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Document: WM-051 P. Webb
Category: Handshake 2021.05.30
Being Brave: a Handshake retrospective
Abstract
What a mess
Body
Earlier this week (2021.05.27), Michael Michelini of SkyInclude
published[1] a blog post where he laid claim that "Brave is asking
for 3 to 3.5 million USD for a 2 year of having Handshake names to
work on their browser…It seems we can 'bargain' it down to 3 million
US dollars from the 3.5 million."
This information is not first-hand from Brave but rather "from
multiple sources that are high in the Handshake community."
The Handshake community is rather flat by nature so I can only
surmise he means 1) a group of people and 2) this group has big
pockets. That only leaves us with dWeb Foundation[2] and HNS Fund[3]
as potential sources. I won't bury the lede here. Over the last
couple days, Michael has continuously refused to answer direct
questions. He has instead relied upon proxies in the form of a link
to a Twitter thread[4] that supports his actions and various
cheerleaders in the Namebase Discord that have "seen
the conversations."
Those direct questions?
- Where did you get your information from?
- Who put you up to this?
From my perspective, if some deal was being discussed between Brave
and some "high" members of the community, why was Michael made privy
to these details? What was the motive of the participants to make
details of the deal public?
For his part, Brendan Eich (CEO of Brave) has rebuked the story[5]
and asserts the amount claimed was fake news[6].
From the Handshake Community[7] page:
> Every single person is a genuine and authorized Director of The
> Handshake Project. If someone has given you a document or business
> card representing themselves as a Director of The Handshake
> Project, they have full authority to represent as Director of The
> Handshake Project with their own personal viewpoint, So Please
> Treat Them Right. You, the reader, are also a Director of The
> Handshake Project and have equal claim on authority, action,
> and viewpoints.
>
> Any claims made by anyone on what Handshake does (or will do) does
> not necessarily have the agreement of other participants in the
> community and should not be seen as a definite certainty.
**As a Director of Handshake, I do not condone the actions of Michael
Michelini and I, quite frankly, do not trust him.** In fact, I deem
anything he publishes in the future as tabloid-esque bait to further
his own idealized position in the greater Handshake community.
To his credit, Michael published an update to the debacle he started
and…well, he didn't take ownership or explain himself. He instead
recapped the situation along with what Brendan shared on Twitter.
I'll take that credit back.
From his update:
> But from all of this - Brendan, the co-founder and CEO of Brave has
> made an amazing way to help us all deal with this
> awkward situation.
I don't like the framing of this. He tried to absolve himself of
responsibility. The situation is awkward because he made it that way.
His update also had this:
> There are groups trying to HELP the community - and some are not
> sure when/if/how to communicate that information to the community
> at large.
More bullshit, IMHO. If I'm actively working to help a protocol gain
traction, what reason would I have to be secretive about it? This
entire situation is just about browser integration. Totally not high
stakes at ALL. *Especially* if I have "fuck you" amounts of money.
Yesterday he claimed[8] that "so many" have asked him "to step aside
from the HNS community" and that he'd step down if that's what it
took to resolve this situation. What's our favorite
word? **Bullshit**.
There are three sides to every story: your side, their side, and
the truth.
Brendan has already shared his side, amidst the digital shit thrown
his way. Michael has abused his goodwill with the community to get a
mini army to do his dirty work. Everyone involved should feel
disrespected. Micahel caused this situation and the community’s trust
in him made us all look like petulant children. What it takes to
resolve this situation is to take accountability but what does he do
instead? Try to garner sympathy, and it actually worked!
Last bit from Michael's update:
> Sorry if I divided the community on this. I love Handshake.
If? IF?! 🤡
The amount of sympathy/support Michael is getting in the Namebase
Discord is baffling. Truly, my mind is boggled. It is my belief that
ignoring such behavior only serves to legitimize it and encourage
further breaches of trust.
Did we get an explicit acknowledge of what needs to be done to get
native Handshake resolution within Brave browser? Sure[9]. Did we
have to harass a CEO to get there? I think not. It is shameful that
someone in our community decided to implement a surreptitious
marketing technique of the far right to get a desired outcome, when a
simple ask would've sufficed. Fake news? Really?
This post has mostly been a rant but I'm not a fan of complaining
without at least mentioning solutions, so here's where the productive
part of the post comes in. What can we (you) do moving forward?
- Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Not even this
post. *I* have good intentions but *you* don't know that. Luckily,
I have link sources below.
- Hold people accountable. This is tricky because the Namebase
Discord IS for Namebase, not Handshake directly but I dislike how
people have decided to give Michael a pass.
- Educate yourself. From the comments directed towards Brendan it's
clear to see that non-coders have a warped perspective on what it
takes to build software, much less a browser. Balking at the idea
that a browser maker would want, nay, EXPECT compensation for
ongoing work (and maintenance) to integrate a new protocol is
silly. Software has roadmaps and the one currency we all pay is
time. Be patient and while you're waiting, do some reading to gain
appreciation for the complexity involved.
Obviously, researching *everything* you read on the Internet is
impractical to do on a regular basis and hindsight is 20/20 but
boy…we'd have a lot less egg on our face. 🕸
P.S. Here's proof of various community members (along with myself)
looking for answers and finding nothing[10].
Update I: I just saw that after demanding details of the deal from
Brendan, Michael apologized to him and took ownership[11]. This was
my main sticking point. I only found this out by getting a link to
the Handshake DNS Discord. It would've been nice if Michael updated
his blog post with this information.
Update II: I responded to the apology tweet with a comment stating
Michael should update his blog post with that. In my view, it would
show closure. Apparently, that sent Michael over the deep end and he
refused to update his post for reasons I don't understand. The Imgur
link[10] has been updated with screenshots so you can see for
yourself without my flavor.
References
[1] <https://skyinclude.com/brave>
[2] <https://www.decentralizedinter.net>
[3] <https://hnsfund.titansofdata.org>
[4] <https://twitter.com/R86185448/status/1398401126668464131>
[5] <https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1398298668847943689>
[6] <https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1398305355000541189>
[7] <https://handshake.org/community>
[8] <https://discord.com/channels/664247448469897267/664247448902041612/848384137613017139>
[9] <https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1398420651023634434>
[10] <https://imgur.com/a/8uj4Qn1>
[11] <https://twitter.com/michelini/status/1398831662880804866>
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