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I also could have titled this little rant "The problem with Ethereum". But before I explain that, first I have to acknowledge that the idea for this article came from watching sunny decree's latest video about the POWH3D or "Proof Of Weak Hands" coin... If you want to know more about this, search for the links beneath sunny decree's video; I'm not going to refer any of my readers to this joke.
Seriously? Proof Of Weak Hands? I can only assume that whoever conjured up such a ridiculously named ICO could only have done so with the intent to tarnish the image, the public perception of crypto-currencies. Like we need this kind of nonsense in an already bearish environment! I guess we could expect no less after the ill-advised succes of a total joke like DOGE coin, but please guys, stop it... And please, stop investing your money in these scam-coins; if we truly want to change the future with mass adaption of decentralized crypto-currencies, we will have to mature as a community, as a market.
This is the problem with Ethereum and possibly with other blockchain platforms such as NEO, ADA and EOS. When I glance over the charts these past few months (not that I'm in any way a technical analist), I get the feeling that this problem is becoming very apparent with Ethereum and that people are putting their eggs in other baskets: EOS in particular maintains its price level against BTC remarkably well, while Ethereum is getting slammed. Ethereum sunk from a high of $1,400 to sub $400 today.
This makes me wonder: almost all scam-coins are ERC20 or Ethereum based coins and it's not hard to imagine that Ethereums current downfall has something to do with this connection. Mind you, this is just me thinking out-loud and not backed by any research or TA that I know of; if you do, or if you know of any proof to the opposite please leave a comment.
In a world where anybody with half a brain can release their own coin, we should expect the market to be full of scam-coins and coins that ultimately proof to be worthless. This is only natural in a community of truly free human beings and a market that's not yet bound by to many laws and regulators. And if we want to keep it that way, the scam-coins are a necessary evil which we'll have to vanquish ourselves.
Now, back to sunny decree, his video about POWH3D and my trust-issues. Sunny does what he can in this video; he starts by warning his audience that he will do his best to keep it as neutral and unbiased as possible, while also stating that he does have some money invested in what is obviously a scam-coin. Now this is nothing against sunny decree; I like his video's (the accent alone makes them worthwhile ;-)). But here's the problem: it is impossible to give an unbiased review of something you own yourself. Or at least viewers or readers should never assume that such a review is unbiased.
The science behind this is clear and it's called "The Endowment Effect"; this is the natural urge to value something you own more than something you do not own, and a good scientific explanation of our urge to HODL. Here's a short and sweet explanation:
You see what the problem is here? The internet is full of people like me! And sunny decree and a metric ton of people who claim to have some degree of technical analysis skills who are trying their best to give their "unbiased" opinion, right after shouting that "THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE!!" And they do so often without mentioning what coins they own themselves. And even if they do mention it, it would be nice if they also would admit that anything they say about those coins is biased by definition and cannot be taken as neutral advice.
It's funny, or maybe completely understandable that Satoshi's experiment with the worlds first trust-less means of exchange, is hindered by so many trust-issues. So much even that we hail the SEC as our heroes when they promise to put an end to the freedoms in crypto-space. If we are to evolve towards a more liberated humanity, we'll have to solve these issues ourselves, starting with being as transparant as possible about which coins we are invested in. Really, it's difficult enough to form a well informed opinion without this transparency.
So, to put my money where my mouth is, I will from now on list all coins in my portfolio in the "about" section on my Steemit profile for all to see: Bitcoin, Litecoin, EOS, OmiseGo, FunFair, KIN, Pillar, DENT, Polymath, XDCE, 0x, Decred and Ethereum. Full disclosure is what we need, not only from developers of blockchain-based projects and ICO's (by assuring that the code is open-source and the blockchain is a public blockchain and not private), but also from bloggers, vloggers and other media-outlets that claim to "not give any financial advice".
If you stumbled upon this rant of mine and made it this far, you have my gratitude and respect :-) Thanks for visiting and being patient with me!