Bitcoin Forum

The rate of scam and hacks in the cryptocurrency market keeps growing at an alarming rate. In my opinion there best solution to these crimes in the cryptocurrency market are

1 ICO regulations: if there is ico regulations then investors should only invest in ICOs that are certified and meets the required standards. This will reduce the scam rates as fake ICOs will not be able to raise money for investors anymore

2 Smart contract Auditing: I think in other for coins and exchanges to avoid hacks and attacks they should constantly audit their smart contracts at regular intervals (like every 2 weeks or every month).  Doing this will help them detect the bugs and loop holes in their smart contracts and correct it before it is used by hackers.

SEC will have that big part of regulating these ICOs because they can maintain the number of incoming ICOs and they can check the legitimacy of the makers.
True because of fact checking of the developers so that they are liable if ever they do something shady.

this can be a solution to all these problems but it will also be very difficult to implement because even though investors know that it is very risky to invest in non-certified ICOs but they cannot ignore the ICO because sometimes what ICO offers is like that very tempting

Who would regulate the ICOs? And why would ICOs follow this regulations. We'd need a global and powerful organization if we really want to regulate ICOs but almost all countries still prefer to act as cryptocurrency doesn't exist.
Smart contract is a good idea and some ICOs did used them but it just prevents the issuer for spending all money at once.

The advice you give me to think it's true. That we need regulation that regulates ICO and audit team on a large scale. This large-scale audit team conducts a review of all ICO projects. So that all ICO projects that are new or are running, can be audited. Audit results can certainly be informed in this forum.

So many messes in the ICO right now and the proof is in the scam sections, it's time we try regulation so we can see if we can reduce the number of scammers, these ICO rating cannot help and the STO is not a guaranty either even the so called IEO let's have a trial for at least 10 ICO and see if we can have a better results

In addition to these, one of the best solution for scam in the crypto ecosystem is knowledge and understanding. These are the essential tools needed to avoid been scammed in the crypto space. These help you to know what to do at any moment in time.

Why not it's time we have a regulation, some of the big concern in ICO are the fake people behind the project, if we have regulation, we can have these people face the monitoring them, and check their background and their platform as well, if they cannot present a well-documented project, they will not let these ICO run.

Nice idea but the question is who will be volunteering to do this auditing instead? Since any site dev wont just willing to volunteer if theres no salary. Maybe there are some but they are at least have donation address button at the bottom of their site but I think its not enough also.

We all wanting to eliminate scammers and scam project but I don't know if this regulations will stop those things when some of them do an exit scam which we think that it is legit one. Though I believe that it will minimize and control the situation but can't make it into a 100%.
It is our individual detection to a certain project, it's up to us if we still believe and invest those knowing that it is a true scam project.

Both idea is good but who would manage the icos or who will set the standard for ICOs to be certified as legit and trusted ICO.Government?Bitcoin government?This will work if we will be able to seek for a company who will do regulatory duties on ICOs

a sufficient solution to implement, the problem is that there must be an institution to establish an audit body,
and for the financing to be calculated carefully, whether it is independent or multiple parties.

These are good suggestions but they are all focused on the side of the crypto industry. But I think most of the work needed to be done is on the side of the investors. They need to be properly educated in handling their investments and recognizing the scams from legit investments. If there are fewer investors putting money on obviously scam investments, the lesser scammers are motivated to continue their scams. Scammers will not be totally regulated but if the investors get wiser, they will not be easily fooled by those scammers.

ICO regulation will be a good solution. So only good and trusted ICO that can open their ICO, scam ICO will not able to open their ICO. Also with this regulation investors will be safe investing their money to ICO. I'm sure if this happen both party the ICO owner and investor is win.

And there will always be, scammers always find new ways, if you close a door, they open another one. The best measure is to educate people, teach them to be careful, the same way you teach them to be careful with phishing links they receive in their emails or through SMS.

The way the blockchain is designed, it would be so difficult to have a body controlling the activities of ICOS, unless this body would be in charge of conducting all ICO themselves like how exchanges now controls the activities of IEO done on their platform, I think the best way to know if an ICO is going to turn out to being a scam is to check out the team behind the project, they will always keep hiding themselves since they know their mission is to scam investors of their hard earned money.

