someone was pimping these $SALT tokens on twitter. i checked it out. interesting business...you can get a USD loan and they take your BTC as collateral. (could also be a way to short BTC now that i think about it)

but then i was wondering...where does the token come into play?

in order to obtain one of their loans, you must have possession of some of their SALT tokens.

it's a cool business. but the token is absolutely unnecessary. it might as well be a bottle cap with SALT written on it in sharpie. if it turns out that there is a market for these loans, someone will knock them off instantly without the crap token involved.

this example is the problem i have with 99% of these ICOs and why i consider them scams.

let's say someone makes a really amazing and innovative product that would be difficult to knock off, and it has a ****coin shoehorned into it. how exactly does the success of that product translate into an increased demand for the ****coin?

let's pretend i'm starting a restaurant. i developed a cooking technology that's so amazing that i was able to scientifically prove i have the most delicious food on the planet. i've also hired the top staff from the best and most expensive restaurants from around the country and can guarantee the best customer service humanly possible.

because my restaurant is so amazing and will be in high demand no matter what insane stipulations i put on my customers, i require them to purchase their meals and tip in augie-bucks ($AUG). i create a lightning fast POS which quickly converts their USD to $AUG and then i issue them physical tokens with my face on them for those who want to physically touch their $AUG. i print 1M $AUG and put 500k $AUG in a flash drive and bury it in my back yard. then i sell the other 500k $AUG at $10 each to finance building the restaurant.

every seat in the house is filled every night of the week. i have the most successful restaurant in world history. the reservation list is two years in advance. but there's one small problem:

the customers come to my restaurant. they eat. they purchase $AUG with USD. they hand their $AUG to me. they leave.

what's the mechanism that would ever cause the price of $AUG to fluctuate in any direction? in this instance, it's identical to a gift card that the store is willing to buy back from you.

the argument is that my restaurant will be so amazing that everyone who bought $AUG in my ICO will be able to sell it on the street for a profit to someone dying to eat there.

what incentive would i have as a business owner to cut off the supply of $AUG after Joe Schmoe ICO comes in and buys it all? why wouldn't i just print more $AUG rather than letting currency speculators set the price for my food?

and the moment $AUG crashes, why wouldn't i sell the rest of mine as fast as i can and start accepting USD?

Thanks for the answers concerning IOTA guys.

My friends and I are betting heavily on it atm, same w Ark and Neo.

I also wanted to know what you guys think about 0x (ZRX)?

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews/feelings towards it. I'm still unsure about buying some.

Augie,

Wouldn't printing more AUG shake confidence in the market? Most of these coins explain their distribution process in advance and randomly diverging (expanding) from it could crash the market. People even get upset when the total distribution numbers change between pre-presale to presale, let alone if an existing coin just randomly printed more.

Am I the only one that thinks NEO's dividend structure could prove very attractive to John Q Public?

of course it would. why would i care? i'm trying to run a business here. when $AUG crashes i'll just start accepting currency that people actually use unlike $AUG which is the equivalent of a gift card.

what recourse do coin holders have against me? why would i let the price of a steak spiral up to $194 because there isn't enough $AUG in circulation?

Just spitballing but if $AUG is actually #1 and lineups continue to grow isn't your backyard stash much more valuable mostly staying buried? The golden goose keeps honking along and a healthy timed release of your stash (profit taking) keeps the token prices somewhat reasonable.

It seems like there's been parabolic growth in the sector. The scam coins can dump to try for millions but the honest ones are aiming for billions.

how can the golden goose keep honking along if i have no control over my prices?

right, i slowly sell the backyard $AUG little by little to keep the prices down. eventually, i run out of $AUG. i have a bunch of USD and a whole bunch of suckers have a bunch of $AUG. except, oops, my restaurants prices are based on $AUG, which can be hugely influenced by the whims of currency traders.

seems like i have three choices. abandon $AUG, print more $AUG out of thin air, or let the free market entirely determine my prices. if the speculators are waiting for me to buy back my own currency, they shouldn't hold their breath. sounds expensive.

what if i make an enemy with much deeper pockets than me and he buys up all of my currency? of course i'll instantly abandon $AUG and start accepting USD, so he will never do that.

all of this just shows the insanity of an unnecessary token system created by for-profit companies. the business will always come first and the token holders are always going to eat it way before i do.

if the currency's survival depends on the business' survival, then it doesn't need a currency!

The restaurant example sounds like a digital vending machine model.
AUG tokens in, digi food out.

One advantage the tokens have is making global reach easier, providing the mechanism to accept a variety of payment types / currencies etc.
Perhaps that might not be so useful with a restaurant that has a fixed location, but with a digital business in the digital world this seems like a very useful feature.

