Topic: Coins Source's TrustIndex | *Original* and *Most Trusted* Developer Vetting (Read 8943 times)

Nice work Coins Source! That coin age > one month might cut out half the scam crap alone!

Interview - Via Skype or IRC - Skype: Anaxai9 or IRC #CoinsSource (1pt)
Social Media – Verify by a Tweet, Post to Coins Source’s Timeline on Facebook or a Private message via Social media (1pt).
Coin Age at Least 1 month Old - This Verification is Automatic, the coin must be 1 month old from moment listed on an exchange. (1pt)
Mobile Phone – Verify by text message or Phone Call (1pt)
State ID or License – Copy of your Drivers license, passport or state-ID. (2pt)
Mailing address – Verify with 2 bills that confirm the address on your license or ID card. We recommend that both should be within the same photograph. (1pt)

I understand that e-mail is not secure at all.  It's like sending a postcard.  Anyone along the way can read it.

Would you send a copy of your driver's licence attached to a postcard, even if the receiver promised to shred it upon receipt?

E-mail was not designed with any privacy or security in mind.


This.  But not the BitcoinTalk (BTT?) account verification, as not every aspiring coin dev is going to have an account here until it's time to post the ANN thread.

This site's interface is pretty shitty compared to Reddit's.  As a new user, I keep getting errors while posting to say I'm posting too much (Am I?).  Then when I wait a while longer and post, I get an error that says I've already posted, even though the original post didn't go through because of the 'posting too much' error.  Then I have to rewrite the whole thing, or give up.

That's one of the key problems with something like this. That, and something else someone brought up earlier. If it becomes the standard and displayed on exchanges, then it basically turns into :'pay us, or your coin will fail'. And not only that, but 'pay us and trust us with your information'.

I'm sort of mixed about programs like this. As on one hand, as an investor, I can see it helping somewhat. It won't protect against most of the scams run here, and I expect a lot of devs who run proper scams to simply use fake ID. But if trying to be objective, and if I pretended I was an honest dev, I have to ask myself would I be willing to use this program and provide my ID to some random company?

The answer is probably no, as CoinsSource hasn't been around long enough to be 100% trustworthy with such sensitive info. And even if I think they are, I'd have to worry that all of its employees are 100% trustworthy, forever, and you will never have any data breeches/hacks... again, forever, nor none of its employees would go full-blown evil and try to blackmail me. There are simply too many crazy people in this forum to feel safe.

A dev could be honest, yet run into problems. Perhaps his coin tanks due to bad decisions, or competition, or coding problems. Yet he did everything honestly. He'd have to worry some nut out there who lost money won't come after him. People make bad decisions and tend to yell 'scam', as its human nature to look for a culprit besides their own bad judgement. Here they not only yell scam, but go into mob, pitchfork mode. It wouldn't be worth the hassle or risk if I was a dev to even bother with.

A code review + simple BTT account verification may work better, as a lot of the scammier coins have hidden premines or shady code, and catching this early would be of benefit to people.

Im not sure you understand the question, he's not asking about cookies he's asking about how you will protect his drivers license if he sends it to you. So I did some research and I see in your terms and conditions


And that's the actual answer. You at coinsource have placed a waiver so that if your server is compromised it's not your fault. You can't be held liable for your lack of any data protection.

And to add to this severe lack of trust, you post a picture of "you". Where's your drivers license? Who verifies you? And the rest of your team doesn't even have that. Madness.

Id also just like to add the fact that this really does not do much to disprove any scams.  Asside from verification that the same idiot isn't scamming us over and over (likely just the same group handing off the torch). Does it really verify the coin? the idea? For example knowing who the URO dev is does that really prove that URO will ever match UREA prices? Theres a new VitaCoin coming out that says he will be verified he has this crazy plan thats plausible and a good idea but theres really no proof that I could see that it was going to actually happen. I am not trying to spread fud but it just seems like its hurting good developers and a waste of resources if you claim its so difficult for the team.  The scoring should be based off of hard research into the coin itself not just the developers.  Maybe one star for verified developers but not all of them. Just my opinion

Great idea but there are much more things we should consider!

