I have the day off and I'm trying to track down some reliable information on Walton Chain (WTC).
A person was looking to purchase a 6 1080 Ti rig on another thread for what sounded like "hosting" a MasterNode. It did not make a lot of sense, so I dug into it. I think Walton Chain (
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-waltonchain-wtc-2127069) is a massive, well funded, scam. And I do mean massive. I'll explain why, but I'm looking for community feedback before I post a lengthy summary in the WTC thread.
You can access the English version of the WTC white paper on the OP. Start at the end with that impressive looking list of people, with even more impressive academic and corporate credentials. Pick any single individual and try the following: Can you find the names of the companies they worked for, as spelled, using Google? I can find an amazing number of companies that are spelled almost, or kind of like, the companies listed in these resumes. Can you find a single one of the 100+ academic papers this impressive sounding group has allegedly published? No citations to their own work are given, which seems odd as academic types really do "publish or perish." Can you find any legitimate proof of their patents? If you can, PM me with the links.
Skimming through the WTC thread, it seems to be dominated by relentless shilling for this coin, with an awful lot of the shilling just parroting back what are pretty transparent PR pieces published under some sub-account hosted at medium.com. Check how many times people cite to these "articles" under this
www.medium.com/@waltoncoin account. That's the supposed proof that they are real and making incredible progress every day. Here is just how goofy the thread reads:
“Waltonchain will be the Qualcomm + Cisco in the blockchain industry. Based on this, Waltonchain will become the ‘Google search engine’ of blockchain”.
Now there is a quote you can take to the bank. If you are an idiot.
There is no way to mine this coin with AMD cards from what I can tell. And to mine the coin with Nvidia cards, you have to PM shady characters for the details. Nothing on the OP talks about, or provides links to, mining programs, or pools. Kind of odd, I think. Why do I need to PM people who want to sell me overpriced Nvidia rigs just so I can figure out how to mine this pos?
Here is the use case: They are going to take RFID tags (pretty well developed already), and somehow transform the "Internet of Things," using blockchain technology. Three "hot" topics the members of the WTC forum point out again and again. Yes, indeed, hot topics. And they are going to do this, and have allegedly done this with one single -- wait for it -- garment makers. Well, that's not fair because eventually they will transform the World, but their initial use case is for high-end clothing and accessories.
Let's take the more logical side of this use case -- how about using RFID tags and the blockchain to verify and authenticate $30,000 Louis Vuitton handbags? How about that? I can buy knock offs on Canal street in New York all day long. There are two immediate problems I can think of: the RFID tag is a physical object and physical objects can be tampered with and removed even if the WTC blockchain is unassailable. And if it just takes one RFID tag to prove up the provenance of my fake Vuitton hand bags, believe you me someone will steal these RFID tags or find some other way to counterfeit them. So check the blockchain all you want, your knock-off bag will read as legit, which = use case failure.
Here is the second problem: so far as I know, if you have questions about your Louis Vuitton handbag that you purchased on eBay, you will take your hand bag to a real Louis Vuitton store and you will ask them to appraise its authenticity just as you might ask Sothebys to appraise that Rembrandt look-alike you found in your Aunt's attic. Do you think either Louis Vuitton or Sothebys would prefer that you stop by their store or auction house - OR - do you think they prefer potential customers to bypass them all together by confirming authenticity of rare items on the blockchain? I'm guessing Louis Vuitton would far prefer that you visit them in person. Once you are in their store or auction house, they can politely tell you so sorry, your hand bag is fake, but we have lovely ones "in hand" just like it that we can sell you today.
Let's take the low end use case: white cotton t-shirts made in sweat shops in Pakistan. Would you add 0.04 cents to your costs to place these WFC RFID tags into your cheap clothing before you ship it to a wealthy nation? I don't think so, not worth the cost to you. Let the retailers worry about adding RFID tags after the container ship arrives in whatever port. How many items of clothing do I own where I would really give a damn to look up on any blockchain who made the article and where it was made? None, but then again, I'm not into clothing.
None of this RFID tag + IoT + our WTC blockchain makes any sense.
But wait, there's more! WTC also seems to involve a multi-level marketing scheme adapted to MasterNodes, with side nodes and GrandMaster nodes, and it makes no f**kin' sense to me. It's brilliant, but I am waiting for someone to explain what is added by all this nonsense OTHER THAN it supposedly makes certain categories of MasterNodes more valuable and YES you do need collateral in the form of 5,000 WTC to start these nodes.
It soared in price when it announced a partnership with Coinnest. I see that the CEO of Coinnnest was arrested for alleged fraud three months later. They tweeted about a partnership with Alibaba, that announcement was taken down shortly thereafter. The latest I can find is unsubstantiated statements that GlaxoSmithKline approached the WTC team. I can't find any confirmation of that outside of Reddit and the WTC bitcointalk thread and it may have been announced on their PR organ,
www.medium.com/@waltonchainscamBy market cap, this is like #54 which is staggering. And it has competition. I'm not seeing any moats around WTC unless and until someone provides a link to a real patent office like the U.S. Patent Office.
Does anyone here read John Hempton's blog? He's a short seller. Is there anything like Mr. Hempton's blog for crypto coins that you know of? And I'm not interested in Weiss Research.
Can anyone explain how mining works on this coin? What the hell are these different categories of MasterNodes? Has the WSJ, FT, or Bloomberg picked up on this 'transformational' company? Any articles you can point me to that exist in a major, well respected financial publication?