We need to double our protection by not easily click on the links in the receiving email because we don't know if that email safe or not. We can remove the email which we don't know to prevent from the scammers that might steal our data.

Besides that, we need always to make sure that we are not giving away our personal identification easily. I am sure that if we can do the best thing we can, we can prevent the scammers that were still trying to get our money or the data they want. Although they have better skills to enter the information, if we can prevent the worst thing, we will be fine.

ICO regulations may bring some changes to the project introduction but if they turns into scam after the project sale then what will be the result,will the investors get their many from the people who certified that ICO is good to invest? This is decentralization so let the people to decide what they are doing with their own money.

The question is who will regulate the ICO where will they come from and who will regulate the regulators, just check the rating sites, they are corrupt and they have a premium listing for scam ICO, and we all thought they can help us fight scammers.

This is a great question, who will regulate those ICO projects. It is good to hear especially us as investors that ICO's project must be filtered before launching their project. Majority of ICO's project last year was almost exit scam or otherwise, they are not yet listed until now. Maybe listed but not worth it. I hope there's a solution to this.

Very correct most especially the ICO regulations part if new ICO go through regulation process the regulatory bodies will easily fine out fake and scam ICO because they will not be able to meet up with regulations requirements, and exchanges should upgrade the security software and carry out regular checks on they smart contract to detect any abnormalities before it result into full blown hack case.

I am sure these measures can be helping the cryptocurrency industry deal with the flood of scams which soured many investors' interest tarnishing the image of this fledgling industry. As to ICO I think that we better not use the same platform anymore and proceed to the STO where all projects have to be vetted and people the project has to show that they are real and that they have the qualifications and track record for more transparency and openness. Another requirement is that they should be making a certain amount of deposit before proceeding with the crowdfunding...as to where the amount to be deposited this can be decided by an agency doing the regulation. Right now, we also have the IEO and this can be a better version of the ICO. An STO can also do an IEO as IEO means that the crowdfunding is done in an exchange. The only we can move forward with this industry is if we try to make things better for the protection of the people who are trusting projects with their money and support. Deregulation and decentralization can work if we are not dealing with greedy human nature, otherwise checks and balance must be provided in many ways.

Your plan and suggestion is a good way to at least lessen the scam projects in crypto space but even if you are going to regulate ICO's.

We cannot assure that it can stop the scam instead the scammer will just upgrade their tactics like meet the required standards for an ICO then they will just exit anytime once they can get a good amount of money already. But still those suggestions are good starting point to at least remove those cheap scammers.

ICO regulations is a good idea to reduce scams and frauds in ICO investments. But, which regulatory body will do the tasks? SEC might be an option but will need to setup properly the rules and regulations. And considering that would only be available in countries which recognize cryptocurrency.

If after the emergence of ICO regulations an investor still decides to invest in an ico or project that is not verified by the regulatory body just because of the tempting offer or bonuses offered by the project then he is fully liable for his actions and should not blame anybody for his misfortune from the project. Because the ICO regulation was created to protect investors from scam and if one investor then decides that he doesn't need that protection then it's nobody's fault.

I think your second point also comes under regulation topic. Once the reulations are applied on the projects there will be mny mandatory formalities which projects need to follow.
But still, regulation topic is under discussion and no one knows when it will be implemented. Till the time, from our side we have to be more cautious selecting the projects for investment purpose. For hacking alsos we have to ensure that our investment is diversified. Here i mean to say diversification in terms of exchanges. Using different exchanges, we can lower the risk of our cryptos getting stolen.

Is a solution, but maybe will not happen soon and people should wait and not invest on ICO without regulation, maybe after this will happen we will can invest without any fear about losing money.

Regulations as mentioned will help curb scam to an extent, but I think the new IEO and STO concepts are more secure than ICO. Atleast investors will have peace of mind since they are sure the project team members must have passed through screening by the exchange. Talking about hacks, firstly protect yourself by being security conscious, do not click malicious links, if possible install detectors for malicious sites, never back up private key or so online, exchanges should upgrade their security too.

in my opinion, currently what can guarantee ICO security is a large exchange. I think the ICO will be replaced with the IEO because the IEO can guarantee the success of the project. And investors are not afraid to invest.

Not exactly success but assurance that it will listed inside the exchange, IEO already changed the face of this investment process,more investors thinks that instead of taking the risk around ico's where you ain't sure what will happen to the project, investing with IEO's will give them much higher chances to succeed.

yes indeed ICO regulations will make crypto better in the future but who will arrange the ICO?


