NEAR Protocol sparked controversy at the moment when it appeared to verify that an alleged hack that noticed its X (previously Twitter) account hijacked was truly a advertising and marketing stunt to advertise its upcoming [REDACTED] hackathon.
On Wednesday, NEAR officers posted a message to X that said, “On September 4th, at approximately 14:25 EST, the NEAR Protocol X account was hijacked.”
It continued, “A series of posts were made which, upon initial review, seemed to be an attempt to dissuade, demotivate, and criticize the NEAR and wider Web3 ecosystems, with a particular focus on slandering the upcoming flagship event [REDACTED], Nov 9-11, Bangkok.”
It then went on to reaffirm the corporate’s dedication to ‘digital sovereignty,’ and speculate that the assault might have been the work of “notorious hacker Four Chan.”
Nonetheless, suspicions had been aroused by the assertion’s inclusion of a quote from safety professional ‘Mike Rotch’ and its frequent plugging of the aforementioned hackathon. Crypto Twitter known as bullshit.
“We wish you were actually hacked so we wouldn’t have had to read this,” wrote one annoyed person whereas one other moaned, “Classic ‘we got hacked’ engagement farming. Only thing is still nobody cares about NEAR Protocol.”
Others, nonetheless, took the hack claims extra severely, questioning the knowledge behind a PR marketing campaign like this given NEAR and the broader trade’s already patchy fame in relation to scams and hacks.
“Pretending that your socials have been hacked in order do a 4chan/Max Headroom style gimmick doesn’t make you marketing savvy, it makes you dumb as fuck for normalizing breaches,” wrote X person @functi0nZer0.
“Please strap everyone involved in this into a Clockwork Orange chair for 10 years of Killer Whales,” they added.
Learn extra: Discord channels of 5 crypto corporations hacked in per week
Additional criticism got here from @nft_dreww who identified, “Yeah this isn’t the way in which to ‘market,’ fam. Your discord was ACTUALLY compromised not too way back, and faking a hack isn’t one thing to do in Web3.
“I sincerely hope you reconsider this ‘marketing’ as this is now the second time you’ve done this…”
That is possible a reference to a collection of cryptic messages that appeared on the protocol’s X account in Could.
All eyes on NEAR… For as soon as
Regardless of the web backlash, the stunt received various followers. Certainly, many X customers took to the platform to reward the “nice PR stunt,” declare the marketing campaign is “best content to have ever existed on your profile,” and even name for the ‘hacker’s’ reinstatement.
At this level, whether or not or not NEAR was ever actually hacked, whether or not or not the marketing campaign is more likely to do any actual injury to its fame or the broader trade, or if it was a good factor to do to already skittish customers doesn’t actually matter.
All’s truthful in love and advertising and marketing and, as pointed out by @penguinpecker1, “Whether it was intentional or not. It’s the most attention NEAR ever got.”
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