" You can try to call the branding itself a scam if you please..."
It's the branding I'm upset with...I love the idea behind the coin. We were continuously promised that George would be behind this coin...that is the issue I have with it.
The cause is great...I hope it moves forward...but I suggest you do it with a new coin.
Guys that's like releasing a Donald trump coin without his approval, are you all INSANE. This was a scam from the beginning they know and everyone knows they can get sued. Allot of people fell for this scam.. This is just bad bad bad
The powers of hindsight are strong in this one. You must think that you are the only person with the ability to assess the risks and consequences of using a celebrity image and name. You must think that the dev said, "Let's arbitrarily use George Takei's name and face for this project without any indication that it's ok to do. Then we'll tell everyone that he's really on board, when he's not. There's no way things can go wrong."
Well let me shine some light on the situation, oh Master of Thought and Mind. Permission was given to move forward in exactly the way the dev moved forward. Not only that, he kept everyone well informed of exactly where they were in the process. Was he hopeful and positive about the direction that things were going? Of course, but he never guaranteed anyone that anything was locked down. It was always hopeful optimism, not lies or scams.
Not only that, building a coin has so many different moving parts, especially this one because it involved educating high profile celebrities on the ABC's of virtual currency. Right now the world thinks virtual currency is for money laundering, funding terrorism, and get rich quick computer nerds. What TakeiCoin was trying to do, in bringing altcoins to the mainstream masses by attaching a great cause and a potential champion/endorser to it, was a monumental task. The people involved just got cold feet and backed out.
What this person tried to do should be applauded, not poo-pooed. You wait and see, when every corporation ends up having their own virtual currency and they have celebrity sponsors, and charities, and everything else this dev tried to do pretty much all by himself. I think you'll appreciate his efforts a little more when the little guy will have no chance at making a niche for themselves in this space.
I followed TAK from the very beginning. I had never invested in any virtual currency. I had never invested in ANYTHING before, but I fully supported this project and believed in the developer. He personally told me to only invest what I was willing to lose. He didn't say, "Ride with me and I'll take you to the Promised Land." So I bought 2.75 BTC when it was at $800 (which for some may be nothing, but for me is a BIG deal). By the time it hit my account BTC was at $600 and change. I used it to buy up about 282k TAK. Then BTC dropped down to the $500's. I nearly pooped my pants. Today, I still have 282k TAK. I sold nothing, and I was an "insider". In fact, I was inside the insiders. I'm the dev's brother. I knew about the bad news before the announcement was made. Before the bottom fell out. I'm pretty sure if the intention was to "pump and dump" I'd be sitting on a nice little profit right now instead of $170 worth of TAK.
So before you start Monday morning quarterbacking this venture, and screaming "Scam! Scam!" like lunatic rabble with torches and pitchforks, you should try getting your facts straight and open your mind up to the possibility that in business, things don't always go your way. There's no such thing as a sure thing, and when things do go wrong, it's not always because there's some evil mastermind behind them. Sometimes, behind the scenes of failed business ventures, there are some very nice, genuinely good people, who have never, and wouldn't ever, in a million years, try to swindle anyone.
