With the explosion in the value of Bitcoin over the past several years, we've seen the debut of any number of altcoins seeking to either address its flaws or replicate its strengths, giving rise to the rapidly growing cryptocurrency and cryptoasset community. Unfortunately, it has also given rise to countless scam coins, including "The Billion Coin", which is arguably the largest cryptocurrency-related scam in operation at the moment.
Though there have been endless scam coins thus far and will surely be innumerable others still to come, I've taken particular note of TBC ("The Billion Coin") because I'm sure when various governments finally step in and introduce regulations, TBC will be a major reason why. You can find hundreds of videos about TBC on social media sites such as YouTube, some created by people who call the program an outright scam, and others in which unwitting pending victims cheerfully encourage viewers not to miss out on this "can't lose" opportunity. What's significant is that TBC's cheerleaders appear to largely be older people who honestly believe they've invested in a legitimate cryptocurrency that will, at a minimum, provide them a comfortable retirement.
We all know that no demographic participates in the democratic process in larger numbers than senior citizens, which is important when you take into account that the victims of TBC will predominantly be older people on fixed incomes. When at last they're left holding the bag, you can be sure they'll complain to government officials, and just like that... The regulators will have arrived in cryptoland. Because many TBC participants fund their accounts with Bitcoin, they are seemingly unable to separate the scam in which they're participating from ACTUAL cryptocurrencies, and you can be certain that government officials won't bother trying to clarify things before making sweeping changes, if they even know the difference themselves.
Almost as bad are the virtually endless ICOs that continue to come along, raising tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars despite often having nothing to show for investor's faith but a whitepaper. With so much money being thrown at even half-baked ideas heavily reliant on technology that often not only doesn't yet exist, but is many years if not decades away from becoming reality, it's easy to see why even a third-rate developer with a concept he thought up in the shower this morning would launch an ICO in the current climate.
I've come to believe that ICO stands for "Impulse Control Off", as there are clearly many people willing to throw their hard-earned money at any and every one that comes along in the hope it becomes the next Bitcoin, without requiring one iota of evidence that the team involved is capable of delivering on their promise. It's the personification of the old adage about a fool and his money, made worse by the fact that we live in an era where doing a Google search is as easy as breathing. However, if you're convinced you've gotten in on a surefire winner, why bother looking at boring stuff like fundamentals? I mean, even the "crypto gurus" on YouTube are certain that you can't POSSIBLY lose investing in this ICO... And tomorrow they'll be hyping a new one that's even better. You've got to love these characters, don't you?
In the end, the sheer amount of money being raised and the virtual anonymity of the persons to whom those funds are flowing is going to eventually lead to government involvement. A quick look at the development team for various ICOs makes you wonder if the website creator didn't just grab photos from the internet at random, but assuming ICO investors even bother to look, they're apparently not at all bothered by what they see, as to my knowledge there hasn't been a single ICO of late that has failed to raise at least several million dollars. Even so, with the passing of time and the failure of many of these projects to advance, there will come increasing frustration, complaints on social media, and then complaints to government officials. This will of bring in the regulators just as surely as the tears of TBC investors, as the government decides once again to intervene in order to save people from themselves. After all, it's not YOUR fault you bought into an ICO centered around building an actual transporter straight out of Star Trek, is it? Nevermind that the developer was a twelve year old kid whose greatest accomplishment to date is learning to tie his own necktie...
When all is said and done then, regulations will come to cryptos because legions of witless investors were separated from their money. Some will accept their losses and move on, but there are many who are so heavily invested that they simply HAVE to get something back at this point. These are people who quite honestly shouldn't be involved in cryptos at all, such as those who are financially strapped and believe investing in cryptocurrency is destined to make them the next altcoin millionaire. Any fluctuation in the market, these folks are panic selling, getting wiped out by margin trading, and so on. We've all encountered them, so I'm sure you know exactly the people I'm talking about. Nevermind investing only what you can afford to lose, doing your own research, and all that... These people, having been irresponsible with their investments, will be looking for someone to bail them out when it all goes south. Sadly, while they'll finally realize their mistake then, no amount of effort on your part will convince them of the foolishness of their actions right now. A fool and his money, indeed.
It's difficult to argue against something being done to bring order to the rat's nest that is the present cryptocurrency market, but to have the governments of the world step in at the invitation of the gullible and the foolish will undoubtedly lead to regulatory overreaching and bring more harm than good. To be sure, there are a number of issues that plague cryptocurrencies at the moment, but I would argue that none are as significant as uninformed investors, followed closely by countless crypto experts who are anything but. It's no secret that the loudest proponents of cryptocurrency investing are snake oil salesmen claiming to be "experts" touting one ICO after another and a different coin every other day to sizeable online communities, despite having limited experience with cryptocurrencies, no apparent ability to do any kind of statistical analysis, and if we're going to be honest about it, nothing but CLAIMS to have made massive amounts of money trading. This isn't to say that some of them haven't made massive amounts of money though, as it's easy to make massive amounts of money hyping a coin to your online community while selling it to them. In fact, if they're really making money like they claim to, you can be sure that this is exactly how they're doing it, as I'm reasonably sure that the performance of most of the coins and ICOs they recommend wouldn't yield much in the way of profits if you bothered to check. I want to be clear that I'm NOT saying that everyone covering cryptocurrencies on YouTube is a fraud, but I am most DEFINITELY saying that everyone calling himself an expert has, to date, failed to prove himself to be one by any stretch of the imagination. Take that however you will.
Anyway, unfortunately some people ignore the "I'm not a financial advisor" warnings many of these characters offer at the beginning of their videos and invest on their word, which to be fair, isn't the fault of the presenter even if he is using his community to facilitate a pump and dump with himself as the sole beneficiary. Because people can't take personal responsibility for their investing mistakes, just as has been the case in other areas, there is no doubt that it won't be long before "Satoshi Nakamoto" himself is located by the CIA and dragged in front of a Congressional committee to answer for gullible little old ladies and greedy ignoramuses having lost their life savings buying Bitcoin through a shady website based in Nigeria. And that will be how the rest of us lose.