“Ultimately, it will be a debate about when the clock starts ticking,” says Tchaikovsky. “The statute of limitations is there to ensure that parties are not waiting for something to succeed before bringing an action. You sue when you have a problem, not when you have a precious issue.”

For the moment, the case is blocked. The defendants requested that 13 of the 15 complaints filed by Dietz be dismissed on the grounds that the California court lacks jurisdiction. A hearing on Dec. 13 will determine whether the motion is valid, before the rest of the case can proceed.

But Dietz isn’t the only one suing Consensys right now. A second trial in New York shares the same general theme: property rights. In October, a group of 27 former Consensys employees filed a lawsuit alleging that Lubin and others deliberately devalued their equity in the company by removing its most valuable assets (including MetaMask) and transferring them to a new entity, Consensys Software Inc.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs joined Consensys in its early days, between 2015 and 2016, before the company began generating significant revenue. They were convinced to bet on an uncertain future at the startup, the complaint says, thanks to promises of equity made by Lubin.

But the same unconventional corporate structure that confounded Dietz was manipulated, former employees say, to exclude them from the picture. “We allege that Joe Lubin created different forms of business in a way that maximized his personal profit and evaded what he owed our clients,” says Justin Nelson, a partner at the Susman Godfrey law firm and attorney for the plaintiffs. . “The hub-and-spoke system was more than a metaphor. It was supposed to be a new way of thinking that would bring the world together. But ultimately, as we detail in the complaint, he stripped the assets.

The same plaintiffs are filing a separate lawsuit in Switzerland, where the original entity, Consensys AG, was registered, seeking to undo the transfer of MetaMask and other assets to Consensys Software Inc..

In an emailed statement, Elo Gimenez, global public relations director at Consensys Software Inc., said the company was the target of a “series of baseless legal actions by a small group of ‘dissatisfied minority shareholders’ of the separate entity. “Consensys Software will vigorously defend itself against this baseless lawsuit,” she said. In a separate statement, Diana Richter, head of marketing at Consensys AG, said the organization “refutes the allegations underlying the legal actions and expects to prevail in Switzerland, the United States and elsewhere.” jurisdiction where these baseless accusations are made.”

Dietz hasn’t given up on cryptography, but he believes the idea that anything could be improved with a “pure technology approach” has been categorically disproven. “The model – technology without law or control – attracts a lot of bad actors,” he says.

There is no guarantee that Dietz or former Consensys personnel will prevail in their respective lawsuits. But whatever the outcome, the accusations in the cases evoke themes that have defined the latest chapter in crypto’s short history: chicanery and profiteering, hidden by a veneer of decentralization.

Across the industry, Dietz says, there’s a habit of “selling one thing publicly and doing something else privately.” In his naivety, it was only too late, he says, that he realized that “the truth could be so far from rhetoric.”

Updated 5/3/24 at 10:10 a.m. EST: This story has been updated to clarify when work on MetaMask began and when Joel Dietz became aware of the crypto wallet.