Ethereum Classic's Twitter account repurposed for Ergo

Ethereum Classic’s (ETC) Twitter account with over 670,000 followers was repurposed into a new account for rival proof-of-work network Ergo (ERG) on Oct. 6.

Hoskinson had control of ETC’s former Twitter account

ETC Cooperative executive director Bob Summerville revealed what transpired in a new Twitter thread.

So what just happened with this account? 🧵

— Ethereum Classic (@eth_classic) October 6, 2022

According to Summerville, trouble began when ETC Cooperative withdrew its support for IOHK’s 20% in-protocol treasury fee and Cardano’s (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson refused to cede control of the project’s Twitter account.

Summerville continued that when an ETC community member confronted Hoskinson about his continued control of the account, he said it was his account and that he:

“Can’t get back the millions of dollars of development we spent nor the years of time supporting a blockchain that didn’t seem to want to do anything other than preserve a status quo. We’ll call it even.”

Return? It’s my account. As for return, I can’t get back the millions of dollars of development we spent nor the years of time supporting a blockchain that didn’t seem to want to do anything other than preserve a status quo. We’ll call it even

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 5, 2022

Efforts to get Hoskinson to donate or sell the account to the ETC community proved futile as Hoskinson called the network a “dead horse” and urged Ethereum (ETH) miners to migrate to Ergo instead.

Summerville pointed out that Hoskinson threatened to “use the account for something,” adding that he would assign his team over the coming week.

You’re right Bob. I should use the account for something. I’ll assign our team this upcoming week on it.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 26, 2022

Meanwhile, Summerville stated that the new account was handed over to him by the community manager for Ergo.

Twitter support had nothing to do with this.@eth_classic was renamed/reused as @Ergo_Platform.@sigmanaut, the Ergo community manager handed this new account over to me.

— Bob Summerwill @ DEVCON6, Bogotá (@BobSummerwill) October 6, 2022

ETC’s previous Twitter account was active since July 2016 and was used to promote the network and provide updates for its community. The new account has less than 500 followers as of press time.

Ergo’s Twitter community has risen 10x

Ergo, whose previous account @ergoplatformorg had just 64,000 followers, has seen its online community grow by more than 10x within 24 hours. The old account is already being used to direct followers to the new one.

🔥 #Ergonauts, please follow our new account @Ergo_Platform

— Ergo (@ergoplatformorg) October 6, 2022

Ergo action divides crypto community

Meanwhile, the reaction to the series of events has been mixed, with some supporting Hoskinson’s decision to repurpose the account while others criticized him.

Give Eth Classic back their followers. Why would we want a Twitter account full of another blockchain’s followers. This was a lost opportunity to build bridges. Ergo has now become part of a feud that it had nothing to do with. Not too late to do the right thing.

— Michael ⭕✨ (@coinchitchat) October 6, 2022

Some community members were also reluctant to believe that the new account belonged to Ergo, pointing out that the previous tweets on the account were shilling ETC.

I’m confused, 671k followers and all the tweets are shilling ETC.

and you are supposed to be the official Ergo account so I’m thinking you got compromised? 😅

— Bunnywabbit (@Bunnywabbits_) October 6, 2022

An ETC community member said the Ergo community has “zero principles.”