I have been trading in crypto for a couple of years now and while there has always been that air of uncertainty surrounding whether devs, exchanges, coin/token creators are on the up and up, it seems that is more the case now than ever. It would appear that the almighty Bitcoin has become even more of a draw than the almighty Dollar as more and more average folks see the lure of easy money with a booming crypto market capitalization, more and more scammers and hackers are trying to get theirs. Twitter, YouTube, Slack, and Telegram have become the tools of the trade as shillers and fudders alike try to push the markets in their favor. It feels to me like it is heightening to a crescendo and I'm afraid we may not like the ultimate outcome.
Recently, there was an upcoming ICO that had been shilled from Twitter to the moon... until it was realized that they had plagiarized parts of their whitepaper. In this current market, I am genuinely shocked that anyone read their whitepaper to begin with. In all honesty, and I've even seen it mentioned a few times by the big players, all it takes is for the right person to shill a coin or token to send it over the moon. The ensuing blind FOMO to scoop up that coin means that no one is even bothering to read the specs, nor do they care what the coin is for. Granted, many folks are making money hand over fist, but it's also creating a ton of angry bag holders who don't understand what the market is doing.
Enter the noobs. The only way for this market to continue to sustain itself in this manner is to have a huge influx of new interest and for crypto to go mainstream by offering up opportunities not found anywhere else. Obviously we have the influx of new interest, considering at least 5 exchanges had to shut down new registrations and entire markets were broken under the weight. The problem now is the OGs are dumping on the new money, and although new money doesn't like being dumped on, they keep begging for the next big investment so the OGs can do it to them again. The noobs will eventually tell their friends how they got scammed by xyz exchange, or taken by the next big ICO and lost their house because of it. Thanks CNBC. What they don't tell folks is that crypto isn't safe. It's a trust no one, do your own research gamble with almost zero regulation. That's partly what makes it great. But it's not great for the average joe who doesn't even understand how to send coins from one address to another, or why they take so effing long to confim when it's supposed to be internet magic money. And that's where things get hung up.
If the crypto world wants to truly go mainstream, then they have to put an effort into protecting newcomers from making stupid mistakes and getting taken down by scams. When a token CEO claims to be partnering with a Space company after he plagiarized his own whitepaper and coded a locking mechanism into his tokens, it seems like something should be done about it. Even the exchanges are turning a blind eye to this sort of behavior. Banking, finance, and stock trading is a dog eat dog world...so crypto should be the exact opposite, in my opinion. Now, I'm not suggesting that we all sit around and sing Kumbaya and hold hands while we trade tokens, but I think it's legit that those who are well versed in the community stand up and call out the scams, help educate new folks coming in, and take slacking exchanges to task.
I fear, ultimately, that if the community does not start taking self regulation really seriously, then Governments will see a reason to step in to further "protect" their citizens in one way or another. They have already cracked down on exchanges and how ICOs can conduct themselves in the United States and several other countries. And sure there is always the argument that governments can't actually regulate crypto because it's all decentralized and stuff, but then come talk to me again after you've paid your taxes this year and we will see how true that is.
Let me know your thoughts or ideas on how the community can work on self regulation or if you even feel its necessary! Thanks!
