I forgot to mention something that can be very interesting. Totally imaginary. Game of Thrones twists my mind.

Let’s imagine for a second that this gets too much publicity and the noise wakes up some regulator from its natural lethargy. Then, is when the party is going to really start. We all know regulators are very simple people, they always ask the same questions. They will probably kick off with whether this whole set up is something that can be used for money laundering or to evade taxes. That in itself is a very nice topic; but it does not stop there, because the tax guy has a colleague in the investor protection department, who is going to ask whether this has been properly marketed to what they call “unqualified” investors (I am not sure they are aware of the power of the wisdom of the crowds). Moreover, the guys in Europe don’t want to appear too soft mannered, so they probably like to imitate the tactics of their colleagues in the US, the NBA of regulation. Teamwork in action. Panama papers in the shadow.

Who are going to ask? This is distributed! No place to go!. Sure, they understand what distributed means, but only they don’t give a shit. They go after the promoters and the beneficiaries, under the very wrong assumption, I agree, that maybe the people behind the project have a vested interest. They simply start going to the website and looking at the names and pictures. The they look where the money goes. I know, impressive, high technology applied to regulatory oversight.

Once the machine is on, they don’t stop. They typically look into the details of how the whole thing was marketed. They go into reddit, forums and what have you, they subpoena the shit out of everybody that smells fishy. And… suddenly they may interpret that the whole thing was explained a little bit…. partially. That there was no option for a serious due diligence and that the answers to inconvenient questions were avoided in a context of virtual high fives, emoticons and to infinity and beyond. To add some salt and pepper to the already spicy receipt, they most likely would love to see that the target audience is a bunch of enthusiasts with little financial expertise. They start looking for red flags, and they will encounter the Chinese olympic team parade!.

Now, it is always possible to explain regulators what they don’t understand. That this floats in the very philosophical concept of “ethereum”. That nobody is really responsible. That we are getting a ton of money out of it, but you know, we don’t really ask questions, we just get the money. Sure. They will also understand that no investor had “the privilege” of asking questions, that explanations were offered as a matter of courtesy. They will appreciate the new paradigm and wish good luck once they get the point. They can swallow of that, or they can initiate a full legal process against everybody involved, including the very nice figure with the name of “curators”. Maybe they find grounds to process or maybe not, but the experience can be certainly educative for those lucky enough to be involved.

Then, it will be the time to answer the questions about conflicts of interest, proper disclosure and serious due dilligence. Then it will be the time to point the blame to someone. Asking how the fuck you put together something so blatantly careless and messy. This is imaginary, I am the first to wish nothing like this happens. I have a sizable long position in Ethereum and that will kill my investment. But if that day of blaming comes, everybody involved should point to oneself, because you don’t need to be a genius to see the long list of deficiencies and the rush to get the money.

Some people say that hubris and greed are causes for blindness, I’m starting to agree.