Ethbits Asks Crowdfunding for Another Exchange

Ethbits has announced it's ICO. 

First, let's address the elephant in the room. What the hell is going on with the Pacman ghost in their logo? I thought it was just me but here's one of our artists renditions of Pacman and ghosts using the actual logo from Ethbits.

I mean, the worlds greatest judge of comparing old video game icons to modern day logos I may not be, but this looks pretty much looks like a carbon copy. 

In any case ....

The Pitch

The new project plans to build another altcoin exchange similar to Localbitcoins for OTC style trades. Which is what other sites like Poloniex, BTCPop, and others so with altcoin and what is actually done on Localbitcoins for that matter.

They plan to begin a crowdsale starting on April 15th. .

“LocalBitcoins allows users to buy bitcoins without a bank account, but we are moving into alternative currencies to cater for the growing movement into crypto.” - Pravjit Singh, Director, Founder & CEO, 

Ethbits local will launch immediately after funding they say. Which is a bit concerning, if this is already built, what do they need a crowdfunding for?

Not developers for obvious reasons.

Not for tokens because as they state, this will be bringing others together for BUY/SELL.

Not for support, they should have this covered else they don't believe their own product will support their payroll.

Just things to be cognizant of.

Concerns About This Investment

The platforms token [insert record scratch here] ...

This is where the concern grown into suspicion and interest retreats into a pass of this opportunity.

We've heard crap like this a million times over. It never pans out, remember Paycoin? We heard the same stuff from Garza (of Gaw Miners).

The immediate concern is exactly how are these "tokens" to be purchased from ethbits? I have a sick feeling the answer is going to be: bitcoin.

Here's the problem with this, to buy into this scheme I assume requires bitcoin (or another coin of actual value). This means you're pretty much married to this coins until 2018 when "iTrade" actually starts working.

Then there's the copyright infringement. If these guys think the are going to run around getting investment money and selling their coins on a platform called "iTrade" they have another realization waiting for them when Scotia Bank finds out. Scotia owns the name iTrade and it's a registered trademark. They also own the domain itrade.com. They are in the financial industry and obviously their platform does the exact same thing, allow trading assets and investments.

Any lawyer in any country would take one look at this and spell out "B A D" followed by "I D E A" and make you write this on the chalk board 1000 times.

Moreover the damages are already done, with this announcement, Scotia already has a case if they were to choose to pursue and I would guess this is already on somebody's radar somewhere.

Anytime you use a trademark, especially in a similar or the same industry, of someone else's who's brand they have worked to promote  and spent money, time, and resources on, you are simply asking for allot of trouble. National laws and international treaties protect these brands for this exact reason else every store would be called Walmart and every soda would be called Coke and consumers everywhere would never have a clue what product they are choosing.

Its essentially the same problem software companies created with the term "blockchain technology". Blockchain technology up until a year or so ago meant bitcoins network and the immutable security that only it can provide. Now it doesn't mean anything because companies are calling anything and everything they can "blockcolor"a block-chain.

Not that I really care about copyright infringement, I don't. However, it shows a lack of diligence and that's why it's a bit of a concern.

Additionally things like profits based on follows reeks of an MLM scheme.

“Traders who work in our platform have the opportunity of earning a percentage of their follower’s profit and obtain power-ups to gain certain privileges, such as reduced fees." - EhtBits CEO said. 

We'll chalk that up to an incentive program and try to leave it alone. There's allot of those in this industry. What's also abundant in this industry are platform where traders can do what Ethbits proposes however on these platform's traders are not limited to unknown tokens of no value to pay for things.

They further disclose more things to be concerned about in that they plan on opening offices all over the world in 6 different countries and hire a full legal team for compliance. The biggest take away there is that they "plan" to hire a legal team. This isn't a real shocker since it's rather apparent from their statements made that they don't have one currently.

So after careful review and consideration, I myself will have to pass on this opportunity, the copyright infringement alone killed it for me, but there are many concerns so even if that weren't the case, I would still pass.

However, you may not value your bitcoin as much and would like to take the risk. If that's the case you can learn more about Ethbits on their website.

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Article by dinbits

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