Disgrace of Base: Scammy hordes force Keybase to end cryptocoin giveaway

Citing an explosion in fraudulent accounts, Keybase says it is ending its maligned Stellar Space Drop giveaway.

The developer of the secure comms app confirmed this week that the coming Lumen cryptocoin giveaway will be the last and that between now and then, no new accounts will be registered for the event.

In making the announcement, Keybase blamed the move on a flood of bad actors that had been pouring in.

“While this giveaway mostly worked, it’s clear that there will be decreasing returns and massively increased effort required,” the site said.

“Why? Starting in the last week or so, hordes of fake people were beginning to come in, far beyond the capacity of Keybase or SDF to filter. It’s not in the Stellar network’s interest to reward those people; it is also not in Keybase’s interest to have them as Keybase users.”

This after users had complained for months about an influx of spam, harassment, and fraud attempts that were coming from new accounts seemingly created for the sole purpose of getting in on the coin drop.

Designed as a partnership between Stellar and Keybase, the air drop sought to distribute some 300 million Lumens (roughly $16m or £12m depending on exchange rate) to Keybase users who created a wallet with a verified account.

Unfortunately, the event was also blamed for the rush of new accounts to the site, many of which were only concerned with making a quick buck. Some veteran users were so disgusted with the harassment, they opted to leave the service completely.

While Keybase has promised additional measures to allow users to block unwanted communications from others, it seems additional steps were deemed necessary to clean up the service.

“My gut says [Keybase] were getting tired of people messaging them asking about it on every possible social media platform,” said Noid, a hacker and long-time user of the service.

“Basically they got to experience what it was like to be a regular Keybase user and they didn’t like it one bit.”

The final Keybase Space Drop is set to take place over next week, beginning on December 15th. ®

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