We have new projects, games and dApps coming up almost daily these days and again another project being accused of being a scam. Many Steem Community members are very upset about changes to a game they recently invested in.
I wonder how many of those angry people did any research before buying in and how many just jumped on board because everyone else was jumping in?
We've been talking about this topic recently in SteemChat on discord. We brainstormed what the community can do to help mitigate risks for our community members.
One idea we had was to start a dApp rating system that would review the risk level of new dApps. Of course, no one would have to pay attention to the score, but those who did find it helpful could provide upvotes and or delegation.
Some of the things we briefly discussed to review... (think of these as a sliding scale for each item instead of a yes or no..
Do they have a whitepaper? - there would need to be a subcategory here. Reviewing what the White Paper Covered.
Who is on the team? Those with established Accounts, Reputations and a history of having Steem's best interest at heart would likely score higher.
How tied to Steem is the App - How easy would it be to launch it on other chains.
What is the distribution like? What percentage are they holding and or giving out?
I don't think any of us want to start this service so each Steemian should probably figure out a list of criteria to determine what you want to invest in.
What would you add?
Often I use and put a little Steem into new projects because I am a big fan of Steem and I want to support our apps and games and I don't have a lot of expectations of seeing a return.
However, EVERY TIME you buy into new project or even delegate it would be a good idea to ask yourself if you are comfortable losing it all.
We have no form of recourse here. No one can fix these issues for you, so consider the outcome before you put your Steem into any projects. Don't invest more than you can tolerate losing.
Nothing here is riskless, but there are signs.
Form the beginning of this recent game drama people were calling it a Ponzi and continued to pour money in. I guess some of those people were hoping to be on the winning side of that Ponzi. Which is fine as long as you are okay with NOT being on the upside.
(personal note here, I think the word Ponzi gets way overused as does the word scam)
So, buy in play, toss some money in and enjoy, just don't forget if something goes wrong it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to fix it for you.
Do your own research before you put your money in.