The IEO is just a trend now and the IEO does not guarantee success whether you don't remember the IEO done by Bitrex failed

I think your advice is worthy to make use of. If ICO industry will continue to stay relevant, then there must be regulations which will always force project team and developers to be accountable and protect the interest of investors but I don't think the industry is ready for this

That's the thing that makes more people lose and always get caught up in ICO fraud. Sometimes they offer very large bonuses and always look promising, but actually it's just a charmer. Honestly, it is very difficult to distinguish, apart from what the OP has written is really going to become a reality.

I am very inclined to ICO regulation.  But I believe this will not guarantee a 100% scam free environment.  Just check the financial investment in fiat, Sec has regulated this and yet there are lots of scam company that victimized lots of unsuspecting people.  It will lessen but will not remove the scam activities.


The developer of course, they just need to comply with the regulation, so they need to file a license to operate as ICO and submit all the needed documents.

There is no perfect solution that will completely stop scammers. I think it purely depends on personal ability to make decision. Scammers will get nothing if we choose the right way. So the best solution is our knowledge, yet it's perfect.

All regulations must not be there if you want to invest in the ICO. Because if you realize that investment in ICO certainly does not have coercion from the project. All decisions are made in each person, of course there is no responsibility if there is a scam to invest in ICO. Because that is indeed your decision, you who analyze you determine. So all of that is our decision when investing in ICO. why researching is more important, because that's the purpose so you don't invest in a scam ICo.

I  in full support of your first point. The initial coin offering sectors really need a regulations to curtail the activities of scammers. It's so easy to organise an ico with out meeting any formal standard so a regulation would help tackle this situation

regulating would be a hard task foe SEC to do it. seeing how much ICO is going to be launched in a day, they can't catch up to that if they are going to verify each team whether the images, profiles are real and whether they have a working MVP and are they capable of maintaining all the work and all these stuff.  and so IEO was invented. yet this again will have a bigger risk, grander actually.

I have a third rule - do not invest in new projects that are not yet traded on any of the exchanges. It is this rule that saves me from fraudsters. Now I can not lose all the money invested, I can only get a small loss from the fall in the price of the coins I bought.

That's brilliant and wise idea but I don't think it could literally destroy and stop scams and fraud around the crypto community. Scamming varies in many types and scammers could attack exchanges or even users personally. The best thing that we can do is to start the awareness within ourselves.

Has anyone implemented this for the ICO? It seems that there are still many ICOs that do not implement this. Because people berestestasi see how good the project going forward. If it's really good, people will invest in the project.

Indeed, fraud will always be observed by everyone because most people who are in the crypto room are still vulnerable to fraud but can be taught because maybe they are new to this because they want to have extraordinary coins, I will wait for the process to happen and it is indeed too late to regulate everything where there are so many ICOs who are ready to go to the market or even at the development stage, but ICO arrangements must be better to prove the authenticity of the projects they have developed in terms of development teams and clear road maps.

These ideas are grate.. but I don't think there will ever be a lasting solution to scams and hacks in the crypto space

While this idea may reduce the number of scams and hacks in the crypto space.. these guys will always find a way around to fool investors into thinking they're legit... it's just like how corruption can never be erased from the world's government

I think that method also does not stop fraudsters even though this method is very good but in my opinion if it is not captured by fraudsters it will continue to repeat it. Yes, as you say that fraudsters are different and have thousands of ways to benefit from investor money, one of the most important things is that we have tried the best and the rest we pray that the fraudsters get the same punishment.

Responding to scams and hackers, both are very difficult to avoid.
Who determines ICO regulation? Who guarantees that the ICO will fulfill the regulation? Because the crypto world itself is decentralized. so it's hard to make certain regulations to avoid scams. It is possible if we are the ones who must set the rules when we want to participate in an ICO. It could be by getting to know their member team.

So we also need an institution that regulates everything because crypto is a big investment so it requires large institutions to regulate everything, so that with the existence of these institutions, not every project will be built because it has to fulfill various requirements to be able to sell ICO.

