I've contributed to several campaigns on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe without an issue, so to say you can't "confidently contribute" is a slight exagger

I've contributed to several campaigns on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe without an issue, so to say you can't "confidently contribute" is a slight exaggeration to me. With that said, you absolutely do need to do your due diligence before contributing. Yes there are plenty of scam products/campaigns on all the sites, but that is not the site's fault. That's like saying it is eBay, Craigslist, Freelancer.com, or your local newspapers fault for having scam listings associated with them. Simple due diligence is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Also, if a hardware company is trying to raise funds for the engineering and development of a product, and their ask is relatively low, most likely there are going to be issues. I don't agree that refunds should be required in all cases. If a company legitimately raises money to produce a product and in the end that product fails to be delivered, that is a risk you made as an "early investor" to contribute. Like the stock exchange, or any investment product, there is no guarantee you will get your money back or see a return on that money. In the end it doesn't take but 5-10 minutes of your time to do some basic due diligence and make a determination if you want to invest or not. Look at who is behind the project, are they open about who they are and their backgrounds. Look at the product itself, is it to good to be true. Look at the time and updates, are they updating regularly and have they described the product in detail. Look at the rewards, are they legitimate and doable, or are they too good to be true as well. That all falls on you, and you can't expect the site to know whether a product will succeed or not ahead of time. With that said, I do think the sites could offer an additional level of "identity verification" to potential investors. Where campaign could agree to a slightly higher fee to undergo a background check or verified identity. That itself would be useful and I think would instill trust. However, there's a fine line there in that it could push people to not invest in campaigns where the identity has not been verified. Maybe have different levels of verification at different price points.