Clearing the Air: Friend.Tech Denounces Misleading Reports About Data Leak

Emerging as a novel decentralised social network, Friend.Tech quickly made its presence felt within the cryptocurrency sector by generating a staggering $1 million in fees on its inaugural day. Nonetheless, the platform has recently found itself amidst a storm of scrutiny following an unforeseen revelation by Banteg, an enigmatic Yearn Finance contributor.

This disclosure has brought to light a substantial breach of critical user data on GitHub, plunging the network into disarray. The breach in question unveils a trove of information pertaining to more than 101,000 individuals, laying bare their Base wallet addresses alongside their corresponding Twitter identities.

Friend.Tech Fights Back

Friend.Tech took to X to counter claims made by The Block concerning the alleged database leak purportedly exposing details of 101,000 users, encompassing information like wallet addresses on the Base platform, X usernames, and X names, among others. The article referenced a GitHub repository shared by Banteng, a Yearn Finance developer, housing the contentious user database.

In response, Friend.Tech issued a clarifying statement, shedding light on the fact that the user data in question had been gathered through scraping their public API. This particular API reportedly delineates the connection between public wallet addresses and corresponding public Twitter usernames, a process akin to extracting information from a publicly accessible source such as a Twitter feed.

The official account argued, “It’s like saying someone hacked you by looking at your public Twitter feed.”

Although The Block subsequently revised its article, acknowledging that the user data was publicly accessible rather than obtained through a leak, the aftermath reverberated across the cryptocurrency community on X. Criticisms echoed against the backdrop of alleged misinformation, underscoring the weight of accuracy in reporting within the intricate landscape of digital currencies. Notably, The Block’s Director of Research was embroiled in a fervent exchange while defending his team's actions.

The post in question also garnered insights from X's Community Notes contributors, “The underlying data is public and anybody can work it out reading a block explorer: if you buy a share, 5% goes to the creator's wallet and he will have needed to fund his wallet. The database only scraps that public info.”

Banteg also expressed dissatisfaction with the inaccurate interpretation of their initial post.