A South Korean company called Shinil Group recently created a cryptocurrency called Shinil Gold Coin after announcing that it had a discovered a 100-year-old Russian shipwreck containing 200 tons of gold bullion. The company attracted more than 100,000 investors in its token by promising to pay out dividends backed by the $125 billion (!) in gold that it had pulled from the shipwreck. What followed wasn't surprising: "The company announced that it had failed to identify the gold it had previously believed to be aboard the sunken ship." Footage of the wreck's discovery disappeared from YouTube, the coin's website went offline, and a fraud investigation commenced. The notion of nonexistent gold backing a cryptocurrency is little more than a new twist on a traditional scam, but it presents an interesting contrast with other efforts to harvest money in imaginary places. Video game currencies, for example, accrue real-world value, driving unsavory practices such as sweatshop-like
#62: Peak Pegasus
#62: Peak Pegasus
#62: Peak Pegasus
A South Korean company called Shinil Group recently created a cryptocurrency called Shinil Gold Coin after announcing that it had a discovered a 100-year-old Russian shipwreck containing 200 tons of gold bullion. The company attracted more than 100,000 investors in its token by promising to pay out dividends backed by the $125 billion (!) in gold that it had pulled from the shipwreck. What followed wasn't surprising: "The company announced that it had failed to identify the gold it had previously believed to be aboard the sunken ship." Footage of the wreck's discovery disappeared from YouTube, the coin's website went offline, and a fraud investigation commenced. The notion of nonexistent gold backing a cryptocurrency is little more than a new twist on a traditional scam, but it presents an interesting contrast with other efforts to harvest money in imaginary places. Video game currencies, for example, accrue real-world value, driving unsavory practices such as sweatshop-like