SEC will do the job but it's going to be tough for them if these bunch of ICOs keep on coming to them asking for that certain service that they have to validate that ICO. Setting your own rules would be easier but still how can you be sure that the ICO you're investing with your money is going to be a good one? specially in these days that most of the ICOs now are bunch of scammers and you have trust issues  with them since the growth of ico scams came in.

In sometimes if we follow any other kind of tips also to reduce the scam that you are involved in is really difficult so once you have to find the solution you need to be other in all the situation then only it is possible to handle some of the scams easily.

What I know is that these two things have been implemented a year ago and until now we know that this doesn't change anything. In fact, fraud has often entered crypto news but the perpetrators have not been arrested / processed by the law.

This would be a great solution for overcoming hacking that has happened a lot. Regulation of the ICO project should be improved and able to protect investors. Audit with routine and audit results must be informed immediately. So that people will choose a new ICO project can be helped and not stuck in a fake project.

the situation that often occurs is that there are many cases of an ICO project which ultimately are just a fraud so that it is very detrimental to investors who have invested in them, I think the ICO rules must be in the future so that they can be better and no scam projects which is detrimental, perhaps in the future the government in all countries must immediately take part in this matter so that every ICO project and investor has a clear legal umbrella.

unfortunately none of these things are going to work and we have already some experience in each case and seen them not work.
for example regulations that people are nowadays so happy about are only to help the government tax people to only get their share of the money that is changing hands in the unregulated altcoin market otherwise they are not going to police the market to remove the scams.
as for auditing, we have had good cases of things that worked but only for a short while before the auditors turned into scammers as they accepted the bribes by ICO scammers to advertise their scam as a legitimate fundraising.

This is not a solution to the problem. He is not there yet. An audit or verification of Iso does nothing today. The problem is deeper. Imperfect technology is a threat to the cryptocurrency community. And as we know in the world of technology there is no perfection. So the hacks will continue and deception too. The only thing that we can find a way to reduce the number of such cracks.

Yes and yes.
That could prevent scams.
In fact I have joined an ICO once which is Singapore based and we know how strict they are in that country.
Still, the ICO finished and their project is in pending. It is almost a year by now and they still havent reported any changes with their project.

Now, how could you get away from that? Can you still sue them if they are just saying their project is just pending even though they are not even close to their roadmap?
Thankfully, I didnt invest a lot, but it is still a loss.

I think there is no solution for scam, so I don't think the project should be followed. we must continue to examine further the project. if there is any doubt, it is expected that you will not invest or follow the bounty project, I think it is a waste of time

It's difficult to detect a fake or real ICO project. But you can always go on research about the project, and take your time to study and examine it properly so as to avoid any lost of fund when invested. What's more, is that you have to determine if what the project offers is actually unique which could thrive in future.

What more regulation do we need other than the one we already have that we are not recognizing because it is not government regulation. We already have the IEO which I believe for now, is not different from ICO but has more security because it is being regulated personally by those who respect the system and policy of blockchain. 

If we leave this regulation to government, then we can as well be welcoming a centralized system because that is what government will do. So it is left for us to embrace IEO for use to avoid being scammed.

For auditing, I think what we need to first solve is the issue of ICO scam and not exchange hacking, exchange hacking can easily be solved and it is in the hands of the developer to do that because we have so many security experts hey can engage to do this.

A very good and appropriate solution for better and healthier cryptocurrency growth. I always support a real ICO project and have a clear vision. This will at least reduce the way of fraud, and make investors more interested in ICO that has a real future.
Regarding hacking this will be a problem for all of us, because hacking is still circulating today, because I think many intelligent people are misusing their expertise for crime by hacking to get money in a short time.

Yes, regulation of ICO is the perfect solution to all scams going on in crypto space. Some will come from nowhere to dupe people of their fund and go Scot free because there is no regulation. Once there is regulation of ICOs then this disheartening practices will end.

The only institution that can successfully establish this body would be government institution because I dint see much unity among the ICO users for them to come together and establish one because they are being blindfolded with competition, so they are better in competing with each other than coming together as one to save the ICO industry.

So I guess we still have to wait till we get regulations from government for these body to be successfully established that will look deeply into this ico scam, but before that , we also can try a much as possible to eliminate these scammer by just doing our own research very well before promoting any project.

