[VeBetterDAO Proposal] Removal of Reuse from VBD

[Morb]

Proposal summary

The lead developer of Reuse, known as Vehunt, exploited his position to farm user rewards. The infrastructure partly developed through grant funding was redirected to facilitate fraudulent activity for personal gain. Furthermore, artificially inflated user metrics and insufficient security protocols resulted in the premature disbursement of the second grant milestone.

Upon being informed of Vehunt’s fraudulent conduct, the founder of Reuse, Hershel, failed to take corrective action. Instead, Hershel transferred grant funds to his personal wallet to accumulate governance rewards. This action has directly diluted the voting rewards of honest participants within the ecosystem.

This proposal aims at removal of Reuse from the VeBetterDao app list due to proven malicious behavior and failure to recognize and act accordingly to the found evidence.

Proposal changes

Removed:

Reuse
App ID: 0x769e5c49173c22333d16ae17df877ddc768cd8322103103a3e3f2079d6dab0c2
Action: Remove from VBD app list
Note: The associated Creator NFT was burnt on 7th of August 2025

Modified: None

Added: None

Motivation

This proposal addresses threats to the fair distribution of grant money and dApp allocation. A lack of security measures to identify and stop bad actors has led to systematic farming, vote manipulation, and the misuse of grant funds. Evidence was previously presented to the Grant and Reuse teams to resolve this with minimal harm to the ecosystem’s integrity.

Unfortunately, Reuse still received funding despite artificially boosted user numbers, gaining an unfair advantage over honest builders who play by the rules. Moreover, Reuse founder Hershel has failed to acknowledge the severity of this issue and is currently using grant funds to acquire governance rewards, directly reducing the rewards of honest VBD users. Such behavior negatively impacts all participants of the VeBetterDAO.

Detailed overview of fraudulent activity

General information

Farming was carried out from 5th of August 2025 to 12th of December 2025, involving 4096 wallets (62% from total users) with 35 552 b3tr (52% from total paid rewards with proof) rewards claimed from Reuse.
Reuse got access to grant funding via approved proposal.
To qualify for the second grant disbursement of 149 092 b3tr, ReUse was required to reach a milestone of 5 000 organic users. While the project reported 6 537 accounts as of December 21, 2025, an analysis reveals that 4 096 of these are farming wallets. After adjusting for this fraudulent activity, the actual user count is only 2,441—falling significantly short of the required threshold.

Farming setup

2 wallets were used to sponsor gas payments in the farming network: reuse.vet (Reuse treasury wallet) and colequinn.veworld.vet (Reuse utility wallet) (in few cases vehunt.vet )
They sponsored transaction fees for token transfers, domain name registrations and DEX trades.

Farming wallets in Reuse network are distinguished by

• Similar or duplicate proof pictures;
• Proofs only on Reuse;
• Shared exit and middleman wallets;
• Shared transaction fee sponsors;
• Similar AI generated subdomain names;
• Similar DEX trade patterns;
• High b3tr rewards;
• Voting (if at all) only for Reuse.

Shared exit wallets
Exit wallet 1 - most used, shared by vehunt.vet (100+ vet transfers since 15th of December 2024), Reuse wallets, farming wallets, middleman wallets, Hershel, connected to 3228 farming wallets directly and via middleman wallets;
MEXC wallet 2 - shared by farmers, middleman wallets and reuse.vet;
Exit wallet 3 - shared by middleman wallets.

Middleman wallets collect b3tr from farming wallets, swap collected b3tr to vet and send to exit wallets.

Farming example 1

1. Reward collector, received 1360 b3tr form 20 farming accounts with proof only on Reuse
2. Transfer from reward collector to gunnkh.veworld.vet
3. Transfer from gunnkh.veworld.vet to Vehunt, fee paid by vehunt.vet
4. Transfer from gunnkh.veworld.vet to Exit wallet 1, fee paid by vehunt.vet

Farming example 2

Farmer, 14 proof on Reuse only
Token transfer to reward collector, fee paid by reuse.vet
.veworld.vet subdomain registration, fee paid by colequinn.veworld.vet
Reward collector liquidates B3TR to VET, fee paid by colequinn.veworld.vet
Reward collector sends VET to Exit wallet 1 , **fee paid by colequinn.veworld.vet
**

Additional evidence

Vote manipulation

49 wallets in the given farming network manipulated votes on rounds 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76.

