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It seems like they tried, but no blockchain expert would go near it because it was so clearly a Ponzi-type scheme. Just look at the website: http://web.archive.org/web/20150302021347/http://www.onecoin...



Yes, but if they invested/offered 20m and not just 200k I'm sure there would have been some Blockchain guys with not so strong morals around


Reminds me of https://timeai.io/

I thought these companies only existed in movies... But obviously they got their inspiration somewhere.

(Yes 'they' can intentionally be read both ways)


"...and most notably mathematical constants to generate entangled key pairs."

That reads like it was generated by gpt-2.


That website looks and reads like they’re selling some high end Breitling or Patek Philippe


No not watches, 'quantum' cryptography. More background:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/09/crown_sterlin...


One of the articles mention he speaks at something called CPAK which looks like some psuedo-science new agey non-sense forum: "Conference of Precession and Ancient Knowledge".

https://cpakonline.com/

Robert Grant is listed as a: "Polymath and Expert in Sonic Geometry"

I love this stuff, look at all of the listed "experts" each with books published ("Sacred Cosmology of Ancient Egypt"). Humans are so weird.


I know, just commenting on the aesthetics


Clicking around a bit, I ended up reading https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.08570.

It's describing an apparently faster way to identify prime numbers.

Looks pretty legit to me, but still, reading the website, there's something... not quite off, but still... quirky, in a way I can't put my finger on. :/

TL;DR, what do others think of this paper?


Dunno about the paper, but the design is trying way too hard.

All those faux-meaningful graphics, the 3D rendered vitruvian man, that the company is called ‘Crown Sterling’ and the logo is a metallic griffin, means that it’s likely that they’re at least 80% woo. Similar to a company that peddles pain relief patches which use the power of quantum harmonic energy to transmit healing bio-activated energy or whatever. Funnily enough, the people behind the former also sell the latter.



Oooh, nice. Thanks very much :)

Followed that to attendee recordings of the talk, and was not disappointed.


They’re all Ponzi schemes (haha) what about this one in particular made them find God?


How is Bitcoin a ponzi scheme? As far as I know it's a distributed database, nothing even remotely related to a ponzi scheme.


Pretty much all cryptocurrencies depend on the promise that early adopters will get in cheap and make a ton of money once it takes off. Get in quick, don't be a sucker! FooCoin is going up uP UP! Now that you're in, convince your friends to buy FooCoin too, and talk it up online--that way demand will increase!


I don't think this is the premise of Bitcoin. This is what some people want it to be or want to make it seem like it is, though, but not really.


As I learned here recently the premise may well have been to fund international arms trafficking.

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/was-bitcoin-created-by-this-inte...




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