You can't take someone's money and then not only not give it back, but also give it away.
Why should the scammers who gave him the money get it back? They knew what they were doing, even if Yegge seemed a bit naive about it.
I don’t think he refuse to stay bribed. I think he did what was asked and they executed a rug pull. He is extraordinarily honest and flippant about it. [0]
> And with that disclaimer out of the way, I must reiterate my sincere regrets to the CT/BAGS crowd, who so generously funded me to the tune of just shy of $300k last week on bags.fm. That money was hard to duck, and the funds are deeply appreciated. They will help Gas Town be a big success this year. But Gas Town itself needs my full attention; between that and Beads it’s a wonder I get anything done at all.
> So I had to step back from the community. I do find it amazing how they band together, dissenting voices rolling around like a big Katamari Damacy ball, and yet they somehow collectively find the discipline to act like financial analysts for institutional investors, weighing developer dossiers, product business cases, and doing critiques like a collective of professionals. All in crypto-bro speak. But it’s the same due diligence.
> But the CT community, like any highly engaged stakeholders, were going to be asking for a lot of my time. There are always strings attached.
[0] https://steve-yegge.medium.com/steveys-birthday-blog-34f4371...
Also, it's cryptocurrency. There is literally no burden to prove that this money was donated, or what "charity" even means in this context.
I'm not accusing him of doing anything wrong as he didn't originate the coin, but his original disclosure messaging on the situation was pretty horrible which is why it harmed his reputation.
The sad thing is that it often works.
Just look at how people view Andrew Carnegie now. After his reputation was sullied by his company’s behavior in the Homestead Strike, his philanthropy was done, in-part, to try and restore his reputation.
> But for God's sake, don't accuse me of pumping it.
His "apology" would be more effective without including all the whining about accurately describing the sequence of events he voluntarily participated it for personal gain.