You're going to be really disappointed to hear how most fintech startups, and non-startups, and non-fintech software companies, and non-startup companies, operate then.
Yeah its bad, but lets not act like the bar was ever high to begin with.
And given how many crypto scams there have been, one's bar should be higher than your normal startup, unless you don't care about losing money put into it.
It's the same way I don't let a friend borrow money if he's generally irresponsible or burned me in the past just because he guarantees he can double it by the end of the month.
I don't know if you're implying this, but it seems like you think because every company has to start somewhere it means they inherently deserve trust and little criticism to help them along?
You needed resources to design the money art, put NFC chips on them, code + test the system, and make the promo website.
Next they have to build more of the site, setup a system to track sales and deliver the money to customers, and host a server to make the money work.
Not only that but this is definitely not "cash in your pocket". Cash has value backed by the government that you can pay taxes with.
Even if Bitcoin notes take off, they're no better than a visa gift card you can redeem (if the company doesn't go out of business, at least)
I sound like I'm bashing, but it's very disingenuous to say this and bitcoin is the same as fiat currency.