RIPPLE/XRP: From Web2 to Web3: How developers can upskill and build with blockchain

March 30, 2023

Coming off the heels of 2022, it may be difficult to assess where web3 technologies stand in 2023. Bitcoin rose to $47,000 and fell to $16,000. NFT trading volumes peaked at $17B in January 2022 and a year later collapsed to a mere $143M. “Blockchain” and “digital currencies” became everyday terms in the mainstream media. We saw the collapse of FTX and all its cascading consequences.

It was a tumultuous year in the world of web3—full of speculation, crashes, and scandals. But does this mean that web3 is dead and the underlying technologies made obsolete? Hardly.

Though mainstream enthusiasm for NFTs and cryptocurrency has ebbed and flowed, the community is still very much alive and actively invested in not just the technology, but in ensuring the promises of a decentralized internet are realized. The world at large is frustrated with the data collection practices of the tech industry heavyweights. The global reach of eCommerce needs trustworthy payment systems that can operate worldwide. While much of the discussion around NFT collectibles focused on high profile acquisitions and losses, NFTs themselves have only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

Web3 is here to stay

We are still in the early days of blockchain. Keep in mind that we’ve been using the term “web 2.0” since 1999 (24 years ago!) but blockchain quietly entered the market as an underpinning technology for Bitcoin in 2008 (15 years ago). That difference of nine years may sound small, but consider that nine years ago most large companies were just starting to move to the cloud.

Today, blockchain technologies power much more than basic cryptocurrency transactions. Banking and finance applications support cross-border payments that settle in seconds, not days. Multi- and cross-chain transactions via DeFi applications allow for increased crypto liquidity and improved exchanges with fiat currencies. Blockchain developers can build their own customized sidechains (more on those later) to support integration with real-time, low-cost transactions in video games and other use cases. SDKs are available in nearly every popular language, making it easy for today’s web2 developers to take their existing coding capabilities and embrace decentralized technology.

Emerging applications of blockchain and crypto include:

Cross-border payments
Real-time tracking of goods in supply chain and logistics
Electronic health record storage
Energy supply transaction tracking, including renewable energy certificates
Citizenship and credential tracking across borders
Documenting legal agreements, such as real estate and carbon credits

Despite everything that’s been reported in the news about crypto and blockchain this past year, their potential is still largely untapped. Blockchain advances are bringing economic and technical utility to both users and developers. It’s truly an emerging technology with seemingly endless opportunity.

The tech behind the headlines

The technology comprising a blockchain is rather sophisticated. In the most simplistic sense, a blockchain is a database: it stores data in an ordered fashion. However, a blockchain doesn’t act as a simple database with all data on a single server, but rather as a distributed ledger: multiple computers across the world store redundant copies of all the data in the blockchain and share the work of confirming transactions, without needing a central authority or intermediary.

In a blockchain, each node has a copy of the blockchain ledger and participates in the transaction validation process. New transactions are broadcast to the network, and nodes work together to verify the transaction data and add it to the blockchain. This process is known as consensus, and it ensures that all nodes on the network agree on the state of the blockchain and that it remains secure and tamper-proof.

While some blockchains are centralized and managed by a single organization, most are open source and decentralized, meaning they are managed and maintained by a community of developers. For example, the XRP Ledger is a public, permissionless blockchain, meaning anyone on the internet can set up a validator and join the network. The reference implementation of the protocol is open source and any developer can propose amendments to this software. Because of the XRP Ledger’s decentralized nature, no singular authority can make decisions for the network. Instead, network changes are determined by a specific subset of validators, who vote on behalf of the XRP Ledger’s best interest. That being said, in order for amendments to pass, at least 80% of the validator community has to vote “yes” and that minimum threshold must be maintained for at least two weeks. If both of those conditions are met, then amendment proposals can be passed.

Consensus protocols run cryptographic functions to ensure the integrity of the network and its ledger. These usually include:

Hash functions: Create a unique digital fingerprint of each transaction on the blockchain. They are one-way functions that take an input (e.g. a transaction) and produce a fixed-length, unique output based on that input (SHA-256 is an example of a hash function). Hash functions ensure the integrity of data because any error in transmission or other change results in a totally different hash value. If you get the same output from the hash function, you know you have the same input data.
Public-key cryptography: Used for enabling secure communication between nodes on the network. Each node on the blockchain has a public key and a private key. The public key can be shared with anyone, while the private key is kept secret. Digital signatures are for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of transactions on the blockchain. Each transaction on the blockchain is signed using the sender’s private key, which creates a digital signature that can be verified using the sender’s public key.

