#DeleteCoinbaseTrustChain takes off as users struggle to close their accounts

A Coinbase boycott has inspired yet another hashtag as protesting users ran into trouble while trying to close their accounts on the platform, Motherboard reports.

Twitter users have rallied their cause with #DeleteCoinbaseTrustChain to help protesters clean their accounts from the so-called "dust," those fragments of cryptocurrencies that often remain after various transactions, preventing account closure.

Dust turned out to be an issue because Coinbase requires an account balance to be at zero before it can be deleted. Simultaneously, the platform prevents such small accounts to be transferred to an external wallet, which makes getting rid of dust rather complicated. To solve the problem, protesting users have started sending their dust to other accounts posted with the hashtag before closing the account. 

The initial #DeleteCoinbase protest emerged after the news of Coinbase acquiring Neutrino, a crypto transaction tracking startup founded by former members of Hacking Team. The Italian group gained notoriety for selling intrusion tools to governments of Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.