ZED RUN was founded on the premise to make horse racing more accessible, fun and ultimately to democratise ownership. The vision of allowing any individual to come to ZED RUN and feel that they have an equal opportunity to own a champion racehorse still, to this very day, remains unwavering.
On 29th November 2021, it was discovered that a ZED RUN team member, acting on their own, compromised this vision by violating their obligation to us and the community and abusing their trusted position by using a limited amount of internal racehorse data to improve the likelihood of buying a racehorse that would perform well. The individual purchased four (4) racehorses based on this data and consequently, they no longer work with ZED RUN in any capacity.
As a team, we are devastated by the actions of this individual. We feel let down, and as a result, we feel that the community has also been let down and we want to set things right.
The purpose of this post is to share as much information as possible with our community, who have built and contributed to the thriving ZED RUN ecosystem since the beginning.
Here are the facts
After the conclusion of the Redwood City Classic 2.0 on 24th November 2021, the ZED RUN community flagged suspicion regarding the outcome of the race. Once this information was brought to our attention, immediate action was taken to investigate these claims.
During the internal investigation, we uncovered that a ZED RUN team member had used a limited amount of internal racehorse data to acquire four (4) racehorses, and used that information to gain an unfair advantage against other competitors. The individual in question voluntarily admitted to their actions after a meeting was arranged with our legal team.
Given the individual’s breach of company policy, the four (4) racehorses were sent back to ZED RUN controlled wallets by the individual. The four (4) racehorses purchased were:
- Sentinel
- Fairy Dancer
- Affectionate Beast
- Deathstroke
These racehorses were purchased across four (4) stables being Rooted, KaiserP, Kaiser Family and Constellation NFTs. In total, there were 534 races where the four (4) racehorses in question placed in a race.
Our response
As a business we have zero tolerance for any behaviour that violates our morals and disrespects the community through deliberate disservice. The incident was an unfortunate case of a team member taking advantage of their position and breaking the trust given to them.
We have traced back-end data logs on individuals who have had access to internal data. We have not found other incidents, and our enquiries confirm that the individual acted alone.
We are committed to acting in the best interest of the community. To this end, we have already taken immediate action to mitigate the risk of similar situations occurring through further increasing our internal security and further developing processes to better control access to internal and game-sensitive information.
Resolution
Given the events that transpired, we will be compensating participants to the level they would have placed if Sentinel, Fairy Dancer, Affectionate Beast and Deathstroke would not have raced. For example, if a racehorse placed in 4th position where one of the four (4) racehorses in question placed 1st place, the 4th placed racehorse will be awarded with the prize money for 3rd place, the racehorse that finished in 3rd place will be awarded the difference between what they would have won finishing in 2nd place, and so forth.
We will be awarding more than 1,000 individual payouts to those affected stable owners who participated in the 534 races where the four (4) racehorses in question placed in a race. These payouts will be transferred to the racehorse owner at the time the race was ran and will be completed. The transfers will occur within 10 days.
The four (4) racehorses in question have been voluntarily returned into ZED RUN’s possession, where they will be burned at a later date.
Moving forward
We thank @NFTBuddha, @bg_alt, @0xjase and the broader ZED RUN community for alerting us to this matter. Your actions here have directly helped us rethink and improve how information is secured.
Chris Laurent, Founder and CEO