Having ICO regulations and Smart contract auditing are really great ideas to prevent a scammer from scamming and hacking in the crypto markets. We can't stop a scammer from scamming but we can prevent being scammed  by having a strong range of distinguishing if it is real or not.

yes it's a good solution to improve investor and public confidence again, we see that there are many cases of fraud. with the existence of ico regulations and intelligent audit contracts, it is likely to reduce fraud cases related to the crypto world.

Aside from suggesting regulation among ICO's which I think would be very difficult to implement considering territorial jurisdictions among countries and their own differing stand on cryptocurrencies, I think another way to minimize being a victim of scam projects starts within ourselves and needless to say, we should do prior research first before participating on any ICO so as to discourage would be perpetrators from continuing their illicit schemes. Also, I'm afraid to say that there will be no perfect solution to combat fraud. Imho.

ICO is dead, utility tokens era are almost over and the people learned that most utility tokens have no real use-case in the real world. The best way to eliminate this scam on fundraising is STO cause it is licensed and it is a property and that means you are a shareholder of a certain company.

I think this will help a lot. Especially when it comes to verification of the projects. I think it is already time to raise our standards because as time goes by if ICOs are getting popular as IEOs more of the frauds will be produced and people will take advantage of this. Sometimes, research can't really help us since we really can't get in touch with those people in real life.

Who will issue the certification and who will set the standard and from what country will it come, we should first answer or address this first before we go to proceed with regulation, right now there's still no governing body that implementing how ICO will behave, it's still every one to his own.

These questions inevitably lead to centralization, since there is a dependence on specific organizations and/or people. In the crypto space there should be another solution to the issue of scam.
Maybe some program for deciding whether to create a coin/token. It seems that this development is carried out by the ethereum developers.

currently it is also very popular to pretend ICOs to be a exchange. so you can also get a good sum of tokens that would actually be planned for the list.  :o
this is not supposed to be a tip but a warning. but i hope the responsible people get good advice before they start a project and talk to partners.

so far we haven't seen the growth of the STO project as you can see. because maybe this system looks new to me. and I think the ICO is not over yet, because some ICO projects are still running and they also have proven real and transparent sales.

any solution that will not have a big impact to narrow the hack and scam in the crypto room, because everyone knows this sector is very easy to get income quickly without a process that is not too complicated. As an investor in crypto, we should know the risk

I suppose those would help, but they aren't very practical.
People act as if there is one governing authority all across the planet that can regulate trade.
That's just not how the world is set up.

Each individual county has their own laws and jurisdictions, the SEC (an american organization) has no authority over something outside of America.
And since the vast majority of the world is open market capitalism, you can basically start your company or ico in any country.
Scammers will, of course, choose a country with loose regulation and enforcement.

Also, I don't think it is even possible to stop scammers.
Essentially, it's not about scamming, but can you stop crime completely?
stealers are gonna steal, scammers are gonna scam.

I personally also strongly agree with the existence of intelligent audit rules to reduce fraudsters in the crypto world because until now investors are still afraid and tired of dealing with fraudsters, because they always make losses to many people.

the solution to the problem of fraud and hackers in Crypto, in my opinion is:
1. Don't use the ICO concept but IEO, I think the IEO is safer in terms of delivery because the token already has a market.
2. Registered on the market that is truly verified.
3. Implement a strict security system.

sounds good,so there no fraud and investor or hunter can do their job without fear scam.
maybe after it happen amount of ico will reduce, because there only legal or good project will come out,and scam will rejected.

No one can completely avoid scam project to enter into the market because the regulations can be passed by the scam project by giving the fake details which can be easily purchased on the dark web.

It seems to me that you can think of nothing from scammers.  It is necessary to reconcile with this.  The guys are the Internet, there are no restrictions.  Fraudsters are also people who want to make money or just break the system.  Hackers will always exist.  Get over it.

It is very difficult to protect against scam project. It is necessary to have experience studying projects and defining cheaters, which is very difficult to do, especially for beginners. Therefore, it is best to pay attention to the proven services that make up the ratings of ICO projects. But all the same, they cannot be trusted 100%, and you need to pay attention to the project documents yourself and do a control check.

I really like both of those ideas. I also think it would be wise to include some sort of AML compliance software or tracking. I only know of ciphertrace because that's Binance's partner

Even if there are regulations in ICO, there won't be any guarantee that the project will developing accordingly, but at least we can avoid scams.
To be able to avoid scam alone is not enough to bring profit to investors of the ICO.
The guarantee that the ICO project will running according to the roadmap plan is important too, so the investors can measure their ROI time.

