threats,\u201d said Hartzman. \u201cBeing anon can be a matter of life and death for someone holding that kind of information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n
Has it gone too far?<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/magazine-Satoshi-may-have-needed-an-alias-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
Part of the ethos<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
Losing credibility?<\/span><\/h4>\n
Allowed to repeat the same fraud?<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/PancakeSwap-1024x515.png\")
<\/p>\nProtection from regulators<\/span><\/h4>\n