Validator nodes execute the consensus protocol and can often run on commodity hardware (depending on the energy and computation requirements for the specific blockchain). Different blockchains use different consensus protocols to compute the final state of a transaction on the ledger.

Because the XRP Ledger is open source, anyone can learn how it works, contribute to the code base, and report issues. Or they can simply write and consume apps; mint, manage and otherwise interact with NFTs; and much more.

Consensus algorithms, energy consumption, and transaction times

The two most popular consensus algorithms have long been Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS).

In PoW algorithms, every node on the network competes to solve cryptography problems in order to validate a transaction. That’s fine for small networks of a few dozen computers, but multiply this computational cost over 100,000+ nodes and it adds up very quickly. This is compounded by the fact that the fastest nodes to validate transactions often receive financial rewards, hence a competitive arms race to deploy thousands of powerful, electricity-hungry GPUs to solve these cryptographic puzzles faster than other nodes in the network.

PoW methods are what led China to ban cryptocurrency mining altogether, the White House to issue a press release about energy concerns, and the Ethereum community to push for and switch to the more energy-efficient PoS methodology in 2022.

In PoS algorithms, instead of solving a cryptographic puzzle on every node, nodes that hold a larger stake in the network (i.e. the greater the number of tokens, the greater the stake in the blockchain) are the ones to validate transactions. They still perform a cryptographic validation process, but it’s only a fraction of the nodes on the network with the biggest stake. The algorithms are no less complex and the validation mechanisms are similar to PoW, which is why PoS transactions can also take minutes or hours to be validated.

Ethereum moved to PoS “because it is more secure, less energy-intensive, and better for implementing new scaling solutions compared to the previous proof-of-work architecture.” It was a tremendous shift in how that chain operated and resulted in more than 99.9% reduction in electricity consumption. So tremendous, in fact, that they termed it The Merge. According to CoinTelegraph, Ethereum on PoW was using 112 TWh per year and on PoS is now using 0.01 TWh per year. For reference, Bitcoin is still using tremendous energy—more than many countries on earth.

There are many alternatives to PoS and PoW algorithms, with various tradeoffs to speed, centralization, and efficiency. Chains such as the XRP Ledger and Stellar use “federated consensus” or “proof of association” algorithms where a subset of nodes collectively build and agree on the next block of transactions. Other chains, such as Ignite, use hybrid systems that combine elements of federation and PoS. These systems are far more efficient than PoW and faster than both PoW and PoS because they eschew the wasteful work of competing to solve cryptographic puzzles. For example, transactions on the XRPL take 3-5 seconds to be validated, rather than minutes or hours.

Additionally, both PoW and PoS typically let the winning validator build a block however they like—which leads to miners and validators gaming the system to get the maximum extractable value (MEV) from each block. Federated consensus algorithms are typically less susceptible to these problems because they always arrange each block of transactions in a canonical order.

Making developers’ lives easier with abstractions, dApps, and smart contracts

Web2 brought us rich application experiences, cloud computing, asynchronous communication, and plenty of centralization. It’s practically impossible to develop a web2 app without paying corporations and being subject to their privacy policies, terms and conditions, and fiduciary responsibility. Web3 gives developers the ability to write and run apps that are fully-independent, widely-available, and decentralized. No limits and no corporate dependencies.

To make this a reality, most major blockchains are working hard to attract and onboard developers to their platforms with easy-to-use SDKs and high-quality documentation (e.g. Solana, Cardano, XRPL). Open-source blockchains are widely available and provide fertile ground for innovation. Each has built-in support for financial transactions using their native tokens (e.g. SOL, ADA, XRP), ensuring that people can pay and be paid.

Many chains support the development of dApps—decentralized applications. They can be written in a variety of programming languages, depending on what the chains support. Generally speaking, the larger the developer community of a given chain, the more languages it supports. For example, Ethereum supports .NET, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Rust, Dart, and Delphi. The XRPL supports Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C++, Java, React.js and Ruby.

