District X on Decentraland

We are the Original Contributors of District X (formerly known as “Red Light District”), a place in Decentraland, which is a virtual world run on the blockchain that promises ownership by its users.

District X is one of the largest districts on the Decentraland platform. We, over 300 Original Contributors, helped transform the project from an idea on paper into a virtual reality. Unfortunately, however, the project has been hijacked by an self-elected “leader” that flouts the democratic and decentralised nature that underpins Decentraland. They have taken ownership of a District with a market value of roughly $40 million USD (in today’s prices).

We intend to provide you with a series of posts to describe how one person undermines not only our involvement in the project, attempting to erase our very presence, but also poses an integral and systemic risk to the ethos and sustainability of the entire Decentraland project.

To start, let us provide a timeline of District X from its early beginnings to the project’s dire situation today. (This overview is not exhaustive and could be updated).

August 2017

MANA ICO of Decentraland

September 2017

User v1nc3nz0 (Github) suggests formation of “red-light district”

September 2017

Terraform staking event, DCL’s “initial LAND sale” begins

December 2017

Terraform staking event ends. Red-light district, later renamed “DISTRICT X”, collects 2,001 Land contributed by 339 addresses. The purpose of the District is to gather the Land, purchased by stakeholders, to allow for developers to work on a larger scale.

December 2017

Announcement of “Seven7 VR”, an organisation heading District X (Jeff, [SAAM.I.AM], leads). District leaders are championed by the creators of Decentraland. There are regular board meetings, and reports to Decentraland management. Districts, in effect, operate as subsidiaries of Decentraland.

December 2017

Seven7 VR District Proposal is laid out. The proposal is premised on four distinctive rights provided to stakeholders:

1. The right to a percentage of the District Pool revenue share commensurate to the percentage of Land contributed by token-holding members;

2. The right to cast one vote per district item in the voting block;

3. The right to claim and build on and manage a commensurate amount of Land within the district;

4. The right to sell their r token with understanding that all other rights associated are transferred to the new token holder exactly the same as it would if the actual Land token itself had been sold.

January 2017

Board Meeting presentation with valuation of District X at $19 million.

February 2018

Issuance of Seven7 VR coin. The coin is meant to represent 1 parcel of Land, and gives voting rights as per proposal above (D7C, ERC-20, 0x5cc26eed3ae35db1ab37ce53aae8838a202b75cd).

March 2018

A dramatic and aggressive fallout between Robert Lynn [“RobL”] and Jeff [SAAM.I.AM].

March 2018

SAAM.I.AM effectively syphons $50K of funds from Decentraland management for his own purposes. Once the development team for Seven7 VR discovers this, many developers leave the project, and recommend the termination of his leadership.

April 2018

Project lead OKCUPID takes over announces reorganisation from Red Light District to District X.

April 2018

Start of District X Discord channel (migrating from Rocket Chat).

June 2018

OKCUPID announces first draft of startup plan (v. 1.0.0).

July 2018

OKCUPID announces vote on District X startup plan (48 votes, 85.7% in favour, 27% of total outstanding votes).

August 2018

Robert Lynn files for District X LAND Holding LLC in Wyoming, effectively claiming legal ownership of the project.

21 January 2019

Robert Lynn announces the departure of OKCUPID as project lead. Robert Lynn assumes leadership.

21 January 2019

Robert Lynn announces that District X will no longer pursue X-related materials.

28 January 2019

Robert Lynn announces a plan for stakeholders “to manage the Land they contributed”.

February 2019

Robert Lynn announces new start-up plan (v. 2.1.1).

February 2019

Vote on start-up plan 2.1.1 (32 votes, 99.5% in favour, 21% of total outstanding votes).

February 2020

Opening of DCL Metaverse.

April 2021

Robert Lynn takes down District X channel from Decentraland server on Discord, bans critics, censors criticisms, and removes all information from the District X website.

April 2021

Robert Lynn shares District X progress update, formally announcing that stakeholders are without rights.