Hershel uses grant funding to acquire governance rewards

Hershel, founder of Reuse, transferred grant money to his personal account (1st tx, 2nd tx), converted all b3tr in his wallet to vot3 and used it to vote on round 77. On 21st of December 2025 he converted all of b3tr in his wallet in preparation for the next snapshot.
UPDATE: after publishing the proposal, the grant amount of 149 000 was converted back to b3tr and was not used for governance rewards.

Farming wallets share similar or duplicate proof images

Goal

Remove bad actors from the VeBetterDAO ecosystem.

Signal a zero tolerance policy towards farming, vote manipulation, misuse of grant funding.

Inform and activate the VeBetterDAO community.

Risk analysis

Risk: Reuse team will deny or downplay allegations
Mitigation: Evidence is publicly available on-chain and well documented (fund funneling to same exit wallets, reuse.vet sponsoring farming wallet transactions, vote manipulation)

Risk: distrust in grant program
Mitigation: open discussion and awareness of the flaws of grant program can lead to new proposals and improved security measures

Risk: short term reduction in niche dapp count
Mitigation: removal of dishonest dapps improves the overall quality of the ecosystem

Success metrics

Primary
Permanent and immediate removal of Reuse from VeBetterDAO app list.

Secondary
Return of grant funding of 149 092 b3tr to the original wallet or any other wallet assigned by Grant team;
Return of farmed rewards of 35 552 b3tr to the VeBetterDAO treasury wallet.

Conclusion

Protecting the VeBetterDAO requires decisive action against bad actors who exploit community resources for personal gain. ReUse’s systematic farming and the subsequent misuse of grant funds by its leadership represent a fundamental breach of trust. By removing Reuse, we signal that transparency and fair play are non-negotiable. This proposal is a necessary step to safeguard our rewards system and ensure that funding only supports projects that bring genuine value to our community.
Following successful proposals by Mr. Whittleman and Reheat signaling zero tolerance policy towards fraudulent activity by dapps, I propose permanent and immediate removal of Reuse from VeBetterDAO.

Community engagement

Hyperlink to the Discourse proposal discussion thread has been shared by the author on social platforms X and Discord.

References

All 4096 farming wallets
Voting manipulation
Discourse discussion thread

Author information

Name: Morbid

Contact information: @morbidejs (X)

Wallet address: 0x0a9ac69482cf54862d4928f7db01f1056e7c1d21

Special thanks to Reheat for providing research infrastructure and critical intelligence.

[kyle.vet]

I, for one, eagerly await @VeHunt’s response on this.

[EzraVET]

Founder statement (Hershel) — My investment, what happened, and what I’m doing now

Hi everyone,

I’m Hershel, the founder and initiator of ReUse. I want to respond clearly and responsibly.

1. My role and personal investment in ReUse

I started ReUse as a creator with zero technical background, but with a clear vision: make second-hand clothing measurable, rewarding, and scalable through real-world partners.

For roughly a year, I’ve invested heavily into ReUse:

Personal budget (out-of-pocket costs to keep the project moving)

A full year of consistent work on the “front-end side” of the project: product direction, UX thinking, use-cases, partner outreach, storytelling, community building, and brainstorming campaigns

Countless hours trying to turn an idea into something that could benefit the VeBetter ecosystem and real-world circular initiatives

This situation hurts deeply, especially because my personal life has not been easy, and ReUse was one of the few things I was building with genuine hope. When I first saw the evidence and analysis, I was honestly shocked.

2. How ReUse was built and why I was dependent

Because I’m not technical, I relied on a technical builder to implement ReUse. I asked for help in the builder community, and Vehunt (Yoel) stepped in to build the technical side. I contributed vision, use-cases, partnerships, and product direction. He handled development, wallets, and implementation.

When this surfaced, I chose to communicate and cooperate rather than deny or hide. I also considered whether ReUse could continue without Vehunt with consequences and restructuring. But the reality is: I am not capable of running ReUse alone, because the technical structure is complex and I do not control it independently. This choice was still pending because i do not take this choice lightly.

3. What I’m doing about the latest milestone grant (149,000 B3TR)

I want to be explicit:

I will repay the latest milestone amount: 149,000 B3TR.