A vending machine designed for global use seems to be a good fit for tokens as payment. With this model, it is essential that there are easy methods to obtain these tokens using fiat or other (crypto)currencies.

So the end result feels like the customer can choose to pay you in $USD, £GBP, EUR, BTC, ETH, DASH or directly in AUG.
If they are paying in a currency other than AUG tokens, an exchange needs to take place.
This could be done by your restaurant directly (for some or all the different currencies, depending on your policy, business plan etc).
It could also be done by third parties (coin swaps, fiat ramps), or on the open market (exchanges).

If for example, you and your customer only really care about fiat, the whole AUG token thing can be done behind the scenes.
So the transaction feels like a customer in Japan buys a meal in Yen, you receive in USD, customer receives food.
Behind the scenes, something like Yen->(Cypto->)AUGtokens->(Crypto->)USD.

We want transactions and conversions to be as fast as possible, and need friction costs to be less than current fx conversion rates using current methods - VISA / banks etc. Otherwise there is little incentive to switch to this method. (unless there are other benefits to this model that can bring more value despite higher friction costs..)

To recap:

• The restaurant created and controlled all the tokens initially. There is a fixed supply. How they are distributed / released depends on the business model.
• The restaurant sells tokens, and get tokens back when people eat at the restaurant.
• The restaurant can set the price of it's produce (num tokens per dish)
  
• Clients can buy tokens to eat at your restaurant. Or they can buy tokens to collect, with the intention of using, reselling or trading later.

Questions raised:
What is the advantage / need for the AUG token in this vending machine model? What features or opportunities does it provide to business and client?
e.g. - Why not just have the digi vending machine accepting a range of cryptocurrencies direct? (going via some exchange service if paying in fiat other than USD, e.g. Yen->Crypto->USD)

Possibilities:
Creation of a market for the tokens.
Third party services can interact.
Having own token gives more flexibility as a business. Not being tied to restricted range of payment methods or currencies.
Loyalty scheme generation etc.

Other ideas?

I took a small gamble on this and it's done terribly while everything else gained lol. What kind of coin loses value through it's entire conference and after? DAMN YOU RON PAUL!

I hope you boys are getting in on Walton Chain (WTC).

They just won a major sponsor in China.

Thank me later.

I missed the WTC spike... ugh. Friends were telling ma abt it but it was taking forever to get BTC on trading site.

However, did bet heavily on Loopring (LRC) today. Anybody else?

Haven't checked this thread for a while but seems like a huge influx of random daytraders.

Remember when you buy these random coins you are basically betting that you know the price better than the market, so ask yourself why you think it's mispriced, and why noone else has realised it, and if you can't give yourself a convincing answer, you are the fish.

hottest ICO to date: coexist coin!

https://coexistcoin.org/whitepaper.html

i always knew you didn't need an actual business for an ICO. but these guys aren't shy about it. they aren't greedy though, only looking to sell 8 million dollars worth of their bottle caps.

once you obtain one of their bottle caps, that grants you access to make a donation to charity. stunning technology.

Americas Card Room announced it will soon begin accepting deposits and withdrawals in more than 60 cryptos.

they are taking potcoin!

Kinda surprised they took bitcoin before that, to be honest.

lol ACR is the cutting edge. Great site.

Really crazy of them to take that many tokens when you think about it.

I get like BTC ETH LTC BCH but ****ing first blood? Melon? Really?

another amazing ICO

https://www.snip.network/

snipcoin! snip is a news site where anyone can write a news story. apparently they have raised 4 million dollars to make a message board.

A portion of the tether audit has been completed and posted by Friedman. It's not a full one bc apparently assets have risen sharply since the full audit began, but it encapsulates the important parts.

Guys, is ACR the first and only poker site accepting altcoins?

They are definitely just insta-converting to fiat. Pay 1% or whatever.

This guy Boohaa and others made some great calls in the discord chat, this is his twitter,

https://twitter.com/BoohaaCrypto

Atleast you only took a small gamble, Usually the price pumps leading up to a big event then people take their profits and it dumps. I wouldn't sell Nexus now because its a great project and has a chance to make huge gains.

Even if that's true why take so many?

Who the **** is gonna deposit in first blood instead of bitcoin?

And they run the risk if someone knows something in the future and loads up on a coin they know is gonna get ****ed and deposit at the right time, knowing the coin is going to go under or get bad news that kills the price.


And, seriously, where can you convert any of those off coins to cash instantly?

Like gdax I guess?

I'm going to ahead and guess people who own First Blood and want to top up their poker account?

Nobody thinks people will go Fiat>BTC>FirstBlood>ACR just to get funds on the site.

But there will be some people that get the itch to play poker and have various different tokens so why not let them?