The Kewbit drama in chronological order

Dates are in format DD/MM/YYYY.

Kewbit is a (so claimed) Dart/Rust developer that came into the community in 2024 and claimed to have been working on an Haveno mobile application. He has been very cordial at his arrival.

(--/08/2024) Bounty drama.

Quick reminder: Kewbit has been working on an Haveno mobile application in private, with optimistic screenshots. It has been quickly realized that his work could be for profit, as a monero bounty with a similar goal received a lot of XMR

However numerous difference between his application and the requirement for the bounty sparked a debate between the bounty owner and Kewbit. This has transformed into a debate in #monero-community over if the CCS was more suited for the task.

(19/08/2024) Opening a CCS proposal.

Kewbit decided to open a CCS proposal on August 19th upon discussion of the bounty. Core then agreed on funding the proposal with the leftover haveno-frontend CCS fund.

(19/09/2024) Reaching out to Bisq?

Reported by u/Primary_Pumpkin_8914 on my reddit thread about Kewbit's exit-scam:

Kewbit tried the same thing with Bisq a couple of months ago, announcing in one of their design threads "Look no further, I am already 75% done creating a Bisq app."

https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq2/discussions/2665#discussioncomment-10695435

Bizarre behavior, god-complex and mania. Not someone I'd like to work with.

On September 19th, Kewbit spawned in a discussion of the Bisq community about the mobile application and announced

Look no further, I am already 75% done creating a Bisq app.

Kewbit also allowed himself to make off-topic criticism of Bisq on September 23rd. The first sentence is self explanatory

The only reason I downvoted this is because the topic did not start with a problem, if there is no problem what is there to solve? Making a less complex, easier to attack, more manageable to the average developer all sounds like a great bandwagon to ride, and I won’t argue that Bisq 2 looks better and is more intuitive but all that means nothing if the protocol is trash.

This post has been met with confusion and disappointement by the participants of this discussion.

Rodvar reviewed the work of Kewbit on September 25th and wrote:

[...] I couldn't find any docs to your work and the repository has no code shared yet [...] so it was not an easy job, I used VSC to check the code of the lib as I was testing it.

My question to you is, how did you calculate the 75% done estimation you claimed above? it seems like quite raw yet.

(27/09/2024) Haveno.com domain squatting

The haveno.com domain is being actually squatted by Kewbit in an attempt to look like the official Haveno website.

Kewbit bought the domain from Cloudflare on September 14th 2024:

He then updated the website with a big logo of Haveno pn September 27th: Wayback Machine

He then proceeded to push his new impostor website on November 26th: Wayback Machine

I invite you to go look at it yourself, this site is extremely misleading into believing it is the official website and not a third party one.

• No mention of haveno.exchange.
• Wording like We are hosting the official Haveno debian reposistory sources and builds; is just a lie.
• The Haveno Github button redirect towards Kewbit's own haveno-app repository.
• Privacy policy and Documentation page have been AI generated
• Btw there is a DISQUS widget with working trackers at the bottom of documentation pages, in case you didn't grasp that he copy pasted this template.
• Donation page includes all work is FOSS. It's a lie. Even this website isn't open source.
• Community Networks only endorse Aloha (unsuprisingly as he as been constantly implying that reto is corrupted and run by monerobull and co).

(16/10/2024) First milestone drama.

On October 16th, Kewbit announced the major completion of the first milestone: Protocol Interface: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/1g5amco/significant_milestone_completed_for_haveno/

Kewbit then released alpha binaries to the public on monero.town, but without the source code. He has been called out in the haveno #haveno-dev channel:

This was a pretty cringe reaction from kewbit. Please note how comprehensive and optimistic we're at this stage with him, it will only go down from now on.

The discussion eventually ended up in the #monero-community channel. People have explained to Kewbit that he has broke the license (AGPLv3) by releasing proprietary binaries. He also needs to release the source code to get paid.

As you can see Kewbit is deflecting anything and acting dumb as he don't want to answer the question. Also throw some baseless accusation. Diego Salazar, representing and mediator of the core team will then inform kewbit of the ongoing state of event.

Very elegant kewbit... But behold, his reaction is perfectly normal, since we're all criminals!