You are right, regulation will protect investor from participating in a scam project, contract autit of smart contract is important too, now the question is when will the regulation kick in?

I agree with your point for your first solution its already implemented in the name of IEO . These IEO's are mostly verified with exchanges and atleast it will gauarntte listing . Second auditing most of the token do the auditing before listing into exchange yes regular interval of auditing required for sure.

I think scams can easily be regulated with IEO's than ICO's, at least the exchanges where these IEO's could bring some regulations about amount of tokens that can be traded by a single account to avoid dumps from scam developers on victim investors.

yeah i agree with all of that.
we need more protector of ICO to reduce scam or fraud project.
now, ICO is so bad and full of scammers and how much investor loosing their money because Scam ICO.
i hope that will happen and we can see ICO without scam and fraud again.

I dont think IEOs is problem solver. IEOs is differet ICOs and held by exchangers. If we are choosing IEOs from big exchangers, its fine but right now, many exchangers trying held IEOs and i think we should make research first before join IEO in small exchanger

sooner or later this moment will come and we will really see a clean market, but until then we need to be as attentive as possible and if we see a not honest project, we must report it

I think STO is the upgraded version of ICO, I mean they are regulated by law! But from the end of the last year haven't seen a single successful STO token in the exchange! That's mean investors are not liking the STO too. The only thing investors accepted is the IEO!

But the smart contract auditing seems a very good suggestion to reduce the hackers!

We should have a solution to eliminate those scammers and scam ICO so that the investors they will not afraid of putting their investment and it would be safe, i think the ICO would be register to the government so that scam ICO would not launch in crypto space.

in a decentralized world the users themselves must fight the scammers instead of relying on third parties and other people to fight their fights. otherwise there is no point in having this market as decentralized and we might as well go trade stocks with centralized brokers.
besides, when you add centralization into a decentralized world each time without fault we end up with corruption.

How do you mean scam can be regulated through IEO then in the ICO when scam is a general term that can occur at any given time and on any platform, we have scam exchanges what happen if those scam exchange run an IEO will they not scam the investors?

We always talk about this regulation. But my question is, what is SEC actually doing concerning this? Are they taking any action at all cos the crime is just becoming widely spread across the crypto space and this scares most prominent investors.

The only thing that I can see that can solve the number of scam and fraud is legalization and regularization. The number of fraud case this time is very alarming so that means that criminal is everywhere and your security is in danger. If regularization and legalization will implemented criminals will afraid to do crime or online scam because there will be a law to punish them.

You're right but I don't know if it is possible for ICOs to be regulated without cryptocurrencies being regulated as well. But if it as possible, then it would be a very good idea for all of them to be regulated, because they reason why these scammers keeps jumping on crypto investors is because there is no one regulating the field. If it starts being regulated they will all be afraid to try because they know that they can be traced if they try any foolish acts. So you have a pretty good idea about this, although I do know that there are people who are going to kick against it.

The place to look at positive news, new trends and develop the market. Every day we run into the same problem. Yes, we all know that a lot of frauds and where they are not.

exactly. if ico can't control scams and hacks, crypto will crash because no one believes in it and worries about when your account can be hacked.

ICO regulation is what we should all be praying for ,I personally think its the only best option to reduce ICO scam on crypto space and return ICO fund raising to its glorious days

I think there is only one way that we can do to prevent the scam in the cryptocurrency which is we must be careful investing in any of ICO or IEO or the altcoin. You don't have to invest if you don't have enough information about the project and it's better you invest in bitcoin only because bitcoin price will increase higher in a long time. Besides that, there is no other way to know which project that could scam us in the future because they still running the project and the scamming can happen in anytime too.

So, only be careful that we can do and we should get as much information as we can about the project so we can choose the right project to invest.

yes, I agree with you that with crypto rules or auditing their smart contracts are steps to reduce fraud. there have been many fraud cases ico and this is what makes most investors reconsider before investing in ico.

I think the perfect solution to crypto scams is regulation. The crypto community can introduce regulations themselves, if governments are failing to do so it seems. In fact the market has lack of regulations giving leeway for scammers and hackers to run their business freely. There are many instances of scammers scamming traders and investors openly. Why they can not face punishment? Lets think this issue very seriously.

