The creator of a $99 AI-powered necklace called ‘Friend,’ which is eerily similar to another AI necklace, has a history of creating YouTube videos on crypto mining and getting rich with crypto.

A quick recap, ‘Friend’ was created by 21-year-old Avi Schiffmann and is the latest device utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) that has caught everyone’s attention.

The device can reportedly ‘combat loneliness’ by listening to your conversations and sending messages in response. Friend has already been described as ‘dystopian.’ 

There’s already an AI necklace called Friend

Interestingly, Forbes reported the launch of a separate AI-powered necklace, also called Friend, one month ago. This product was created by Based Hardware and its Chief Executive Officer Nik Shevchenko.

Shevchenko’s Friend is $70 and uses ChatGPT and a microphone to record your conversations and create emails, alerts, and ‘proactive insights.’ This Friend launched on June 24, 2024, and will ship its AI necklaces in the fourth quarter of this year. 

Both in name and physical concept, it seems Schiffmann’s Friend is similar to Shevchenko’s Friend. However, while Shevchenko’s Friend is pitched as a productive tool, Schiffmann’s Friend sees itself as an ‘emotional toy’ that avoids a productivity focus.

He told TechCrunch his device is designed as an AI friend and nothing more.

Schiffmann created the AI necklace under the firm MyTabAI, INC. He filed an application to trademark Friend on May 7, 2024. We have reached out to Schiffmann to find out if the product took inspiration from Shevchenko’s Friend.

According to 404Media, Schiffmann used $1.8 million from a $2.5 million fundraiser to purchase the domain name Friend.com in February this year. He also managed to attract Solana founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, and Morning Brew’s CEO and co-founder, Austin Rief, and Jordan Singer to invest.

Teenage Crypto YouTuber

However, six years ago Schiffmann, who would’ve been roughly 15 at the time, created a series of cryptocurrency videos on his YouTube channel. Videos ranged from updating the progress of his crypto mining rig, crypto news segments, and informational videos on how to create wallets and coins. 

Read more: Creator of rabbit AI assistant has hidden NFT past

Other video titles included “Rags to Riches – CryptoCurrency Trading (EPISODE ONE!),” and “2018 TRON COIN PRICE PREDICTIONS! ONE DOLLAR???” The creator of the AI product RabbitAI also had a controversial history with crypto.

Schiffmann also used the channel to create 3D modeling and Adobe editing tutorials while also filming himself playing Bethsda’s hit RPG Skryim. Then, at the age of 17, he reportedly created a global COVID-19 tracker that managed to pull in 700 million visitors.

Update July 31, 15:45 UTC: Added the date of Schiffmann’s Friend.com domain name purchase.

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Judging by the reaction to today’s FRIEND airdrop, SocialFi platform friend.tech has made more enemies than friends.

The FRIEND claims process turned into a race for the exit, as technical difficulties forced users to resort to workarounds to dump on each other.

The heavily-’farmed,’ 100% community airdrop meant no market makers to steady the price, leading to a purely ‘PvP’ rush to sell as quickly as possible.

With just 10% of each user’s allocation available to claim directly, receiving the full allocation meant joining a ‘Money Club’, as well as following 10 other users on friend.tech’s new v2.

However, despite the SocialFi project initially having launched last summer, the new user interfaces weren’t working as smoothly as one would expect from a Paradigm-backed project with over $50 million in fee revenue.

Technical difficulties

Researcher 0xCygaar noted that the surge in traffic had overloaded friend.tech’s backend, with apparently no scaling measures in place. 

However, the proofs used to check user eligibility were also reportedly malfunctioning, with some sharing instructions for manually claiming from the contract, via the Base block explorer, BaseScan.

Once the claims process was improved, the rate of dumping picked up. Larger holders were seen dumping their allocations, including Crypto Twitter influencers such as Hsaka and CL.

Mixed messaging

The X (formerly Twitter) account of friend.tech had taken an unconventional approach when teasing the airdrop, with trolling and memes preferred over detailed instructions.

Airdrop announcements are often subject to scam replies, impersonating the original account and phishing for gullible victims.

The Block’s Tim Copeland apologized for the re-publication of one such instance related to friend.tech’s trolling. He suggests using a plugin from DeFiLlama which makes it easier to identify which tweets in a thread are genuine replies.

Read more: Seneca Protocol hack highlights dangers of Ethereum’s token approval mechanism

Airdrop farmers

As with all hotly-anticipated airdrops, industrial-scale ‘farming’ had taken place in the run-up.

One screenshot shared by an X user provided a window into the scale of the farming via bought followers and falsified engagement.

Read more: Are Friend.tech keys securities?

Airdrop farming is seen as controversial, with some characterizing those who complain as ‘e-beggars’ who are unhappy with the way they’re given free money. However, it’s also argued that these users leave their capital at risk in a new protocol and should be rewarded in kind. 

Spoofed metrics are not representative of true adoption, but with many projects more concerned about boasting high user numbers, trading volume, and transaction activity while looking for VC investment, perhaps they’re willing to turn a blind eye.

At the time of writing, FRIEND is trading at around $1.12, according to data from CoinMarketCap. DEX Screener data shows the token briefly spiking to a high of $169 shortly after launch.

FRIEND isn’t the only airdrop whose recipients ended up unhappy this week.

Tuesday’s EigenLayer drop faced criticism (and a spike in withdrawals) based on delayed transferability, initial unlock periods, and geo-fencing.

In response, the Eigen Foundation has adjusted the allocation to its ‘passionate users,’ by rewarding an additional 100 EIGEN to close to 300,000 users.

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