This will continue for a while. Kewbit will accuse and insulting everyone of something, claiming core to be corrupted and stealing money. Until eventuall woodser would be discussing with Diego about the rules of the CCS and came to a conclusion:

The source code needs to be published for the milestone to be paid, and normally the work needs to be FOSS at all time. Decision has been took to pay the milestone (75 XMR), and accept the code to not be open-source until the second milestone. Meaning after the second milestone, the repository would be opened. Despite Diego's professionalism, it didn't calmed kewbit quickly and continued to accuse people and claim mismanagement in the CCS.

(31/10/2024) Haveno crate squatting

Kewbit has also been squatting the haveno name on crates.io. With unsurprisingly no code.

Let's admire together his rust skills:

Ouch. That's quite small for the second release.

There is also a small mistake on the README:

This has been called out in #haveno-dev channel. Please enjoy kewbit's professional reaction:

This has continued until some of us decided to troll him for his behavior. He ultimately quit the channel claiming harassment.

(03~04/11/2024) The exit-scam

No amount of text would suffice to summarize factually what happened during this event I STRONGLY ADVISE READERS TO GO READ THE ENTIRE LOGS

Here's the introduction (UTC/GMT):

22:02:

<u​ser2570:hackliberty.org> kewbit.org When haveno moblie app source code release?

23:24:

In about 1 hour

All of my internet phone, broadband everything is disconnected

Trying to do it sooner

The problem is I have the Feds up my ass right now

I just had to put in a 4th sim for that lol

I’ve turned everything off for the time being bar 1 device

Either a massive coincidence or idk lol

Ok send half the remaining ccs / then other remaining when tested and happy? What do you guys think because I’m doing a full release of everything not just the mobile apps specifically

Can send a couple of people builds of working app or do a video or something ?

ok well just bookmark time for now if you’re now going to answer

As explained prior, this is directly breaking the exception he was profiting at the time from the CCS proposal. He is aksing for 50% upfront payment before releasing the source code. Despite having promised that trust has been established and therefore source code released.

This has of course been met with skepticism:

23:35:

<m​onerobull:matrix.org> you want half the pay before we get the sourcecode?

The rest of the text is endless and too long for a document like this one. But here's the main highlight that you will be able to check by reading the logs in chronological order:

• Kewbit gave a 45min ultimatum about the decision of accepting his conditions. This is ridiculous as we were at night, and 45 min on Matrix is like 1min on reddit, no one was ever going to give an official response anytime soon.
• Diego Salazar (representing Core) called out his lack of word regarding a deal made with the CCS (the source code release, getting paid first exception of the first milestone).
• I called out the scamming based on the prior events:

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> The issue is that kewbit is a dumbass that in his mental illness attracted himself numerous imaginary ennemy. He act like an arrogant asshole and imposter (haveno.com), know he does so and also know the second he release the source code people are going to shit on him very hard. He don't trust anyone, including the CCS he made a contract with.

I want this to be very clear. KEWBIT WILL NEVER RELEASE THE SOURCE CODE AND IS GOING TO CONTINUOUSLY TURN AROUND THE TOPIC AND CCS RULES. Consider all the development effort lost.

I wouldn't be surprised if he is pissing you off just so that he can act like a victim and keep the app for itself and aloha or whatever other people he is currently having trust with

At best, his behavior is showing you he isn't actually interested in the CCS money, because otherwise he would have applied to the rule. The mistake here was to discuss with him and adapt an exception with this guy.

• After only 23 minutes and not 45, kewbit decided that my message was some sort of official decision:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Ok that’s the decision made then

• Diego explains:

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> Mm? None of us controls the CCS.

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> We're just the public and we're allowed to have an opinion.

• Kewbit then says:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Then guy someone who does!

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Get*

• Diego proceeds to explain more:

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> You need to ask Luigi, who actually controls the CCS.

• Kewbit then proceeds to do the unthinkable:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> If you really think imma scam you after all this I give up <k​ewbit:matrix.org> Just keep the css money

• The rest of the discussion for 30 mins is: kewbit going auto-pilot playing sad violin on how he is being harassed by the community. Diego calling out Kewbit for not respecting his word after all the shitty drama he sparked up.

