Earlier this week we wrote about the clash between IoT-crypto IOTA and tech platform The Next Web. TNW for friends. Brief version: The Next Week published an article in which it accused IOTA of not responding accurately to a security risk. A severe allegation that was lazily copy pasted from GitGub and decorated with a screaming yellow press headline: "IOTA is vulnerable to replay attacks but has no intention of fixing the flaw". And let's be fair; there isn't much room for interpretation here. The Next Web simply states that IOTA is vulnerable. To replay attacks. And has no intentions to fix it. Period.
Debunking is the kung fu of arguing - Tao
IOTA in return didn't debunk the story, but acted like an eight year old kid. That just heard it would never be allowed to eat ice creams again. Because of lactose intolerance (which is extremely sad and root of many depressions). On an emotional level there is a lot to say for losing your temper - we do it a lot here - and it wouldn't mind if the rage would be funnelled into a heated debate. Without any mercy for the TNW copy paste minions. IOTA didn't debate though, and just blacklisted The Next Web. Which left us wondering: why not put your ego aside for a bit and throw some arguments in the direction of TNW's private parts? In order to build trust with the IOTA community. To show them you've got the best deck of cards in your pocket. And actually support your claim that TNW is biased in its coverage of IOTA.
"The Next Web spreads fake news"
And that's exactly what IOTA evangelist Ralf Rottmann did today. What. A. Piece. Exactly the response we were waiting for. Composed. Sharp like a knife. The right amount of je ne sais quoi. And factual. What it boils down to is TNW journalist and guy-who-hates-IOTA Mix never did his own research. Never fact checked the article on GitHub that was published by an amateur (!). And 'forgot' to mention there wasn't proof in the article of IOTA technology being vulnerable to replay attacks. There was only proof of the (amateur) researcher's IOTA mock-up being vulnerable. Which basically proved why he's an amateur. Which is fine, but shouldn't be the backbone of a virulent article that harms a company and its value on exchanges. And qualifies as fake news. Probably not the corner where The Next Web wants to be.
Ralf Rottman, fighting out of the red corner:
"In a nutshell, somebody with absolutely no track record in the cryptocurrency space has deliberately created transactions which are insecure by design. He then forged his own, insecure transactions. The Next Web frames this as research to capitalize on clicks and does a huge disservice to its readers and the community at large."
In the meantime there hasn't been a sincere apology from TNW-founder @Boris. Probably too busy banging his head on his desk. Hopefully the rift will be water under the bridge soon. The crypto community has enough fights to win outside of it's bubble. (Amen).
Published on www.cryptonewsbulls.com