Initiative Q is tomorrow’s payment network, an innovative combination of cryptocurrency and payment processor which will take over the world and make all of
Since they’re not asking for anything (there have been suggestions it’s an e-mail harvesting scheme, but there are much easier, cheaper and quicker ways to simply grab e-mails and social data) there’s nothing for those initial investors to lose, so why not get involved.
Well, that’s the pitch anyway. I’m not going to comment on whether or not I think Initiative Q is malicious (I don’t) or a scam (that’s a longer discussion), just on what that initial investment involves and what social engineering they’re using here to expand their initial user base. It’s also important to note that the initial investors are definitely putting a stake into the game when they sign up, especially when they start inviting friends and family, and this is something that people should be aware of before jumping in.
I can’t imagine anyone not seeing the cynical manipulation of the front page, with its estimated future value of the next spot, so won’t dwell on it other than to say it’s a rather clever way to apply a time limitation on decision-making as it ticks down (and does at least make it clear that only 10% of the future-value tokens are available after registration, the rest depending partly on inviting five friends and unspecified future tasks). I’ll be honest, this type of manipulation does tend to get my alarm bells ringing.
A false sense of urgency and/or scarcity (and this has both – urgency with the value ticking down, scarcity on the small number of invites per person) is one of the classic pillars of social engineering. It tends to help convince by short-circuiting the decision-making process, since there’s no time to consider carefully and instead you must buy NOW!
The more insidious part to me is the idea that sign ups are not committing anything, therefore are safe. I blame social media for this one. What’s being invested isn’t financial worth, but individual’s social capital as they are used to convince friends and family. This is social proof in action – large numbers of people, smaller numbers of close friends and family, again is a way to let our lazy brains off the hook on examining a proposition, so that we act on autopilot and sign up.
Worse is that once someone sees themselves as an investor, with a substantial future stake, they are much more likely to aggressively defend the system if anyone tries to cast doubts on it (there have been a few examples of this recently), and refuse to accept any evidence that it might not be everything that was promised. By encouraging people to invite five friends you’re also promoting consistency – no one wants to go back on what they said to five of their friends (or strangers in a lot of cases) in public, and so any actual evidence against the system will be ignored or discredited.
So the weights that need to be considered aren’t financial – instead by signing up you are committing your individual integrity and social capital to this system, which has explicitly stated that all they’re after at this point is growth. It’s fair to say there is nothing particularly innovative about the Initiative Q technology, despite their claims, and the particular model has been tried before with less-polished marketing. Before signing up, please think carefully, remember that they aren’t promising anything (the initiative is very careful in their language to be conditional) while you’re putting a piece of your own identity into the scheme, committing to defend it against sceptics, to carry out unspecified future tasks, and to drag your friends in using your own credibility.