21:02:

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> keep it as leverage to ensure future milestone payouts. This didn't seem in the spirit of the CCS to me, and there was a large community discussion about the vagueness of the rules of the CCS which indicates that all code must be FOSS at all stages of the proposal.

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> After some back and forth between him and I, him and the community, me and the community, and woodser and I, I personally came to the conclusion that the milestone in question was eligible for payout. Now, I don't control the CCS. I was just asked to assess the situation by plowsof and luigi and give my recommendation. I did so.

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> Part of the understood agreement, however, was that his distrust in the system initially (which was why he was withholding code), was kind of on him. The CCS is a very trusted system and if he distrusts, he should use a different system of funding. He assured that this would be the only time, and after the first milestone payout, he would have no problem releasing all of the rest of the code ASAP because trust would have been established between him and the system (i.e. he knows the CCS won't scam him for work previously done)

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> I actually never followed up to see if he indeed release 'the rest of the code ASAP'

• Kewbit then proceed to enter the hypocrisy sphere:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> I’m sure you can appreciate I’m being flooded, as that is quite obvious, and I am giving you all justified time to respond properly, there is no use in telling me you’ve given me plenty of chances, I will have gluten to your comment anyway.

Of course you are being flooded, with haveno.com, haveno crate, bisq, drama, nonexistent haveno application and probably other schemes we don't know about yet. Poor guy can't complete his CCS and respect his words because... huh... because he is not doing it?

• After some discussion so that there are no misunderstandings:

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> It was more than acceptable, it was expected and necessary. Your proposal and the way in which you wanted payout happened to touch on one of the vague parts of the wording of our rules. We've been over this. You've indicated understanding to this in the past. You play dumb when it suits you to try to get points in these public conversations.

[...]

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> ASAP meaning as soon as possible, several things broke my environment with a flutter upgrade and spent ages trying to get the version matrixes all good. I’ve notice you’re selectively choose screenshots Diego I have them all in draft post in my blog, which proves you’re enforcing rules that don’t exist in order to not pay for milestones, which is frustrating for me. Having

Anyway kewbit will continue during this whole conversations to deflect, find excuses, act dumb, pretend to not understand in order to only try to talk about what he wants. These are manipulative behaviors.

He eventually finishes (without responding to Diego about his lack of word) by:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> It’s over I no long wish to serve Monero

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Getting bang banged again

He then quit the channel. We must acknowledge the talent of kewbit for managing to write paragraphs and paragraphs of bullshit while having the Feds up his ass. But don't your worry dear reader, it's only the beginning of kewbit's contradictions.

Some after-talk:

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> Do we have the code from the first milestone?

[...]

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> nvm Diego Salazar: github.com/KewbitXMR/haveno-app/tree/development

<r​ottenwheel:unredacted.org> Will you ever actually do that instead of polluting the room every X days with dozens and dozens of retarded messages over and over again?

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> he quit

<r​ottenwheel:unredacted.org> Or you get a boner by doing that every time you feel like? Just curious.

<r​ottenwheel:unredacted.org> Finally. Thank god.

<r​ottenwheel:unredacted.org> He did scam us out of 15 XMR, oh my goodness! repo.getmonero.org/monero-project/c…245d4ee0bc92afaa81c01f14b03aacaafa4

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> 75*

<u​ser2570:hackliberty.org> Dear Dart & Flutter developers,

<u​ser2570:hackliberty.org> Feel free to take over the development of Haveno DEX mobile / cross-plattform app, exit-scammed by one and only Kewbit and his imaginary Feds.

<u​ser2570:hackliberty.org> Use the opportunity to win the Bounty + CCS, by actually delivering some results.

[...]

