Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, in a reply to Forsage Asia, on August 11th via Twitter, has revealed his disapproval of the project’s methodology and asked them to leave and not pollute Ethereum ecology in the future:
“They fight against you because you are a liar. Most users of this kind of project will not make money, but will lose a lot of money. This kind of project relies on more and more people coming in to pay the previous participants every day. When the new participants are gone, most users lose everything they invested. Look at bitconnect, onecoin, etc… I ask you to leave and do not pollute the Ethereum ecology in the future, thanks!”
This revelation came as a reply to Forsage Asia’s post about a report from BitcoinNGA about SEC in the Philippines warning the public against Forsage and other Ponzi schemes and legal actions against its promoters in the jurisdiction. Forsage’s smart contract was classified as an investment contract by SEC Philippines thus security. Since it was neither registered nor approved by SEC before it was offered to the public, it was discouraged and the public is warned against associating itself with them.
Forsage Asia also replied Vitalik Buterin stating that Ethereum itself is like a whitewashed wall profiting in transaction fees from countless projects that were built on it:
“You wash yourself white! The large-scale emergence of the project brought the prosperity of Ethereum. A large part of Ethereum’s massive rise in 2017 was due to various “projects”, including plate projects. It is the projects that bring traffic to Ethereum and transaction fees: people will know about Ethereum, use it, and consume it. Bitcoin is the same, without various items and plates, how has it soared in 17 years? I was laughing secretly, taking off my pants and not recognizing”
Forsage brings funds in for its members based on a multi-level marketing strategy. New members pay old members via smart contracts and the cycle goes on and on. The platform promises to spill referrals over to members who are unable to get one. But in a case where there are no new members, it means the only source of profit for members will be from re-investments from old members. This kind of strategy is unsustainable as it has been experienced over the years from projects like Bitconnect, and onecoin as Vitalik stated. The founders are anonymous and no one can be held responsible if it fails.
Sydney Ifergan, the founder of The Currency Analytics news platform also stated in a tweet: “Regarding Vitalik / Forsage, Investors should take time to read and triple check any projects, We cannot accuse Vitalik Buterin to be responsible for having created an easy way to generate. smart contracts, it wasn’t created with Dark ideas, but only to create a better world.”
It is advised that people do thorough due diligence and watch out for red flags when they seek or are invited to make any form of investment.
All quotes were translated using Google Translate