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by stale2002 3132 days ago
The problem is not people spending money on "worthless/ frivolous" things.

Investor protection are about Fraud protection. NOT, because it is good or bad to spend money on something.

If you spend 2 Million dollars on a car, you are getting exactly what you were sold. If you buy a lottery ticket, you are getting exactly the odds that were promised to you.

But investments are a different story. Someone is trying to promise you that your investment will go up. They are making claims that they cannot guarantee.

That is why investments are regulated.
3 comments
alphydan 3132 days ago
> promise you that your investment will go up.

I challenge you to find a single ICO which says that (or something very similar) in their terms and conditions, homepage, or white/yellow papers. So far, every single one I have read about said it was a risky investment with no guaranteed return.

Now check out lottery advertisement for a different message: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c8/95/f6/c895f66260e1517e2b2437d8a...

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summer_steven 3132 days ago
> If you buy a lottery ticket, you are getting exactly the odds that were promised to you.

Casinos and the state lotteries do everything they can to convince people they will make profit. Do you think a regular Joe can calculate the expected value of a scratch card? Sure, he knows he has a 1/1,000,000 chance of winning the jackpot and a 1/25 chance of winning $20. He is being misled.

Therefore, since gambling companies are legally allowed to mislead regular people, then there is no reason to protect them from investing and maybe actually making a profit.

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RexetBlell 3132 days ago
No ICO is ever sold as investment (as far as I know). In a many cases they explicitly say that the tokens are completely useless to not get in trouble with the regulators. For example:

"The EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform."

It's (almost) impossible to find words like "invest" or "investment" on ICO websites or white papers.

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