<a​remor:matrix.org> Link the repos / sync the repos before he deletes them all

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> did cloned haveno-app

<p​rivacyx:monero.social> If ready bro then release it so we can test it out, did you not recieve payment from css 75xmr ? And in regards to the bounty the conditions were it needs to be tested by the community before payment is made. I even personally reached out to you asked you send it to me i test it out this was weeks ago. You said you will send it and then disappeared and didnt hear back from you nor did you give me any access to test it out this is worrying you can understand cant you

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> after lots of questions about why (which he took as bullying) it was ultimately determined that he did complete the first milestone so it would be paid out. And he insisted (several times) that if we accommodated his demands this one time that he would not request special treatment further because trust between him and the CCS would be established

<d​iego:cypherstack.com> next frame: he wants special treatment again

I then published a reddit post, calling out his behavior to the community: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/1h64pz8/drama_kewbit_has_exitscammed_the_ccs/

(04/11/2024) The great return

Same as before: I STRONGLY ADVISE READERS TO GO READ THE ENTIRE LOGS

Kewbit didn't appreciate the call out as he apprently decided to go back in the channel tomorrow and play operation VictimGPT (still UTC/GMT)

16:05:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> SynthethicBird, can I kindly request that you remove your post, it’s misleading

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> The one on Reddit

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> As most of it is untrue

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> And pretty uncalled for too

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Otherwise I may have to sell this (and a bunch of other work I’ve done in good faith to someone else as the CCS is very much based on community sentiment which you’ve unreasonably soiled

Nice try Kewbit, however I'm fully in the right and you're the only one to have soiled the community sentiment to your regards. Kindergarten-tier arguments here. Ofrnxmr proceeded to interrogate our now exposed scammer:

ofrnxmr: 100% called for

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> That’s totally against what I wanted to do

ofrnxmr: Explain haveno.com

ofrnxmr: Explain the sourceless MIT haveno crate

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Okay let’s break it down then

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> No, first explain “exit scamming”

ofrnxmr: Your verbal intentions dont align with your actions

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Then I will explain haveno.com

ofrnxmr: Nah fuck explaining the exit scam. We can just exit

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Not part of the CCS relevant.

Thank you kewbit, please remind it for later readers, haveno.com and haveno crate ARE NOT CCS related, it was obvious but kewbit dug up his own grave.

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> cut the bullshit kewbit, no one's believing you, you're just trying to make some selective screenshot for whatever blog post of I'm the victim text you're going to throw to continue your scams

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Haveno.com exists as a way to ensure that the community is never scammed or centralised by authoritative individuals or companies. I have since passed this responsibility over, to a third party I’ll talk more about haveno.com later on but I for now would like to stick to the topic of discussion

So, in order to ensure that the community isn't scammed, and isn't controled by a centralized entity... You passed it to an unknown third party? This is what he claims, and at this point all he is saying is ridiculous.

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> If an individual decided to build some software, that individual is perfectly legally Allowed to create a website for such software

ofrnxmr: "We are hosting the official Haveno debian reposistory sources and builds; downloading Haveno builds from elsewhere is at your own risk."

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> To accuse me of phishing, is irresponsible

ofrnxmr: EXPLAIN THIS, idiot

ofrnxmr: Nah, i should have called you out publicly weeks ago

Don't expect kewbit to answer, he never will

[...]

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> But I have proof of negligence and slander here

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Nah I’m dyslexic and not great on phone typing lol

ofrnxmr: Good thing were not a 501c3 amirite?

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> thats why he pulled off a paragraph when he was fleeing from the feds yesterday

Always in contradiction:

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> The drama is around synthetic bird who somehow happens to be mod on Reddit

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> And myself

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Midipoet

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Over a post that was made about my work and the ongoing ccs

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> > the ongoing ccs

<s​yntheticbird:monero.social> which you quit btw

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Yes

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> It’s most up to date

[...]

geonic: re you completing the ccs or no?

[...]

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> Yes geonic

[...]

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> sure, I’ve always intended on completing it

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> So exit scamming was uncalled for

<k​ewbit:matrix.org> I request a public apology

WOW what a turn ladies and gentlemen!.

Here's the repository at the time of writing 7955316e13

Kewbit is claiming that this repository is mostly up to date? LAST COMMIT WAS TWO MONTH AGO AND A MISLEADING, PART OF HIS SCAM: 7955316e13 (diff-b335630551682c19a781afebcf4d07bf978fb1f8ac04c6bf87428ed5106870f5R61) What has he done?

• Replace Haveno Plus by Haveno as part of his haveno.com scam
• Linked nonexistent beta releases.

Useless to say the repository is fucking empty. Have you ever seen a complex Dart application for cryptocurrencies written in less than 3000 lines of code? https://github.com/KewbitXMR/haveno-app/graphs/contributors

I invite you to go see his commits btw, its very very funny. This guy has done nothing and is just plain lying.

