Horizon State, a blockchain platform for voting based in Australia, has been shut down after a lawsuit was filed against it. The reason, according to a statement by Horizon State, made today, was due to legal costs.
It’s not clear who filed the case, nor the details, but Australian publication Micky suggests that former CEO Oren Alazraki may be involved based on a discussion on the site’s Telegram group.
Unsurprisingly, the project’s token, called Horizon State’s Decision Token (HST), has lost nearly 50 percent of its value in the last 24 hours.
“While we can’t reveal many details of the cause, we can at least say that it has nothing to do with the business—which has been taking consistent strides forward to new heights—and everything to do with a recently-served legal case in Australia,” the statement reads.
The statement adds that the costs to challenge the case and a potential mediation process to reach a settlement would involve “an eye-watering expense [that] will see the business become insolvent, and ultimately force its closure.”
Co-founded in 2017 by Jamie Skella and Nimo Naamani, Horizon State attempted to transform the voting process in Australia and New Zealand using blockchain–and it appeared to be making steady progress. In February 2019, the South Australian government used Horizon State to run a public election for the recreational fishing advisory council.
However, the project had grown quiet over the past twelve months, leading one Redditor to criticize the company for, “the lack of progress, rumors of internal issues, conflicting information, and changes in the way the company engages with the community.”
On August 13, Horizon State said that former founder Skella would return to the company on its advisory board. But these plans were scrapped when the company folded. On Twitter, Skella said, “It makes little sense to form a team of advisors, only to shutter the company days later, so I can only assume this outcome was abrupt and genuinely unexpected.”