Roman Kireev, a senior developer at Charles Hoskinson’s Input | Output, has publicly resigned after the Cardano founder supported the FBI in its investigation of a staking pool operator who “accidentally broke” the network while “vibe coding.”
On November 21, Homer J submitted a transaction that partitioned the mainnet Cardano network.
Two distinct blockchain histories then persisted — one with a poison transaction and a healthy chain without it.
Engineering teams from the Cardano Foundation, Intersect, and Input | Output collaborated in a self-described “war room” to convince exchanges, Stake Pool Operators, and other powerful node operators to update their software to deploy a hotfix.
It was during this time that the FBI, with Hoskinson’s support, started its investigation.
“I supported criminal charges against the DAO hacker,” Hoskinson wrote unambiguously.
Read more: Charles Hoskinson names ‘good guys’ and ‘bastards’ in Cardano fairness list
Cardano dev ‘effectfully’ fears for basic safety
Following the announcement of the investigation and Hoskinson’s comments, Kireev, dreading eventual wrath from the upper echelons of Cardano, publicly stepped down from IOG.
“If the Cardano community wants me to continue securing the computational layer, it’s gonna need to compensate me handsomely for the risk I had no idea I was taking on,” he explained.
His departure will be significant for the ongoing safety of Cardano. Taking credit for many behind-the-scenes security improvements, Kireev wrote, “For context, most vulnerabilities in the computational layer were either directly discovered by me or originated from my ideas.”
Later, in response to someone asking him to reconsider his departure, he admitted that he plans to do non-IOG work elsewhere in the Cardano ecosystem.
Kireev blamed Hoskinson personally for involving the FBI with Cardano development. “You wanna be a grown-up and call the feds? Be a grown-up and let them perform the investigation before you accuse anyone of being a criminal to a 1M audience,” he wrote on X.
Cardano founder defends FBI investigation
Despite this, Hoskinson reiterated his belief that involving the FBI was the right thing to do.
“A person who maliciously attacked a public network that has a constitution as an EULA is held responsible for depriving millions of people of their property,” he said.
“We have a duty to file a complaint and let them investigate.”
Hoskinson also posted highly specific details about the alleged attacker. “It was a premeditated attack by a disgruntled stake pool operator.”
Hoskinson also replied directly to Kireev’s resignation, claiming, “This is complete bulls*** and ridiculous.”
Not everybody agreed with him, however. X user and self-described “recovering Cardanon” tehsoul42 said, “Bragging you sent the feds after someone who was able to vibe code your blockchain to a halt isn’t the flex you think it is, Charles.”
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