Some blockchain apps are backed by or written as smart contracts. Smart contracts are tamper-proof, immutable pieces of code that live on the blockchain and facilitate interactions or agreements between the app, the user, and the chain. Blockchains offer simple abstractions and SDKs so developers can get up and running quickly with app development. For example, Ethereum offers a variety of application development tools to help people experiment, build front ends, and test their dApps and smart contract implementations. The downside to smart contracts is that, since they’re immutable and shared online, if anyone finds a bug in the contract’s code, they can exploit it to their advantage, and the developer can’t easily patch the vulnerability away. This makes developing smart contracts a delicate task with higher stakes than many other projects.

The XRP Ledger supports programmability through a number of protocols and standards. It includes native transactors that provide out-of-the-box functions which are already battle-tested and standardized. The Hooks proposal would further extend programmability on the Ledger. Hooks are small, efficient pieces of code that allow for the quick and easy execution of logic before and after a transaction — all native to the Ledger. This is important because standard smart contracts can be complex and difficult to navigate, especially for developers that are new to web3.

Unlike other protocols, the XRPL also has native support for NFTs, which means developers don’t need to build or maintain a smart contract in order to bring their NFT projects to life. This lowers the barrier to entry for developers, creators, and anyone else who wants to interact with NFTs on the XRPL. Additionally, automatic royalties are enforced at the protocol level which helps ensure maximum value for creators and developers. Core operations such as minting and burning are native to the Ledger to promote ease-of-use regardless of experience level.

An upcoming amendment, XLS-30d, proposes a native Automated Market Maker (AMM) on the XRPL. The proposal will include bid and vote features, allow for simple token swaps, and should create deep liquidity between token and currency pairs. The AMM’s functionality allows application developers to create interfaces for traders and liquidity providers (LPs) and introduces a novel auction mechanism that incentivizes arbitrageurs while reducing the impact of impermanent loss faced by LPs.

Developers make the chain better—for everyone

The XRPL community is also currently testing sidechains. Sidechains allow developers to build and experiment with customized features in a sandbox-like environment—connected to, yet distinct from the mainnet—enabling innovation without disrupting or compromising the mainnet. Sidechain features could eventually be proposed as amendments and be merged into mainnet if voted on by the community. There is also ongoing development and testing of an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain to bring Ethereum’s native Solidity-based smart contracts to the XRPL ecosystem.

As developers do more work on blockchains, we’ll inevitably see improvements in utility, security, scalability, cost and sustainability. The more adoption, the greater the improvements, and the greater the likelihood that more developers (and users) will further adopt this technology. The network effect and a fast-growing list of innovative features are already appealing to developers who want to move on from web2 conventions.

How developers can upskill and start building

The innovations underpinned by blockchain and advantages over web2 are getting hard to ignore. Web3 protocols are making it easier than ever to build on decentralized technologies. Web3 tech isn’t just “an upgrade” or “a step up” from web2—it’s a whole new paradigm of working on applications. They’re decentralized, permissionless, scalable, and stable. Developers can use what they already know and upskill to web3 technologies. For once, they can have skin in the game with full ownership of their assets and intellectual property. Using the programming languages they already know, they can increase their domain expertise and take advantage of decentralization.

When choosing a chain to start on, developers should consider:

Adoption: Do you want to build on a prime-time chain with lots of users, an up-and-coming chain with a growing user base, or get in early on something brand new?
Ease of development: Is there sufficient documentation, fully-featured and supported SDKs, an ecosystem of existing dApps to explore, and low-friction onboarding?
Ledger functionality and transaction time: How does consensus work? Is it efficient and quick?
Environmental impact: Are energy consumption and sustainability priorities for the blockchain?
Time to first dApp: How long does it take to build an app? Minutes? Hours? Weeks?
Community: Is there a living, vibrant user and developer base? Are they passionate about the chain, its growth, and web3?

Blockchain and crypto have the power to enable a better future, and there is a vibrant community of developers that are building, testing and iterating on top of the technology to help uncover future use cases and applications. Ripple is just one contributor among many to the XRP Ledger; as members of this developer community we are deeply committed to helping it grow and thrive.

There are a number of programs like grants and bounties to help developers of all levels get started with the funding and resources they need to bring their web3 projects and applications to life. The XRP Ledger also recently launched an online learning portal where developers can learn more about the basics of crypto and blockchain, or dive straight into coding on the XRPL with courses in languages such as React.js (currently in beta).

