The self-declared founder of the popular cryptocurrency wallet, Metamask, has filed a lawsuit against blockchain software company ConsenSys, alleging an intellectual property dispute.
This unexpected legal battle has sent shockwaves through the crypto community, raising questions about the true origins of Metamask and the potential implications for the future of decentralized finance.
A blockchain technology startup called Consensys is being sued by developer Joel Dietz for allegedly copying his idea for the well-known bitcoin wallet MetaMask.
On August 2, a state court in California received a complaint alleging that Consensys had plagiarized his creative idea for the well-known cryptocurrency wallet without acknowledging his work.
Undoubtedly, one of the most widely used cryptocurrency wallets in the world is MetaMask, which is also one of Consensys’ flagship products. By the end of 2022, the platform, which Joseph Lubin co-founded, had a startling $7 billion valuation.
Aaron Davis and Dan Finlay, two Consensys employees, first developed it in 2016. However, Dietz’s lawsuit claims that he was the one who originally conceived of the intellectual property that would subsequently become MetaMask in late 2014 under the project name “Vapour.” Aaron Davis, whom Dietz hired in 2015 to create code for Vapour, is accused of betraying him and collaborating with Consensys to steal the concept.
Ethereum’s Phenomenon: The history of Dietz’s Vapor
Dietz’s Vapor’s history is intertwined with the creation of Ethereum. Dietz said that more than six months before the blockchain went live in July 2015, he had the idea for an in-browser cryptocurrency wallet.
Even so, Dietz declared that he was excited about Ethereum’s potential to host open-source software on a decentralized network that no one could control.
But he believed it required a wallet so that users could navigate this cosmos directly from their browser as opposed to first installing a cumbersome, separate software.
