{"id":8012,"date":"2018-06-24T23:11:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T23:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=8012"},"modified":"2018-10-31T20:07:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T20:07:36","slug":"initiative-q-a-non-crypto-private-currency-marketed-by-pyramid-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/06\/24\/initiative-q-a-non-crypto-private-currency-marketed-by-pyramid-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Initiative Q \u2014 a non-crypto private currency, marketed by pyramid scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has become one of my most popular posts \u2014 if you found it useful and informative, please check out the news blog<\/a>, buy my book<\/a> \u2014 it got good reviews!<\/a> \u2014 or sponsor the site!<\/a> You can also sign up at the “Get blog posts by email”<\/a> box at your right!<\/i><\/p>\n

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You may have seen this text pasted repeatedly on your Facebook or Instagram:<\/p>\n

Initiative Q is building a new payment network. To get people to adopt it, they\u2019re giving away significant sums of their future currency to early users. They require only name, email, and an invite from an existing user.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Initiative Q<\/a> is a proposal for a new payment network using a private currency, which they aim to leverage into the “one global currency”.<\/p>\n

It’s not a cryptocurrency \u2014 but a few people asked me about it, because it has the same smells to it, and they keep comparing themselves to cryptocurrencies.<\/a> It also shares a lot of bad ideas with cryptos.<\/p>\n

There’s no such thing as a get-rich-quick scheme that works \u2014 particularly one that badgers you to get in early<\/i>. And the marketing is entirely pyramid-shaped.<\/p>\n

But as far as I can tell, they’re completely sincere! It’s just their ideas that are bad\u00a0\u2014 or don’t actually exist yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The people<\/h3>\n

Initiative Q was founded by Saar Wilf,<\/a> who has past experience in the payments world \u2014 amongst other companies, he founded Fraud Sciences,<\/a> which he sold to PayPal when it was part of eBay.<\/p>\n

The other key participant is Lawrence H. White<\/a> \u2014 an economist at George Mason University, who is heavily into Austrian economics, though he’s not a complete gold bug. White worked out the economics of the Q private currency.<\/p>\n

The Q token<\/h3>\n

The Q token is a centralised private currency<\/a> issued by Initiative Q. It’s presently worthless, and not exchangeable even on Initiative Q’s own servers \u2014 but they aspire to it being used in their nonexistent future payment network.<\/a> At that point, they intend it to be freely exchangeable with dollars.<\/p>\n

Get your pyramids early!<\/h3>\n

Initiative Q needs many committed users to ensure a meaningful network of buyers and sellers. If a critical mass is not reached, the project may not go forward. Because the rewards are only valuable once the system is functional, it is in everyone\u2019s interest to get others to join.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The marketing is a straight-up pyramid scheme<\/a> \u2014 you need an invitation to join, and then you and the person inviting you get some Q tokens, and you get five invitations in turn.<\/p>\n

You are required to complete (unspecified) tasks<\/a> to get your full Q token reward. They also stress the importance of getting in early<\/i> \u2014 “joining at the very early stages requires real vision and foresight.”<\/p>\n

So far it’s just signing up to get their made-up Q tokens \u2014 they haven’t asked for actual money, or anything else that’s exchangeable.<\/p>\n

The signup process<\/h3>\n

I click on a friend’s affiliate link, and I get:<\/p>\n

Initiative Q is building a social payment system. Join now for free and secure an estimated future value of $142,239<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Huge if true! My recruiter verifies my link, and I get mail:<\/p>\n

Congratulations! [\u2014\u2014] verified your Initiative Q registration. This means you have secured 10% of your potential Q grant!<\/p>\n

Now for the important part: to reserve an additional 40%, log in to your account and invite the people you care about to reserve their own Qs. You have 96 hours to verify up to 5 friends.<\/p>\n

Initiative Q will only succeed if many users join. The more people invite their friends, the greater the likelihood of reaching the goal of each Q being worth around one US dollar.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the future of payments!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The site tells me:<\/p>\n

You have 96 hours to invite up to 5 friends and secure an additional Q56,901<\/p>\n

Current balance: Q14,225 Out of your possible Q142,252<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HURRY HURRY HURRY! I’m told that after recruiting five more users, the next task is to recruit ten<\/em> more. I think this is enough magic beans for me, thanks.<\/p>\n

Worst-case scenarios for your personal data<\/h3>\n

Initiative Q’s privacy policy<\/a> is good and respectful \u2014 but if they go bust and get sold off for parts to pay the bills, then it will no longer apply.<\/p>\n

The signup list collates the following information:<\/p>\n