BuzzFeed, the American internet media and Entertainment Company, has revealed the identities of two of the four original “Bored Ape Yacht Club” (BAYC) nonfungible token (NFT) collection founders “Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel” as being Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow in real life.
It has been reported that Journalist Katie Notopoulos authored the Friday article, which was entitled “We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders.”
However, Notopoulos was able to uncover the pair’s identities by searching the publicly available records of Yuga Labs, the company behind the collection. Yuga was incorporated in Delaware with an address associated with Solano, while other records point to Aronow.
The tech reporter argued that “there are reasons why in the traditional business world, the CEO or founder of a company uses their real name and not a pseudonym,” adding that “the people behind BAYC are courting investors and running a business that is potentially worth billions.”
She added:
“How do you hold them accountable if you don’t know who they are?”
The report said that executives of publicly traded companies must be named in United States Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures and reports. As for smaller private companies, banking regulations and Know Your Customer laws require executives to use their real names in many cases.
Notopoulos wrote:
“These laws are in part to prevent terrorists, criminals, or sanctioned nations from doing business in the US.”
Likewise, the non-consensual exposure of Aronow and Solano’s identities has raised impassioned criticism from members of the Web3 community, who are describing the article as “doxxing” rather than appropriate journalistic practice. Crypto podcaster Cobie called the article “typical Buzzfeed trash,” saying that it was “doxxing people for clicks and ad revenue.” Meanwhile, venture capitalist Mike Solana wrote that there was absolutely no reason to dox these guys, by adding that they’re literally cartoon apes.
Messari founder Ryan Selkis was also clearly unhappy with the story, sharing a 2009 tweet by Notopoulos in which she used a homophobic slur. As for Notopoulos, she seemed relatively unfazed by the backlash. She posted a screenshot of messages sent by someone threatening to make her personal information public, including her “location, place of work, parents’ home, and siblings’ addresses.”
Thus, by responding to the threat, she asked the person whether they were a “big strong guy” to which they replied, “no, I’m a degen.” She replied, “Ah bummer. They have a heavy dresser they need help moving to the garage.”
Source: Cointelegraph