Explosive marketing approach “destroys hard team work” – Paradigm.
Crypto venture capitalist Paradigm has criticized Blast's protocol marketing strategy, saying the startup “crossed lines in both messaging and execution.” A VC firm is an investor in a breakout seed.
Dan Robinson, head of research at Paradigm, shared a statement at X (formerly Twitter) expressing disagreement over launching the Explosive Bridge before the Layer-2 network and not allowing a three-month outage. “We think it sets a bad example for other projects,” Robinson wrote.
There are many elements of the explosion that I really enjoy and want to engage with people. That said, we at Paradigm think this week's ad crossed lines in both messaging and execution. For example, the…
— Dan Robinson (@danrobinson) November 26, 2023
Paradigm reached out to Blast about his concerns, with Robinson stressing that “there's still a lot of friction” between the companies.
Despite the criticism, the head of research admitted that the explosion team was formed by “world-class builders” with “the ability to build the best products”. The management structure of the explosion is unclear, as is the role of the paradigm in the startup's decision-making process. According to Robinson:
“We invest in strong and independent founders that we don't always agree with. But we understand that people can look to us to exemplify best practices in crypto. We don't accept these tactics and we don't take responsibility. The ecosystem seriously.”
Paradigm isn't the first company to address Blast's recent work. Jarrod Watts, developer communications engineer at Polygon Labs, said the centralization of the network poses a significant security risk.
Watts also notes that Blast is “only 3/5 multi-sig,” meaning that if an attacker can get access to three of the five team members' keys, they can steal all of the cryptocurrency held in Blast contracts.
Watts also said that Blast is “not Layer 2” but simply “accepts funds from users” and distributes users' funds in protocols such as LIDO without using any bridges or testnets. Additionally, he criticized the lack of an opt-out function. For future opt-outs, users must trust that developers will add opt-out functionality in the future.
Despite the controversy surrounding its launch, Blast has amassed over $555 million in total value locked (TVL) since its launch a few days ago. The protocol claims to be “the only Ethereum L2 with a native product for ETH and a stablecoin.” An airdrop is scheduled for January.
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