The Mystery of BM's Departure, The Power Games of EOS

This article is from Deep Tide TechFlow. "Virginia, Virginia, the largest ICO, EOS has collapsed, the bastard boss BM ran away with his sister-in-law (emphasis) and Bitcoin…"

When jokes shine into reality, reality often seems a bit absurd.

On January 10 at 7 PM, the editor of Deep Tide TechFlow nervously released a news flash, "EOS founder BM is suspected of resigning as Chief Technology Officer of Block.one," which was met with a "rumor refutation" from the EOS community:

Fake news!

In an instant, news flashes, refutations, and counter-refutations flew around, and BM transformed into a quantum state, wandering on the tip of EOS's K-line.

Then, the dust settled. BM spoke again on the EOS-related social platform Voice, announcing that he had resigned as CTO of Block.one effective December 31, 2020.

Angry investors began flooding into the EOS Telegram group, shouting in broken English: "we have to kill him."

Even Teacher Li felt mocked and let out a long sigh of helplessness.

BM's resignation does not prevent Block.one (referred to as B1), the parent company behind EOS, from becoming the biggest winner of the ICO: not only did it raise over $4 billion through EOS, but it also acquired over 240,000 Bitcoins and hundreds of millions in government bonds.

As investors pointed their fingers at BM, the programmer, BM began to express the sentiments of an idealist, stating that "leaving is for privacy and freedom." In the view of Deep Tide TechFlow, this is both a rekindling of his original intention and perhaps a self-comfort after losing in the game of power and direction.

Who is the real scumbag?

A female friend referred to EOS and its founder BM as a scumbag and summarized several characteristics of a scumbag:

Always ambiguous, uncertain relationships

Considerate beforehand, indifferent afterward

Passionate in pursuit, changes face once obtained

Always taking, unwilling to give

Evading responsibility, lacking accountability

In her view, EOS is a typical PUA master, this type of project, like a scumbag, always gives you hope, yet continuously disappoints you. Sweet words are endless, but it will never bring you substantial happiness.

Here, I can't help but defend EOS, because it never made any promises from the start.

In the sales agreement of EOS, it clearly states that EOS has no rights or value, is not an investment, not currency, and certainly not securities. The proceeds from the sales are entirely at the disposal of the development company Block.one (B1). B1 founder Brendan Blumer (BB) has also repeatedly emphasized that the issuance of EOS is a sales agreement, not a fundraising agreement.

Like girls in love, investors harboring dreams of getting rich are easily blinded by the "love" they imagine.

Is BM a scumbag?

In 2014, he claimed there were no new projects and that he would not leave BTS.

In 2016, he claimed there were no new projects and that he would not leave Steem.

In 2018, he claimed there were no new projects and that he would not leave EOS.

Flowing projects, a steadfast BM…

In 2021, BM acquired a new title: a three-surname servant, and on Chinese crypto social platforms, he became like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouting to beat him.

But perhaps BM is the one who is silently suffering, unable to voice his pain.

BM's departure had long been signaled.

On January 4, BM tweeted that BB controlled B1 and all product and service matters, and all he could do was provide suggestions within the scope pursued by BB. He has grand plans and likes to do big things.

The implication is that BM has lost power, and Block.one has become BB's domain.

When a scumbag is bullied, it must be because he has encountered an even more formidable scumbag, and BB is clearly such a ruthless character.

Genius and Internal Strife

If BM is a technical genius, then BB is a business genius.

At 15, Brendan Blumer started his entrepreneurial journey, developing a website called Gamecliff to sell virtual assets for multiplayer online games, selling items similar to those in "World of Warcraft," such as magic swords and armor.

In 2005, Gamecliff was acquired by another gaming company, IGE, and at just 18, BB was sent to Hong Kong to lead the company's development.

IGE may be unfamiliar, but its founder is a veteran in the crypto industry—Brock Pierce, co-founder of Tether, who later also became a co-founder of Block.one.

After arriving in Hong Kong, BB founded the world's largest gaming account trading platform Accounts.net, a real estate software company in Hong Kong called Okay, and a technology development platform called ii5. Look at what it means to be a serial entrepreneur.

The story of EOS began in 2016 when he met BM.

