Buzzfeed Article Expose BAYC, Founders No Longer Anonymous

On Friday, American internet media and entertainment company Buzzfeed published an article titled “We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders.” Written by senior tech reporter Kate Notopoulos, the article reveals the identity of two out of the four original founders of the prominent NFT collection. It exposed the names of “Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel” which were Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow in real life.

The reporter was able to divulge the identities of the pair after looking into the records of Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, which was available to the public. Notopoulos noted 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.”

“The people behind BAYC are courting investors and running a business that is potentially worth billions. “How do you hold them accountable if you don’t know who they are?” As part of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures and reports, the executives of publicly traded companies should be named.

“These laws are in part to prevent terrorists, criminals, or sanctioned nations from doing business in the US,” argued Notopoulos further. Nonetheless, both the reporter and Buzzfeed have received adverse reactions from the Web3 community following the uncovering of Solano and Aronow’s identities, which was non-consensual.

A crypto podcaster going by the name of Cobie tweeted “typical Buzzfeed trash,” on Saturday following the release of the article. “Doxxing people for clicks and ad revenue,” added Cobie. Mike Solana, a venture capitalist, expressed similar sentiments saying “there was absolutely no reason to dox these guys. They’re literally cartoon apes.” Doxxing refers to the publishing of private personal information online.

Notopoulos has since been receiving backlash online for her article, but she remains unbothered by the threats thrown at her. On the same day the article was published, Yuga Labs was engaged in funding discussions with Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) — one of the most prominent venture capitalist firms in Silicon Valley. A16z had already valued the BAYC NFT collection at $5 billion.

Source: CoinTelegraph