Resistance AMA with Wolf Crypto
This AMA will seek to answer some of the recent questions surrounding the Resistance project, the changes to advisors attached the project and some of the FUD that has popped up as a result of these changes.
You can also visit the Resistance Telegram channel or Resistance website for further details.
Here’s what Resistance CEO Anthony Khamsei had to say in the AMA.*
*This AMA has been edited for clarity.
WC (Wolf Crypto Telegram Member)
Welcome to another edition of Wolf Crypto AMA, this time with Resistance! This AMA is going to take a slightly different format to some of our previous ones, as we’re all keen to understand some of the recent events surrounding the project and what’s actually gone on. As such we’ll be focusing more on that than anything else.
Joining us from the Resistance team to answer these questions is Anthony Khamsei, CEO of Resistance.
Welcome to Wolf Crypto Anthony, before we get into the spicy stuff I’m sure everyone here is tuning in for, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and what lead you to being involved with the Resistance project?
AK
My name is Anthony Khamsei and I’m a cybersecurity professional, cryptography expert, and entrepreneur. Prior to becoming CEO of Resistance, I launched a successful fintech platform, Eyeonpass, that has since been adopted by multinational banks and telecommunication companies.
We created Resistance for two key reasons. Firstly, we wanted to address the massive security flaws that plague centralized exchanges by offering a safe, secure alternative. Secondly, we felt that the existing DEXs needed improving. In particular we wanted to create a DEX that was faster and more user-friendly than its competitors.
WC
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s get right into it. You’ve recently severed ties with Ian Balina and Benn Godzeni. Why?
AK
This wasn’t a decision taken lightly and we spent many weeks deliberating on the best course of action. During this period, neither advisor provided the support or guidance we needed or was in fact promised. In fact, they neglected to honour the terms of their agreements and misinformed the senior management team on numerous occasions.
It even went so far that one advisor offered advice that would have led to us breaking the law — thankfully we were aware of this and didn’t follow it. In another episode, false information was recklessly spread making the project look dishonest and unprofessional.
We are a professional project that aims to create long-term value to the entire crypto community. We don’t wish to be associated with people that bring negative attention and damage to our reputation. When we addressed some of these issues with Benn and Ian, and announced a delay in listing, we were met with threats and requests for more tokens. The fact is that multiple third-party reviewers had warned us that both of them had a reputation of dumping tokens, but since they were our advisors we neglected to act on this information. Now we have.
As CEO I had a responsibility to our community and private sale investors to stop this madness and prevent them from in any way jeopardising the project. Looking back it’s clear that we made the wrong decision to bring them into the team, but at the time we thought that they would be great contributors to the project and our aim was to put together the best team possible for its success. Unfortunately this mistake resulted in some investors deciding not to invest while Ian and Benn were involved. Since our announcement, we have seen a 300% rise in private sale enquiries. Our mission is to provide privacy and freedom to every user, and we won’t be held back by any toxic, shameless characters who give blockchain a bad name.
WC
So this wasn’t a mutual breakup then? It was a case of, “It’s not me, it’s you?”
AK
No this wasn’t a mutual parting. We sent termination letters to both advisors via our legal counsel. The Resistance core team didn’t feel that these advisors cared about the project — just the amount of money they could get from it.
WC
OK so can I ask, what day to day involvement did Ian and Benn have in the project? What have you gained and lost from their non-involvement moving forward?
AK
They contributed very little. Certainly nothing close to what was promised. Since their termination we have, as I mentioned, had a massive upsurge in private sale enquires, our Telegram group has blown up, and the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.
WC
So what you’re saying is this has been a good change for Resistance in your opinion?
AK
Yes, mostly all positive reactions.
WC
Can I ask, Ian responded (since deleted) with some allegations of fund mismanagement from your end. How do you respond to this?
AK
I’m glad that you asked this as I’d like to put this rumor to bed — you could say that hiring 100x was itself a mismanagement of funds? As I mentioned, since we terminated our agreement our private sales enquiries have increased by 300%. Jokes aside, these allegations are completely baseless and false. All funds raised have been allocated accordingly, used to develop the platform, and employ the people and organizations we need to ensure Resistance is a success.
WC
OK in a similar vein, some of these accusations have stemmed from a deal made with ICO Syndicate. Where do you currently stand with them?
AK
We may work with ICO Syndicate again in the future, but first we need to clear up some external issues.
WC
Ian also mentioned he had some other issues with the project regarding misleading statements to investors and the company vision. Do you know what these are and why were they only brought up after Ian had left the company?
AK
Neither I nor any other member of the team have intentionally misled any investors at any stage. Protecting our investors is a top priority for Resistance, and we believe that our community understands this. Ian’s actions are quite obvious, and our supporters see through his attacks. Every time he is involved with a project he is more than happy to promote it until he is fired. At this point he instantly begins spreading negative rumours.
WC
So I take it you’re not going to be involved in the YouTube AMA with Ian and OhHeyMatty?
AK
No. Our lawyers have told us not have any direct communication with the terminated advisors.
