Is the currency inscription that has skyrocketed a thousand times a pyramid scheme?

Source: Mankiw Blockchain Legal Services

01 Coin Circle CX3.0?

It is said that the CX in the currency circle has reached 3.0.

Chinese people are celebrating the Chinese Festival, and those veterans in the currency circle who have been to Japan and the United States are also somewhat homesick.

So the Lunar New Year concept stock inscriptions appeared one after another, and it was still a familiar routine and a familiar taste.

First, light a spark. The veterans first set up a small-scale consensus meeting, worked together to formulate the concept of the story and organize the division of labor. A certain boss stood up, and the younger brother was responsible for publicizing it. The routine of publicizing it was to take turns in various circles of friends and WeChat groups. Bombing, roughly means that a certain big boss recently came out to make a 100-fold market, and asked you if you can get on the bus. Usually the first batch of brothers who get on the bus must make money, so that they can go to CX even more risk-free.

Secondly, getting rich first drives wealth later. The currency circle also needs to be prosperous together. The reason is that those who get rich first are the book assets. If they are not cashed into USDT, this is still air. Everyone has so many inscriptions to be shipped, so there must be more takers, so the first batch of people who get rich have more motivation to amway and bomb in Moments and WeChat groups. Those ordinary little leeks who had been hurt by the A-share old lady’s game of going down the stairs had never seen the exciting scene of doubling in one day, so they all got on the bus to celebrate the New Year with the big guys.

Finally, it’s harvest time. Seeing that the number of addresses on the chain was increasing, the big trader finally showed a happy smile, and when the night was quiet, he emptied the chips in his hands. When the leeks woke up the next day, their eyes were straight. Needless to say, it was another day when the rooftop was cold and I was worried about catching a cold.

Just when I was feeling down and out, I saw my former leader cheering up on the Internet, saying that we would eat sesame candy "MATANG" during the Chinese New Year. The eyes of the leeks instantly brightened up, and they began to add contract addresses and prepare to make a profit.

Scams like this are endless in the currency circle. As an old person in the industry, you will also be surprised. Logically speaking, those scammers are already "successful and famous" people, but why do they still look so ugly? ?

What’s even more amazing is that friends who have participated in project takeovers and been harvested again and again don’t seem to feel that they have been cheated, as if this is just a short and fast drumming and passing flowers, the game is a good game, then If the flower fell into my hand, I couldn't say that the person who organized the game was bad. I could only blame my bad luck for not being able to keep up with my big brother earlier.

There is a kind of lottery where you didn’t choose the right one, and you can’t blame society for its open-mindedness.

Maybe this is the charm of CX in the currency circle.

02 Is this illegal?

As a common classic illegal crime in the currency circle, it can be said that CX is an old friend of friends in the currency circle.

If you search on the Judgment Documents Network using the three keywords of "virtual currency", "criminal cause of action", and "crimes of organizing and leading pyramid schemes", at least 842 documents can be retrieved, and the case judgments are mainly concentrated From 2018 to 2020, there were a total of 594 cases in three years.

In the currency circle, what matters is a consensus, and nothing can be decided without CX. There is nothing that CX cannot solve. If it doesn’t work once, then do it twice. However, CX in the currency circle may not be the same concept as CX in law.

If the name is incorrect, the words will not be smooth, and if the words are not smooth, the things will not be accomplished.

Previously, Mankiw’s lawyers were worried about CX in the currency circle and wrote many professional articles, such as "One article tells a thorough story丨A comprehensive review of China's virtual currency pyramid schemes cases", "When virtual currency is involved in pyramid schemes, under what circumstances is it innocent?" 》.

We even made a comparative legal science chart to provide everyone with an intuitive knowledge of illegal pyramid schemes and criminal pyramid schemes.

It can be said that he is very attentive and hard-core.

In general, using virtual currency to engage in pyramid schemes is aclassic model There are three types:

1. The "MLM coin" of the OneCoin type is Representatives, in the name of blockchain, are actually websites set up by criminal gangs themselves and have nothing to do with blockchain technology.

2. Represented by the Plus Token type "Air Coin", blockchain technology is used, but in the name of investment and financial management, participants are allowed to purchase to obtain membership qualifications and induce Participants continue to develop offline.

3. Represented by Forsage, it uses smart contract technology and matrix marketing strategies to stimulate new members to pay their superiors and recommend new members to gain revenue.

But during my discussions with Mankiw’s criminal lawyers, I found that everyone has a basic point of view:The current CX model of inscriptions, It may not constitute a legal pyramid scheme.

