The name change occurred eight weeks after the founder's death. Oleksii Mas died on October 6, 2021; his brother Viktor announced it on October 8, and a wave of obituaries appeared online almost immediately. The project, which Mas launched in August 2019 as a social network of communities owned by their members, had by then gathered a large syndicate. Entry cost $100. In November 2019, it had about 280 members; in August 2021, Mas spoke of 411 investors and approximately $58,000; and by November 2021, the number of participants exceeded 400.
Mas was a well-known figure in Ukrainian internet business. From 2015, he worked at Kyivstar as IT&Digital advisor to president Peter Chernyshov, then headed the operator's Innovation lab. He co-organized iForum, one of the country's main industry conferences, and led its 'Internet Business' track. In March 2020, iForum-2020 was postponed to autumn due to COVID-19. Mas left Kyivstar on July 31, 2019, to focus entirely on his own project.
Name Change Without Explanation
described the new name and logo briefly. According to the publication, the emblem is a stylized 'C' and an open mouth as an 'instrument for outputting information.' The symbolism echoes the idea of the voice that community members gain in the network. The publication did not explain why the project changed its name, and Bohdan Hnatiuk's Telegram message, as retold by, was limited to the renaming itself.
The publication also cautiously assessed who would develop the project: 'apparently,' it is Bohdan Hnatiuk. For the syndicate that survived the founder's death, this was an important signal of continuity. Participants gained a clear leader, and the project was not left without management.
Who Leads the Project
Bohdan Hnatiuk was born in 1974 in Kyiv, attended physics and mathematics school No. 145, and later graduated from the radio physics faculty of Kyiv University. In the 1990s, he worked at NIIASS and Ukrainsky Kapital bank, and from 1997 to 2000 he was a leading specialist at the National Bank of Ukraine, where he handled payment processing. In January 1999, together with Ruslan Dmitrakovich, he launched the Ukrainian Banner Network, and in 2000 he became a participant in UAportal, where the investor was Alexander Soroka. The same portal hosted 'Tree of Friends,' the first social network on a Ukrainian portal.
In 2003–2004, Hnatiuk worked on Infostore.org, a photo hosting service whose investor was Alexander Olshansky. The project closed after police seized its servers on December 4, 2008. In 2012, Mail.ua, co-founded by Olshansky, was sold to Mail.ru for approximately $0.5 million. Later, Hnatiuk participated in the creation of companies Digicode and Nebo15. Today Olshansky is investor number 4 in the 'Craft Networks' syndicate and chairman of the iForum organizing committee.
It is also important to mention connections to this text. Bohdan Hnatiuk is the owner of the publication Maralles, where this article is published. The reader should take this fact into account when assessing the tone in which the project's new leader is described.
Family Dispute and Further Fate
The renaming coincided with a conflict over the legacy. Larisa Mas, who in 2021 calls herself Alexey's ex-wife, opposed the use of his name if Hnatiuk were to lead the project. The conflict escalated on November 29, 2021: the widow declared the project closed, while Hnatiuk continued to lead the syndicate. The next day, a new emblem and the working name 'Craf' appeared.
Later the project changed its name again. Eventually it received the name Chakloon, and it was under that name that Oleksii Mas's idea of communities managed by their own members continued. in its November 30, 2021 note mentions only 'Craf', so the transition to Chakloon should be associated with separate confirmation of the project.
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