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news Crypto Company Sues a 79-year-old For Wormhole.com Domain

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Tom_Collins

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Can't for the life of me think why he would have quoted 50k. He's as dumb as they are ruthless.
 
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well he got what he asked for... not a man of his word it seems
 
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why didn't he fight it in court ? preach of contract ? what contract!
 
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Can't for the life of me think why he would have quoted 50k. He's as dumb as they are ruthless.

Not every random person who registered a domain 28 years ago for free is aware of domain value.

Even then while "wormhole" is a solid brand, it is not like some obvious high value domain like it was Gold.com or something.

The guy is also 79 years old...I hope to even be alive and with reasonable cognitive abilities at that age.

Brad
 
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I don’t like it when people don’t stick to their words. The best time to get a consultation is before making a counter-offer!
 
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I have mixed feelings on this. The court case is not some slam dunk case.

I have seen mixed rulings on if email correspondence is a a binding contract in itself. It would probably depend on the actual wording itself.

When you start the process and agree to terms via escrow.com or some other formal agreement it is a bit different than flippantly throwing out a number with no further terms in an email.

If an informal email agreement is binding, I better start filing lawsuits against buyers that back out.

Brad
 
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well he got what he asked for... not a man of his word it seems
I don’t like it when people don’t stick to their words. The best time to get a consultation is before making a counter-offer!
Did he SIGN a contract? It's not a contract if you say "It's for sale for $50k" then you change your mind...

What causes a person to think in this way? Quite ruthless, horrible and unforgiving people just out to "gotcha" others with the threat of unsavoury legal wranglings just so that they get what they want.

I can only hope that karma will come to bite.
 
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I can tell you right now there is zero chance I would ever do business with this company.

Say what you want about $50k being binding or not, but these sleazeballs opened up with a $2,500 offer for this domain.

That is really trying to take advantage of an old man who might not know any better. Shameless.

Brad
 
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Why did he counter if he didn’t want business?

you win some and you loose some. This man didn’t do his research before countering.

he thought he’d scare them off but then had sellers remorse when it got accepted

nothing to see here
 
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To form a contract, it does not always need to be in writing. It can be verbal also.

in these instances it’s for court to decide whether there was a contract. If nothing is in writing then it’ll be based It’s on probability of an event but here it was probably in writing.
 
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At the moment it's just people in a forum making sh*t up and dismissing someone's misfortune as an obvious misstep that would inevitability leave him without claim to his rightfully owned asset that he's had for decades.

It probably isn't a contract to the extent that you are implying that could be enforced in law.

From the wording of the article it sounds like he suggested a price for the domain but did not did not accept the sale. If there was not agreement from both sides to accept the sale then there's no contract by the sounds of things.

Is there precedent of such a decision that indicates that this wouldn't be the case? The article suggests he could have settled out of court for more, I don't know what leads them to that conclusion either.

I'm open to someone who knows what they're talking about to provide something useful instead of just finger in the air from guessers.
 
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Maybe the people emailing all day one word domain owners with low ball offers aren't crazy.
 
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I have somewhat mixed feelings on this. Yes, stand by your word. But it was not quite the way first described in media that they gave a formal offer and he said I accept. Rather he simply said he was firm on $50,000 as I understand it now. I am not sure how it would have played out in court in terms of a binding contract.

I think we should not say he should obviously have known true value. Vast majority of people do not know value of domains It shows the importance of getting outside expertise before deciding.

Re settling out of court, as someone in my 70's now, I sometimes wonder if legal firms take advantage of the elderly because they know they don't want to be involved in a lengthy legal battle in later years, or have it passed on to loved ones, possibly, to deal with. When I was 40 I would be more apt to fight an injustice in court than I would now.

Just my thoughts,

Bob
 
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It is not likely that it was a legally binding contract. As far as I can see, several of the necessary requirements are missing.

shareyouressays dot com/knowledge/10-essential-elements-of-a-valid-contract-in-business-law/94753
 
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Where is ica , where are ica members, where is Paul nicks , where is aman Bhutani
Are they not going to get justice for this 79 yrs old domain registrant now. As they did super actively last time.
 
