How to put an end to crypto scams

A few days ago investors in the Defi100 coin were greeted with a horrible message on the dev team’s website “WE SCAMMED YOU GUYS AND YOU CANT TO SHIT ABOUT IT -- HA HA All you moon bois have been scammed and you cant do shit about it - DEVSIN". After all had been said and done, they’d run away with over 30 million dollars!

Crypto is a Wild West where scams are happening every day and there is precious little that individual users can do about it. Especially in this case, as much as the community tried to find the identity of the Defi100 coin developers, they had always remained anonymous and had been careful about not showing identifying details.

As much as we dislike tying ourselves with unnecessary regulation, some guardrails are increasingly necessary for the community. If we don’t implement them, regulators who don’t understand blockchain’s vision (and may barely even understand the internet) will do it for us.

We need to start creating an identity system where user’s personal details might still remain private from each other, but some entity can vouch for someone’s authenticity. This method would’ve made this type of scam difficult, if not impossible, to pull off as authorities could’ve been dispatched to address these issues.

To that end, we at the CRD Network - a DeFi ecosystem that links crypto with traditional finance - are creating a system that authenticates users’ identities. Through these Know-Your-Customer (KYC) protocols we can vet people and mark them as validated. 

This is done by adding a KYC hash into their crypto wallet address; and through the CRD Network’s identification system and Hyperledger hash validation nodes, we write into the Ethereum mainnet that they are a verified account.

This method will vastly reduce the number of exit scams, as people will know that their real identities are tied to their behaviour online. That said, people are still able to gain most of the benefits of anonymity on blockchain.

The only two reasons under which their information would be divulged would be if you ask us to share that information with third parties, to save you the hassle of undergoing KYC registration, or if relevant authorities need it to investigate criminal activity.

If we are to work in reach of the law to receive its protection, we must at least take a step to help them do their job. Then, over time, as more people participate in this type of initiatives, we will create an environment that is safer and less prone to scams.

The days of the unregulated crypto Wild West, where a gunslinger could ride into town and take everyone’s money, are slowly coming to an end. But this can only be done with your help.

Together, we will build the community that we all deserve!