A perplexed cryptocurrency firm that had high hopes of being a key player in Changpeng Zhao’s “pay-to-reach” project is now facing a crisis of confidence after the former Binance CEO decided to partner with a competitor instead.
Xnect claims that they had already been in discussions with the BNB Chain team about a launch strategy, and that BNB Chain had shared their online video tutorial twice and acknowledged it as “the pioneering pay-to-reach protocol.”
Despite this, Zhao announced earlier today that he would be teaming up with Reachme.io instead.
Following Zhao’s initial announcement of his pay-to-reach project earlier this month, Xnect, along with many other startups, quickly jumped on board the initiative, which aims to combat spam messages by charging individuals for the ability to contact you.
Notably, Zhao attempted to charge $120 for individuals to contact him but was dissatisfied with the messages he received.
Xnect expressed being “taken aback” by Zhao’s sudden change of direction, leading to doubts among collaborators about the necessity of their existence.
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The company hinted at BNB Chain unfairly selecting Reachme.io and characterized the rival as “another product that is still in its early stages.” However, Xnect clarified that their statement was “not a complaint,” but a request to understand their mistakes.
In response to Xnect’s concerns, Zhao stated, “I cannot control it when multiple teams pursue the same idea,” and clarified, “I did not turn this into a competition, nor did I promise to collaborate with every (or any) team attempting this.”
He emphasized, “There is no concept of fairness here,” expressing regret for not reaching out sooner. Zhao also mentioned his aversion to using extensions — a nod to Xnect building their project on a Chrome extension.
In light of Zhao’s feedback, Xnect mentioned that they are already developing a web-based version.