"We hit it off the first time we met," BB recalled in an interview with the South China Morning Post, "Dan (BM) came to Hong Kong, I learned more about his project, took him around the city, and introduced him to our team."

The two hit it off and prepared to make things happen, at that time, BM was still developing and operating Steem.

In March 2017, BB, BM, and BP (Brock Pierce) formed a trio and jointly established the open-source software company Block.one, focusing on high-performance blockchain technology. In May of the same year, Block.one launched its first project, EOS.IO.

BM focused on technology, BB on operations, and BP on fundraising… Subsequently, BM also left Steem to devote all his energy to EOS.

The rest is history; EOS created an ICO record of over $4 billion, and Block.one made a fortune, gradually accumulating over 240,000 Bitcoins.

On the other hand, the wealth frenzy was met with anger and complaints from the EOS community and investors:

The promised TPS of EOS has not been achieved, EOS Storage, Unique ID, DEX… have not been realized.

The price of EOS has remained sluggish for years, with a mere 1% increase throughout 2020, becoming a joke in the bull market.

Block.one has not provided enough support for the ecosystem, leading to attacks from MEETONE members.

Former participants in the EOS ecosystem have turned to the Tron and Polkadot ecosystems.

……

Where did the problem lie?

Returning to BM's complaints, all problems can be attributed to people.

Perhaps after living in Hong Kong for over a decade, BB learned the local characteristics and gradually transformed Block.one into a family business.

In October 2018, BB's mother, Nancy Kasparek, left her job at a bank in the U.S. and came to Hong Kong to help her son manage B1's investment business, EOSVC.

The executive Abby Blumer, who has long been responsible for B1's overall operations and marketing, is BB's younger sister.

According to LinkedIn, Abby Blumer was just an English teacher before joining B1, having studied education in college, with no experience in marketing or leadership roles, and a two-year gap in her experience from 2015 to 2017.

After joining B1, Abby Blumer quickly rose through the ranks, going from Marketing Manager to CCO in three years.

During her tenure in marketing, Abby Blumer's work in marketing and community engagement was considered one of EOS's biggest failures, as the early enthusiasm for EOS almost entirely stemmed from the efforts of Brock Pierce and the investors.

On social media, whether on Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook, let alone competing with Ethereum, EOS's popularity lagged far behind that of Tron led by Justin Sun.

Who exposed the internal nepotism of Block.one in the community?

The answer is BM.

BM once praised on Telegram, "Abby is Brendan's sister, she has her own strengths. She is a key reason why EOS has today's brand, events, and global recognition, and she has been involved from day one."

In terms of marketing, EOS's biggest failure was its inaction in the Chinese market.

EOS succeeded because of the Chinese community, and failed because of the Chinese community.

At the end of 2017, during a media interview, BB proactively discussed his views on the Chinese community, even suggesting that EOS belonged to the Chinese:

"The initiative of EOS is in the hands of token holders, not miners. And China is the largest community; to some extent, it can even be said that EOS is also for the Chinese. Therefore, continuous exposure in the Chinese community is very important, allowing us to continuously hear the voices of the Chinese community, which we can use to make decisions and build our software to maximize community interests."

After the EOS sale ended, B1 gradually downplayed its promotion within China, losing control of the community and PR, allowing negative public opinion to ferment, with the EOS narrative in China relying solely on a few KOLs and volunteers from the Chinese community.

According to a former B1 employee, this year Block.one considered allocating millions of dollars to promote the EOS version of USDT with top exchanges like Binance and Huobi to boost EOS's activity, but ultimately shelved it due to internal reasons at Block.one.

Block.one has become BB's domain.

Looking at Block.one's core management team, apart from former CTO BM, almost all other senior executives are BB's people.

One characteristic is that most of these executives have labels such as "Iowa" (BB's hometown), "Hong Kong" (BB's workplace for fifteen years), and "real estate software development company" (BB's previous industry).

Former COO and current CSO Andrew Bliss is BB's most trusted person and also has labels like "Iowa," "ii5 company (founded by BB)," and "Hong Kong."

Andrew graduated from the University of Iowa in the U.S. In 2015, he joined ii5, a company founded by BB, in Hong Kong, and served as CFO until 2018.