For additional information or to join the community, check out the developer Discord, view open source code and repos on GitHub, and follow @RippleXDev on Twitter where we regularly share updates, projects, new features, and fixes from the XRPL community.

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February 17, 2025

The Dawn of DeFi: The Hidden War for a Decentralized Future

👉 DON'T FADE THIS ARTICLE~ Crypto Michael AKA "The Dinarian"

The below article is NOT financial advice, it is being broadcast for entertainment purposes only. You should DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and NEVER invest any more than you are willing to lose. On that note, THIS ARTICLE AND THE UNDERLYING ASSET DISCUSSED COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER FOREVER! You SHOULD pay close attention as this MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT article you could ever have read, unless you were fortunate enough to read the Bitcoin whitepaper and had invested in it back in 2008. The asset I am about to present to you, COULD EASILY FLIP BITCOIN! ESPECIALLY WITH TODAYS ADMINISTRATION IN PLACE!
~ Namasté 🙏 Crypto Michael AKA "The Dinarian"

Attempted Theft of the World's Most Valuable Property, SEC Lawfare & The ETHgate Scandal

It is widely accepted that the media often spreads misinformation and hides any truth that challenge the establishments narratives. Well, this is one of those hidden truths...

Loans without Banks, Trades without Exchanges, Contracts without Lawyers. Peer to Peer Capital Markets disrupts traditional finance by removing middlemen and counter-party risk, enabling you to become your own bank by holding the keys to it all in your own privately held digital wallet.

To what lengths do you think the establishment would go to defend their control of the financial system? A system seemingly ripe with market manipulation, naked shorts, money laundering and regulatory capture.

The Myth of Open Source

For context, in the realm of open source, major corporations can engage in Intellectual Property theft by using open source projects to gain insights, technology, or legal protections without fully reciprocating to the community. Companies might contribute code to an open source project, only to later use that same code in commercial products, extending it with enhancements, essentially using open source as a low-cost R&D resource. Patents are crucial here, serving as a defense mechanism. Although open-source licenses cover copyrights, they don't extend to patents, meaning that companies holding patents can enforce legal protections against unauthorized commercial use, ensuring that any commercial application of their patented technology within open-source software requires proper licensing or recognition. This protection has historically led to the hyper-growth of industries like mobile phones and the internet, where patented technologies could be safely shared and built upon, promoting innovation and market expansion.

Validating Inventorship

In fields such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, patents are vital for safeguarding new inventions, with Nikola Tesla's extensive patent portfolio serving as a testament to his contributions to science.

However, Tesla's revolutionary inventions, like the Wardenclyffe Tower which aimed at providing free wireless energy, faced fierce opposition due to their potential to disrupt established control over energy markets. Financially sabotaged by investors like J.P. Morgan, legally challenged through "the war of currents" by Thomas Edison's promotion of the less efficient Direct Current system, and undermined by media smear campaigns, Tesla's work was systematically suppressed. After his death, the FBI's seizure of his documents further suggests efforts to control or conceal his ideas that could disrupt centralized energy distribution, illustrating how innovation can be stifled to maintain existing power structures.

Could this type of suppression still be happening today?

The Genesis of Decentralized Finance

Reggie Middleton first introduced Distributed Finance what would later become known as Decentralized Finance (DeFi), in 2013 when he invented and patented technologies under the title "Devices, systems, and methods for facilitating low trust and zero trust value transfers." This included groundbreaking concepts like programmable Smart Contracts, Swaps, Tokenized Assets, NFTs, Stable Coins, Digital Wallets, and even underpin Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11196566B2/en?oq=US11196566+

Called by many as "The Most Valuable Property in the World", his patents US11196566B2, US11895246B2, JP6813477B2, JP7204231B2, JP7533974B2, & JP7533983B2 have been cited over 138 times by major financial institutions, underscoring their foundational role in the blockchain industry.

