Technology Quarterly | Token efforts
Initial coin offerings have become big business
Fundraising with cryptocurrencies is booming, but is that a good thing?
IT LOOKED like just another cryptocurrency scam. On April 18th the website of Savedroid, a German company, went offline, to be replaced by an image from “South Park”, a scatological cartoon, bearing the legend “Aannnd it’s gone”. Yassin Hankir, Savedroid’s boss, published a Twitter post that showed him first in an airport and later on a beach, with the caption “Thanks guys! Over and out…” The implication was that the company was gone and its founder had made off with $50m raised from sales of its cryptocurrency, SVD.
This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline “Token efforts”
From the September 1st 2018 edition
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