I totally agree with you. Many of us has been kicking against regulation and saying it will not help cryptocurrency and I keep asking them what will, how they plan to fight scam without regulation and yet no good reply because most of them are ignorant. We can't escape regulation to fight the bad ones among us

Ico is an example of a regulated business but why most ico are scams?  My point is that regulation cant handle the scams . Regultion can infact bring negative effects to the crypto space as it kills the purpose of being anonymous .

We can combat scams if we start on our self  .dont just join and join projects or business that you dont know because scammers wont grow if no one will get scammed  . Dont act like you are noob or dumb if you know that your smart  . Teach noobs and less knowledgable people so that they can also be aware

To reduce the risk of investing, only invest in projects that make capital calls through the IEO. Received by the exchanges, these projects need to pass verification, thus minimizing risks for investors. Or ICO projects are protected by celebrities or have clear information about the development team.

You have to get experience in avoiding scam projects and that's it. I hope you guys will find a solution and would stop investing money in shady projects.

both ways are good steps to reduce fraud but not entirely successful, even if crypto rules are implemented it will most likely have a major impact on the market because we know that the cryptoqurrency world is anonymous and there will definitely be pros and kotra. so I don't think there is a perfect solution to reduce fraud except just for ourselves, they always grow and won't stop tricking us. and we as users can only be vigilant and avoid when seeing suspicious projects.

Yes, we can follow certain rules and encourage others to do so. But will everyone follow this? When the time comes for a big volatility in the market, many newcomers will come. All that they see is Xss under the influence of the FOMO. How we can they be make listen to reason in this case?
Automatic auditing and code checking can be a good solution.

There is no solution at the moment, but you can still find solution by yourself. All what you need is to be careful and let other people know about scam actions of ICOs

To me best knowledge, to reduce scam in the crypto space, we need just regulation to fulfill that. Many are the mass out there who are willing to join the crypto industry but due to no regulation and risk of being scammed, these mass out there have chosen not to join the industry. If there is regulation and scam is reduced, I think majority of the mass out there will join the crypto industry to increase the market volume.

There is no perfect solution for scams, if a person wants to scam you and you are willing to believe him they will always find a way to scam you. I know people who got scammed with some ponzi scheme or mlm and they still believed it as well, like I could see from a mile away that they were scammed yet they were unable to see it from inside. That is why even after getting scammed some people will not accept that and you will be capable of scamming people.

By the way, when I say my friends didn't realize they were scammed they were in it from fiat as well so it exists in fiat world too as much as in crypto so there is no reason to be worried. Scammers will exists without a limit and doesn't matter what currency it is, it could be crypto or dollar or euro and anyone could still be scammed.

ICO regulation and smart contract auditing like you stated will help to check and reduce scam rate. But there is no perfect approach to solve this problem. The reason is because scammers are not dwelling on a single approach too. They are becoming super crafty in their wicked acts and will tend to go to any length to suck their victims dry. Safety still begins with individual.

I don't have much to say about the smart contract auditing because I don't know if it will work but over all I know that regulations will starve scammers ,I think its the perfect solution to crypto scammers

I agree with the author, the situation only worsens. I think that emergence of IEO instead of ICO can help to solve problems with projects swindlers because the exchanges carefully choose new projects for the IEO. With breakings of purses everything is much more difficult, it is necessary to be very attentive.

I think there should be changed the bitcointalk policy, i mean they have all the ip's so they can easily find out the identify of the people behind scams for at least give some info about it.

It is too late to do regulation in the ICO investors are shifting to IEO, because it is the one with good regulation, why we need to do regulation in ICO when we already have one in IEO it has strict regulation and strict compliance IEO will close down ICO that's for sure.

I totally agree with this. Any on who suspects that an individual is involved in a shady business should also raise an alarm so that other cryptonaires will be guided and not fall into the hands of scammers, posing as though they are legit

Such an underwhelming bump of the thread haha, but regarding the theme of the actual topic, past few years were much worse when it comes to scams imo, as there was plenty of dump money on the market for grabs, now people learned their lessons and tend to stay away from shady projects.

The solution above are good. It will make the scammers will think twice to make their bad project. People will not get upset anymore. The crypto world will be clean from unreal projects. It will not easy and take a quite long time but the crypto world will get people trust again.

