ICO of the day: Synthetic rhino horn erection pills, on the Blockchain | Hacker News Reader

ICO of the day: Synthetic rhino horn erection pills, on the Blockchain

davidgerard.co.uk

29 pointsdavidgerard17 comments

They need to work on their pitch, it's a bit thin at present. I suggest:

"If blockchain technology doesn't already get you hard, Synthorn will."

This particular project doesn't inspire confidence, but I've been thinking for a while that it'd probably be good for rhinos if we could make convincing fake rhino horn powder and get it into the market.

That is a fantastic idea. Talc mixed with a small amount of Viagra. Maybe throw a little ground cows horn if needed.

[author here] The article links several rhino conservation organisations pointing out why this is actually a bad idea - it would expand consumer demand for what is already an aspirational product, it would lend credibility to the completely fraudulent claims that rhino horn has any medical effect and it would provide cover for trade in poached horns. It sounds plausible, but ...

I could see all that being a problem if you sold fake rhino horn as a legitimate product. "Here, have some synthetic rhino horn, almost as good as the real thing."

What I'm talking about is making fake rhino horn complete with DNA produced in machines, and selling it on the black market at a significantly lower price than poachers can manage. It'd basically have to be an undercover government operation.

This already happens, per https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/synthe... -

"* More than 90% of “rhino horns” in circulation are fake (mostly carved from buffalo horn or wood), but poaching rates continue to rise annually"

I urge you to read that in detail, it's a comprehensive response as to why Pembient are likely barking up completely the wrong tree, and variants on the idea are probably not good either.

Hmm I guess your quote might disprove my hypothesis.

In any case I completely agree that Pembient's idea is terrible, and we should not have any sort of legal variant of rhino horn on the market. My proposal was to produce illegal rhino horn powder that didn't happen to come from rhinos, while being much cheaper (assuming that's possible). It's academic anyway because it'd have to be a CIA operation or something similar, and it seems unlikely that the CIA would care about saving rhinos.

I should note that Pembient have commented on the post making their case with several cites. (I still think the environmentalists' points are stronger, fwiw.)

I can't even tell if this is "real" or just fantastic performance art... Or even if there's a difference any more...

>Or even if there's a difference any more...

Very few performance artists drive a lambo.

I find that concept artists tend to have f-u money, whatever they drive.

And buying a lambo is one of the worst ways to spend a large chunk of f-u money that I can think of.

Unsubstantiated (yet difficult to disprove) assertion of the day: Lambo ownership is strongly correlated with being an asshole. Causal relationship currently unknown.

Add this to yesterday's Paris Hilton news and I'm pretty sure we've just spotted the top of the bubble.

Yes.[1] We're probably approaching the point where the SEC will do something to make ICOs do the same things IPOs are required to do. All they need is a good case. Look for "I put X into token Y because they said they were going to do Z. They didn't do Z, and instead, the people behind Z are buying yachts. And we know where they are."

[1] https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/09/04/2193198/paris-hilton-...

The SEC has been taking a surprisingly soft touch, but is actively phoning up ICO promoters to suggest they get it together: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/09/01/the-sec-told...

The SEC is doing a good job, then. That gets the message across that a "take the money and run" ICO isn't going to end well for the promoters.

Note that Synthorn has absolutely no contact details available (and an anonymised whois) except an address to send them Ether. They have a promotional Facebook and Twitter, I suppose the SEC could subpoena them ...

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