Initiative Q Rides Co-Opts the Fame of Bitcoin (BTC)

A viral proposition spreading through all internet media channels, Initiative Q is a suspected Ponzi scheme that has touched upon the cryptocurrency supporters.

Users of social media, Skype or other channels may have seen personal invite links to Initiative Q. The ads promise a bankless, peer-to-peer payment system similar to PayPal, but the payment does not involve a crypto coin. Instead, users receive a certain amount of a centralized digital currency. Based on estimations by Forbes, Initiative Q may be adding 100,000 new holders of the Q asset daily.

A mention of Initiative Q was noticed by Andreas Antonopoulos, one of the best-known Bitcoin proponents:

https://twitter.com/aantonop/status/1062154358308069376

Antonopoulos was critical of using the influence within the crypto sphere to promote a project that has nothing to do with applied cryptography. Initiative Q was also mentioned on the Free Coin (FREE) Reddit a few days ago, although the coin itself is not related to the scheme.

Initiative Q was created by Saar Wilf, founder of the ironically named Fraud Sciences, a fintech and payment security company acquired by PayPal. This is the reason Initiative Q plays up its relation to PayPay, although it is a completely different system.

At this point, Initiative Q relies on a referral system and awards Q balances based on invitation. While no money is being asked for at this stage, the recruiting of a wider user base by personal referral starts to resemble a pyramid scheme.

https://twitter.com/IvanOnTech/status/1061744832677326848

Participants in crypto-related social media are in danger of getting their emails and identities exposed - and possibly abused for aggressive selling, advertising or other MLM schemes.

In a way, Initiative Q copies the airdrop method, which creates a user base first, and later hopes to ignite transactions and a connection to the real economy. But as airdrop projects have shown, real-life usage is rarer.

“Initiative Q is not the new Bitcoin,” says Shidan Gouran, President and CEO of Global Blockchain, cited by Forbes. “Initiative Q is actually highly questionable in its very concept, because it seems as if it was purposely meant to be mysterious.”

At the same time, Initiative Q links are spreading, though viewed with skepticism:

https://twitter.com/TheCoinWeaver/status/1062113942317735937

The still non-existent payment system, which only distributes balances of a centralized coin, has not shown the ways it would deal with anonymity, as well as the current legal climate of regional capital restraints, strict KYC procedures and limitations on anonymous transactions.