The problem is that the majority of crypto community is still against any kind of regulations. They would rather stay anonymous and live will all those scam projects, to avoid regulations in crypto world. I do not get this approach and believe we should finally do this step.

I think the security is always in our hand. We don't need any application. All we know that the number of scams are continue to increase and getting worst. The safest thing to do is to make your every transactions and your private keys or password private. And do not open unknown link specially asking your personal info like password because they can get your account. Always observe because everything is possible in crypto industry.

You have to get experience in avoiding scam projects and that's it. I hope you guys will find a solution and would stop investing money in shady projects.

A very good solution; but most investor won’t agree

The basic principles of trading is to invest and make profit; which is why most investors don’t care about the project; they dump once in profit.

Now that there’s both ico and ieo and ito and others; how will regulation work ? Who will centralize the nature of blockchain ?

Because blockchain to me is decentraliZation

For protecting the crypto holdings, buying a hardware wallet will solve this problem. Otherwise, sticking to the desktop, mobile wallets are an insecure method for holding the crypto assets. The crypto market is in recession, scammer also knows this and they prepare the scam projects with big opportunities for the investors. Investors jump to the scam project without understanding the principles of the project.  I don't think, regulation will be the end of the scam projects.

I really like the point stated here to reduce hacks by auditing smart contracts regularly. Well, this sounds so easy but the execution is not really that easy. Auditing smart contract in two weeks intervals will make much sense but it's not a very easy task considering that there are other things to do with regards project development. So I will rather suggest once in 3 months. Also talking about scams, regulations will help but won't curb it entirely.

Whenever there is a solution or an idea is difficult to implement, but if it can be used to bring changes for the better. I think a standard like this should be applied immediately. We know that easy to make scams can be destroyed by fixing the rules well.

Although it should work with Governments in every country, I think for a better change, of course, it is legitimate.

You really did a good job; in the case of smart contracts auditing if it will really help or as easy as it sounds I think most exchanges will be doing such as part of their security measures; nevertheless let them give it a try if they are yet to. On the other hand, ICO regulations might be a tough one as most people believes it will to an extent make the crypto space somewhat centralized. Also, regulating ICOs does not guarantee that the project will do well on the long run, so in all it comes down to, ICO investing have its own risks which one should be aware of or keep away.

it's not the problem but the fact that it's a part of crypto when it comes to the decentralization and then the regulation will be only taking the decentralization going out from the crypto community.
You can see how South Korea's regulator was taking over the okex exchange site and delisted all of the related privacy coins from its market.
You just make crypto being centralized entity and no more.

All these are good ideas. Especially number one that has the opportunity to play a key role in sanitising the cryptocurrency market. However, there are fears that the true tenets of cryptocurrency and blockchain which is on decentralization will be defeated and also ICO regulators might abuse their powers too

You offered a great solution but there are greater solution that we are currently using now, it's the IEO.
Registering an ICO while are literally thousands of them is just time consuming for the government while if only exchange will register and the government will give rules to follow on how to run their IEO, it would be easier and investors would find it a great idea since exchange could not risk their reputation and lose their opportunity to continue to operate profitably in the market.

The OP is giving ideal solutions, yet the implementation of those solutions are not doable especially the first item. The second item is likely to be accomplished if the team is very committed to improve their platform.

IEO shows that it is not really the solution to address the potential scamming technique of dev teams. Only investors can lessen their loss by strictly doing their due diligence.

With Smart Audit and ICO regulation implemented, SCAM will still ever exist. The regulation can never be implemented globally, some region will embrace it while some will stay away for the purpose of financial freedom which is the primary aim of Satoshi. We just need to find a way to reduce or combat it, I don't think it can be totally eradicated.

These may reduce scam ICOs but it doesn't that it will totally remove all of it! With regards to number 1 solution it may lessen the risk but it doesnt mean that they will scam people even though they passed any exam or audits. It will still depend once they deliver results.

This I think has been considered for a long time, but in the past and present it is impossible to implement it effectively in the cryptocurrency space.

I totally agree. How would anyone can agree that a fully regulated ICO will never ever do an exit scam after 1-2 years? Because few of good projects that I know are either making another project or just abandoning it because they can't fulfill any of their promises after 1-3 years of development. And the regular audit would only happen if the team are very dedicated to every aspect of their project.