Reply to post: Re: @David Roberts

China bans cryptocurrency fundraising schemes

I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

Re: @David Roberts

You don't get any rights at all. It's almost certainly a scam. Even if not, you're shouldering the risk - as I'm sure they'll grant themselves lots of free coins, just in case the thing does actually take off.

After all, half the point of digital currencies for many poeple is avoiding government regulations, and tax and laws and such pesky stuff.

There's an argument that securities legislation applies to digital currency in the US (as the SEC has decided it thinks it does), but nobody seems to be taking that very seriousy yet.

Anyway none of these things are audited, or proplery documented or controlled. So you've got nothing.

Also they're not guaranteeing that this digital moolah will have a fixed face value. So you've got no way to argue that you've lost anything. This advertising one may be backed by them promising to honour the coins for a certain amount of advertising, but I bet it isn't. And even if it were, that doesn't protect you if they go bust.

If you buy shares in a limited company - then that company is subject to audit, the directors are legally responsible for not outright stealing your cash and a VC probably signs a deal to get access to the books and/or a seat on the board.

The similarity is that there's no transparent market for shares in private limited companies. So they're impossible to value, until you sell them. If you can even find anyone to buy them that is. Lots of people invest in small companies, but choose profitable ones to get an income, rather than what VCs do, which is gambling on getting a huge pay-out to cover all the losing bets.

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