DeFi teams led by Morpho and DefiLlama moved away from public Discord on Wednesday, saying the chat platform has become a security liability as scammers increasingly target users. Morpho said it set its public server to read-only, and DefiLlama founder 0xngmi said the project is reducing Discord use in favor of controlled support channels.
Morpho tested tools like Intercom and shifted users to ticketed support, its co-founder Merlin Egalite said, calling the move “not an easy choice.” Builders cited persistent phishing and direct-message scams that moderation cannot fully stop. 0xngmi wrote, “Even if you ban scammers instantly, they still DM users directly to scam them.”
Industry figures praised the choice while warning of trade-offs. Richard Rodairos said public Discords are now “one of the lowest signal surfaces in the space.” Marc Zeller said Discord is “full of scammers.” Duncan Cock Foster said the move was “smart.”
Some community members urged caution before abandoning Discord. Llamaonthebrink said users value the ability to “pop into a project’s Discord.” Others argued well-run servers can remain safe, as noted by nft_dreww said and Walter_Su11ivan said.
