Breaking
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The main domain of Kim Dotcom’s K.im crypto project appears to have actually fallen into a third-party’s hands. The Island of Man domain K.im was purchased by Dotcom in 2013 for a then-record price of $20,000 but presently displays an anti-Google rant penned by an expired domain professional. As a result, dozens of Dotcom’s tweets now show the words “PURE SPAM”.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has actually revealed the development of lots of tasks considering that the destruction of his file-hosting platform in 2012.
With a stated goal of reinventing the file-sharing area, among the most popular was at first dubbed Megaupload 2 (MU2) Using financial investment platform BnkToTheFuture, in 2016 it raised over a million dollars from 354 investors in simply two weeks.
MU2 and the associated BitCache platform were originally penciled in for a January 2017 launch however like lots of complex tasks, eventually missed its target. With the job still under development, MU2 was later on renamed K.im, a clear reference to Kim Dotcom’s popular name and its biggest marketing asset.
Easily, Kim Dotcom had actually formerly purchased ‘K.im’ back in 2013, obtaining the Isle of Man domain name for a supposedly record-setting $20,000 by means of Sedo. This was put to use as the project’s primary homepage today, several years later, things are not going to strategy.
Visitors to K.im are no longer welcomed by all the information of the K.im, Bitcache and associated Kimcoin project. Rather, they are dealt with to a website that delivers an anti-Google SEO-based rant penned by Bulgarian ended domain specialist Kalin Karakehayov
A nearly similar piece to that revealed above was previously released on Karakehayov’s own domain at Karakehayov.com however the variation on K.im changes referrals to the initial domain with recommendations to K.im.
Having previously utilized Cloudflare’s services as a front to its hosting, K.im now uses servers in Bulgaria to show the anti-Google beliefs. Due to the GDPR, it’s hard to state conclusively that the domain is now under Karakehayov’s personal control, regardless of hosting his material.
The entire project has actually been constructed around the Kim Dotcom brand and it now appears fairly clear that the K.im domain isn’t under its control any longer. Awkwardly, that is likewise more than apparent on Twitter, with dozens of Dotcom’s posts discussing the K.im project and linking to the K.im domain now showing the message “PURE SPAM”.
Whether this PR catastrophe can be reversed is currently unclear but adding insult to injury, the K.im domain has actually now been put up for sale by its owner on Sedo, the marketplace from where Dotcom purchased it. There’s no reserve price however the domain is being provided by an account opened in 2014 with a mentioned place of ‘Georgia’. [See update below: the domain’s new owner says the domain is not for sale]
While the obvious loss of this domain can probably be gotten rid of, the future of the entire K.im job is somewhat up in the air.
In November 2019, Bitfinex stated that due to a quickly developing “regulatory environment”, the K.im token sale had been forever delayed.
” After mindful evaluation, we regret to announce that Bitfinex Token Sales and the K.im team have equally concurred not to hold the token sale at this time. K.im will delay any choice on whether to produce tokens on, or undertake a token problem in relation to the K.im platform up until it is fully practical,” the statement read.
Ever Since, nobody associated with the project, including Dotcom himself, has actually made any public statement on the future of K.im or the Kimcoin token. TorrentFreak has actually asked for remarks from both Kim Dotcom and Kalin Karakehayov and will upgrade this article ought to they show up.
Updated January 13, 2020: Comment from Kim Dotcom:
” Domain squatters have actually taken control of K.im and our attorneys have actually submitted a grievance with the registrar. For unknown factors emails from the registrar have not reached us and that is why we lost the domain.
We are confident that the domain will be returned as we control the K.im hallmark and we can show that this domain was used for the K.im business. The domain squatters are certainly showing harmful intent and I hope that this deceptive behavior will accelerate the return of the domain to us.
” The K.im development is making good development and we expect the item to release in 2020.”
Update2: Remark from Kalin Karakehayov
” I ‘d just like to include that the domain k.im was signed up by me, Kalin Karakehayov for personal use while it remained in an offered status. I intend to put good, non-commercial stuff there like my Google awareness campaign,” Karakehayov informs us.
” The Sedo listing is not mine and I’ve already gotten in touch with Sedo to have it eliminated as the domain is not for sale.”