So I've been conducting a little research while at work and I've ran across several things that have raised an eyebrow and have had some gears spinning. As always, thoughts and opinions are welcome. Especially on this topic.
Bitcoin - I'm absolutely all for a decentralized currency system and anything that keeps your money in your pocket and your money to loan via peer to peer or through other trading platforms so you earn the interests you are deserved for the risks rather than the banks earn the rewards off of YOUR risk. BUT there seems to be a flaw in BTC that I agree with on the fundamentals. I suppose it could be said that aside from investor speculation, BTC is really no different than our present FIAT currency here in the USA in which the value is essentially DETERMINED BY FAITH/CONFIDENCE. We don't know where BTC will be in one month's time. Will it be 1BTC=$4000? Will it be worthless? But here's the problem. What does BTC own? What is BTC backed by? I feel that is the pink elephant in the room. And we're also seeing the problems associated with popularity in increasing fees and increasing transaction times. Also, most of us know by now that BTC is not an anonymous transaction either. So there are the perks and and there are the dilemmas all laid out for you in BTC.
GoldBacked - So it seems this is what everyone has been wanting and waiting for. A crypto that has a physical substance and a valuable substance behind it. A proven way of circulating currency via a gold standard. But as I was digging around, I noticed red flags in investor interests. The main being that the 3 major ICO's have been offereing for approximately 2-3 months and no where close to their maximum goals. There is also a written note that your ICO is backed by 1 gram of gold per coin you purchase which seems to have a a few dollars over spot premium. So we have a company in Dubai (which I'd recommend looking how big construction companies have scammed clients such as EMAAR and NAKEEL to give an idea of how trust worthy business in Dubai can be). We have one in China. And apparently a link between someplace in Austrailia and Texas. They all offer the same concept - 1 coin backed by one gram with little fear of losing money even if gold goes down bc they speculate the demand of the coin will go up. So even when gold is down, youre still winning bc the market price is driven up. Oh and there is no way to really get your money back out of their wallet but you can make a call for your back gold apparently until they are registerred with other exchanges...which they promise they are working ever so tirelessly away on. Just feverishly toiling away to make these registrations possible.
This should really raise eyebrows. Basically, you have little risk of losing. That right away triggers alerts to proceed with caution. From the 3 out of 3 gold crypto sites I read through, all promised the same delivery with vague information.
So who remembers the hype and the failed delivery, potential lawsuits, and on and on with No Man's Sky?