Crypto giants criticize Twitter on scam, bot accounts impersonating them Crypto giants criticize Twitter on scam, bot accounts impersonating them
Vitalik Buterin has described the bot menace as a "complete failure of blue checkmarks in their current form."
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 4, 2022 at 6:14 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Stakeholders in the crypto community are complaining about the prevalence of scam bots accounts on Twitter, urging the social media site to find a solution to the menace.
Ripple’s (XRP) CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared a mail where the social media platform refused to block an account impersonating him, saying the account was “not in violation of Twitter’s misleading and deceptive identities policy.”
I can’t believe I’m still doing this – @TwitterSupport, it’s embarrassing when you can’t distinguish a real profile from a fake one. Verified scam accounts are now replying to tons of crypto tweets with my image, @VitalikButerin’s or @CZ_Binance’s. (watch it happen to this tweet) pic.twitter.com/wx9LzR75YR
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 3, 2022
According to Garlinghouse, the social media site’s inability to stop the menace has allowed scammers to take advantage of thousands of unsuspecting individuals.
Before Ripple’s CEO complaints, stakeholders like Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, Ethereum (ETH) cofounder VItalik Buterin and Cardano’s (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson have raised issues about the prevalence of these bot accounts impersonating them.
Scammers buy Twitter accounts
CZ revealed that scammers now buy accounts he follows.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) September 28, 2022
The Binance CEO shared a screenshot where someone claimed they were offered $100,000 to shill a project under his tweet, with two other users sharing screenshots of scammers offering to buy their account for $10,000 and $5,000 because CZ follows them.
CZ’s account is private, meaning only those he follows or mentions can comment under his tweets.
Hoskinson also alerted his followers to a fake verified account with his name, urging them to help report it.
Fake verified hoskinson. Please report https://t.co/sRWKdSsQpt
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 22, 2022
Meanwhile, Buterin has described the bot menace as a “complete failure of blue checkmarks in their current form.” According to him, Twitter should be turned into an open API where third parties are involved in helping to solve the problems.
So many scam accounts have blue checkmarks these days.
Seems like a complete failure of blue checkmarks in their current form. I'm definitely seeing the wisdom of turning twitter into an open API and letting third parties try to make the best UIs to solve these problems. pic.twitter.com/CIwAdpRAkv
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 1, 2022
Crypto scams on Twitter
Before the proliferation of bots on Twitter, the social media site had been used by malicious players to carry out several scam acts.
The accounts of notable names in the space, like Beeple, alongside non-players in the industry like the British Army, have previously been hacked to promote crypto scams.
Twitter, Musk, and bots
Elon Musk had raised Twitter’s bot issues while he was trying to acquire the firm. According to the Tesla CEO, his investigations into the social media company showed that bot accounts on the platform were more than the official figure released by the firm.
However, Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal has maintained that bots account for less than 5% of the platform’s users. The social network and Musk are currently embroiled in a legal tussle over the $44 billion acquisition deal.
Mentioned in this article
Bitcoin 
XRP 
Ethereum 
Cardano 
Ripple 
Binance 
Brad Garlinghouse 
Vitalik Buterin 
Charles Hoskinson 
Elon Musk Author 
Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
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In this article
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
XRP
$1.55090
The XRP Ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Ethereum
$3,342.93
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Cardano
$1.10216
Cardano is a decentralized public blockchain and cryptocurrency project and is fully open source.
Ripple
Ripple is a US-based technology company which develops the Ripple payment protocol and exchange network using XRP, the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Brad Garlinghouse stands at the forefront of financial technology as the CEO of Ripple.
Vitalik Buterin stands as the pioneering force behind Ethereum, a transformative community-driven platform that fuels the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and underpins a myriad of decentralized applications.
Charles Hoskinson, based in Colorado, stands out as a prominent figure in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sphere.
South African-born Elon Musk has founded several companies, including X.com (which later became PayPal), SpaceX and Tesla Motors.