His patents cover:

Trustless Peer-to-Peer Value Transfers: Systems for enabling decentralized and secure value transfers between parties without the need for intermediaries. Applicable to cryptocurrency transactions, DeFi platforms, and digital payment systems.
Decentralized Financial Systems (DeFi): Methods and devices that facilitate decentralized trading, lending, borrowing, and yield generation. Impacting decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap, SushiSwap, and similar platforms.
Smart Contracts: Implementation of self-executing contracts on blockchain networks, used to automate agreements and enforce conditions without intermediaries. Essential for platforms such as Ethereum, Cardano, and other Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchain protocols.
Tokenized Asset Trading: Methods for creating, transferring, and trading tokenized assets, including cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and digital securities. Platforms like OpenSea, Rarible, and asset tokenization platforms may fall within the scope.
Cryptographic Security and Wallet Systems: Systems for securing digital assets using cryptographic methods, including cold storage, multi-signature wallets, and multi-party computation (MPC). Potential overlaps with services offered by companies like Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and institutional custody providers.
Decentralized Identity and Verification Systems: Technologies for managing and verifying digital identities on decentralized networks, including for KYC (Know Your Customer) purposes. Likely touching on identity solutions like Civic, BrightID, and Blockstack.
Blockchain-Based Voting and Governance: Systems for implementing decentralized voting, governance, and consensus mechanisms, foundational to DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Relevant to governance platforms like Aragon, Snapshot, and MakerDAO.
AI Economic Agentic Computing: First introduced by the VeADIR Platform refers to the application of autonomous agents in economic systems, where software entities can make decisions, negotiate, and execute transactions independently. These agents use artificial intelligence to analyze market data, predict trends, and optimize economic activities like trading, resource allocation, and supply chain management. Used by OpenAi, Claude Sonnet, Meta and xAI.

The societal value of these patents to disrupt traditional financial models and fintech business practises, by essentially removing the banks as middlemen, create significant economic incentives to suppress his work.

True Decentralization

Current Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) often fall short of being truly decentralized due to various practical and structural limitations. Although DEXs leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to enable trading without a central authority, aspects like governance, liquidity, and user interface can introduce centralization. Governance tokens might be concentrated in the hands of a few, influencing decision-making unevenly. The frontend, controlled by developers, represents a centralized point of control or potential failure. Liquidity pools can be dominated by a handful of large providers, leading to centralized liquidity dynamics. Some DEXs implement regulatory compliance like KYC/AML, which inherently involves centralized oversight. The use of layer-2 solutions for scalability might also undermine decentralization if not fully autonomous.

However, patents like US11196566B2 and US11895246B2 could pave the way for true decentralization by introducing innovations in blockchain interoperability and decentralized governance mechanisms. These patents potentially offer solutions for more evenly distributed control over exchange operations, enhancing the autonomy and distribution of decision-making, thus moving closer to genuine decentralization in the DEX ecosystem, which can be expanded to other industries like Healthcare, Supply Chain, or any other industry that trades value.

Who is Reggie Middleton?

Reggie Middleton, through his BoomBustBlog, became a notable figure in financial analysis, particularly for his early and accurate predictions regarding the collapses of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns during the 2008 financial crisis. His blog was renowned for providing in-depth, contrarian insights into economic trends, investment opportunities, and corporate vulnerabilities. Reggie won the CNBC's stock draft consecutively for two years, and appeared on major financial news networks like CNBC, BBC and Bloomberg where he discussed market trends, his forecasts, and the implications of financial strategies adopted by major firms. His track record has undeniably positioned him as a significant voice in the financial commentary space.

Reggie's work gained public attention when he appeared on the Keiser Report and CNBC in 2014, premiering his innovations built on the Bitcoin blockchain called "Ultracoin", two years before Ethereum captured the crypto limelight.

His vision was to create sound markets for a financial ecosystem where loans could be issued without banks, trades executed without exchanges, and contracts enforced without lawyers, aiming to disintermediate traditional finance by removing the middleman that doesn't add value.

In 2014, Reggie pioneered a simple Apple trade using a Pure Bitcoin Wallet: The Ultracoin Client.

Ultracoin later renamed VERI short for “Veritaseum” meaning "of truth", was the

first to market in tokenizing precious metals, offering VeGold, VeSilver and even tokenized fiat currencies or so called "Stablecoins". Veritaseum also introduced VeRent creating yield through P2P lending, and the revolutionary VeADIR platform, an autonomous, blockchain-powered research platform that independently evaluates and acts on dynamic research in real-time, communicates in machine language, and operates by purchasing, analyzing, and distributing insights on various assets while allowing VERI token holders to access and trade this research.

