Without any doubt blockchain technologies like Bitcoin and Hive are some of the most interesting innovations and offer many benefits. There are many projects that utilize blockchain tech in crypto world. Unfortunately some of the projects turn out to be scams and instead of building something interesting and useful, scam projects tend to only focus on getting rich quick schemes. Blockchain, its variations, and how they work are already not so easy to understand for ordinary people. It may not be obvious at the first glance which projects are genuine and have honest intentions of building, and which are scams. Independent youtube journalist Coffeezilla does a good job investigating potential crypto scams and sharing information with public which otherwise wouldn't easily be available.
Coffeezilla's latest investigation involved CryptoZoo scam, a project that was started and promoted by Logan Paul. This reporting consist of three part youtube videos. Feel free to go to Coffeezilla's youtube page to watch the content on CryptoZoo scam. They are the three latest ones. Due to the quality and substance these videos offered, they were viewed millions of times. They also caught Logan Paul's attention. As many scammers do, Logan Paul denied the allegations and made a response video where he threatened to sue Cofeezilla for illegally recording a phone conversation with Paul's manager and defamation.
It is a common tactic by scammers to threaten to sue and claim to be defamed when they are caught. If a scammer has sufficient funds and the one they are threatening to sue doesn't, these tactics may work and stop further investigations into such scams. This didn't not happen with Coffezilla. While, he went silent on youtube and have not released any content since, he has been active on Twitter countering Logal Paul's claims. Many have expressed their thoughts whether Logal Paul actually have legal standing regarding the defamation claim, and most seem to agree that Paul wouldn't have a case. However, there are different views wether the recording and publishing of the phone conversation with Paul's manager would be legal or not. That is because different states have different laws on recording private phone calls. Some states have "two-party consent" law which makes it illegal to record private conversations unless all parties agree.
It turns out Logal Paul wasn't going to sue anyway, or perhaps was advised by his lawyers it wasn't a good idea. The real crime in this case, in my opinion, is scamming people out of millions of dollars. Paul in his response to Coffezilla did not address any of the problems brought up with CryptoZoo, but instead focused on threatening with lawsuit and reputation damage recovery. Until I have watched Coffee's video's I didn't know who Logan Paul is and don't care. But I do care to know what crypto projects are scams and what are honest. Many scammers get away with stealing money all the time. At the very least revealing such activities is beneficial work any journalist can do. Usually, such investigations only serve as educational content and a warning for potential investors. It is rare to see scammers correcting their actions, delivering on what they promised, or returning investor funds. Coffeezilla's reporting on CryptoZoo did produce fruitful results. Logan Paul ended up calling Coffee, apologizing and promising taking steps to make things right.
Yesterday, Logan Paul in his twitter feed published a video announcing 3-step plan for CryptoZoo which includes program for disappointed players.
- First step: Burning Zoo token holdings by Paul and CryptoZoo co-founder Jeff Levine, with hope this will increase the value of rest of the tokens.
- Second step: Logan Paul will personally commit 1000 Ether as part of the rewards program that will allow disappointed investors to burn their NFTs to get back the initial 0.1 ETH mint price.
- Third step: Finish and deliver the game.
I don't know much about CryptoZoo but based on Coffezilla's investigative content, it is clear it turned out to be a scam. Paul's three-step plan does sound good, if he actually delivers on them. Question is why would he not do this long time ago. It is still great to see a positive outcome as a result of decent journalism done Coffeezilla. I am glad investors will be able to get their money back. If the game actually ends up happening sometime in near future, that will be a bonus.
There is a lot more to CryptoZoo story, how other individuals involved in the projects did try to scam, how developers were not paid for the work done and chose not to give the code, etc. Watch Coffeezilla's videos on this topic to learn more. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.