In the middle of 2018, when the ICO werу appearing like puffballs after rain – the project Sparkster meanwhile thundered like a bolt from the blue. New blockchain promised 10 M TPS! And it was MVP. And besides – enthusiastic reviews of recognized influenzers and experts, including the charismatic Ian Balina. Today, the Sparkster is one of hundreds of projects listed as a scam. But investors didn’t get over, and under the leadership of mentioned Ian Balina are ready to bring the team to justice.
“And enterprises of great pith and moment lose the name of action…”
ICO SPRK was successfully held on July 7-9, 2018, the project raised $ 30 M. Well, this is not uncommon – a successful ICO last year. But then begins the real mess. More precisely, the confusion was initially – but it is easy to say now, in hindsight. And then high authority ratings simply turned off the thinking abilities of most investors.
Well, in order. Sparkster promised to provide an opportunity to anyone who wants, to create applications on the Sparkster blockchain without knowing the code. This is a very attractive opportunity in itself. And it is fully realizable – there are already quite a few such construction-set.
However, Sparkster CEO Sajjad Daya did not stop there and promised a speed of 10 M TPS. This is actually another story, parallel. But it did not bother anyone, but only added delight. Investors saw in record-breaking speed a guarantee of growth in the cost of the token and were even more willing to invest in the project.
In order to warm up the hype, Sajjad Daya promised investors ROI 300 x. Not surprisingly, the project was crowned with all sorts of recognition. Ian Balina clearly brought it to first place in his famous ranking.
And during his European tour, he included the Sparkster in the Hall of Fame. Without exception, all reviews provided the project with positive characteristics. And this is also not surprising – the site and the Whitepaper represent the respectable core of the team with impressive experience, the developers – numerous “warriors”. Reputable Advisors – etc.
Well, and not the last thing – Sparkster Labs Ltd was located in London.
The first oddities began after the money was raised during the crowdsale. Sajjad Daya promised in the official telegram channel that investors’ tokens will be unlocked in a week. But this did not happen. Explanation – bad market situation. In principle, it really was – remember last year. The market was slowly dipping. Although what did this have to do with purchased tokens?
Further more. In the official telegram channel they began to ban those investors who asked questions. The admin of the channel, by the way, had the Russian name Nikita Vdovin. We need to remember how they treated the Russians in the UK then, after the story of Skripals.
Sajjad Daya remained silent, and then disappeared altogether. In the end, and admins began to disappear. But in the channel, new admins still banned the “disagreeable” investors.
Later, many other strange oddities emerged. It turned out that the Sparkster product itself, the construction-set for the applications, is a copy of the App Inventor product created at MIT that was laid out on GitHub under creative commons. Sparkster itself is not on GitHub.
The office of Sparkster Labs Ltd in London has doubtful address.
There is no evidence of at least approaching the promised 10 M TPS, although there are several videos of such attempts. But none of them recorded a speed above 6000 TPS, and this one lasted only 5 seconds. In fact a level of 1000 TPS was reached. And this is a big difference with 10 M.
And most important – there is no development of the product, although more than 9 months have passed.
Jungle law or British law?
UK legislation has a high reputation in the world deservedly. That is what the disappointed Sparkster investors are pinning their hopes on. The fact that they are deceived, and even more than once – no more doubts. As soon as the grumbling began in connection with the delay of token unlock, Sajjad Daya, blinded by success, promised a refund of USD value investment to anyone who wished. But he didn’t.
In the end, the patience of the Sparkster investor community ended. As well as Ian Balina patience, a strategic investor who invested several million dollars. Balina is now headed by a community of deceived investors, joined in several telegram channels. And preparing a class action suit. At the same time, Balina publicly condemned his former favorite.
What are the chances for investors to get their money back? They are. Despite the fact that ICO was held in the Cayman Islands, Sparkster Labs Ltd is located in London. At the very least, investors have gathered numerous evidence of the scam behavior of the project management, including screenshots of their statements in the official channel (which were later cleaned up).
The main thing is that the accusation can be built on the recognition of CEO Sparkster Sajjad Daya, who promised 300x. Both under British law and in other jurisdictions, this uniquely makes the Sparkster token a security. But it was offered as a utility token. As the saying goes, “Loose lips sink ships!”
Conclusions
Of course, any scam project harms the industry. But also serves as a lesson for the community. Time to grow up.
- The promise of 300x should itself turn on a red light.
- The lack of a product on GiHub adds doubt.
- Violation of the commitments made, even if only in a small one, is a reason to doubt, no matter how reasonable the reservations may be.
- And most important – never forgive scammers. Now there are enough tools to bring the criminals to account.
Especially for an organized community. If this pans out, this will become a precedent, a good sign for investors and a warning to lovers to start scam projects. But wonder, will they succeed?
