The Kavian “Heist” –The Real Story: Corrections to an article by pseudonymous Cryptomonkey Vyryn.

-By The Interplanetary Federation, February 20th 2023,

The article referred to in this document is located at: https://vyryn.medium.com/how-grassroots-community-effort-saved-100-000-from-being-stolen-from-a-dao-and-where-we-go-next-5555d699d69 with a publish date of February 19th 2023. A copy of the original article has also been archived.

Special Thanks to Afhe, Biff, and Jose for your contributions. (You know who you are).

“Saying this is a heist may be jumping the gun… A simple transfer to make the game more fun… Feelings and ideas have a strong connection… Understanding this may take some reflection… “

QUOTE: “How grassroots community effort saved $100,000 from being stolen from a DAO — and where we go next”

REALITY: How (a) grassroots community effort acted to preserve their own interests, only after a simple transfer illustrated a well-known problem– and how the solution is to make a simple transfer of their own.

QUOTE: “On February 11th, the day before the weekly custodian re-election, the custodians of the previous week across the planets looked secure; they were set to renew their seats with only a few minor changes. The community wasn’t on alert. Why should this week be any different from the quiet week before?”

REALITY: On February 11th, the day before the weekly custodian election, it was quiet with little engagement or open discussion of ideas. TLM (the most valuable resource in the Galaxy), had been accumulated for weeks and stacked into a giant pile on Kavian with no guards around it. What could possibly go wrong?

QUOTE: “…on February 11th, a malicious actor — we’ll call them qrlqu for now — was busy preparing to seize control of Kavian and its purse of 4.4 million TLM. They put in their votes mere hours before the elections were set to close…”

REALITY: …on February 11th, a participant in the earliest EOS DAOs — we’ll call them qrlqu for now — was busy preparing to teach the entire community a valuable lesson. They put in their votes nearly 14 hours before the elections were set to close, providing ample time for the other Custodians to react and prevent such an action…they did not.

QUOTE: “Within hours, these three accounts received enough votes to put them on top of Kavian … The funds for these votes were primarily sourced from the account qrlqu.wam (hence the name of the malicious actor).”

REALITY: With nearly 14 hours before the election, these three accounts received enough votes to put them on top of Kavian… The funds for these votes were primarily sourced from the account qrlqu.wam (hence the name of a participant in the earliest EOS DAOs, including EOSDAC and KROWNDAC).

On February 12th, Kavian Funds were transferred to an account named kavianplanet and every active Custodian in AW received a 10,000TLM payout from this account, with many Custodians receiving 20,000 TLM for serving on two Syndicates. In total 300,000 TLM was sent to active AW Custodians.

Two honest custodians returned a total of 40,000 TLM to kavianplanet, which was then transferred to kavian.dac (the custodian controlled account), with a message that the Custodians had returned their pay.

This was on the blockchain and known by the Crymonkeys prior to the publication of this article. Why was this omitted?

February 14th, kavianplanet sent 40,000TLM to the Custodian controlled kavian.dac account, matching the amount that was returned by the two Custodians, with this memo:

“Saying this is a heist may be jumping the gun… A simple transfer to make the game more fun… Feelings and ideas have a strong connection… Understanding this may take some reflection… “

The first letters of each line spell SAFU, a crypto term for Safe.

This was on the blockchain and known by the Crymonkeys prior to the publication of this article. Why was this omitted?

QUOTE: ”It appeared likely that qrlqu would aim their crosshairs at Neri next, and take that purse as well — and with the added funds from robbing Kavian, stopping them looked unlikely.”

REALITY: It appeared likely that the community would understand that this was all a bit of theatre, after the SAFU poem on February 14th, but the community had serious doubts. The Crymonkeys assumed Neri would be targeted.

QUOTE:” …cryptomonKeys’ detective team began an analysis of the on-chain and off-chain activities of the wallets and people involved or potentially involved in what happened on Kavian. It quickly became evident that:

a.d3u.c had voted for the Kavian heist, was supported by the Kavian heist accounts, and was strongly suspected to be (due to a variety of on-chain indicators; follow the money) the malicious actor qrlqu.

51mqs and hweaq were also indirectly connected to the heist accounts through past transfers, votes, account creation indicators, and off-chain entities.”

REALITY: … crymonkeys detective team (who remain anonymous) began an analysis of the on-chain and off-chain activities of the wallets and people involved or potentially involved in what happened on Kavian. It quickly became evident that:

a.d3u.c was not trying to hide, or likely wanted to be found, and is an experienced participant in the earliest EOS DAOs.

51mqs and hweaq (known good actors) were also connected to qrlqu through years of collaboration, cooperation, and community building.

QUOTE: “The possibility that a.d3u.c, 51mqs, and hweaq (representing a controlling 3/5 majority of the Neri council for the week of February 12th) were involved in the Kavian heist could not be ruled out.

If they were involved, it was still expected that they were waiting for the Biff, Jose and Afhe accounts to come in the next week so that a Neri heist could be conducted without directly implicating them. But if they thought they would lose control of Neri for the week of the 19th, it was possible, even plausible, that they would choose to act immediately in order to make $100k even if it implicated them a little more directly.”

REALITY: The possibility that 51mqs, and hweaq were involved in the Kavian transfer should be ruled out. As 51mqs and hweaq have no connections to the kavianplanet account, or Afhe, Biff and Jose.

Afhe, Biff, and Jose had the votes to take over Neri on February 12th, but they did not. If the motivations were malicious or financial, they clearly would have done so.

QUOTE: “The day before the election on Neri (on February 19th)…large community stakeholders acted quietly, preparing to vote for DrYunani, Vyryn, and Anyobservation with a large stake at the last minute.”

REALITY: The day before the previous election on Kavian (on February 12th)…large community stakeholders acted quietly, preparing to vote for Afhe, Biff and Jose with a large stake in the last 14 hours.

QUOTE: “…community members watched as, as expected, qrlqu’s sock puppet accounts came into the Neri race with a rapidly growing stake. At T-15 hours, they held the top three spots for vote power on Neri. It seemed that they would be executing their heist on Neri and no one would be able to stop them.”

REALITY: As a direct result of the Crymonkeys heavily biased and inaccurate article, Afhe, Biff, and Jose chose to run for Neri Syndicate. At T-15 hours they held the top three spots on Neri. It seemed they would be allowing ample time for the Crymonkeys to increase their votes “with a large stake at the last minute”.

February 19th: The Crymonkeys increased their votes “with a large stake at the last minute” Miraculously managing to triple their vote totals from the previous week.

The Crymonkeys would go on to transfer (heist?) 3,239,135 TLM to a multisig account under their pseudonymous control…

Part Two: –where we go next? Coming soon.