Original | Odaily Planet Daily
Author | 0xAyA
Editor | Hao Fangzhou
The NFT market has been sluggish for a long time. The few "families" that insist on using NFT as social media avatars are only CryptoPunks, BAYC, Azuki, Milady...
Wait, Milady???
In the Crypto world, Milady has always been regarded as the epitome of rebellious spirit, Shamatte, performance art and madness. Its "evil" culture and abstract spirit of deconstructing everything fully demonstrate the characteristics of a small circle. (For details, see "Milady before Musk's call: the ultimate "online psychopath"")
However, such a project, which is indifferent to the politics of the outside world, was in "internal chaos" this week.
Ultimately, it’s a question of money and title?
On the evening of September 11, Charlotte Fang, the founder of Milady, stated on the X platform that a developer had misappropriated about $1 million from the Bonkler treasury of Milady's official project. The developer also seized the code base and demanded that the team hand over more funds and NFT reserves. Currently, the X accounts of miladymaker and remilionaire are under the control of the developer.
Charlotte said that the relevant members have been locked up and will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The minting of Bonkler NFTs has been temporarily stopped, and Bonkler's community vault, contracts and NFTs are safe. Milady's parent company Remilia's other series of NFTs have not been affected for the time being.
However, a few hours later, Milady’s other co-founder, Remilia’s creative director, artist Sprite Bonkler (精灵) tweeted: “Charlotte is spreading a false narrative that has no connection to reality, attempting to preempt legal review and public exposure of his own malfeasance and misappropriation of Remilia funds. Three weeks ago, we sent a letter to Charles trying to get him to acknowledge us as co-founders, provide us with our equity in the company, and demand that he return all funds removed from the treasury. In response to our letter, and after Charles’ lawyers asked us not to make our concerns public, Charles filed a lawsuit falsely characterizing us as ‘independent contractors’ and ‘terrorists.’ Charles made these claims without providing any contract, nor attaching the countless information we have received from him that proves our claims and contradicts his own. We welcome the opportunity to resolve this dispute in court.”
In response, Charlotte said: "Remilia has no co-founders. From the beginning, I have held sole control over funds and operations. Before the establishment of a limited liability company, I solely controlled the assets used to fund Remilia's operations, and they reached an agreement directly with me and received compensation from the funds I controlled. Milady and the core team working on Remilio received revenue sharing and accepted to join the company as a normal position to continue working, and these people never negotiated equity at the time or at any time. This lawsuit was caused by the seizure of company property before requiring all stablecoins and NFT treasuries of Remilia to be transferred to an entity controlled by 5 parties for equal division. They threatened to be publicly exposed first and refused to comply with the cease and desist order or participate in private arbitration. I took action to freeze Bonkler to protect the interests of the community. The developer has no right to retain ownership of the Bonkler contract. Jimbo did receive a letter of intent from a co-founder, but he rejected it at the time."
Both sides have their own opinions. What is the background?
It is understood that the Milidy series was first designed by "Elf", and then Charlotte joined and established Remilia. The former is still responsible for art and design, while the latter is responsible for marketing, publicity, community building and other work.
Beyond money and control, the mysterious real identity
Considering the trouble Charlotte has previously caused in the community, this dispute seems to be expected.
Charlotte’s real identity had been uncovered by community members before, and in the copy of the lawsuit filed by Charlotte, the name Krishna okhandiarz was indeed found, linked to the parent company Remilia Corporation LLC.
After further digging, WazzCrypto on X gave his inference: not only can he find someone with the same name on Linkedin, but also various information - rare name, work experience in Nevada, IT background, remote work, etc. can be matched one by one, basically locking down the overlap of "two people". According to his work experience, Krishna okhandiarz works for a company called Palantir.
What does Palantir do? According to an article published by Forbes in August 2013:
The biggest problem facing Palantir’s business may be that it helps its clients see too much. After NSA leaker Edward Snowden revealed the agency’s mass surveillance, Palantir’s tools have become the embodiment of privacy advocates’ worst fears about data-mining technology — Google-level products applied directly to government spying.
It’s not easy for someone like Karp to be a heretic in the modern world. Conversely, with tools like Palantir in the hands of governments, it might be even harder for the rest of us to be a heretic.
Wikipedia describes the company as follows:
Palantir Technologies is an American public company specializing in big data analysis. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, it was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp. The company's name comes from "The Lord of the Rings", meaning "Spar of True Knowledge", which is described as an indestructible crystal ball used to communicate and watch events in other parts of the world.
As of 2013, Palantir's clients included at least a dozen groups within the U.S. government, including the CIA, DHS, FBI, CDC, Marine Corps, Air Force, Special Operations Command, Restoration Accountability and Transparency Board, and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, among others. However, the U.S. Army continued to use its own data analysis tools at the time. Additionally, according to TechCrunch, U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA and FBI were first linked to Palantir software because their databases were previously "siloed."
At this point, performance art shines into reality - the founders of the non-mainstream community indirectly help the government "control or arrest" the non-mainstream, giving a magical feeling that "the enemy is in Honnoji Temple."
What do you think? What should we do next?
Returning to the Rashomon of the two founders' statements not matching each other, industry insiders and community members also have their say on the team division of labor, profit distribution, and brand positioning of NFT projects represented by Milady.
@vectorized.eth, which leads protocols such as Sound.xyz and erc 721 a.org, believes that "compensation can be a very sensitive topic, especially in this space. Until we get some hard numbers, it's hard to tell whether enough compensation has been received from lawsuits alone. Artists, marketers, and developers all play a key role in the success of a project. However, understand that the company must strike a balance between profit sharing and reinvestment in business expansion. So it's not as simple as distributing profits equally among all core members. If the pay is considered too low, employees should seek other opportunities. Unless there is a non-competition clause in their contract. If the competition is unfair, don't destroy it. Quit."
@_gabrielShapir 0 said, "From a legal perspective, Charlotte is very persuasive and he may win. Charlotte is a genius in community (cult) building and aesthetics, and has promoted the development of this field in many ways. But now the consensus is gone, Milady was on the opposite side of the narrative of 'BAYC received VC investment', but now it has been exposed as a commercial company backed by VC. If Milady wants to survive, he must live up to the propaganda of network anarchism and create a future that is not bound by non-corporate or personality cults."
The more cruel reality is that NFT projects that have been troubled by internal strife within the founding team are like a pile of loose sand that will be blown away by the wind.
In terms of short-term market feedback, Blur's market data shows that Milady's floor price is currently 2.4121 ETH, down 15.31% in a single day and 27.27% in 7 days.
Even if the team shakes hands and makes peace later, can Milady's scattered spiritual core be gathered together again?
