Topic: The Bitcointalk community must take responsibility concerning scam ICO (Read 229 times)

As far as I know, a good number of members are reporting scam ICOs. Stickies, tagging the ones having scam sig, scam accusations, reputable list of sig/bounty managers and these does include in verification tools, but members still wearing scams sigs (the last one I noticed was swaachcoin) even after they got negged for their own sake and not going through scam accusations and opting to take up any sig that comes across and advertising it across the forum to get investors is a lack of due diligence on the participants/investors part.

It's multiply-multiplication, a lot of ICOs per day, supervising each and every project and appointing members would be a waste of resources for a Bitcoin forum, IMO. Like said, the forum has all the basic tools for someone with common sense to spot a scam ICO.

There are a couple of good threads on alt, is it necessary to go through whitepaper bro?, Should managers be blamed for scam projects, how to decide if a project is good? Half of the responses are spam, but rest are learning and the ones don't want to learn with all these educational material/verification tools, let them get scammed and forced to learn.

At a very minimum, they could be kept off the beginners and discussion boards.

I absolutely agree.
But in all fields, a balance must be found between pedagogy and supervision
Hence the importance of making verification tools available for the benefit of everyone.


It is a respectable point of view (and even originnel I would say!)

But there is a pricipe of reality: for today, there is a lot of information and communication about alt on the forum, whatever the opinion that one can have of it

I mean we are a bitcoin forum, why can't we root for bitcoin and just move altcoins elsewhere.

I mean the forum has ruled against ICOs in its advertising and for that, the advertising of other currencies that aren't decentralised. I believe the owners of a coin should keep maybe 1-5% of a premine and have enough faith in their coin to be able to release it and get a nice amount of profit from it.

Just consider them all scams and avoid until proven otherwise. Do you really need someone to point out that each one is not to be trusted? Seems like educating users to think for themselves and spot obvious scams is the better more sustainable approach.

Good observations and ideas, but it's ultimately up to Theymos whether any sort of controls are implemented as far as ICOs go--and remember, this is a forum that doesn't moderate scams of any variety or size.  I really doubt he's going to hire people with important titles to vet ICOs when there's no consequences imposed from a forum standpoint on even the littlest scams.  Besides which, the community has been doing a very good job catching scammy projects, which is probably the way Theymos wants to keep it. 

But definitely, if this was my forum, I wouldn't want people using it as a vehicle to scam people.  That's what's happening with bitcointalk.  Scammers see it as a place where they can do and say anything, and they can make damn good money by creating fictitious projects with nonexistent project developers.  However, it's not my forum.  We all have to deal with it as it exists, but these suggestions are on point IMO.

Hi there,

1st observation, the forum bitcointalk is emblematic of the crypto world, almost "mythical" (creation by Satoshi, "hodl!", pizza day, etc....).

2nd observation: the explosion of the ICO caused an explosion also on the forum of Ann and bounty of all kinds, several per day.
It seems to me that this activity, increasingly professionalized, generates a lot of money and is subject to a tolerance on bitcointalk that does not earn money on it.

There is now an entire ecosystem: bounty hunter, Bounty manager, community manager, followers, etc...

3rd observation: the cryptomonnaie sector is in a period of probable regulation, notably (but not only) because of the many fraud and false ICOs. Those who hate crypto or simply want control back, use this argument to demand more control (from states, central banks, etc.).

To my opinon, it is therefore essential for the community to prove that it is capable of self-regulation, while respecting consensus values (transparency, distribution, decentralization, etc.).

However, at the moment there is a multiplication of ICO scam.
Good projects are drowned and lose visibility. Most of the time crooks spend on marketing and communication, time that sincere teams don't have: many potential investors fall into the trap every day.

I think it is the community's duty to act to try to limit this phenomenon.

Currently it is possible to report scams in the "scam accusation" section. Any member is able to report and provide evidence.
The concern is that it's very amateurish and quickly discouraging considering the magnitude of the task...

In this section we find some very interesting posts with easy to use tools to detect scams
by example: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guide-prevent-scam-some-useful-tools-for-find-scam-fake-ico-team-4586576 (7 tools to find scam)

Because if there is anything to remember it is this: in 90% of cases, it is possible to thwart a scam in less than 10 minutes!

Some Ideas

- Set up "officially" a kind of "Due Diligence", validated by the forum moderators, implying that some minimum checks have been made (we are not professionals, it would not be legally binding and would not replace the verifications that investors will also have to make)

- On a volunteer basis, give members the opportunity to perform basic verifications, create a quick report and post the result in a reserved post, just below the OP Ann.

- This function ("Auditor Member"?) could be accompanied by a specific badge, granted according to conditions to be defined (respect of formalism, good reputation, a certain number of reported scam, etc...)

Report example