Six months ago of Yug Labs reacted for the allegations that NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht ClubWith racist imagery rooted, its founders published a blog post addressing the issue in more detail.
“We have become the target of a crazy propaganda campaign that accuses us – a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani and Cuban friends – of being super-secret Nazis,” Yug Labs Co-founder Gordon Goner (real name Wylie Arono) wrote Friday.
He called the allegations “extremely far-fetched” and “nonsense” and shared that in his view, “the time has come to put an end to it all.”
As you may have heard, we have become the target of a crazy propaganda campaign that accuses us – a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani and Cuban friends – of being super-secret Nazis. I
— gordongoner.eth (@gordongoner) 24 June 2022
Goner points out that Era Labs has already revealed a lot about its origins previous postbut went on to provide further context on the origin of BAYC The logo, name “Era Labs” and pseudonyms of the founding teams, among other things.
“Krypto has a long history of people lovingly referring to themselves as apes,” Goner explained of the team’s decision to create Ape Avatar.
He also shared a personal email that provided insight into the creation of the BAYC logo, which according to the message was inspired by skateboard culture, hip hop, Japanese anime and streetwear culture.
Goner called anti-BAYC activist Ryder Ripps a “troll” who is “spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories online and using them to sell knockoff NFTs.”
Rips, a creative director who created the website gordongoner.com to expand his theories about why BAYC is “racist” and “contains Nazi dog whistles,” created a Ethereum The NFT collection that swiped straight BAYC art. Rips’ profile picture on Twitter is his RR/BAYC avatar.
The Rips archive has been removed from OpenSea due to an “intellectual property infringement claim”.
Before being delisted from OpenSea, Ripps’ collection had a total turnover of approximately 2,900 ETH ($3.48 million). When asked what he planned to do with the money from the collection, Rips explained decrypt that he’s going to “pay” Neil Strauss To write a book “about him.
Instagram in May PostRips said they created the RR/BAYC NFTs in an attempt to “take out” Era Labs.
“Work is a stimulus and its [sic] Working to take this company down,” he said.
Rips did not respond decryptFurther request for comment.
The racism claims against BAYC are months old and rely mainly on vague references to the NFT collection’s artwork, pseudonyms chosen by the founders, and even inconsistent mentions in social media posts of the founders or their family members. Huh. For example, Rips claims that the reference to the word “cowbanga” in the Instagram bio of co-founder Garga’s wife is a coded sign for “alt-right.”
“Garga’s wife is Mexican-American, and she adores Ninja Turtles like millions of others,” Goner’s blog post responded to TODAY.
Nevertheless, the allegations were resurrected this week after a YouTuber named Fillion published for an hour Video Called the “bored ape Nazi club”, which elaborates on Rips’ claims. The video has now been viewed nearly 850,000 times.
Goner and Yug Labs today dismissed both the video and Rips’ original blog post as an elaborate troll. “Overall, we think it is crazy that these conspiracy theories are able to proceed. It really shows the power that a crazy troll on the internet can have,” Goner said.
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