Friend Tech suspected of pulling out control and changing the rules, soft rug, now clarified: ensure the Base version will no longer be altered

The once-popular SocialFi platform friend.tech offered KOLs a platform to sell "friendship certificates" and engage with fans in a love-hate relationship. It attracted many celebrities in the cryptocurrency circle amid the NFT craze and meme coin frenzy. However, a significant outflow of funds occurred later, leading to attempts to switch blockchains or issue the token FRIEND, but these efforts failed to reverse the decline.

On 9/8, friend.tech posted a suspicious message hinting at a potential "soft rug pull": "The Admin and ownership parameters have been set to 0x000…000 to prevent any future changes to its fees or functionalities. This change will not affect the individual web client running on friend.tech, which will continue to operate as is. The fees for the smart contract or web client will not divert to the development team's multi-signature wallet."

The Intent Behind friend.tech's Setting Changes

friend.tech is actually addressing the long-standing issue of centralization by setting management and ownership parameters to '0x000…000,' indicating that these parameters have been permanently locked and cannot be altered. This setting aims to increase the transparency and trustworthiness of the contract, ensuring users that the core functions and fees of the contract will not change arbitrarily, thereby enhancing user confidence in the platform.

friend.tech also segregates the functions of the contract from the web client. Mentioning that "this change will not affect the independently running web client" emphasizes the independence between the smart contract and the web client, implying that even if the parameters of the smart contract are locked, the web client can still operate freely, reducing user concerns about the platform's operation.

Lastly, regarding fees, friend.tech explicitly states that "neither the fees of the smart contract nor the web client will flow to the development team's multisig wallet," indicating that the team will not directly profit from the contract or platform operations.

Cybersecurity expert Yu Xian commented that after a year of operation, the centralized risk has finally been removed, although the project has also declined.

friend.tech Clarifies: No Intention to Run Away

On 9/10, friend.tech further clarified that there are no plans to shut down or stop friend.tech web application. This measure is only to ensure that there will be no changes made to the smart contracts deployed on Base, thus avoiding additional or new fees. All features and content will remain unchanged.

No Turning Back?

The FRIEND token has been continuously declining since its issuance, without attracting more new users:

According to data, the number of users buying and selling Keys has become quite scarce since 2024:

The clubs discussing investment in Alpha are no longer appealing in the current bear market.