Hey @MarkMacLeanCSOC thanks for your reply to my comments about @InitiativeQ. I can see you’re quite sold on #InitiativeQ. I’ve dug into all the info on their site and I’m now even more convinced there are too many red flags for me to get involved with it. Here’s a thread:
To me it looks like a hybrid of Visa, Banks, PayPal, Apple Pay and a USD stablecoin. It’s not an investment opportunity, it’s a centralised corporate global payment network. As a private global bank, they can do whatever they want with your commercial bankmoney and data.
The Q money supply and monetary policy is controlled by a totally independent 3rd party (the “Monetary Committee”)! The supply, market and price will be fully manipulated to maintain value. It will be managed like a global fiat currency, what could possibly go wrong… ?
The Q total supply is stated as 2 Trillion - but they also say elsewhere on the site it will be uncapped (misleading). They state it will be worth $1 (do the math - the current total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is $200 Billion). Is this realistic?
They intend the value to be pegged to the dollar (ultimate goal). Their Monetary Committee is holding large USD reserve balances. They say it won’t be backed 1:1, and this reserve will diminish over time.
If you’re hoping to get rich quick, the max you can expect to gain (if Q value ever reaches $1) is the current early adopter reward estimate quoted on their homepage (now $45k). But these rewards are released slowly so as not to upset supply/demand, so you’ll be waiting a while.
To use the system, you first have to buy Qs: “Buyers looking to benefit from the advantages of the Q payment network need to add Qs in their account, which is done by buying them from the Monetary Committee.” A great way to collect a lot of money, then disappear.
It relies an awful lot on a 3rd party ‘trusted’ intermediary who retains control of your funds and from all the info I’ve read it appears they intend to interfere with those transactions quite a bit if they don’t like what you’re doing…
All user activity will be monitored through a centralised database by the Monetary Committee to check for strange activity, and they have the power to intervene if they wish.
It’s not pseudonymous - they will know who you are and what you’re doing at all times. They keep all transaction and user data. It relies on the user being part of their “trusted” network - and if they deem you untrustworthy they will deny you service.
To solve the payment trust/fraud issue, they propose that a close friend on the Q network will be contacted every time you make a large purchase. I don’t want this, and I for sure don’t want to be contacted either… imagine how annoying. P2P solves this.
It is not decentralised, it’s highly centralised. It is not P2P, and it is not a cryptocurrency. There is no mention of security. How secure are your funds? Where are they stored? How easily can they be stolen? What is the situation with regulation?
They say they will be able to offer lower transaction fees than credit cards but nowhere on the site do they state what these fees are.
There are too many instances in the site literature where they haven’t decided how it will work yet. “Might do”, “Perhaps in the future”, “It may use a blockchain” = too vague for me to take them seriously. It’s not a fully formed idea let alone an actual working product.
They are hooking folks in on mainstream media FUD about Bitcoin: ”You will help reduce the enormous waste and pollution caused by Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, currently consuming as much energy as 6,000,000 households!”… and "criminals" narratives...
…It feels very much like a bank-backed attempt to undermine bitcoin whilst increasing the control and surveillance a bank/creditcard company has over their users. It’s reproducing the current system but is even more centralised and restricted.
The questions I’m asking myself are: Would you trust an independent private corporation with all your money and financial data? And how is this system significantly better than the current fiat system? We don’t need another “next big thing” centralised currency.
Initiative Q have control of your money. Repeat: Initiative Q have control of your money.
If none of this is raising any red flags, it should be.
It’s not bitcoin.
Buy bitcoin.
If none of this is raising any red flags, it should be.
It’s not bitcoin.
Buy bitcoin.
As a footnote:
"It is always worth remembering that if you're not paying for it, you are the product."
Here's another take: ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/10/26/154…
"It is always worth remembering that if you're not paying for it, you are the product."
Here's another take: ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/10/26/154…