The main problem I have is if its accepted by people like bittrex (which it is see here: https://twitter.com/BitEXtra/status/494267065914503168) and others that you plan on making API readable ratings (meaning if you get it on bittrex it will likely be shown on MANY other sites also).  Then you will be forcing developers to pay.  For example like JudgeCrypto who does not necessarily want to share his information. Is now stuck with a choice between being displayed as a 1 star (or whatever rating you give non-verified) and paying. Forcing devs to pay to be rated is my only issue.  It may not seem like forcing initially. But once your famous, it becomes all that matters and devs are forced to pay. This is my main problem.

@cryptoasian does this for free by himself.  Not saying he has jumped through all the hoops you have but hes flying solo and still verifying for free. Just sayin.

I agree. Dev could receive like 0.25 points for twitter or facebook and 0.5 for email.

I thought the same thing and touched upon those points in the other thread for this. Only the postcard + driver license verification are the ones that really matter. Basically if a coin doesn't get 6/7 or higher, the trust rating probably would be worthless to them. The mobile requirement is also pretty useless and that could be gotten around really easily.

But I can't see any dev signing up for this and paying to get a 3/7 rating or something like that anyway. It's like advertising -- 'We stink, don't trust us' and devs paying for the privilege to advertise that fact.

I think that's an awesome idea. The only thing is I think you should re-evaluate your criteria/point system. The first 3 criteria, email address, BTT id and social media could potentially be used as padding because they're not enough to prove anything by themselves. So that if someone displays a score of 3, you still couldn't really trust him/her because the score could be based entirely on the first 3 criteria.
I think your minimum trust score should mean that you're able to identify the person in case he/she defaults. Moving up the trust ladder would then serve to reflect the dev's competence and ability to see the project through.

First off, I made a point in my post to say that this didn't mean your site was a scam ... I have your site in my signature, for starters... if I thought it was a scam it wouldn't be there.

I simply said that by charging developers for the verification, that to some it may appear scammy. Sort of like if any coin or project here said, 'Send us money and get our seal of approval. Without it, nobody will trust you or buy your coins.' A person's natural reaction would be, who are these guys and why can we trust them... and if they are charging devs for this seal, are they being completely unbiased and honest?

Again, I think you may do better with a free model, but of course that is up to you. If enough devs signed up and used the trust seal, you'd probably get back whatever time you spent on verifying people anyway, via advertising/links.

Reserved

Please refund my fee.  I will be taking my issues to my own thread.

I posted a couple of questions and concerns in the other thread about this, but at the time assumed this service was free. If you plan to charge devs $30 a pop for each application, I see some problems.

Less devs will agree to it for starters. For free, I expect honest devs to at least consider it. But when any group starts charging for verification of some type, it starts to look a bit scammy. Note I am not say this is a scam, just that it may appear less than honest or fair.

The wording on your site is very misleading.

Becoming a Trusted Developer

As a promotional effort to celebrate the launch of our new Premium Membership section, we are offering one free ranking for each new membership. As an additional ‘perk’ for developers, you will be able to open your own dedicated thread on the Coins Source forums.

So after this promo period, do you plan to charge devs plus charge then for a prem. membership too? Or charge them a flat rate outside of being a prem. member?

Why not go with a free model? Simply ask that each trust logo include a link back to CoinsSource and consider it a form of advertising, and you'd make money that way instead, indirectly.

The anonymous site owner keeps coming back with the same crap response.  Do you feel drivers license information should be stored in email?  Do you think people or companies that receive personal identification data have a responsibility to let people know how they use that data?

Perhaps if you post the same questions one more time you'll get answers.

But it's more likely you'll just cross over into being stupidly annoying.

My Questions ARE NOT ANSWERED!

1) How do you store personal data.  You request people email copies of their drivers licenses.  If your email is compromised every developer will have their drivers license stolen.

2) Who will you release personal data to and under what circumstances?

3) WHERE IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA POLICY?  You are asking for personal information with no policy?  THAT IS A SCAM!

These are reasonable questions.  What is your name and location?  You have a private site registration.  If you LOSE or STEAL personal data who can be held accountable?

All your questions have already been answered. Thanks for stopping by Judge.

Do research. Not that hard to found out who we are, information sitting right in front of you.

I want to know how you store personal data.  You request people email copies of their drivers licenses.  If your email is compromised every developer will have their drivers license stolen.

Who will you release personal data to and under what circumstances?

These are reasonable questions.

What is your name and location?  You have a private site registration.  If you LOSE or STEAL personal data who can be held accountable?