Weiss Crypto Ratings has found itself in the midst of another controversy this week for allegedly plagiarizing an opinion piece on the pitfalls of NANO. The article in question was published earlier this month on two different blockchain-based blogging platforms, Steemit and Trybe.

Comparing the two versions, Weiss appears to have made very few changes before publishing the article on their own website, even choosing to retain the same title, “NANO — a tall promise of radical decentralization and scalability betrayed.” The cryptocurrency, which suffered one of the biggest blows during the 2018 bear market, has been rated “D+” on its platform.

Blogging on Blockchains: Irrefutable Timestamps

The story first came to light when the Twitter user and cryptocurrency enthusiast @G0JlRA posted comparison screenshots of the two articles:

Steemit, a blockchain-based blogging service, allows for content to be written on the Steem blockchain, ensuring that data on the platform cannot be censored or modified by a third-party individual. Similar to how cryptocurrency blockchains are immutable to prevent double-spending attacks, the Steem ledger does not allow users to destructively edit or delete content that has been added to it.

Steemit acknowledges the permanent nature of its posts in its FAQ section as well, which reads,

“The blockchain will always contain the full edit history of posts and comments, so it can never be completely deleted. If you would like to update a post so that users cannot see the content via steemit.com, you can edit the post and replace it with blank content for as long as the post is active.”

All in all, it cannot be disputed that the original author of the Nano article posted on July 12, almost two weeks prior to Weiss’ date of publication.

Weiss’ Complete Radio Silence

Two days later, neither Weiss nor the article’s supposed author has responded to the alleged plagiarism. The tweet was later posted to Reddit, where it was upvoted over 450 times on the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit.

Notably, the original author’s article on Steemit and Trybe disclaims that the content is no more than an opinion piece and not meant to constitute as financial advice. On the other hand, Weiss’ Rating author chose to make no such distinction, ending the article without including any mention of the 102 word ‘personal opinion’ disclaimer. In its current form, the article claims to represent the rating company’s actual outlook on the technical capabilities on NANO, and perhaps even reasoning for why it only deserves a pitiful “D+” rating on the platform.

According to Weiss’ website, the author is part of the company’s Crypto Ratings Team. As an econometrician and mathematician, he was apparently responsible for building the “technology and adoption models that are at the core of Weiss’ Crypto Ratings.”

Do you think that Weiss will adequately address this allegation of plagiarism? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.