Seen this?
Followed by this?
And were you like?
Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce you to the payment system of the future (drumroll) Initiative Q.
Initiative Q is an initiative by the former serial entrepreneur and PayPal guy, Mr. Saar Wilf, which aims at creating a digital global payment system by issuing a dedicated centralized private currency known as Q tokens.
All they require from your end would be:
- Your Full Name
- Email Address
- To send invites to your friends to do the same
- That’s it.
- I like lists.
Wait.
“Is this like bitcoin?”
Yes.
No.
Not Really 🙂
Initiative Q, unlike Bitcoin, is not a crypto-currency. Crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are based on the blockchain technology. Initiative Q on the other hand, targets on having a centralized database which would track the transactions carried out using the Q tokens.
“Free Money!!!”
Not yet.
Right now the tokens you earn are worthless and you cannot use those tokens to trade even in the Initiative Q’s own servers either.
Now that you read so far into this article, let’s start answering the real questions
- How can I expect to gain anything out of this?
In order for this system to start functioning, this system should be adopted by a significant global population. As economics dictates, money has no value without perceived value. To quote the founders of this initiative, it faces the chicken and egg scenario:
“No buyer wants to join a new network with no sellers, and no seller will offer a payment option that no buyer uses.”
To get around this, Initiative Q would reward you with free tokens if you are to sign up and invite five more of your friends (these friends who would supposedly invite 5 more). They also go onto say that the earlier you adopt the more tokens you would earn.
Invite friends who would invite more friends… PYRAMID SCHEME!!!!
I wouldn’t really deny that it isn’t (hold your horses), but the only pyramid scheme-like features it does have is its marketing method. A typical pyramid scheme would require you to both make a payment or purchase and distribute a certain product which this initiative doesn’t entail. Since money isn’t changing hands through their methods, there really isn’t anything bad about it.
Fingers crossed!! if all goes according to how the founders speculate this to be, I’d say you’d be looking at a few million rupees by then.
- So WHEN will I get MY millions?
That’s the best part. You probably won’t.
Raised your hopes too high? Well to give my honest opinion this system already faces an uphill battle against regulatory commissions from all the different countries, implementing security networks etc. to achieve its very grandiose plans. So even if this works, it would definitely take many years till you would see some value in those Q tokens. To quote the founder of initiative Q Saar Wilf “It is not a get rich quick scheme and I think that’s where people get confused. You have to reach critical mass if you want to create a currency and that is what we’re trying to do.”
Just keep in mind that this by no means a “Get rich quick” scheme. If at all, you would be lucky if you get rich at all in the distant future through this technology. Aligning to what the founders of this initiative have stated, I’d recommend you treat this as a “Free Lottery Ticket” rather than a definite speculative investment.
Bitcoin’s success story has inspired a lot of new investors to give proper consideration to cryptocurrency and similar digital financial technology. Certain other cryptocurrencies also faced this surge in popularity even extremely ridiculous ones, such Doge coins (yeah you read it right) which actually managed to earn a market cap of over $650 million. This sort of exciting technology also seen its share of downfall as we saw with the crashing of the bitconnect bubble which was worth around $3 billion dollars which left so many investors with nothing but broken hopes and empty pockets.
Initiative Q, on the other hand, doesn’t ask you for an investment of any sort which would bring you to the question.
- Is there anything to lose?
Most Pyramid or Ponzi schemes would usually entail dubious promises of future returns for a certain initial payment, which really isn’t relevant when discussing initiative Q (at least for now). If there is any threat it would be the fact that they do nevertheless collect certain information which is your name and email address. While I do understand that most of you reading this article do already give out these details anyway to all kinds of websites and apps, one major fact which I do take into account is that the information this system would end up collecting is that of people who are specifically interested and are very naive (including myself) with regards to “Get Rich Quick” schemes. If this initiative fails (which it has a high probability to), the company may sell this database to scammers (to whom this would be a fortune) to pay its bills. As the saying goes “ If you aren’t paying for it, you are the product”.
Again beyond the possibility of gaining nothing but a spam box full of scam emails, there really isn’t much to lose.
Initiative Q promises a better alternative to existing conventional financial systems and existing blockchain based cryptocurrency.
Its plans still seem ambiguous and it remains still questionable whether it can solve existing loopholes in the current digital financial systems such as cryptocurrency. But nevertheless it opens the possibility for the advancement of technology and we know all too well to say that this advancement would not be achieved overnight.
Fingers crossed. This will change the future.
Rtr. Asel Gunaratne
Editor
Editor