Jelurida Has Been Stealing from Everyone — They Own ZERO Rights to $NXT!
Foreword
It pains me to write this article (truly), because an organization like Jelurida i̶s̶ ̶a b̶e̶l̶o̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶t̶y̶ used to be considered a beloved member of the community.
However, as of late, it appears that the organization has been reduced to scathing attacks on the ApolloCurrency protocol that are neither based in fact or reality and also have absolutely no bearing on the legitimacy on the project.
Now, you may be asking yourself,
“Why would Jelurida publish such a thing?”
or perhaps, you’re asking the better question of,
“Who/what is Jelurida?”
Don’t worry, both questions will be answered in this article as well as the unprofessional claims made by Jelurida, their clear and undisclosed conflicts of interest and blatant hypocrisy in some of the accusations that they have leveled against Apollocurrency.
So, let’s dig in.
Who/What is Jelurida?
If you have no clue who/what Jelurida is, don’t worry — the following information will help get you up to speed very quickly.
Source: https://www.jelurida.com/about
So, their premise is pretty simple. They back $NXT (which is essentially defunct now) as well as $ARDR (currently active with a recent listing on Binance).
Now that you have an understanding of the background, let’s move forward.
Jelurida’s [Weird and Random] Attack on ApolloCurrency
This is the meat of the article, so let’s dig in.
Here is the Press Release that Jelurida Published on Their Website Recently (August 5th, 2018):
Official statement of Jelurida regarding Apollo Currency | Jelurida
_Jelurida makes a public notice of the non-existence of any partnership with Apollo Currency, and of no support…_www.jelurida.com
Aside from the unprofessional attacks on ApolloCurrency as well as the unsupported screenshots that they posted that had information related to a Telegram account that belongs to the alleged founder of ApolloCurrency, there is something that users should hone in very closely on.
It’s this statement here:
This statement above is patently false and to prove it so, we must revisit information (buried deep down in the internet) regarding $NXT’s inception.
The official website for $NXT can be found here:
Nxt - The Blockchain Application Platform
_Get involved with Nxt, the powerful blockchain platform! With Nxt, you can easily create applications using blockchain…_nxtplatform.org
If you dig through just a tad bit, you’ll find that $NXT was established in 2013 by a pseudo-anonymous developer.
Keep in mind that Jelurida was not established until 2016.
Source: https://www.nxter.org/jelurida-qa-nxt-core-devs-mean-business/
Interestingly enough, $NXT released their source code in 2014, a full two years before Jelurida even came into existence.
Source: https://nxtplatform.org/wp-content/themes/nxt_wordpress/downloads/nxt-timeline.pdf
This is straight from the $NXT platform’s website.
Now, let’s pay close attention to what the above text actually says.
It states,
“The full source code was released to the public on March 1st, 2014 under the MIT License.” (in reference to $NXT)
What is the MIT License?
Source: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
From what can be seen above, it appears that any and all use of the source code was permitted.
Now, this next part is important, because it helps us to understand the illegitimacy of Jelurida’s complaints as well as their claims to the source code itself.
Once again, this is from the nxtplatform.org website
The reason why this is isolated is for a few reasons:
- We now know that Jean Luc was the project lead and developer as well as the main contributor/creator of the source code for $NXT (which the text acknowledges).
- We know that Jean Luc subsequently left the project entirely without hiring a successor.
- Jean Luc is not the actual creator of $NXT. BCnext (entirely anonymous) was.
From the facts above, it cannot be stated that there is any organization that can rightfully lay claim to the actual source code for $NXT, especially when considering the actual licensing standards and rules that govern source code internationally.
In order to re-purpose and re-license said code, all of the contributors must agree to the re-licensing itself. Given the fact that the original developer was entirely anonymous and another major contributor merely left the project, Jelurida appears to be illegitimately claiming ownership over the $NXT project code.
This Means That Lior Yaffe and $NXT Foundation Have ZERO Rights to the $NXT Code
You read the above statement, correctly.
What you just saw above means that the subsequent incorporation of the $NXT foundation did not suddenly give Lior Yaffe or $NXT Foundation the ‘rights’ or ownership over $NXT foundation’s source code.
And even if this were the case, the subsequent actions of Jelurida, whom claim to be acting ultimately on behalf of $NXT, would put the $NXT Foundation in question (whom appear to be funneling money directly from Jelurida into their charity — perhaps in an effort to further obfuscate sources of funding and evade having to pay taxes).
Here’s more information that deserves a closer look from the Nxtplatform website:
Perhaps the greatest irony in Jelurida’s statements is the fact that Ardor is truly the $NXT clone and that’s confirmed on $NXT’s website.
Jelurida’s Inception and Subsequent Fraudulent Claims to $NXT Technology
Here is the post where Jelurida makes their illicit claim to ‘own’ the intellectual property of $NXT:
Announcing Jelurida!
Announcing Jelurida!nxtforum.org
Yup, through a forum post.
Here’s the original text of what was written (page archived as well).
Source: https://nxtforum.org/general-discussion/announcing-jelurida!/
Other than this, there is no legal proof or claim to the source code for $NXT and there certainly is no legal backing behind the idea that it would be the individuals that claim that they did have ownership over the code.
On top of that, the issue isn’t actually about legal ownership, it’s about having the right to re-license code, which has a different burden/threshold for what qualifies and what doesn’t.
Conclusion
What Jelurida has done in their hit piece (because that’s what it is), is defame, debase and slander ApolloCurrency with no logical or sound basis behind it.
Unfortunately, in their attempt to bully and extort the ApolloCurrency project, they triggered a level of research and investigation that was able to prove conclusively that they have zero claim to the ownership of $NXT’s source code.
Thus, as an advisor on the Apollocurrency project, the author will be firmly advising that any and all complicity with Jelurida, a known nefarious force in the blockchain community, be ceased at once.
On top of this, the author will also advise that ApolloCurrency consider retaining legal counsel in order to pursue damages for the slanderous, salacious and inaccurate claims by Jelurida and co.
From the screenshots below, it’s easy to tell that Jelurida has absolutely zero intentions of handling themselves professionally:
As stated in this article, this is demonstrably false.
Oh, if you don’t recognize that name, it’s the same individual that put up that blog post on the Nxtforums claiming that an organization had incorporated out of thin air and suddenly had manifested the rights/ownership of the code in the same breath without any legal documentation, proof, or explanation of ‘how’.
You can see the anger start to really simmer with this reply.
Aw, I won’t spoil the rest of this for you all! Just go to the official Twitter account ( https://twitter.com/proofofresearch ) if you want more entertainment from individuals that clearly have no intentions on moving forward in this space in an honest and transparent manner.
There will be more to come over the next few days.
Thank you for reading!