WC
With all these questions surrounding advisors, we have to ask, Ivan on Tech is still attached to the project? And how different is he to the likes of Ian and Benn regarding his involvement?
AK
Ivan is a tech advisor and has showcased our cutting-edge technology and focuses on the product we have actually built and the tech we are using. He has been advising the team as a trusted technical advisor and has strong faith and trust in the project which he has demonstrated by featuring Resistance numerous times on his channel. We have worked closely with Ivan at every stage of the project. He is quick to respond, offering consistently good advice, and is a very important advocate of and asset to the project.
WC
To fulfill the wishes of the crowd, ICO Syndicate, is it a refund at this stage?
AK
As with all our private sale investors, anyone who invested through ICO Syndicate has nothing to worry about.
WC
As per some leak channels, you’ve been accused of ‘selling company allocated tokens OTC;. Did this occur and what is your response to this?
AK
I believe you are referring to funds tracked by a source that were sent to a licensed OTC dealer’s wallet that was also contracted by Resistance for market making. We sent funds, fully traceable on the blockchain, from a pool to the OTC wallet that were then liquidated into fiat for operational and development costs. The so-called source was tracking the wallet in the belief that it belonged to us, however multiple projects and entities send funds to the same wallet. So in short, we have not raised more funds than our hard cap as we have been accused of.
WC
Ok speaking of tokens, one of the things that have come from this whole situation is that you now have tokens that were previously allocated to Ian and Benn free.
What are you now doing with these tokens?
AK
For the advisor tokens this one sums up quite aptly.
WC
Again on the leaks channel subject, you’ve been accused of “faking meetings with Binance”. What is your response to that?
AK
Untrue. I was introduced to CZ in Hong Kong. I talked to him about the project which he found very interesting and encouraged us to apply to Binance. I asked him if it was a realistic possibility as Binance were releasing their own DEX soon. He said yes, they had already listed projects with DEX’s — Komodo being one of them. This was very positive news.
A friend of mine then sent me a picture of myself and CZ talking which I posted to my personal, private, Instagram account. Ian Balina who followed this account, took a print screen of the image — added an layer extra of misleading text — and posted it on his public Instagram account. One of his followers then took a print screen of Ian’s post and sent it to CZ via Twitter.
CZ felt we were using the image for marketing purposes which was never the intention, as we didn’t even post the image on any public Resistance channels.
Ian’s post brought a lot of negative attention and lost us investments. Ian did this without any permission and without even informing myself or any other member of the team. Resistance suffered bad press and diminished interest in the project. Ian even publicly admitted that this was a screw-up on his part.
I personally found this to be a heartbreaking breach of trust. Neither myself nor my team would ever manipulate social media in such a way. We are not here to create ‘fake news’.
WC
Do you think this has hurt your chances with Binance moving forward? Or its something you can repair now Ian is no longer involved in the project?
AK
I hope it can be repaired for listing RES in the future.
WC
What are the overriding lessons you’ve learnt from this whole experience?
If you could do it again, what would you change?
AK
Just because a person has fame it doesn’t mean they have integrity. Success isn’t something that can be measured by followers, instead it should be judged by reputation, hard work and contribution. We won’t be fooled by ‘big personalities’ again, instead we will continue to work alongside our incredible advisory board that includes cryptographic geniuses like Dr. David Kravitz to deliver the best product we possibly can.
WC
This came up today, have you seen it yet and can you respond to it?
AK
- Yes, but B must take this action in order for the trading process to start. At this point worst case scenario, A loses a small dex fee and finds someone else to trade with. If she loses enough in DEX fees that it is significant her DEX fee can be refunded. If B doesn’t take this action his profile will lose reputation on the exchange, and if he continues doing this he will find it hard to find trading partners.
- Yes, there is a liveness requirement. Both parties must be online for the atomic swap process to go through. Our instant swaps help make this much faster and make staying “online” for the duration of the swap easy.
- The time lock is 4 hours for A to claim B’s deposit if B doesn’t come through.
- A determines B sent the ETH by looking at the ETH blockchain to ensure its been sent and confirmed on the blockchain.
- B loses a deposit by being offline though and this is clearly not an advantage.
WC
Ok so past what you’ve just said above, a user can do a normal trade on the ResDEX anyways right?
AK
Yes, we made it very simple for user to use, and we are building in advanced trading views will be added in for advanced traders (not sure we told the community about it, but it’s being announced soon).
Thanks for all the questions, I hope this clears up any recent FUD. Now let’s get back to making Resistance HUGE. I have a meeting in 8 minutes, let’s continue with the tech questions some other time.
When we also bring on the tech team. Thanks a lot for your time guys.
Bye!
WC
AMA terminated like Ian and Benn. I have AMA blue balls…
Resistance Resources
Website: https://resistance.io
Telegram: https://t.me/resistanceplatform
Medium: https://medium.com/resistanceio
Whitepaper: https://docs.resistance.io/Resistance_Whitepaper_v1.5.pdf
Wolf Crypto Resources
Public Group: https://t.me/WolfCryptoPub
News Channel: https://t.me/WolfCryptoAnnounce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WolfCryptoGroup