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I once agreed a deal with a massive company, it was a big deal, for a big domain but I realised afterwards I left a lot of money on the table as it was in Escrow.

All that weekend, I was thinking of ways to get of the deal without losing the buyer, I come to the conclusion I couldn’t, I had to honour the price I said and put it down to experience.

If $50k was good for this seller, they should have stuck to it, not change their mind when the other party agreed just because “it was too easy” that is not the way to do business.
 
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Also the general consensus on this seems to be the rules of business doesn't apply or should be 'seemingly' bent just because this person is 79 years old, looking down on someone because of age annoys me in general to be honest, i find it all patronizing.

When you are a child, adults look down on you and when you get to a certain age (old age) it's like you are a child all over again.

People can be mentality unstable at any age, Joe Biden is president of the United States at 79 years old, it doesn't matter a persons age.
 
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Well someone also informed that the seller cancelled the deal twice with them as well after getting agreed upon. This is also not ethical.
 
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I have somewhat mixed feelings on this. Yes, stand by your word. But it was not quite the way first described in media that they gave a formal offer and he said I accept. Rather he simply said he was firm on $50,000 as I understand it now. I am not sure how it would have played out in court in terms of a binding contract.

I think we should not say he should obviously have known true value. Vast majority of people do not know value of domains It shows the importance of getting outside expertise before deciding.

Re settling out of court, as someone in my 70's now, I sometimes wonder if legal firms take advantage of the elderly because they know they don't want to be involved in a lengthy legal battle in later years, or have it passed on to loved ones, possibly, to deal with. When I was 40 I would be more apt to fight an injustice in court than I would now.

Just my thoughts,

Bob
Fair comments @Bob Hawkes
 
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Just going by the referenced article, to me a handshake deal is a deal regardless of whether it was put into an official contract or not. The wormhole domain owner broke the deal by not honouring his "firm" counteroffer as an acceptable sale price. Now, breaking a handshake deal I don't think should be grounds for legal recourse, but anyone with deep enough pockets is capable of painting almost any situation into a justice-via-law picture.

Breaking the handshake deal looks bad on the domain owner, imho, and repercussions would be that of course of a tarnished reputation of not following through. His rationale of
Nope, sorry, I changed my mind. This was too easy, I'm either leaving a lot of money on the table or it is a scam.
simply doesn't cut it to me, this mindset should have been arrived to before the "firm" counteroffer.

I don't see the $2500 initial offer by the buyer as really a bad thing nor egregious, they have to start somewhere and most savvy buyers are looking for the most value at the least cost. Seems to me more of a "feeler" attempt, they likely weren't expecting it to be accepted. I wondering about the age thing, is this something they could have possibly known? I didn't see it mentioned in the article, it seemed more a fact arrived to by the article's author.

All in all, the buyer is definitely going cutthroat on this, and it's too bad they are throwing money in the wrong direction. Double the offer, triple it, whatever, make it worthwhile and put it into a contract.
 
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I once agreed a deal with a massive company, it was a big deal, for a big domain but I realised afterwards I left a lot of money on the table as it was in Escrow.

All that weekend, I was thinking of ways to get of the deal without losing the buyer, I come to the conclusion I couldn’t, I had to honour the price I said and put it down to experience.

If $50k was good for this seller, they should have stuck to it, not change their mind when the other party agreed just because “it was too easy” that is not the way to do business.
If you get as far as starting the transaction then I agree, you can't and shouldn't back out at that point. All is agreed and in motion.

This stuff about a verbal contract, unless it's clear that both parties have agreed to enter into a sale, clearly, then surely that's different.

For example if I have the following emails:

Buyer: How much for bob.com?
Seller: I'd want 50k
Buyer: Ok we'd like to purchase for that amount
Seller: Actually I don't want to sell thanks.

That's not a deal... However this...

Buyer: How much for bob.com?
Seller: I'd want 50k
Buyer: Ok we'd like to purchase for that amount
Seller: Agreed, how do you want to pay?

That's a deal... He's agreed to the sale.

But yeah, when you're so far into the transaction that you've agreed and it's all in motion it's unethical and probably legal grounds to be deemed a contract.

That's just my view of it but I'm not a legal expert. Would be happy for someone to pick it apart ☺️
 
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