In 2018 he created the worlds first Gold Denominated Blockchain Mortgage

with traditional written note, mortgage as well as a smart contract on a public blockchain, both of whom incorporate each other by reference. The transaction had traditional title insurance and the note was recorded with the county clerk. The mortgage was denominated in Veritaseum's VeGold product, a digital form of gold in bearer form, fully transferable and redeemable upon demand.

Merely a few examples of groundbreaking products offered by Veritaseum.

Coinbase's Challenge: The Patent Infringement Suit

Coinbase, a dominant force in the cryptocurrency exchange market, enlisted the services of Perkins Coie, one of the largest patent law firms, to contest the validity of Reggie Middleton's patents.

They launched an Inter Partes Review (IPR) at the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB), arguing that Middleton's patents lacked novelty. An overwhelming 85% of patents are invalidated through this process. However, Coinbase's challenge was denied along with the appeal, thereby upholding and strengthening the validity of Reggie's patents.

This IPR challenge came after Veritaseum sued both Coinbase and Circle USDC for $350 million each over patent infringement. Unfortunately, Reggie's patent attorney and close friend passed away during this suit, so the cases has been dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be negotiated or the cases reopened at any time. This leaves Coinbase in a precarious position, especially if shareholders have not been properly informed of this risk.

This lawsuit details how Coinbase's infrastructure, specifically its Ethereum and Solana validator nodes, engage with client devices to facilitate transactions. Exhibit #3 meticulously outlines the patent's claims, detailing the roles of computing devices, the use of memory for key pair storage, network interfaces for transaction terms, and the generation and dissemination of transaction data records. It provides concrete examples such as the processing of NFT transactions on Ethereum and the management of transaction fees on Solana, supported by in-depth references to code and API interactions. Furthermore, the exhibit explains the verification of transactions through an external state, illustrating how Coinbase's technology aligns with the patent's principles for decentralized transaction processing without a central authority.

SEC's Intervention: A Turning Point

In 2019, with promising negotiations on the horizon with both the Jamaican and the Nigerian Stock Exchanges for digital asset platforms, Reggie's world was turned upside down.

The SEC accused Reggie of fraud, alleging he misled investors about the functionality of Veritaseum's VeADIR platform, which the SEC ordered to be shut down following a live demonstration. The SEC also made claims on the validity of Reggie's patent applications, which have since been approved by both the USPTO and the Japan Patent Office. Oddly enough, the SEC may actually infringe on these very patents through the disgorgement and storage of seized crypto tokens.

Despite Veritaseum's cooperation with the SEC over a two-year period, along with a detailed response addressing the SEC's allegations, and not one token holder claiming to be defrauded, these allegations still led to a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that froze millions in assets, destroying the company's operations, and forcing a consent judgment "neither confirming or denying the allegations". The SEC would top it all off with a gag order that barred Reggie from publicly discussing the matter.

Keep in mind, the SEC is claiming jurisdiction by calling Utility Tokens "Digital Asset Securities" but recently SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce stated:

"...by using imprecise language we've been able to suggest the token itself is a security, apart from that investment contract, which has implications for Secondary Sales, it has implications for who can list it...

We've fallen down on our duty as a regulator not to be precise. So, tucking into a footnote that yes we admit that now that the TOKEN ITSELF IS NOT A SECURITY, that is something we should have admitted long ago and then started wrestling with the difficult questions."

This calls into question if the SEC even had jurisdiction to bring forth this case to begin with. The Veri Community would later challenge the SEC's unproven allegations against Reggie with

a Dossier supporting the Vacating or Setting Aside of this case, and suggesting possible misconduct by the SEC.

Allegations of SEC Misconduct:

Misrepresentation of Facts: Assertions that the SEC deliberately mischaracterized the
functionality of the VeADIR platform, along with the patents and their value, by labeling them as lacking novelty and part of fraudulent activities.
Misleading Evidence: The SEC's use of declarations from Patrick Doody and Roseann Daniello, which contained misleading information about the personal ownership of a Kraken account used to misappropriate funds. Doody would later correct his statement, but the SEC did not update the court with this new information, potentially misleading the judicial process.
Conflict of Interest: Doody's undisclosed financial interests in the digital asset space through Lily Pad Capital LLC could suggest a bias in his testimony, which was pivotal in obtaining the TRO.
Coercion and Intimidation: Witnesses like Lloyd Cupp and John Doe provided affidavits claiming coercion by SEC attorneys to alter their testimonies, pointing towards witness tampering and intimidation.