Why do you say that? Because this round of currency CX is different from the classic criminal CX in many ways, I can summarize it in the following aspects.

1. There is no clear project party. Previous ICO projects based on networks such as Ethereum would have clear project parties and platform personnel, and there would be clear token distribution rules when issuing coins. For example, the main project party holds 40% or more of the total market. As early project investors, everyone transfers money directly or through proxy investment to a clear project address in exchange for tokens. However, in the Inscription scenario, there is no initial token distribution rule. To participate in obtaining Inscription tokens, the method is the same. You obtain project tokens by paying network gas. The only difference is that you can play early and enjoy it early. Early discounts are available.

2. The narrative stories are different. Comparatively speaking, the project parties that issued the currency before will also have some tricks, fabricating a story about a national project to deceive you, and brainwashing the participating investors, so that they will be deceived and hand over their money. But in this wave of narrative stories in inscriptions, the project team doesn’t even want to make up stories anymore, so the vast majority of inscriptions are just a MEME and consensus, and the practicality of issuing inscriptions is zero. Then you ask the leeks why they want to participate? One word: Convince people with gains.

3. The profit models are different. Legal project party CX defrauds money mainly by recruiting people. Downlines develop more offlines, and each offline they develop will get their own share of the money given to the boss by the downlines. But in a CX platform like Mingwen, there seems to be no concept of online and offline. Everyone is engaged in fair launch. There is no scenario where novices purchase tokens from the project side. Daily Mingwen transactions are also decentralized transactions on the chain. It is conducted on the exchange or agreement. Both the buyer and the seller are anonymous players. Making and losing money mainly focus on the information gap and hand speed.

Then these old scythes who have made a lot of money have no responsibility from a legal point of view? Could it be that China’s legal system is once again imperfect and needs to be updated and updated?

That’s not necessary. In the words of lawyer Liu Zhengyao from the Mankiw Criminal Defense Team, if the police really want to arrest someone, there are more than 480 criminal law articles, and there is always one that suits you.

For example, the easiest thing to identify is online fraud. That's right, high-end fraud often only requires a simple definition.

But the problem is that this fraudulent game is about Zhou Yu playing yellow cover, and one is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer. For friends who participate in this drumming and passing flowers game, Project A may not make any money, but Project B Project B may be ok, project B will be a complete loss, and project C may be able to make a fortune overnight.

If you don’t even have the dream of getting rich overnight, then what’s the difference between speculating on coins and salted fish?

The desire to get rich is endless, and there are constant scams in the currency circle. No one can blame this.

03 How to reduce your legal risks?

Of course, we cannot just complain about this article, but still want to give you some pragmatic suggestions. After all, there are still some good project parties working in the Inscription community.

Then the question is, as the founder and mainstay of an inscription community, what can you do to avoid your own potential legal risks? Lawyer Honglin will help you summarize some more practical points for your reference.

1. Correct your identity and status. Whether you are the initiator of a project or the soul-crying flag-bearer of the community, you must adhere to the principle of putting the community first and yourself second, and avoid the naked description that you want to pull the strings tonight and get on the bus as soon as possible. At the same time, avoid adding the honorary title of global publicity ambassador of a certain project to yourself.

2. Provide tips on project risks. On any platform, try to avoid looking at the bottom at 10 times. 100 times is not a dream. It is not too much work to analyze the project and provide relevant reminders that investment is risky and that currency speculation needs to be cautious.

3. Pay attention to the project’s publicity scene. There is no doubt that various CX projects in the WeChat ecosystem are high-risk actions in China. The reason is not complicated. First of all, it is not possible to attract people to participate or provide virtual currency-related investments in China, especially the kind that is open to the public and thoughtfully teaches you how to download and register for the exchange; secondly, the WeChat ecosystem itself is a real-name system. , you think it will be fine if you just change your vest and get a trumpet, but you are too naive.

4. Don’t be used as a weapon by the old sickle. Friends in the circle also know the background and conduct of the well-known veterans in China who started in 2017, but many new friends in the circle only hear their names and don’t know their background. It is easy to Being paralyzed by his aura of being a big boss, you think he is an old-timer, and he uses you as a spearman. If something happens, you are trapped in the country and regret it, but the other person is happily growing leeks in the manor of the beautiful country. .

As an ordinary player, on how to avoid being deceived when playing Inscription, Lawyer Honglin previously wrote a special article. If you need it, you can click here: "Lawyer Reminder! The latest fraud routines and risk prevention of currency circle inscriptions", we will not go into details here.