We have new projects, games and dApps coming up almost daily these days and again another project being accused of being a scam. Many Steem Community members are very upset about changes to a game they recently invested in.
I wonder how many of those angry people did any research before buying in and how many just jumped on board because everyone else was jumping in?
We've been talking about this topic recently in SteemChat on discord. We brainstormed what the community can do to help mitigate risks for our community members.
One idea we had was to start a dApp rating system that would review the risk level of new dApps. Of course, no one would have to pay attention to the score, but those who did find it helpful could provide upvotes and or delegation.
Some of the things we briefly discussed to review... (think of these as a sliding scale for each item instead of a yes or no..
Do they have a whitepaper? - there would need to be a subcategory here. Reviewing what the White Paper Covered.
Who is on the team? Those with established Accounts, Reputations and a history of having Steem's best interest at heart would likely score higher.
How tied to Steem is the App - How easy would it be to launch it on other chains.
What is the distribution like? What percentage are they holding and or giving out?
I don't think any of us want to start this service so each Steemian should probably figure out a list of criteria to determine what you want to invest in.
What would you add?
Often I use and put a little Steem into new projects because I am a big fan of Steem and I want to support our apps and games and I don't have a lot of expectations of seeing a return.
However, EVERY TIME you buy into new project or even delegate it would be a good idea to ask yourself if you are comfortable losing it all.
We have no form of recourse here. No one can fix these issues for you, so consider the outcome before you put your Steem into any projects. Don't invest more than you can tolerate losing.
Nothing here is riskless, but there are signs.
Form the beginning of this recent game drama people were calling it a Ponzi and continued to pour money in. I guess some of those people were hoping to be on the winning side of that Ponzi. Which is fine as long as you are okay with NOT being on the upside.
(personal note here, I think the word Ponzi gets way overused as does the word scam)
So, buy in play, toss some money in and enjoy, just don't forget if something goes wrong it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to fix it for you.
Do your own research before you put your money in.
With what all we've learned on Steem about due diligence, maybe we can go teach indiegogo users:
@whatsup,
Definitely DAPP rating system should be here and new terms should apply! Otherwise those people might misuse the honest and the power of STEEM community to boost the money that they need to create a new chain! Lol for me that shifting to new chains might not work without community power, but they scam our SP and trust in different way either! It might badly effect on honest people and developers on this wonderful blockchain at the end!
Cheers~
Yeah personally I'm not that interested in supporting project building their tokens on other chains.
That’s part of why I generally prefer delegation rather than sending tokens, you can always just remove your delegation says the guy who’s forked over a thousand-plus Steem for SBI units.
Haha, I always think of that when I consider SBI.
I got scammed in the BellyRub situation and it was a great lesson.
Oh, I missed the BellyRub situation 🙁
Wow!
I may be wrong but I believe you can redeem SBI units, @josephsavage?
Yeah, I read about that a while back. But there’s still a level of hope/trust involved.
I agree: I've taken it that I've spent the money.
The Steem Basic Income refund policy is narrowly defined. In effect, a refund window opens when there has been material change (such as the complete revamp of upvoting rewards when we released automation) and only units enrolled before that refund window opens are subject to refund on request. Full information is included in this post: https://steemit.com/busy/@steembasicincome/sbi-refund-policy-redux
SBI is a subscription service and new enrollment funds are quickly spent on increased delegation to deliver the upvotes that are subscribed for with the enrollment. We are exploring eventual tokenization options (similar to @tipu's TPU tokens), but the regulatory environment is relatively uncertain still.
In our view, any tokens we might issue are not sufficiently decentralized and making them tradable/marketable on an exchange would make them unregistered securities tokens and opens the door to potential legal repercussions.
Our social objectives preclude us from becoming a security (deliberately or unintentionally) as that would restrict investment in the US to only the wealthiest individuals. We have structured things carefully as a subscription service and done everything in our power to make it clear that it's a subscription service, not an equity or security.
There would still be recourse if we took the money and ran (undelivered subscription value, fraudulent behavior, etc. and there are many Steemians that have my actual email or phone number and could provide it in case legal action needed brought against us.