FOIA Responses: The SEC's FOIA department initially denied any communications with Kraken, only later admitting to subpoena issuance, suggesting an attempt to obscure facts.
RICO Allegations: A 95 page RICO Dossier, supported by extensive evidence, alleges that the SEC's actions could resemble an organized crime syndicate, with systemic coercion, misrepresentation, and procedural misconduct aimed at Reggie Middleton.
Bar Complaint: The Veri community lodged a Bar Complaint against the SEC's Lead Attorney
over the use of misleading evidence, coercion and intimidation of witnesses.

Summary Articles of the B ar Complaint and RICO Dossier

Comparisons with the SEC Misconduct in the DEBT Box Case

The DEBT Box case shares a troubling parallel with the Veritaseum case. In both cases a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) freezing funds was issued using dubious evidence which suppressed the ability to defend themselves. This behavior was already admonished by five US Senators

in a letter to Commissioner Gary Gensler in which the SEC presented misleading claims in this now high-profile cryptocurrency case.

"Regardless of whether Commission staff deliberately misrepresented evidence or unknowingly presented false information, this case suggests other enforcement cases brought by the Commission may be deserving of scrutiny. It is difficult to maintain confidence that other cases are not predicated upon dubious evidence, obfuscations, or outright misrepresentations."

Given the similarities in alleged procedural misconduct between the cases, it raises systemic questions about the SEC’s litigation approach in cryptocurrency matters.

This parallel underscores a potential agency-wide issue that could involve either implicit biases against crypto companies or an explicit strategy to pursue aggressive, potentially misleading tactics in court.

Is The Fox Guarding the Hen House?

In a significant development, the Attorney Grievance Committee (AGC) has decided to forward a complaint against SEC attorney Jorge Tenreiro to the SEC's Office of General Counsel (OGC) for investigation. This controversial move suggests a potential conflict of interest, given that the OGC is part of the SEC, the very agency where Tenreiro was recently promoted to Chief Litigation Counsel. The complaint, filed by the Veri community, accuses Tenreiro of misconduct including alleged coercion, witness tampering, and misrepresentation during SEC investigations. The Veri Community argues that this decision undermines the integrity of the legal process, as the OGC's role is to provide legal advice and defend the SEC, not to independently investigate its own employees. This raises questions about the impartiality and transparency of the disciplinary process for attorneys, especially when it involves high-profile figures like Tenreiro.

"As noted in re Rowe, 80 N.Y.2d 336 (1992), the public’s confidence in the legal profession depends on transparent and impartial disciplinary processes. Delegating oversight to the SEC, where Mr. Tenreiro remains a senior official and where the OGC has a clear institutional stake, jeopardizes this confidence and risks the appearance of protectionism.”

The VeriDAO has submitted a response letter to the AGC along with creating a PDF generator
to help the estimated 100 complainants and anyone else interested in requesting the AGC to reconsider this action.

Legal and Judicial Trials

The legal battles would only continue for Reggie. The case of Hall v. Middleton, in which Hall, a 1% shareholder sued Reggie, raises concerns of judicial bias and procedural mishandling. In this case, Reggie was denied Due Process and barred from presenting crucial evidence or calling witnesses due to his former attorneys' "Office Failures" that missed deadlines to submit evidence without the knowledge of Reggie or the firm Brundidge & Stanger that outsourced his counsel as detailed in their affirmations.

"In my many years of practice it is a rare instance where I have witnessed an attorney intentionally not file critical documents as required by Court Order without the permission or knowledge of his client, who had an established and fully developed attorney client-relationship with said attorney, and then misrepresent that the requirements of the Court Order were being satisfied. This is one of those instances and I hope not to see another."
~ Carl Brundidge

The judge ruled that Reggie must:

Pay a $1M fine to his company Veritaseum Inc., in which he owns 99%
The plaintiff was awarded costs of $495k against Veritaseum Inc.
The Judge ordered Patents (filed before the creation of Veritaseum Inc.) to be assigned to the company without compensation.

Attorney's "Office Failures":

Sheridan England missed critical deadlines, resulting in the striking of exculpatory evidence. England’s inaction or inadequate defense exacerbated Middleton’s legal vulnerability, directly leading to adverse outcomes.

