If you've been browsing /r/cryptocurrency over the past couple months, you'll have noticed a surge in popularity for Oyster Pearl, seemingly out of nowhere. Here's a quick TLDR on Oyster Pearl: a decentralized file storage system on IOTA's Tangle that is maintained through website owners running a script on their website which pays out PRLs periodically to the website owner. I have a strong suspicion that some entity is manipulating the front page of /r/cryptocurrency to promote Oyster and I provide evidence below.
I was the author of a previous post calling out another coin for Reddit manipulation. I'm tired of these inorganic posts hitting the front page trying to get investors to buy into a random cryptocurrency. This is an unscrupulous practice that will only cause many investors to lose money. Once the social media pump is over, the coin cannot sustain its price and will inevitably lose value. This is incredibly unhealthy for the cryptocurrency community and only invites unwanted regulation.
Monitoring the new posts in /r/cryptocurrency, I've noticed suspicious voting patterns suggesting vote manipulation of posts promoting Oyster Pearl. I've been suspicious of Oyster Pearl ever since it randomly started showing up on the front page of /r/cryptocurrency a couple months ago. But I'm not here to talk down Oyster Pearl's tech or its team, I'm here to provide evidence of suspicious Reddit voting patterns.
Check out this post promoting Oyster Pearl:
There are two posts promoting Oyster on the front page right now with very close scores. Both were posted around the same time.
They continue to match in Reddit scores...
I personally think the Oyster project has some potential but the project is in too early of a stage right now and much of its tech is unproven. It's trying to build a decentralized file storage system on another very early stage system, IOTA's Tangle. There are too many open questions around the project right now. For example, I noticed today that users can easily change the Ethereum payout address on the Oyster script, effectively being able to reroute PRL rewards from website owners.
As I stated above, I really just wanted to warn the community of possible active vote manipulation right now. I think that we as a community should be active in calling it out when we see it. Inorganic shilling posing as popular support for a coin is never a good thing. Good projects will naturally see a growth in usage and community enthusiasm overtime and marketing can absolutely be done in honest ways, such as through interviews with editorial websites and paying for ads.