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Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

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Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#12
post #2

This detail didn’t make it into the summary, but the audacity of it gave me a laugh. > Hacken, a cybersecurity company, audited the cryptocurrency, according to INDXcoin’s website. State investigators, who obtained copies of Hacken’s audits, say that the Regalados fail to mention that Hacken gave it a rating of “zero out of 10.”

I can see it now: 'your system is horribly and laughably insecure. Please don't launch with this plan.' Is then turned to: 'we have been independently audited by a third-party' (((no need to mention what they said)))

Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#14
post #11

How do you tell a scam coin from a non scam one? It's like a cult vs a religion, as far as I can tell the only difference is popularity.

The difference between a cult and a religion is this: a cult wants it all but a religion just wants their cut.

Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#15

This was clearly the work of the devil...

That's the gist if it, isn't it? If the scam works it's Divine Providence, but if the scam blows up in their face then the devil made them do it. What matters the most is that it's never their responsibility and thus they are never responsible and accountable for anything they do.

Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#16
post #11

How do you tell a scam coin from a non scam one? It's like a cult vs a religion, as far as I can tell the only difference is popularity.

It's genuinely a difficult question because there are projects that have the exact same technical designs that are still legitimate projects. So how do you evaluate this? From my perspective it used to easier. I'd just look at the problems that the company was focusing on and ask: (1) are they solving a real issue (2) are they making a valid contribution with their solution?

Normally both 1 and 2 would be eliminated as projects tried to intentionally use buzzwords to confuse investors into thinking they were doing something cool. They would write papers that mentioned nothing specific and you would sometimes come away thinking: 'what the fug are you even building' or often 'this exists already so what is your take on it?' The latter of which is hard to deny because many tokens, ICOs, blockchains really don't need to exist. Technically you could have argued that Ethereum didn't need to make a new blockchain because a third-party system could have been made that added smart contract logic on top of Bitcoin like a soft fork. This would have been similar to master coin.

I'd say that the quality of the people around a project can tell you a lot. Often scammers use impressive sounding publicists to make them seem like they're successful entrepreneurs. But when you dig deeper its all just paid shilling.

Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#17
post #11

How do you tell a scam coin from a non scam one? It's like a cult vs a religion, as far as I can tell the only difference is popularity.

It's genuinely a difficult question because there are projects that have the exact same technical designs that are still legitimate projects. So how do you evaluate this? From my perspective it used to easier. I'd just look at the problems that the company was focusing on and ask: (1) are they solving a real issue (2) are they making a valid contribution with their solution? Normally both 1 and 2 would be eliminated…

By that standard dogecoin is a scam.

Re: Colorado pastor charged for cryptocurrency scam he perpetrated at God's command

#18
post #14
post #11

How do you tell a scam coin from a non scam one? It's like a cult vs a religion, as far as I can tell the only difference is popularity.

The difference between a cult and a religion is this: a cult wants it all but a religion just wants their cut.

I’ve heard it phrased differently: the difference between a religion and a cult is that in a religion the person at the top of the pyramid making the most money is dead.
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