ICOs [Initial Coin Offerings] are becoming so hot that one issuer has been able to sell options prior to the funding round. Monkey Capital, a decentralised hedge fund that invests in SpaceX supply contracts, hostile public company takeovers and Blockchain systems, while simultaneously speculating on large blocks of Crypto, made history Thursday by becoming the first ICO to successfully sell options.
The options, called COEVAL, trade on Waves Decentralised Exchange (DEX), and did robust business out of the gate during a discussion in which Monkey Capital's CEO talked to hundreds of investors in the company's Slack about valuation premiums.
[...] Earlier in the week, Huffington Post labelled Monkey Capital's ICO "the billion dollar baboon" with senior writer Azeem Khan reporting that "chat rooms already have the offering pegged to raise a billion dollars or more, becoming the first ever 10-digit sum raised in a crowdfunding campaign."
[...] On July 15, Monkey Capital will launch its ICO when buyers will have a chance to subscribe for Monkey (MNY). Some months ago however, the management team distributed tokens called COEVAL out to friends and family, as well as "hot girls" according to Harrison.
Source: Coinspeaker.com
Previously:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/07/27/1640225
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/07/20/1430212
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/07/19/0123201
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A hacker has allegedly just stolen around $7.4 million dollars worth of ether, the cryptocurrency that underpins the app platform ethereum, by tricking victims into sending money to the wrong address during an Initial Coin Offering, or ICO. This is according to a company called Coindash that says its investors were sending their funds to a hacker.
On Monday, Coindash, which offers a trading platform for ether, was slated to launch its Initial Coin Offering. These are essentially crowdfunding drives that allow investors to own a stake in the app by buying digital assets called tokens. Initial Coin Offerings are an incredibly popular method of funding an app on ethereum, and some ICOs have raked in millions of dollars within minutes of going live. Even the silliest apps have been able to raise thousands of dollars in token investments during recent ICOs.
Coindash's ICO, like many others, launched simply by posting a string of text representing an ethereum address for investors to send money to on the app's website. However, mere minutes into what was supposed to be another successful ICO, Coindash warned that its website had been hacked and asked people not to send ethereum to the posted address.
It's still unclear exactly what happened, but it seems like the hack was incredibly simple: The hacker allegedly took control of the Coindash official website and changed the text on the site, publishing their own ether wallet address instead of Coindash's. When people went to "invest" in Coindash, they actually sent their ether to the hacker, not the company.
Even though Coindash noticed the hack and warned investors quickly—just three minutes after the ICO launch—the damage was done.
Source: MotherBoard
Some time ago, I wrote that I had given up on Ethereum. While the problems coming from the DAO hack are now in the past Ethereum has had a few other problems.
Granted, these problems have nothing to do with Ethereum itself. They are all exploits in the surrounding ecosystem. Hacking the CoinDash website to replace their public wallet address was particularly cheeky. This all reminds me of tales of the Wild West, when money was transferred between banks by stagecoach or by train. The technology simply didn't exist to provide the necessary security way the heck out on the prairie.
Seems like that's where we are now. The necessary technology does not exist, to provide the security that currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin really require. Website hacks are a dime a dozen, and when a hack can be worth $millions... The same for software: When professional programmers still write code vulnerable to SQL injection - when our platforms even allow this as a possibility - then we simply do not have the technology to secure the stagecoach.
Previously:
$30 Million Below Parity: Ethereum Wallet Bug Fingered in Mass Heist
Hacker Allegedly Steals $7.4 Million in Ethereum During ICO
Used GPUs Flood the Market as Ethereum's Price Crashes Below $150
Ethereum Mining Craze Leads to GPU Shortages
Ethereum Unusable, DAO Refunds Possible
On Tuesday, the SEC announced that tokens that are sold off in crowdfunding events known as Initial Coin Offerings (or ICOs) in ethereum may be considered securities in some circumstances, and are therefore subject to US securities law. Tokens are digital assets that investors may purchase during ICOs, and they usually have some sort of bespoke functionality—in some cases, voting rights or profit dividends—in the app the investor is buying into.
[...] As for which tokens constitute securities, the SEC concluded that the tokens people bought in 2016 to participate in the DAO—a crowd-directed investment fund that imploded after being hacked that same year—were securities. The SEC notes in its report on the DAO that token-holders purchased the tokens with the expectation of profit "derived from the managerial efforts of others," which qualified them as securities.
Since the people behind the DAO didn't register its token sale with the SEC, it was technically illegal, but the commission stated that it has decided not to bring charges against them.
Going forward, according to the SEC, companies that are issuing tokens as part of an ICO (if they are considered securities) need to register with the commission. This will force companies to comply with regulations that ask them to reveal their financial position and the identities of their management. The SEC also concluded that online exchanges where tokens are bought and traded may have to register as security exchanges.
[...] Needless to say, things are about to get very interesting on the lawless digital frontier.
Source: vice.com
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mykl on Monday August 07 2017, @05:37AM (1 child)
It seems crazy to me that people are throwing real money into options to create a virtual currency with absolutely no backing whatsoever (asset or government based).
How many virtual currencies can the market actually bear?
But then, what would I know? I still don't get why Bitcoin keeps going up.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 07 2017, @06:52AM
Well, "currency" derives from the Latin "currō", meaning to run. So how solid your currency is depends on one of two things: how fast the money "runs" through the economy (principle of check-kiting, when practiced by private individuals), or how fast you can run when the the "mark" realizes you just pawned off a bunch of worthless numbers on them.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 07 2017, @07:26AM (3 children)
From the name of the hedge fund, I get only monkeys would give their capital to them. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday August 07 2017, @08:30AM
Maybe they have a monster key that allows them to steal all that capital?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @02:52PM
The only capital company name I have liked is "Lowercase Capital."
https://lowercasecapital.com/ [lowercasecapital.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @12:58AM
Even worthless penny stocks have options. Doesn't really say anything about the value of the stock.
(Score: 2, Informative) by corey on Monday August 07 2017, @10:08AM (3 children)
I honestly don't understand what TFS just said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @01:17PM
While the language may be hard to follow, I think the summary is simple -- speculators are going to speculate, and some will lose while most likely the big money will win. Or in even simpler terms, gamblers will always be able to find some place to gamble, and this is just another option(sorry) for them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @08:51PM
that, and that the hedge fund used Slack to talk to people.
most real people I know refuse to use Slack because of reasons like lack of control and subscriptions and stuff.
but i guess not everyone out there knows how to set up an xmpp server and open ports and stuff. that requires an expert good with wizards.
anyway it just makes me think the place is a scam due to having the ceo or other 'high ranking people' throwing money away... to talk about investments in figurative concepts about values. i guess, though, they dont need to outsource some role to India to get chat working if they just pay some slacker to do it i guess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @07:36AM
Don't worry: the guy who is managing your assets doesn't either.
Do worry: Still he buys all these wonderful new complex things, with your money.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday August 08 2017, @03:30AM
Clearly, the next step is selling options for options. Cryptocurrency is a bigger speculation market than stocks.
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