Buzzfeed Revealed Identity Of BAYC Founders, Suffers Backlash

Buzzfeed revealed the identity of the founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club and got an immediate backlash from the community as we can see further today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The community lashed out at BuzzFeed for publishing the real identity of the pair behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. The entertainment company BuzzFeed revealed the identities of two of the four founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. Journalist Kate Notopoulos authored the article titled “We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders.”

She was able to reveal their identities by searching publicly available records of Yuga Labs which is the company behind the collection. Yuga was Incorporated in Delaware with an address associated with Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano, the two founders. Notopoulos argued that there were reasons why in the traditional business world, CEOs and founders of companies use their real names adding that people behind BAYC are courting investors and running a business that is potentially worth billions, saying that you can’t hold them accountable if you don’t know who they are.

Got doxxed against my will. Oh well.

Web2 me vs. Web3 me pic.twitter.com/uLkpsJ5LvN

— GordonGoner.eth (@GordonGoner) February 5, 2022

The executives of the public-traded companies have to be named in Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures and reports and smaller companies have to follow know your customer laws which require executives to use their real names in almost all cases. The reporter wrote:

“These laws are in part to prevent terrorists, criminals, or sanctioned nations from doing business in the US.”

However, the non-consensual explore of Aronow and Solano’s identities raised quite the criticism from members of the Web3 community that described the article as “doxxing” rather than an appropriate journalistic practice. Also, crypto podcaster “Cobie” called the article “typical Buzzfeed trash” saying that it was doxxing people for more clicks and revenue. In the meantime, the venture capitalist Mike Solana wrote that there’s no reason to dox these guys because they are literally “cartoon apes.” Messari founder Ryan Selkis was also not happy with the story and shared a tweet from 2009 by Notopoulos which used a homophobic slur.

Got doxed so why not. Web2 me vs Web3 me. pic.twitter.com/jfmzo5NtrH

— Garga.eth (@CryptoGarga) February 5, 2022

As for the reporter, she was not really touched by the backlash and even posted a screenshot of messages sent by someone that threatened to make her personal information public including her place of work, parent’s home, addresses, and other locations. Responding to the threat she asked the person whether they were a “big strong guy” to which they replied, “no, I’m a degen.”