To add to the discussion:
1. The token entitles only in profit participation. The invested assets no longer belong to the token owners. (which is a stark shift compared to earlier investements where you could redeem your money).
2. In the whitepaper they state that the money invested was to be used for:
"25% of the funds will be kept in vault as reserve. At BitDice’s discretion and dependent on market conditions, some portion of reserves can be used to buy out tokens on the secondary market to reduce public float"
"10% of the funds will be used for promotion and marketing purposes."
"25% of the funds will be used by BitDice Casino to fund capital expenditures related to platform development and business expansion. It will primarily consist of:
- Compensating the development team for enhancing BitDice functionality, applying new technology and integrating gambling providers into the platform.
- Developing its own unique and provably fair games on top of the old ones.
- Acquiring necessary licenses to be able to operate with fiat currencies as a traditional gambling entity across as many regions as possible.
- Paying legal fees to bring the whole business structure into full compliance with regulatory framework.
"40% of the funds will be stored as the casino’s house bankroll to pay out winning bets and bonuses to the players on the whole array of games presented"
3. Now, if you take a look at their quarterly reports you can read things like:
"Higher expenditures have been related to business expansion activities such as finalizing integration of fiat payment systems, expanding to new markets of Southeast Asia, and strengthening presence in social media."
"The majority of the cost was attributed to team salaries and legal fees associated with ongoing process of obtaining a license:"
The result:
These expenditures reduce the distributable profit quite significantly. Which means that token holders (at least those participating in the ICO) pay twice. Once for the token itself and then via the reduced profit.
And just to reiterate: In the whitepaper/prospectus they clearly calculated the dividend with 70% of the profits. There's no mention of running costs.
I can live with the abysmal performance of bitdice, but I don't like getting ripped off.
Either they pay the above mentioned expense from the ICO proceeding and fully distribute the profits. Or they pay all expenditures from the net profits, but in turn treat the tokens like shares in the company.
The last point is vitally important in the case of closing the company. Let's assume in 2 years the team decides that the company wasn't profitable anymore and that they want to close it. The tokens would be worthless at that point, although the assets from the ICO are mainly still there, probably beeing distributed among the team.
One might even say that this creates an incentive to running the company into the ground...
