Did Vechain actually judge other projects at the 2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo? CryptoPro Follow May 31, 2018 · 3 min read

In a recent Q&A session in NYC, Sunny Lu (CEO of Vechain) was asked about competitors like Waltonchain. He mentioned speaking at the 2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo — “where he will be a judge and where Waltonchain will be one of the demos.” He even said “though he hadn’t had time to look at them yet,” if Waltonchain shows well, he “can recognize that.” Source (time stamp: 1:26:00).

Then, post Expo, Vechain released a medium article titled “VeChain CEO, Sunny Lu, Presents as a Keynote and Serves as a Judge at the 2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo.” The included the following graphic:

The above graphic is editorialized by Vechain, the red caption was added by them. At the top of the event calendar, you see Demo Show which leads you to understand this will be a presentation by the f ollowing companies. The yellow text in the so-called “Start-up Projects” section translates as follows:

Moderator: Lei Feifan | Chain Content Partners and Executive Editor High Quality Project Demo Show:

There is no mention of “start-up projects.” It specifically says “high-quality projects.” Misrepresentation number 1. Then there is a list of blockchain companies, including Waltonchain. The next section, mislabeled by Vechain as “Judges” actually translates to:

Key Note Speakers:

Anyways — How can Vechain claim to be a judge when there is no competition? This misrepresentation was started by Sunny Lu early this month, and further spread today from their official medium account. The crypto community has understood for the past month that Waltonchain and other projects would be judged in a competition by Vechain’s Sunny Lu. This surely affected the market price of both coins. Price manipulation is obviously something that governments frown heavily on, and something we desperately need less of. In a time where we need to band together and support the blockchain revolution as a unified community, this kind of shady behavior and investor manipulation from a top 20 coin is shameful.

For balance — here is Walton’s own account of the Big Data Industry Expo:

Edit: Some more digging uncovered additional context around this part of the Expo. Here is the source.

This image provides a description of this DEMOSHOW as they call it (translation below):

https://imgur.com/8Eq4KR4

“The forum will invite nearly a hundred government leaders, industry leaders, media leaders, celebrity honored guests and high-quality entrepreneurial project representatives to visit the site to jointly create a blockchain idea feast. In addition, the Forum has set up a DEMOSHOW link for the first time, opening up to outstanding blockchain application projects, and demonstrating the whereabouts of blockchain+data, blockchain+artificial intelligence, blockchain+community, etc., combining technologies, operations, and ecology. Better direction to improve the development of blockchain technology”

Nowhere does it mention the projects involved as “Start-Ups,” rather they label them “Outstanding Blockchain Application Projects.” And nowhere does it talk about a competition, or judging. Vechain should explain why they called themselves a judge in this context when clearly that is not the case, at all.