ICOs: The "Soon" Game - For those who can hardly relate

[cheezcarls]

Note: This is just a story, but I know a lot of you can hardly relate to this situation.

Last 2017 when Bitcoin and other altcoins are reaching their all-time highs, IDIOT token was born. It successfully reached the hard cap at $10 million, and the final price per token was at $0.10.

Admin: Congratulations! We just reached the hardcap! Thank you for your support!
Me: Yes! Congrats to all of us! Can't wait for the IDIOT token to get listed on exchanges and CoinMarketCap!
Admin: Yes! We will announce the exchange very soon!
Me: I'm excited!

After a week...

Admin: To all of our beloved IDIOT community, we will distribute your IDIOT tokens to your Ethereum address very soon! But first, you are all required to comply with our KYC. After that, you will receive your IDIOT tokens as soon as possible!
Me: Alright! Let me just prepare my IDs and selfie for verification! I'm excited!

After two weeks...

Admin: To all who have submitted KYC, congratulations! Check your wallets now!
Me: (after checking the wallet) Oh yes, I finally got my IDIOT tokens! Admin, when are we going to get listed in exchanges?
Admin: Very soon my friend, very soon! Stay tuned!

After another two weeks...

Me: Admin, you said that you guys are gonna get listed very soon, may I know what would be the exact month and date for you guys to get listed? And which exchange are you guys gonna list our IDIOT tokens?
Admin: Have patience my friend! We will announce very soon!
Me: Okay sir. Patience is a virtue anyways (but my patience is now tested).

After a month....

Me: Sir? The Telegram group seems quiet right now. What's going on? Any update about the listing of our IDIOT tokens?
Admin: We are still negotiating on the exchanges now. We can't reveal to you these exchanges yet.
Me: Okay but it was stated in your allocation that a portion of that would be used to get listed in exchanges. Since you guys have reached the hard cap, why would it take long?
Admin: There are many circumstances that are happening right now, especially that we are in the bear market. Ethereum is going down in value, so we are waiting for it to go up again to continue the process. I hope you understand and will keep you and the community updated very soon!
Me: Oh man!

After 3 months....

Me: Sir? Are you online? Any update about the listing?
Admin: We are almost there my friend! We will finally reveal the date and the name of the exchange very soon!
Me: Can't wait for this! I'm so excited now!

And the SOON game continues on and on, until 6 months later....

(I opened the Telegram group for the first time in 6 months that are being bombarded with spam posts)

Me: Admin, are you around?

Then I found out that the admin has left the group as soon and performed an exit scam. Website also left blank and other social media channels are deactivated.  

Me: I hate you ADMIN! I hate YOU!!!!

Instead of expecting the IDIOT token listing soon, the team had exit scammed way SOONER without warning.

Conclusion: IDIOT token is a shitcoin, because the buyers of this token are a bunch of idiots!

I know there are projects like this one until now. For those who can hardly relate to this situation and wanted to get it out from their chest, feel free to share your thoughts and feelings here. Thanks in advance!

[sikke]

Well, it's hardly surprising, given the fact that ICOs in 2017 were just such easy ways for these scam artists to operate in order to con people out of their savings. There were virtually no regulation and due to the fact that alts were rallying hard, they felt justified marketing their crap tokens to average Joes.

You can almost tell from the KYC request alone that this was not going to pan out - they probably weren't even a regulated or licensed ICO to begin with so why do KYC? The only explanation is that they want to hold up progress as long as possible.

Never invest in a coin/token where the value of it depends on the promise of the admin to get the coin listed. Look at the fundamentals instead.

[Coyster]

So many users have been fulfilling KYC requirements since 2017 till date, giving out their home address, pictures, passport etc to someone they do not know, someone you cannot be sure what they are going to do with such important documents. If you care about your safety, privacy and security, stop meeting KYC processes.

So many of those ICO's just as your story goes never got listed, you could wait close to six to seven months for the whole process to be completed only for the coin not to get listed, at the end of the day, users would be left with unlisted tokens in their wallet.

[Winscosinally]

I have a new room set of rules in crypto space now, any thing KYC i will turn away instantly, either exchanges, ICO or IEO, or even bounty projects, the truth is KYC Means nothing to them and i am sure decentralized exchange owns the future

[Kvalentine]

Every seconds bleeds for regulation in crypto space, i pitied what is next to come because of these scammers, they will make crypto weak for sure and it might take time to repair what they have spoiled.

[shaheer001]

The great analysis you are absolutely right there are hundreds of such type project which are now disappeared forever, and due to these shit and scam projects Crypto market bearish season started and at the moment we are in bearish season.

[Kupid002]

Every seconds bleeds for regulation in crypto space, i pitied what is next to come because of these scammers, they will make crypto weak for sure and it might take time to repair what they have spoiled.

Even without ICO or any crowdfund the scheme is always there using other set of idea just to make it. if you remember way back 2015-2016 when ICO hype is not even started  there are called cloudmining company using website and promise a 1% daily income forever .it was the trend back then and many people has been victimised and believe it is all legit and they can earn forever until the hype and trend ended and many people scam with that scheme. The main point here is there are always people want to lure you ,using a new idea and use your greed to cheat and grab your money ,its up to the people how will you react for the trend so you will not feel victim .

