Category: Crypto Summit

Some on Bitcointalk have concluded that decentralized crypto exchange Localcoin is a scam because they’ve conclusively found that their whitepaper was plagiarized. This hasn’t stopped projects in the past. In a post last month, user ICOEthics raised the alarm and published his findings.

EVERYONE POINTS THE FINGER AT EACH OTHER

A Localcoin representative responded that the company had outsourced their whitepaper. The intent was to explain the derivation of the plagiarism, but it opened a new can of worms. The contractor says that the original whitepaper materials were furnished to them by Localcoin – meaning that Localcoin did the plagiarism.

In a follow-up post, the Localcoin representative posted screenshots of his latest conversation with the apparent author of the whitepaper.

An allegation emerges that Localcoin owes some marketers around $15-17,000.

CCN attempted to contact the apparent whitepaper author, Dexter, but while he read our request for comment, he chose not to respond.

Localcoin’s apparent whitepaper author didn’t feel like commenting. Source: Telegram

The questions raised throughout the thread go much deeper than simple plagiarism though. We have to wonder why this project is worth anything if the majority of it is outsourced. Localcoin is an apparent fork of Bitshares and a reboot of a previous attempt at Localcoin.

We’re going to leave out judgement on who was plagiarizing who, or what the real story is here. We reach the same conclusion as one poster on the topic:

“So, we do point the finger to the plagiarized whitepaper owners. We opened this thread so you can discuss and provide evidence to your public and investors and try to convince them that it is not “your fault” and you are “not responsible” for that plagiarized whitepaper. If you wrote or someone else wrote the whitepaper for you, in the end, your company/project is the only one responsible for everything.”

REAL DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGES ARE NEEDED MORE THAN EVER

What’s really at issue with the Localcoin fiasco is the desperate need for reliable decentralized exchanges, and the fact that it is apparently not going to be one. There is some speculation, based on the following screen capture, that the entire project may actually be just one guy.

Is Localcoin really operated by just one guy, Fluke Hawkins, who outsourced everything? Source: Bitcointalk

The Binance hack demonstrates more than ever that decentralized exchanges are a necessary evolution, even if some very smart people feel that it won’t be enough. Decentralized exchanges at least take the stupid out of it. For hacks of similar size to happen, numerous participants will have to be doing it wrong.

But decentralized exchanges will need to be easy. They will need to be secure at the user level, and operated on secure devices.

The Localcoin solution might almost be there. It offers much more than just trading. Here’s what the application looks like:

The ambitious project could have changed the way people trade. If only it could be trusted. Source: Localcoin App

YOU COULD HAVE BEEN A LEGEND, BUT YOU BECAME A FAILURE

Unfortunately, as you can see, the order books are largely empty. Interest in the project has declined and increasingly, chatter around it falls strictly into two categories: discussion about the nature of the promoters, and the promoters themselves.

The Localcoin token plays some kind of role in token launches on the Localcoin platform.

A bad seed doesn’t grow good fruit. If you can’t trust that the code, the ideas expressed in the whitepaper, and so on, are original, is there anything about the project you can trust?

The timing couldn’t be worse for an upstart decentralized exchange. The industry desperately wants a serious competitor to the centralized monsters.