Optimism, Morpho silence Discord as scams drive projects off

Morpho co-founder Merlin Egalite wrote on X that “Discord is actually full of scammers.” Dozens of other developers posted similar complaints about impersonators and direct-message scams. Teams say scammers continued targeting users even after bans.

The messaging platform has taken steps to fight deceptive behavior: it has expanded its definition of deceptive practices and introduced new anti-spam and safety tools. Despite those updates, several projects say the platform remains difficult to secure.

Pseudonymous founder DefiLlama owner 0xngmi posted on X that “Discord makes it impossible to protect your users from getting scammed.” He said DefiLlama has moved support toward live chat and email. A Morpho spokesperson said the team now uses a help page and an intercom system to reduce scam exposure.

Optimism also framed the decision as a change in audience needs, saying in a Discord post that “We’re come to realise that Optimism needs to take a different approach to best support our current enterprise strategy.” Projects note that institutional users often prefer private channels, but they acknowledge some retail users may stop providing feedback if Discord is removed.