Today we wrote that community highly criticized dYdX for the new promotion campaign, but now dYdX just said that campaign is cancelled!
Today’s post = https://cryptodiffraction.press/business/cryptocommunity-criticised-dydx-coins-for-biometrics-campaign/
Decentralised cryptocurrency exchange dYdX announced the termination of its “$25 to new users who deposit $500 or more” promotion after a wave of outrage from the cryptocurrency community. Many didn’t like that the promotion required proof of identity as a prerequisite.
The exchange team said it had “really underestimated the interest the campaign had generated”, writing on Twitter:
“Due to the extremely high demand for the $25 deposit bonus promotion, we are ending this campaign immediately. Thank you to the many thousands of new users who switched to dYdX today. We really underestimated the interest this campaign generated.”
The requirement to provide personal data has raised a wave of outrage in the cryptocurrency community. DeFi Watch founder Chris Black accused the exchange of coming up with a plan to “bribe users for permission to scan their faces” and “disguise it as a promotional campaign” to satisfy regulators.
A spokesman for the exchange explained that this requirement did not come about because of regulators, but only to make sure users did not create multiple accounts at a time to get the bonus.
About 24 hours after the campaign began, dYdX tweeted that it was ending the campaign “due to extremely high demand”.
Overall, the DEX team did not specify how long the promotion would last at the time of the announcement.
Some in the community did not believe the exchange’s stated reason for dropping the promotion, believing it was in response to negative reactions from crypto users. Some generally expressed concern that the platform was using such tools at all.
Yearn.finance author Adam Cochran tweeted that despite being a major supporter of dYdX in the past, he will be leaving the platform and selling his dYDX tokens until he sees a “meaningful change” in the company’s policies.
“dYdX thinks it’s fine and it’s only for those who want to participate in the rewards programme. In their eyes, your data privacy is a commodity and an acceptable risk if they get growth.”
“I am concerned about this behaviour and think a company culture that prioritises growth over users is dangerous,” he said.
