You know the old bitcoin maximalist saying "one blockchain dominates them all. I think we can adapt it and say "ethereum wallet dominates them all.
Actually, this does not mean that at all. Say you make a "prism" of 1BTC. Shapeshift will then charge you a 2.5% fee and then a 1% fee every month (close to 12% annually) to "manage it." what happens behind the scenes is Shapeshift buys 1BTC and holds it. When you close your fund they convert it into ETH (using accounting techniques, not blockchain transactions) and send the ETH to you.
The counterparty risk they don't tell you about is if shapeshift goes bankrupt you can't redeem your investment.
There are more issues with this, find out more- https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@pawnuts/why-shapeshift-s-prism-is-a-scam
Thats interesting, its the first time Ive read that anywhere. I read something elluding to the opposite actually. Ive seen no evidence that shapeshift does anything behind the scenes to buy / sell the altcoins you specify in your prism smart contract. All Ive seen is they are specifically "tokens" in a smart contract which use ETH as the stake against the performance of those altcoins. Meaning, its just a glorified, high fee betting system using ETH as the stake. Can you point me to where something says they actually "trade coins on the backened"?
Pretty much. they dont trade anything, you're just buying into a worthless smart contract thats been marketed and hyped up into seeming like a legit investment