China’s Bitcoin tycoon, Li Xiaolai lashed out at Tron’s Justin Sun on Weibo in a post that called him a “Thief and Liar…who has stolen since childhood” on Saturday.
The fierce tirade from Li, the man who invested in Bitfund and is known as China’s richest crypto member, read:
“The difference between thieves and scammers is this: Some “scammers” may not be intentional–for example, those who later discovered that they had been unable to keep up the original bluff about their abilities, and hence they were known as “swindlers”.But, thieves are different, all thieves are deliberate, they were deliberate villains from beginning to end. A thief’s friends are also deliberate villains… @justinsuntron is this kind of thief who has stolen since childhood, a recurring offender.”
Sun responds
Li fired off the harsh words and Sun, who appears to be constantly in the headlines, was quick to respond on Weibo.
The Tron founder, who canceled his much-anticipated lunch with Warren Buffet and was wanted by Chinese authorities for a range of misdemeanors like money laundering and pornography, quoted the lyrics of Huang Yida’s song “The Girl Says to me”, saying:
“The girl said to me that I was a thief, that my friends were deliberate villains, and she gradually forgot me, but she did not know, for the development of the blockchain, I haven’t had a day off. I do not need freedom, just want to carry the dream of globalization, step by step forward, the Tron gives forever, not heavy.”
Although the translation may not do it justice, it is clear that Sun is calling Li a hater and that he will continue to work regardless of his or anyone else’s criticism. So what has pushed Li to join the likes of Vitalik Buterin in complaining about Sun?
Quite what prompted the post is unclear but our Chinese source believes it is down to Tron allegedly plagiarizing EOS’s open-source code. This theory was revealed in a group telegram.
If it was the case, this would not be the first time Sun has been accused of doing such a thing. Ethereum also accused Tron of similar stealing of code as did Filecoin and IFPS with their whitepaper. Yet, Li’s displeasure with Sun has a long history.
Li v Sun- How did the beef begin?
Of course, Sun must have been on Li’s radar for quite some time. Both are big Chinese players in the industry and have made huge profits from their ventures. However, Li’s true feelings towards Sun were not made clear until a secret recording was leaked from an internal meeting.
The speech from July of last year called Sun a “scammer”, “an outright fraud” and “the Theranos of China.” The words were certainly cruel, and they were not all aimed towards Sun. Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and others were in the firing line too.
Sun, much like he did this time, responded to the criticism for Li, saying: “I heard I was misunderstood again.” In the comments below his post, Sun, the founder of Peiwo and Bittorrent CEO, was crucified by Chinese netizens, who all appeared to back up Li’s claims.
