Prior to, during, and following the departure of nearly all engineering staff at Notional, multiple thefts occurred within the company.
This statement marks the final software release from Notional PTE, LTD.
In due time, Jacob will publish a retrospective on Notional, the Cosmos ecosystem, and best practices for validator security. The critical vulnerability involved the use of a shared seed phrase for root validation—an insecure practice carried over from Jacob’s time at AiB, where Ricardo billed AiB for Jacob’s work. This seed phrase was the only one held by Jacob/Ricardo at Osmosis genesis that qualified for the airdrop based on Atom staking. This flaw has since been addressed through the implementation of Streamswap, which enables equitable and scalable distribution.
As of June 20, 2024, additional information has been appended. This includes intelligence on an individual associated with Adam Christopher Chaplin, and another linked to Minh Vu Le Nhat. These documents were secured at an estimated cost of ~$750,000, through an injunction issued by the Singapore High Court.
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Witness account from @mancoon
Physical Assault Incident — June 5, 2025, approx. 9:30 PM
Jacob came by Adam’s room to deliver some money (I was already present). Adam told Jacob to leave. He then suddenly grabbed Jacob by the throat. I intervened, grabbing Adam’s hands and telling him to stop. Adam broke free from my grip and slapped Jacob.
As Jacob turned away to disengage from the situation, Adam grabbed his face from behind, pressed his right index and middle fingers into Jacob’s right eye, and yelled, “I could gouge your eye out.” I managed to remove Adam’s hands from Jacob’s face. Adam then proceeded to push Jacob into the pool.
Throughout the entire incident, Adam was accusing Jacob of being responsible for the Notional theft and attempting to extract information from him concerning it.