I have always cautioned people against jumping into business opportunities involving new "in-house" alt-coins or crypto-currencies where the "offer" involves investing purely in exchange for these coins.. The problem is that they always look highly attractive and come with excellent back-stories and so one is always tempted.
This article here about the police investigating ONECOIN sums up my concerns.
My view is simple. For a coin to be genuine, at the very least, it needs a viable mining system, be that proof of work (Bitcoin obviously meets that criteria) or proof of stake (and ClubCoin meets that one) and, frankly, if it is not the mining or creation of additional coin that is the PRIMARY offer then the opportunity has to have a big question mark over it.
Now ClubCoin was given away to BCN members, it was never "the product" or the offer so ClubCoin is a genuine "additional" benefit. With crypto's like ONECOIN, the coin is the product based (normally) on wild claims that it will be even better than Bitcoin and yet you cannot go out and buy it unless you have joined ONECOIN and invested in their scheme. Even the given away ClubCoin can be purchased on the open market.
Bitcoin may have its faults and it may have its problems to contend with but let us not forget that Bitcoin is already there. Ot has nothing to prove and it is worth real money right now ($600). And for anything to surpass it, then it will need to be spectacular, proven to be better than Bitcoin and will need to achieve what Bitcoin has taken 8 years to achieve.
This isn;t to say that it is impossible to conceive of a day when an ALT COIN comes along that does prove to be better than Bitcoin. After all, look where Ethereum has already gone in just under two years.
If you are offered crypto-currency opportunities, beware. Be certain that it is all it claims to be. Do not be bamboozled by big claims about its potential in the future.
The guys that spread the word about ONECOIN are zealots. They will convince you that you'd be crazy to not get involved and they will have a great back-up story but here's what you need:
The golden rule according to my way of thinking:
EVERYTHING YOU DO WITH MONEY HAS A RISK ATTACHED TO IT UNLESS THE RETURN IS POINTLESS (BANK DEPOSIT) BUT, AT LEAST BE CERTAIN THAT THERE IS TANGIBLE PROOF OF A PRODUCT OR ASSET BACKING ANY SCHEME YOU GO FOR THAT CAN GENUINELY GROW IN VALUE.
The acid test for that is "show me the proof" and is that "proof" public and supportable. In other words, can I go into the market and buy your "cryptocurrency" right now and how much will it cost me. If I can only buy it from you, then I don't want to know.
With Bitclub you can go and see their Bitcoin mining results for yourself on Blockchain and, of course, you can buy Bitcoin directly in the market. You can buy Ethereum in the market and sell it again. And, of course, you can do that with ClubCoin and (to be fair) a whole bunch of other crypto's.
I need that strength of proof at least with any other crypto.
In a future Bit-Talk newsletter, I will talk to you about the dangers of pump and dump coins (that's an entirely more difficult thing to get to grips with.