Friend.tech. Under Scrutiny Following User Data Controversy
The cryptocurrency sector has been actively discussing Friend.tech., a new decentralized social media platform that shake the industry with a record-breaking $1 million in fees within 24 hours of its debut. But the platform is now under criticism, with a concerning data breach coming to light.
An unknown Yearn Finance contributor named Banteg revealed significant data compromise. This revelation on GitHub exposes sensitive details of over 101,000 users, with their Base wallet addresses and corresponding Twitter handles.
He also brought out a concerning issue with friend.tech's permissions, saying that these users have granted friend.tech the right to publish on their behalf, presumably without fully understanding or consenting to the implications of this.
Despite its recent introduction, Friend.tech's traction was notable. The decentralized social media application, a product of the team behind Stealcam, operates on Coinbase’s Base scaling network for Ethereum.
This new application lets its users purchase and sell "keys" (previously termed "shares") linked to their preferred Twitter accounts. This feature gives shareholders unique access to private chat rooms. Notably, within a day after its launch, the platform's engagement figures skyrocketed. The application's launch on August 10 saw a server overload on day one. Friend.tech reported a user engagement of 115,000, as per the recent blockchain data by Dune.
Within just ten days post-launch, the platform's fee collection reached $1.7M in a single day, overshadowing DeFi heavyweights such as Lido and Uniswap and trailing only Ethereum.
However, this impressive surge has been overshadowed by the data breach scandal. Many users have pointed fingers at Friend.tech, recalling initial apprehensions about the platform's financial model and its ability to autonomously tweet and retweet. As worries compounded, a wave of tweets warning users to restrict Friend.tech’s permissions proliferated across the Twitter-sphere.
the Friend.tech team countered the data breach claims. They argue that the so-called "leaked" data was always in the public domain, equating it to browsing a public Twitter feed. Addressing the issue, Friend.tech’s official statement downplayed the allegations: "It’s akin to claiming a hack just by viewing someone's public Twitter".
“The underlying data is public and anybody can work it out reading a block explorer: if you buy a share, 5% goes to the creator's wallet and he will have needed to fund his wallet”, the post says.
