Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm criticized Blast’s protocol marketing strategy, claiming the startup had “crossovers in messaging and execution.” The venture capital firm is a seed investor in Blast.
Dan Robinson, director of research at Paradigm, shared A statement on X (formerly Twitter) disagreed with Blast’s decision to launch a bridge ahead of its layer 2 network and not allow withdrawals for three months. “We believe this sets a bad precedent for other projects,” Robinson wrote, adding that “much of the marketing activity reduces the productivity of serious teams.”
There are a lot of components to Blast that I’m excited about and interested in interacting with people. That said, Paradigm sees a crossover in both messaging and execution with this week’s announcements. For example, we disagree with the decision to launch…
— Dan Robinson (@danrobinson) November 26, 2023
Robinson noted that Paradigm has contacted Blast regarding its concerns, stressing that “there are still many differences” between the two companies.
Despite the criticism, the study leader acknowledged that Blast’s team is made up of “world-class builders” with “the ability to build great products.” Blast’s governance structure is unclear, as is Paradigm’s role in the startup’s decision-making process. According to Robinson:
“We invest in strong, independent founders, and we don’t always agree with their views. But we understand that people may look to us to set an example for best practices in cryptocurrency. We do not endorse such strategies and assume Our responsibility is to take the ecosystem seriously.”
Paradigm isn’t the first company to address the recently launched Blast. Jarrod Watts, developer relations engineer at Polygon Labs, said the centralization of the network poses significant security risks.
Furthermore, Watts noted that Blast is “only 3/5 multisig,” meaning that if an attacker gained access to three-fifths of the team members’ keys, they could steal all the cryptocurrency deposited into the Blast contract.
Watts also claimed that Blast is “not a layer 2” but simply “accepts user funds” and “puts user funds into protocols like LIDO” without using any bridges or testnets. Additionally, he criticized the lack of withdrawal functionality. To withdraw money in the future, users must trust that the developer will add a withdrawal function in the future.
Despite the controversy surrounding the launch, Blast accumulated Since its launch a few days ago, the total value locked (TVL) has exceeded $555 million. The protocol claims to be “the only Ethereum L2 with native yields on ETH and stablecoins.” The airdrop is scheduled for January.
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