SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO • Hacker News Board

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#81

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [The SEC] obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt a fast-moving Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud that raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August by falsely promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. To me, the PlexCoin homepage [1] is indistinguishable from all the other ICO homepages I've seen. - bootstrap homepage: check - beautiful graphics with actors and coins: check - unclear…

This kind of says more about your ability to judge businesses (and specifically ICOs). Not a big surprise, considering that judging businesses and valuating them is a a profession in itself, and it takes people many years to become proficient in it.

If you cannot get even a glimpse from this webpage, that this specific ICO is likely a scam, you should not invest in ICOs. You will likely not be able to tell which ones (the 1 out of 100) are likely legit, have serious people behind them, and on top of that have an actual sound idea that has a good chance of working. But it's kinda the same with stocks.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#82

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:11 PM UTC

libertymcateer wrote: post #28

hectorr1 wrote: post #15

Good. The first step to establishing a regulatory framework is defining boundaries of acceptable behavior by shutting down egregious violations.

What about the folks who love cryptocurrency specifically because of the fact it is unregulated? Are we not doing that anymore?

They are not talking about regulating regular cryptocurrencies, which are openly a risky investment.

ICOs like this are trying to defraud and scam people, making them believe that their token is something it's not.

I don't think any honest investor and/or developer wants the second case to be unregulated, nor gains anything from it being so.

If anything, regular cryptocurrency enthusiasts are loosing because of this, because the whole crypto space gains bad notoriety because of these ICOs, and people who cannot tell a difference between ICO, an ERC20 token, a private address, bitcoin, bcash, litecoin, etc, etc - people who think they are all the same - will just form a faulty opinion that since there are scam ICOs out there, that means that the whole crypto space is a scam. Everyone would win if these scams were regulated and punished.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#83

Post by Frogolocalypse » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:11 PM UTC

This is going to happen a lot methinks.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#84

Post by FooHentai » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:14 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #49

People might not be so eager to dump money into these scam investments if the government hadn't strangled legal and regulated equity crowdfunding. The SEC needs to look at ways to allow people to invest in legitimate opportunities, not just shut down scams. The JOBS act has been a bust in this regard as far as I can see.

Augh, damn these lawmakers and their heavy-handed efforts to prevent fools being separated from their money.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#85

Post by shepardrtc » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:16 PM UTC

spondyl wrote: post #79

I'd be fascinated to see a documentary that followed the launch of an ICO just to see what sort of headspace they're in.

Scam artists have been around since we developed intelligence. These ones are just a little more high-tech.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#86

Post by Frogolocalypse » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:16 PM UTC

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #81

donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [The SEC] obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt a fast-moving Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud that raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August by falsely promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. To me, the PlexCoin homepage [1] is indistinguishable from all the other ICO homepages I've seen. - bootstrap homepage: check - beautiful graphics with actors and coins: check - unclear…

This kind of says more about your ability to judge businesses (and specifically ICOs). Not a big surprise, considering that judging businesses and valuating them is a a profession in itself, and it takes people many years to become proficient in it. If you cannot get even a glimpse from this webpage, that this specific ICO is likely a scam, you should not invest in ICOs. You will likely not be able to tell which ones…

No it isn't. You can create an ICO with a github account and dodgy php. To create a company and list it, it is a wee bit more complex.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#87

Post by Frogolocalypse » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:17 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #5

donquichotte wrote: post #4

> [The SEC] obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt a fast-moving Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud that raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August by falsely promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. To me, the PlexCoin homepage [1] is indistinguishable from all the other ICO homepages I've seen. - bootstrap homepage: check - beautiful graphics with actors and coins: check - unclear…

> PlexCoin is the next decentralized worldwide cryptocurrency, based on the Ethereum structure. Its mission is to broaden the possibilities of uses and to increase the number of users by simplifying the process of managing cryptocurrency to the maximum. But they're going to simplify the process of managing cryptocurrency to the maximum !

needs moar synergies!!

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#88

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:17 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #17

if the company's in quebec, how were they able to freeze their assets? did the company have exchange accounts in US? does the SEC have some sort of agreement with the canadians?

Because they are US ;). How were they able to bring down btc-e, owned by foreign citizens, employing foreign citizens, registered in a foreign country? US are playing by their own rules, and so far they have made the world to just eat it.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#89

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

nikolay wrote: post #30

All ICOs should be banned! When you see all these scams around, you start appreciating regulation, law, and order more! I am not sure why so many engineers today are into anarchy when it's entirely against the basis of computer science and engineering in general! I get the idea about the distributed systems for higher resilience, but going against the merits of states and governments is just childish!

This is exactly how you kill innovation and it's exactly what should NOT be done. It should be regulated, exactly what happens right now.

Re: SEC Emergency Action Halts PlexCoin ICO

#90

Post by ficklepickle » Mon, Dec 04, 2017, 9:25 PM UTC

cwperkins wrote: post #69

modeless wrote: post #49

People might not be so eager to dump money into these scam investments if the government hadn't strangled legal and regulated equity crowdfunding. The SEC needs to look at ways to allow people to invest in legitimate opportunities, not just shut down scams. The JOBS act has been a bust in this regard as far as I can see.

There's pretty sound reasons why non-accredited investors can only invest in public tradable assets. Accredited investors can get into non-public companies if they earn a high enough income such that they can take that kind of volatility. For students fresh out of college that should focus on saving, it is not a great idea to throw those savings into non-public startups. It sure sounds tempting, but many times over h…

It could be argued that a student has lots of earning potential left in their life, so their risk tolerance is actually higher than someone, say, near retirement on a fixed income.

I get what you are saying though. For most people it is not an appropriate investment, hence the accredited investor rules.