The latest from Pete Mercury.
In response to The BTX team Twitter statement on the issue.
https://twitter.com/Bitcore_BTX/status/1000066406711472128I support this. I think I misspoke a bit when I called $BTX a "scam" earlier.
They aren't a "scam" in the Bitconnect sense. I don't believe that the devs are stealing from everyone, but here's my issue.
1. I ran into them by studying Bitcoin forks and writing an article for another publication (howtotoken). I thought the project was actually a good idea and reached out.
2. Community seemed good, things checked out, so I started spreading the word. It's a bitcoin fork. No ICO necessary, they clearly had code out there, the coin distribution among wallets was fair - looks cool.
3. A month or so later, I was commissioned to write a whitepaper for them. I did that. We spent about a month+ working on that WP, doing edits, combing through it and doing everything that was needed.
4. The team had promised to release that WP to the general public on a certain date. For some reason they chose not to. I was a bit baffled by it because we had all come to the decision that the WP was good to go and should be released.
5. This resulted in a LOT of complaints from the community + the price plummeting on the protocol. A lot of folks were angry (understandably).
6. I felt bad, because I knew that the WP was finished and that there was no reason why it should be held back. I also saw that the team was trying to put their name on it to take credit for the WP too. So, I released it to a) preserve my authorship and integrity b) be fair to the investors in the project. The team had been consulted and we all came to a consensus on what the final version of that WP should be. This wasn't something that I did without consultation and we actually had a date set to release and for some reason, that was delayed.
7. After it was released, the team went out and lied to investors by telling them that the paper was inaccurate and that none of the information on there was correct. This was a lie and the affect on the price was immediately noticeable (I had already sold out what I was paid in $BTX at this point in time - so, this wasn't to "pump" the price. I also sold at a loss. Plus, I'm the creator of the WP and there's no way to release it w/o a "pump".)
8. Even after they did that, I spent 2 hours with them going over each and every single paragraph of this 60+ page WP and made each and every single edit that the team suggested. Even then, they refused to continue to promote and push the project.
9. I found out more information about how this is something the team does often - they talk about a big update, and never push it. The coin used to trade for $40. Now it trades for sub-$4. There's no excuse for this.
10. When I started really investigating, I was told that the strategy was to aggregate a bunch of "good news" after the price was drilled down enough and then release it in succession to "pump" the price. I felt that was unethical, moronic and extremely unfair to investors. So, I reported that I felt that it was a "scam". I told them do not use my WP or include my name with this project because they weren't moving with honesty, in my opinion.
So no, this was not something that I should've "seen coming", because it has nothing to do with the structure of the coin, a pre-mine, an exploit, or anything like that. What they're doing is a bit more nuanced and something I could have only known after actually confronting the situation.
And I put myself up there as "project lead" because I wrote the whole whitepaper and was tasked with the responsibility of promoting it and reaching out to partners and doing recruitment/coordinating as well. If that's not being a "project lead", then I don't know what is.
So, that should clarify any and all ambiguity on the issue.
Thank you.
If you feel that I moved in an unethical way, we'll just have to agree to disagree. It's a decentralized coin - and a fork at that. The lead developer is brilliant, but once again, I'm here for the investors not the developers.
This is a mentality that has gotten me in "trouble" time and time again, but I'm not protecting a bunch of millionaires getting rich off of disinformation and underhanded bs. If I see something shady, I'm going to raise the red flag and call it out and tell investors "Get out if you care about your money."
The team was offering me $5,000/month to promote for them and I walked away from that for the sake of getting this out there. Bravado was on the phone w me offering me inside information I could have used to make 1,000% off of my investments and then shill to you all and look like a "genius" when the price pumped. A lot of projects PM/Email/DM me offering a LOT of money to shill their project to all of you and I investigate them and know it's a scam and I tell them no.
I don't have a crystal ball, so yes, I walk into some things thinking it's legitimate on its face, but the second I get wind that it's not - I'm out and I'm telling everyone it's bullshit too. I want to make money in this space because of the VALUE I provide, not because I'm a scam artist/finessing everyone.
Fin.
Painting a pretty picture in his telegram channel, in favor of himself.
as I said. a sad depressed wanker.