Judge Schecter’s Conduct:

Ignoring Exculpatory Evidence: Despite knowledge of its existence, Schecter struck Middleton’s post-trial memorandum.
Procedural Bias: The judge’s decisions systematically favored Hall, including allowing him to collect attorney fees from Middleton personally, contrary to the principles of derivative law.
Forced Patent Transfers: Schecter’s order to transfer patents to an underfunded entity (Veritaseum) which were court restrained by the same judge, rendering them defenseless against attacks and IP theft.

This ordeal was compounded when Reggie was held in Contempt for using personal funds (while Veritaseum’s funds were court-restrained) to successfully defend his patents against an IPR challenge by Coinbase in the PTAB of the USPTO in an attempt to invalidate these patents. The Forced Patent Expropriation to Veritaseum without compensation or the ability to defend them could be seen as coordinated as it benefited very large competitors seeking to avoid licensing fees or infringement claims, or possibly even IP Theft.

Judicial Complaint: A formal complaint has been filed with the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct by the Veri Community.

ETHgate: The Broader Conspiracy Allegations

Parallel to Middleton's struggles, "ETHgate" emerged, involving allegations by Ethereum co-creator @StevenNerayoff. Nerayoff claimed a government conspiracy aimed at controlling or monopolizing cryptocurrency development by targeting key figures. This narrative suggested that by attacking innovators (like Reggie Middleton as the Veri Community contends), the SEC might have indirectly cleared a path for Ethereum, which, despite its decentralized claim, benefited from a regulatory environment less scrutinized than its competition.

The term "ETHgate" encapsulates the belief that Ethereum's "Free Pass" from regulatory scrutiny might not just be due to its technological merits but also due to strategic regulatory maneuvers, where attacking smaller or less established DeFi projects could safeguard larger, more influential platforms like Ethereum.

Back in 2021, @JohnEDeaton1 from @CryptoLawUS explained XRP's side of Ethereum's "Free Pass". More recently, further SEC RICO Claims are insinuated in "RIGGED from the start" a documentary by @Fruition_News , along with posts by @KuwlShow and the XRParmy involving the SEC, Ethereum, a16z, and Consensys surrounding the Bill Hinman speech. Active FOIA requests by @EleanorTerrett seek to shed light on meetings between Hinman and Ethereum members.

Given the SEC protection of ETH and the high probability of Ethereum infringing on Reggie Middleton's patents as meticulously detailed in Exhibit #3 of the Coinbase case, is it ridiculous to believe Reggie Middleton could have been targeted?

Community Support: The Backbone of Resilience

Despite the SEC's narrative labeling them as "The Defrauded," the Veritaseum community rallied around Reggie.

SmartMetal with embedded NFT avalaible through VeriDAO.io

Financially devastated and with his funds frozen, Reggie faced foreclosure and was threatened with jail time after contempt charges for defending his patents using personal funds. In a remarkable show of support, the Veri Community rallied, raising an impressive $149,000 in less than two weeks to cover the fine while the case is under appeal.

They funded legal battles largely through donations and more recently with innovative means like NFT silver rounds called SmartMetal using Reggie's patented technologies, underscoring their belief in his vision. The first minted round was auctioned off for an astonishing $14,000 won by "M S"

"There is no better witness to the veracity of any defense than the alleged defrauded defending the alleged fraud at their own expense"
~ The Veri Community

This community support was not just financial but also moral, with efforts such as an Amicus Brief in the case against XRP, a No Action Letter (NAL) seeking clarity on secondary market sales of tokens, a Bar Complaint against the SEC's newly promoted Chief Litigation Counsel, and the @dao_veri's

#ProjectSunlight The SEC RICO Revelation.

A Call for a New Regulatory Paradigm

Reggie Middleton's saga is emblematic of the challenges faced by pioneers in the blockchain and DeFi arenas. His patents, now granted, underscore their foundational nature, yet the path to their recognition was marred by legal battles, suggesting a systemic issue where the regulatory framework might not fully comprehend or support emerging tech. His resilience, supported by an unwavering community and the validation of his intellectual property, underscores the need for a regulatory environment that fosters rather than stifles innovation. As blockchain technology continues to evolve, Reggie's story serves as a critical reference for balancing innovation with legal and ethical governance, ensuring that the future of finance remains open to all, not just those with the resources to navigate the legal maze.

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