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Probably named after the Howey Test ( https://consumer.findlaw.com/securities-law/what-is-the-howe... ) which is pretty clever.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17085208
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-sec-created-a-mock-ico...
Andddd... crashed. Hope this comes back soon -- curious to see it!
Probably named after the Howey Test ( https://consumer.findlaw.com/securities-law/what-is-the-howe... ) which is pretty clever.
> 1. It is an investment of money
> 2. There is an expectation of profits from the investment
> 3. The investment of money is in a common enterprise
> 4. Any profit comes from the efforts of a promoter or third party
I don't know if the crypto-currency community have a widely accepted view of how this applies to specific currencies, but I feel that "store of value" / HODL coins are dangerously close to failing the Howey Test and thus not being accurately classed as currencies.
Related: PonzICO https://ponzico.win/
To be fair to many ICOs they don't make most of these claims. They are cherry picking the worst of the worst and presenting a straw man. I agree the crypto currency space is messed up but I think this could be done better.
Consider this "defense in depth" against fraud.
Savvy investors want proof that the ICO organizer is running a scam, and that it has legs. The SEC has merely created a playbook, not a fraud deterrent.
The ICO scam is a genre of investor literature. As such certain obligatory signs and conventions will be present:
- the countdown (made its first big appearance with the Ethereum crowdsale)
- use of the term "blockchain technology" in the opening paragraph
- combining "blockchain technology" with a secondary domain (e.g. Travel)
- the more non-obvious the match between "blockchain technology" and the secondary domain, the better
- focus on benefits, not features
- describe a problem everyone recognizes (travel is expensive)
- state the size of the market for solutions ($1.5 trillion)
- management team headshots
- appeal to authority/celebrity
- ROI forecast
- a whitepaper that carefully avoids revealing how the token fulfills the promises made in the marketing material
Ticking all the boxes lets the ICO operator reassure the prospective investor that all steps have been taken to ensure future buyers of the token.
Think of it as proof-of-future-bagholder (PoFB). A rinky-dink ICO that can't bring itself to lay the fertilizer sufficiently high will be in no position to keep investors coming in after the crowdsale ends.
The real question is, who are those people? They are really smirking hard. I bet they're SEC employees, the images have real first names on them (that don't match their fictitious names) which would seem to indicate they're not just stock photos. I can imagine the email to the office now. That would be the coolest thing ever... "we need volunteers, must be reasonably photogenic and capable of producing a foreboding s…
The site was announced today. The whitepaper was created on 2018-04-11 and the site was registered on 2018-03-08. So they probably spend a few months and 10k's $ on this scam project.
This project only works "PR"-wise, because it is posted on social media. No unsuspecting investor is going to happen upon on this site and change his/her behavior and be "educated". That's a deluded pipe dream by out-of-touch no-coin government employees.
This is 1990's Microsoft level of lame.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strange analogy, but I feel it's like using Alex Jones to discredit anyone with conservative or anti-establishment views.
It's trying to discredit scams. Are you against discrediting scams?