In Andrew's resume, it is mentioned that he served as CFO of Block.One from 2016 to 2018, overlapping with his role as CFO of ii5 from 2015 to 2018.

B1's executive chairman Kokuei (Guo) Yuan is also a long-time follower of BB, having served as the global president of ii5, mainly helping BB supervise other senior executives within B1.

The CFO Steve Ellis, who oversees B1's finances, is a former group president of B1 and a close brother of BB, Rob Jesudason, who worked under him at Credit Suisse and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

For a long time, Block.one was registered in the Cayman Islands but had two headquarters: the core engineering team of Block.one was in Virginia with BM, while BB was stationed at the Hong Kong management headquarters in the trendy SoHo area, with employees evenly split between the two locations, but almost all core executives were in Hong Kong.

When BM left, BB successfully completed the consolidation of power.

Now, BM is not of much importance to such a mature team as B1.

BM is a programmer, BB is an entrepreneur and businessman; when programmers and capitalists clash, they only reap the rewards of working 996.

With two of the founding trio gone, Block.one truly belongs to BB and his family now.

BM's Original Intention and Future

The internet has memory, and blockchain has permanent records; BM seems to have been nailed to the pillar of shame.

But I saw his "original intention" in BM's resignation statement.

In his resignation declaration, there was a statement, I will continue to dedicate myself to creating free market solutions to ensure life, liberty, property, and justice for all.

This is precisely the life creed he has long marked on Git: My life goal is to find free market solutions that ensure everyone's life, liberty, and property safety.

On January 11, BM posted again on HIVE, explaining his reasons for leaving:

BTC, ETH, and EOS are all under the watch of regulatory agencies, completely losing privacy. The greatest hope for token capital gains is to maximize its function as a currency and ensure compliance, while striving for institutional adoption.

If the goal is to achieve huge capital gains, then trading regulated assets with KYC accounts approved by regulatory agencies through smart contracts may be the only way. He stated that if the community chooses this path, then Block.one is the ideal candidate to lead EOS in this direction. However, I do not wish for my innovations to be restricted by the whims of government regulators. We who want to create tools to return power to the people need to look elsewhere. Our "profit" is not measured in dollars, but in "freedom."

This also hints at the conflict between him and BB, BM wants to be the hero who returns power to the people, while BB wants to be the businessman who is recognized by regulators and can make money with peace of mind.

Previously, on Twitter, BM also stated, "I am proud of technology. I hope solving social problems is as easy as solving technical problems. I can confirm that I am not motivated by money; if it does not enhance personal freedom, I would give up nine or ten-figure gains."

The emotional and naive editor couldn't help but shed tears; what a spirit of liberalism and idealism.

Given that 240,000 Bitcoins belong to B1, if BM leaves B1 without taking a single Bitcoin, I can boldly say to BM: Respect, never forget your original intention.

Tell me, BM, does blockchain pursue Make Money or For Freedom?

There is no doubt that BM will start his next project.

As early as six months after the EOS mainnet went live, BM revealed in Telegram that he had found a solution for privacy and ultimate scalability and wanted to start a new project.

He stated that he would develop a completely decentralized, fee-free, anonymous universal currency for the galaxy, and anyone could run all nodes, with TPS reaching tens of millions.

In light of the recent Trump incident, BM began to frequently resist Twitter:

All summer, Twitter silently supported violence. Although I do not like Trump, the violent behavior supported by Twitter is revealed by their double standards.

In his resignation statement, BM expressed, I tend to build more anti-censorship technologies and will focus on creating tools that people can use to ensure their freedom.

After Twitter announced the permanent ban of Trump's personal account, Trump responded by stating that he would "establish our own platform in the near future."

In summary, it can be anticipated that BM's next project will be related to privacy and anti-censorship, and it is even possible that he will create a decentralized social platform.

Previously, BM met Shen Bo, the current founder of Distributed Capital, through an introduction while creating BitShares. Shen Bo subsequently became a founding member of BitShares, and later, he introduced Li Xiaolai to BM, and BM and Li Xiaolai also became good friends. The success of EOS also benefited from Li Xiaolai's support.

I wonder if in the future, Shen Bo and Li Xiaolai will still help their good friend BM realize his original intention?