My drivers license says Joseph Savage on it, and I have nothing to hide.
Thank you @josephsavage.
I think what hurts us most of all on here, other than crypto not always having the feel of REAL money, is actually the feeling of community. A member of Steem is launching a new game on the platform! It's gonna be awesome! We're gonna be able to play a game on the platform that we all love! And then it sucks.
Ponzis also have the very real fear along with them of missing out. You have to get in now, invest now, upgrade now, or you'll miss out. Combine that with the hope that the developers will improve the game and make it better and fix the problems...and it's actually a lot easier to get sucked in than most people think.
That is actually a valid point that I hadn't thought of. Interesting point of view and observation.
But I just want to put money in and then take more money out later.
What I don't understand is why give Steem. If you'd like to invest in a project why not just delegate some SP as it's pretty much 0 risk and most of the time you get rewards (profit sharing, upvotes, project tokens, etc.).
It's such an awesome advantage of Steemit yet it seems so few people actually take advantage of it.
Yep.
Don't risk what you can't afford to lose. That's the motto I follow.
I don't feel drugwars was a Ponzi or a scam because it was a game. Most mobile games are more scammy because you buy some in game items with fiat and all you get is a higher score. For decades people only spent money for games, not the other way around.
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interesting idea about rating system. it would be nice info to know
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The game is only a game, you can improve your performance if you put in some Steem, you will probably not get it back but if you want to get ahead in the game that is what you have to do. I think that the uproar is because people expect to make a lot of money real quick and sometimes decide to spend more on a game than they should. I was playing SteemMonsters but to be competitive you have to spend a lot of money, money I don't have so I had to quit, no hard feelings just that I couldn't afford it. In other games I have spent a little, had some fun and got part of my money back. I think that is all I can expect.
What I find weird...I didn't see Bearni complaining..it's very unnatural for the platform..
Nah, I think bernie understand when a game is a game. :)
tru dat. its hard to keep up. everyday there's a new app/dapp, another fork, another bip, etc. def tougher to keep up now days then it used to be. in a way it's good a thing. idea of cryptocurrency is spreading.
They are coming out of the woodwork, but some of them shouldn't.
When you see people posting report of how many money they make on Drugwars. You need to question yourself!
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I think we are going to get a lot of the gambling dapps that EOS has now. They all seem like a Ponzi scheme, get in early and you can make money but only at the expense of those that are late. I'm not putting Steem into any of those. This is probably a big threat to crypto, I don't think Bitconnect did any good and I can't see how all these smaller Ponzi schemes will do any good either? I'm not saying Drug Wars is one of them, at least it isn't just rolling dice or any of those other gambling games. Drug Wars does look similar and may well be no better but I'd like to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
Gambling is totally a hot topic these days.
You want to know what the real drama is? People mistaking the word "investing" for moving imaginary excel points around.
Buying units or getting upgrades in drugwars is not investing.
I have to stop now.
Ps. Forget the rating system. Get a ranting system.
so true. INVESTING and PLAYING are not synonymous
Like all things, they are all sibject to change so more should be aware of the possibilities. Rule of thumb should be thatbif something sounds to good to be true, it probably is (or at least not sustainable).
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Yes or in some cases they even have bad intentions.
True that. This is the wild wild west. I hate to think of the people that overextended themselves and got into hard times because of a scam. It makes me feel bad. Most of the time as you say a little research would have prevented it. Otherwise I like to go by 'if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is'
I like both of those. Also at least considering... What if it disappeared tomorrow. If I can face that...
I am allowed to invest! Good to see you! :)
You too. I hope you and @roundhere have been good. I will try to hop in discord sooner or later and say hi.
This makes me think of Steem Monsters and the team behind it: @aggroed and @yabapmatt who actually had something to loose should they have done something scammy, because they are witnesses, so they can be held accountable in that since, because the community can remove their votes. Still the only game that has managed to do things right without drama.
I also thought of him as I was writing that.
Someone who has something to lose.
Who has had successful projects
And cares about Steem.
So in the team category he would score well!
People need to take full responsibility in my opinion, then they bitch that they got scammed 😂
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I agree. Suck it up, you wouldn't be crying if you won the deal.
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