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I think I'm most bothered by Helium lying about their corporate users. There is no longer a question in my mind that we need better government protections for c

I think I'm most bothered by Helium lying about their corporate users. There is no longer a question in my mind that we need better government protections for consumers in the crypto space. Whether we ascribe their false marketing to negligence or outright malice, companies like Helium and their investors should be held responsible for exploiting consumers. I purchased a Helium hotspot last year and was drawn in by what seemed like a real use case for a decentralized system - it made sense to me as far as what value was being provided by miners compared to other PoW cryptocurrencies. I was disappointed by the rewards being somewhat low, but I chalked it up to bad timing. A few months later, the helium network proposed a change which would take a % of rewards away from hotspot operators and gave it to large holders of the token who have staked it(validators). Sure, this change was 'voted' on - but having more HNT tokens gives you more votes. If large capital holders(at least 50% of the supply seems to be held by the top ~25-30 wallets per https://explorer.helium.com/accounts/richest https://explorer.helium.com/accounts/richest) can outvote those actually providing utility(hotspot owners), then it doesn't really strike me as a particularly fair and decentralized system.

SilverBirch 4y ago
You ran towards an unregulated market - literally because it was unregulated, these promises couldn't be made by a regulated entity, and now you're unhappy because you feel screwed. That's literally why the regulations exist, but you have to accept that you aren't just going to get "free money" offers in real markets. You're going to get them in unregulated markets, and they're going to be lies.
- idkyall 4y ago
  Well, you make a fair point, expecting to get rich quick is obviously unrealistic. I think people like me got caught because with Helium at least the basic economic premise of "you are being paid to offer your internet uplink/bandwidth for use by others" makes sense. This is in contrast to some of the various crypto ponzi schemes where the only way for a token to gain value is for more people to buy into it. If we took crypto out of the equation entirely and Helium was a startup offering payments in $ while not being transparent about their usage/adoption rates, would we feel the same way about those who "fell for it" and invested in miners? I'm honestly not sure.
  - Liron 4y ago
    It’s a standard MLM tactic to pretend like some product at the bottom of the pyramid makes economic sense to sell. E.g. Herbalife sells some kind of herbs right?

SilverBirch 4y ago

You ran towards an unregulated market - literally because it was unregulated, these promises couldn't be made by a regulated entity, and now you're unhappy because you feel screwed. That's literally why the regulations exist, but you have to accept that you aren't just going to get "free money" offers in real markets. You're going to get them in unregulated markets, and they're going to be lies.

idkyall 4y ago
Well, you make a fair point, expecting to get rich quick is obviously unrealistic. I think people like me got caught because with Helium at least the basic economic premise of "you are being paid to offer your internet uplink/bandwidth for use by others" makes sense. This is in contrast to some of the various crypto ponzi schemes where the only way for a token to gain value is for more people to buy into it. If we took crypto out of the equation entirely and Helium was a startup offering payments in $ while not being transparent about their usage/adoption rates, would we feel the same way about those who "fell for it" and invested in miners? I'm honestly not sure.
- Liron 4y ago
  It’s a standard MLM tactic to pretend like some product at the bottom of the pyramid makes economic sense to sell. E.g. Herbalife sells some kind of herbs right?