I moved the grant amount to my personal wallet only as a safety measure, because I was informed that the ReUse setup may be compromised and I wanted to prevent further risk or loss.

I have not spent it. I still hold the full amount and will return it.

I understand how this looks externally, but my intent was custody/safety, not personal enrichment. Regardless, the cleanest path is full repayment to remove all doubt and restore integrity.

4. Voluntary removal / pause from the DAO

Given the seriousness of the situation and the uncertainty around technical control, I will ask the VeChain / VeBetter team to voluntarily remove (or pause/delist) ReUse from the DAO while this is resolved.

This was already under consideration since the moment I learned the information and I hope the community understands why I needed time to process before taking irreversible steps.

5. My current position on continuing ReUse

I still strongly believe the use-case and potential of ReUse are real, especially because real-world partners and NGOs have shown interest recently. This was exactly my vision to build out to the real world. That this happend to ReUse hurts me on also personal level.

However, I cannot continue ReUse in a responsible way under the current conditions:

I cannot maintain the technical system alone

Trust and safety must come first

The community deserves clarity and integrity, not “hope” or excuses

6. Open invitation: takeover or continuation

If a capable and trusted team/member wants to take over ReUse and continue building, I am open to discussing:

transferring the concept and vision

handing over brand/community assets where appropriate

supporting the transition from a non-technical product/vision angle

My priority is that the underlying mission (circular impact through second-hand) can still live, even if it’s not under my leadership going forward.

7. Next steps (what I will provide)

Proof of the 149,000 B3TR repayment (tx links) once executed

A clear update on the voluntary delist/pause request

Any further steps requested by the grant team/community to close this properly

I’m sorry this happened under my watch. I didn’t build ReUse to exploit the ecosystem. I built it to create real-world impact. I accept that as founder I must take responsibility for restoring integrity, even if I personally did not execute the technical actions.

— Hershel

[kyle.vet]

Having AI spew out this response is not as good of a look as you think it is. It’s a very long winded pity party and “I’m sorry I got caught”.

[EzraVET]

If that is your conclusion. My message is from my heart but the situation demands clear structure that is why i use AI. I have written down my perspective on this situation. I can not do more then to take it seriously and write down a proper message explaining this.

[StakingEye]

Proposal must be started and Vote must be carried. DAO must best practice in all outcomes.

Thank you OP for catching this. If this wasn’t shared publicly there would be no self response.

[Morb]

Proposal edits

1. Update on grant funds movement

@Morb

UPDATE: after publishing the proposal, the grant amount of 149 000 was converted back to b3tr and was not used for governance rewards.

2. Improved “Success metrics”, categorized in primary and secondary

@Morb

Primary
Permanent and immediate removal of Reuse from VeBetterDAO app list.

Secondary
Return of grant funding of 149 092 b3tr to the original wallet or any other wallet assigned by Grant team;
Return of farmed rewards of 35 552 b3tr to the VeBetterDAO treasury wallet.

3. New section added

@Morb

Community engagement

Hyperlink to the Discourse proposal discussion thread has been shared by the author on social platforms X and Discord.

4. Reference to this discussion thread added

@Morb

Discourse discussion thread

Hershel`s statement

Founder of Reuse Hershel has made a public statement on his side of the story and what he plans to do.
His commitment:

1. Refunding 149 000 b3tr*;
2. Delisting (temporary or permanent) Reuse from VBD app list;
3. Open-sourcing or transferring the project for continuation (if there’s interest from trusted parties);
4. Taking steps requested by Grant team/community.

*Original 2nd grant payment to Reuse was 149 092 b3tr.

Comments on Hershel`s statement section 3.

@EzraVET

3. What I’m doing about the latest milestone grant (149,000 B3TR)

(…) my intent was custody/safety, not personal enrichment. (…).

While this is true that 149 000 b3tr of 2nd grant payment to Reuse was transferred to Hershel`s personal wallet, the amount was used to vote on round 77 (collecting ~852 b3tr voting rewards) and was converted to vot3 for the snapshot of round 78 (it was converted back to b3tr after the publication of this proposal).

The continuation of the proposal

Hershel has accepted accountability for the recent challenges facing Reuse. The fate of this proposal will depend on his concrete actions and community feedback, ensuring the long-term health and best interests of the VeBetterDAO ecosystem.