Anyway, this will continue in an endless back and forth, for the rest of the day, with Kewbit in complete hypocrisy and with every passer-by calling out the stupidity of his claims.

(5/11/2024) monero-wallet

Literally hours after the big drama, and under the CCS timeline he claimed to be back on working at it, Kewbit announced monero-wallet crate on crates.io. This happened almost two days after the crates.io team decided to clean some crates for name-squatting (which was completely unfair, the dumbass who did it never checked the repository). sneurlax has apparently showed great frustration upon this move from kewbit as this crate has been discussed months before. Source code is only hosted on docs.rs and calling it slim would be an overstatement in regards to the scope of the project: https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.0/source/

Multiple elements suggest that the crate has been AI-generated:

• https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.1/source/src/wallet/key_management.rs#120
• https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.1/source/src/wallet/key_management.rs#39
• https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.1/source/src/wallet/key_management.rs#12
• https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.1/source/src/wallet/key_management.rs#24

https://docs.rs/crate/monero-wallet/0.1.0/source/Cargo.toml.orig contains the bulletproofs crate despite not being the same as monero (the crate is based upon ristretto255). Also commented out crates that do not exist yet like monero-serialization. There are also contradictory imports such as num-bigint and crypto-bigint. And the crates versions usually do not match their current up to date state: lazy_static is marked as 1.4.0 despite having a 1.5.0 release 6 months ago.

The crate README also indicates very generic or off-topic elements for a wallet library/application, such as:

• Updates: Regularly update to the latest version to incorporate security patches.. off-topic as the reference libraries never indicate security fixes nor is it a feature to be reactive to vulnerability disclosures (that happens less than rarely).
• Optimized Cryptography: Utilizes high-performance cryptographic libraries like curve25519-dalek and bulletproofs. generic cryptography is not the bottleneck in a wallet.
• Secure Key Management: Implements advanced cryptographic primitives for secure key generation, storage, and management. generic buzzwords with no definition at all, corporate bullshit.
• Contributors: Thanks to all the contributors who have helped make this project possible. off-topic The crate just got released.

Also useless to say that creating a so called Secure monero wallet without any knowledge whatsoever of cryptography, WHILE monero-serai just got funded an audit by the CCS, is bold (or scammy?).

Some hypocrisy for dessert ?:

(5/11/2024) Spam bot attack on r/monero and Kewbit responses

The reddit post [Drama] Kewbit has exit-scammed the CCS. has, in the course of an hour, and after 30h since release, turned from a 94% upvote rate to a 61% upvote rate. Not only did the post got downvoted, but the comments as well. Unlikely to happen normally as the post took 9.4k views to gather 47 upvotes in the course of 24h and its view graph was declining. This is a bot attack.

In the same window, Kewbit releases two posts:

• NOT EXIT SCAMMING LOL, claiming to have never abandoned and that if he did he would have never delivered (which he never did as explained prior in the timeline). Boldly, linking to his AI generated, half completed, useless repositories and also intentionally claiming that the haveno.com website is part of his CCS effort (^ redirecting to the The Great Return chapter) kek. Let's not forget that our dear kewbit managed to harvest 55 UPVOTES IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. We've never seen that on r/monero, and its perfectly normal, because it's just upvote bots doing their work. The post got deleted for this reason.

• DEFINETELY NOT EXIT SCAMMING LOL, calling out some reto sponsored corruption or whatever delusion he is trying to convey to justify the shit he has just done.

Conclusion

Kewbit is a scumbag and manipulator. He doesn't know how to code, he is using AI everywhere whenever he can. He is an expert in building hype, then exit with the money. His only goal is profit and he has no set of morals.

You'll never see the Haveno Mobile App because he doesn't know how to build it, plain and simple. He is probably part of the Aloha network as they had the same level of incompetence with their repository/CI as kewbit has like not being able to force push something on Github.

Now that he has been exposed to the CCS, his next move will be to sell the domains and names he is squatting at a high price.

• basicswap.net
• haveno.com
• haveno crate
• flutter_haveno

and others.

Don't fall for the bait, he doesn't give a fuck about you or about the community, this was his plan since the beginning.