With Venezuelan users temporarily geoblocked, MetaMask, and Consensys, are facing a lot of criticism.  Covered: MetaMask Venezuela Questions Arising For MetaMask MetaMask Venezuela Metamask is now blocking all #Ethereum transactions in Venezuela citing “compliance with laws”. 99% of cryptocurrencies and platforms that call themselves “decentralized” are not. They only say it for marketing purposes. Few […] The post MetaMask Venezuela “Ban” Raises Questions About Decentralization appeared first on CryptosRus.

MetaMask Venezuela “Ban” Raises Questions About Decentralization

With Venezuelan users temporarily geoblocked, MetaMask, and Consensys, are facing a lot of criticism. 

Covered:

  • MetaMask Venezuela
  • Questions Arising For MetaMask

MetaMask Venezuela

Ethereum’s most popular hot wallet — and entry point into DeFi — MetaMask is facing criticism because Venezuelan users were geoblocked from accessing their wallet. Though, technically MetaMask did not block users themselves. Infura, an infrastructure company under the Consensys umbrella, did.

“In response to the concerns we have been hearing, we want everyone to know that we corrected the problem that so many of you have pointed out. In changing some configurations as a result of the new sanctions directives from the United States and other jurisdictions, we mistakenly configured the settings more broadly than they needed to be,” Infura said via Twitter.

They also added, “Once we determined what happened, we were able to fix the problem, and service has been restored.”

The accidental ban immediately raised a lot of questions immediately, especially since banning Venezuela is particularly loaded. The beleaguered country is heavily sanctioned by the U.S. for a variety of reasons that deserve its own article. 

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Questions Arising For MetaMask

Although Infuro restored service, the simple fact that users could be geoblocked raises a lot of questions about MetaMask, and the future of DeFi.

According to Consensys, they have geoblocked several countries and regions already.  “Currently, those regions are Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine,” a spokesperson said. 

That said, unlike centralized exchanges, MetaMask gives its users their keys. So users who have their keys stored should be able to change the endpoint, and access their crypto from a wallet.

Despite this not being the greatest example of decentralized finance, the fact that you can still access your Ethereum through a different wallet is a significant improvement over what could happen if users were geoblocked from a kyc-ed exchange.

Recommended: How To Use MetaMask

 

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