Terra Community Divided on Do Kwon’s ‘Authoritarian’ Hard Fork Proposal

As UST and LUNA founder Do Kwon struggles to resolve his currencies’ sudden fall from grace, which shocked crypto markets last week, the Terra community has weighed in on Kwon’s new hard fork proposal—and reviews are mixed.

The proposal for the Terra blockchain outlines plans for a hard fork—meaning it’s split off from the original chain, with the new chain operating under new rules. According to the Terra Builder Alliance, some of Terra’s VCs, validators, and others helped create the proposal.

In a tweet summarizing the proposal, Kwon suggested that the “old” chain be referred to as Terra Classic going forward. The existing LUNA cryptocurrency (which plunged from an all-time high of $116 to $0.0001733) would be renamed Luna Classic, or LUNC.

The new forked chain’s currency would then be referred to as LUNA. Notably, Kwon wrote on Monday that the new chain would not have UST on it.

So far, 89% of those with staked LUNA have voted in favor of the proposal. The vote will remain open a week, and will need a quorum of 40% to pass. At time of writing, 22 Terra validators have voted in favor of the proposal, while DSRV Labs and SolidStake have voted “No with veto.” 

But the broader Terra and crypto community seems to feel the opposite. In a forum poll with nearly 7,000 votes so far, 92% voted against the proposal to hard fork the chain, with many demanding “No fork” in the comments section. This poll does not require one to hold LUNA in order to vote.

Instead, many have voiced their desires for a burn mechanism instead of a hard fork.

“I will support the fork ONLY AFTER someone from the team explains WHY we can’t implement a burn,” one voter said. “The majority of the community wants that and is willing to stay and support the project, and I’m missing why tf [sic] they’re being ignored. Till then, it’s a NO.”

Others are condemning Kwon and the Terra team for their “authoritarian” approach.

“[They] are not considering the will of the community. Every minute it becomes more evident that the same people who caused the disaster are in authoritarian control looking to get rid of the coup they gave. The community shouting NO and they pretending [sic] they don’t see it, simply continuing with their own plan,” wrote another voter.

Another upset Terra community member called Kwon a “narcissistic asshole.”

But it isn’t just the Terra community that appears to be against a hard fork proposal—Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), an early investor in Kwon’s project, has previously argued that “forking does not give the new fork any value. That’s wishful thinking.”

Billy Markus, creator of the memecoin Dogecoin, agreed with CZ’s perspective.

“The only way it works is for a massive amount of even stupider people [to] want to throw their money in a dumpster fire to save one of the dumbest things to ever happen in crypto,” said Markus, calling Terra a “dumbass failed protocol.” 

If Terra’s hard fork proposal passes, the new network is scheduled to launch May 27.