[vanya.pronin.1983]

No one can stand the word soon, but there is nothing we can really do about it. Developers and project managers are moving power and investors depend on them and their choices. Unfortunately, they are ruling this game.

[albrots]

My experience about shitcoin is exactly what you said. The dev party only takes care of soon and must wait when asked if there will be a listing in the market and no more updates for months. Then there was a new notification that the project failed and was abandoned, even the softcap had been reached but they said they did not have the funds. the telegram group is no longer handled, spam is everywhere and the admin is no longer active. This is my experience that can not be forgotten, I had a lot of coins at that time and hoped to get money from the project, but it turned out that all was only a promise and managed by a scammer.

[masterrex]

Sad but true but i also experienced that during 2017 ICO hype, and if we dig deeper i'm sure many people was losing money during that year 2017-2018 specially those noobs that always excited to invest in ICO's. in 2017-2018 the proliferation of scams and frauds in cryptocurrency activity was massive that even me was victimized 3 times, since the projects that i was invested are looking legitimate The team will attend to public forum complete whitepaper and roadmaps etc. But it turns out to be an exit scam. ICO business was very unpredictable that's why we must observe vigilance in all ICO projects at all time.

[yangongear]

Yes, afte the hype in 2017, I can say that the word "SOON" is the word I hear the most from all projects. They always make promises, schedules, give hope to the community and investors, but all are still promises. Now every time I hear it, what comes to mind is "forget it".

[Shallow]

This is just the truth no matter how funny it might look like. During the ICO surge many projects were born with funny and mocking names, which really shows they have nothing to offer but most were blinded and look at there it got us. Many projects have scammed investors and are still scamming either via not going to exchange or on listing the token dumps miserably.
Thanks for this analysis and I wish it sends the right message.

[magneto]

It sucks to be one of these investors, doesn't it?

That's why to avoid getting ripped off you ALWAYS have to do your due diligence. Just because a token has reached their hard cap, or has a seemingly professional looking site means absolutely nothing in regards to what they are actually going to do after they receive the funding that they are initially seeking.

As others have stated, ICOs are unregulated and there is no oversight the majority of the time. So legal recourse is slim, which means that you should be even more careful.

[Ferris419]

And after continuing these soon soon scam game by several projects the ICO era finally dead! Idiots become smart now, they start knowing the 97% ICO projects are a scam or huge money loss! Last year I was bored by hearing too much soon word, then I requested a project admin please stop saying soon, later they started saying TBA! You pointed up a bitter truth side of crypto investment in a good way. Good job.

[SvonioneFromMangoCoinz]

This happened a lot in 2018, that's when the market dumped sharply over time. then there are lots of very high paying projects and they promise a lot for bounty hunters, but the end result we get is "0". I'm really annoyed with things like this and it urges me to find a way to find legit and responsible projects with their promises. In the current situation, we need the knowledge to analyze a good project. I have learned it through this link, you can refer to:
https://www.cio.com/article/3230365/6-tips-to-pick-the-right-ico.html

[krb91]

Although it may seem to you like your story is difficult to relate to, that really isn't the case.  This is often a typical experience of a bounty hunter and project.  I remember promoting one project one Stellar(lending platform). They didn't list and promised to send tokens to investors and hunters after listing.  They finally claimed the project failed and said only investors could be refunded.  The refund was never seen.

[duuuuude]

From the name of the token you can understand that the scammers were with a sense of humor. The hard cap was probably false as in most of these cases and they were also able to collect user data which provides opportunities for new scams.

[mr_random]

Great story! The "soon game" is the reason why investors are irritated to invest in useless projects. I also understand the teams, they can't run the project without the additional funds which coming from the collected funds. Scarcity forces them to delay the roadmap and here we go, the perfect time for the support team to use the different excuses included the "soon" word.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Lol, is this for real or is it a joke?  I don't pay attention to all the stupid tokens on the market or the ico's that produce them, but it would not surprise me if there *were* an IDIOT token, which would tell you everything about what the project devs think of investors and bounty hunters.

But yeah, that whole scenario sounds like what I've heard about the ico space.  How many tokens don't actually get listed on an exchange?  Does that actually happen?  I know it takes work and probably some money for a project to get their token listed and I would think that some of them, especially the scam ones, wouldn't even bother to do it.  Of course that screws everyone over, but what do they care?

The "soon game" is the reason why investors are irritated to invest in useless projects.

Yep, it's just a stalling tactic and you'll often hear similar words from other scammers when they're scamming on loans or anything else.  It gives them time to cover their tracks.  Investors and bounty hunters need to stop helping these ico's, because it's not healthy for anyone anymore.

[Bitbtc8]

If this same market condition continues in 2020 i will definitely quit investing in crypto and find other means of survival, even few good projects are finding it hard to raise funds that is why you will keep hearing 'soon' from the team members, they will keep postponing tokensale for long period of time, its really sad