(+) TokenCard ICO Bug: End of the Road for TokenCard?

A Hacked member writes:

Love your service. I was wondering what you thought of the tokencard bug and if you think it will negatively affect the project and it’s token value?

We at Hacked did not previously cover the TokenCard ICO. Looking into it, we have less-than-positive news to report. The TokenCard team seems to be taking the issue of mis-distributed funds lightly, have frozen transactions until they have a resolution, and overall seem to think that downplaying the issue is the best way forward. This is not true at all. For, it was only very recently that Bitcoin Unlimited enjoyed rather large support. Then, a bug in their code gave competing implementations and detractors the opportunity to declare the Bitcoin Unlimited team as incompetent.

TokenCard is only the latest entrant into the world of debit card + cryptocurrency. Already experiencing problems will certainly have an effect on the value of the token. Moreover, the failure to properly address user concerns is a monumental case of operator error on the part of Monolith Studios. Let’s look at what they had to say in their blog post on the subject:

All is fine. We are indeed fully aware of the bug that has occurred and there are indeed a number of solutions. Though it is not a large issue, we are taking this very seriously.

The TKN Creation Event pushed the boundaries of Ethereum crowdsales and with that we deemed it appropriate to explore these possibilities with adequate safety measures put in place. We were prepared for these kinds of possibilities; transfers are frozen until we are satisfied with the results. I want to thank the quality work done by Peter Vessenes and Dennis Peterson (New Alchemy) to be able to mitigate issues like this.

Translation: we’re not worried about this and neither should you be, despite the seriousness of not delivering on our stated promise of how coins would be distributed. Look at how great we are, and how unique. Don’t lose faith, oh no, don’t lose faith. We are awesome!

Lacking serious novelty – virtually any bank in the world could launch a competing product and fund it without an ICO – would have been enough reason to earn this a low rating as an ICO from the author. But now seeing that they couldn’t even launch properly but still managed to raise $12 million brings great concern for the ultimate fate of that $12 million. Other teams out there who were not even previously considering a debit card play may soon consider it. Anyone who is considering getting one of these Ethereum-based debit cards will surely not have brand loyalty to TokenCard, as well. Perhaps they’ll be considering Uquid, or some other option soon to come.

Mistakes can be forgiven, but accountability and responsibility are the watch word with these things. Will those who invested in the TKN token get their money back from the investment? Maybe. Can this mistake be considered malfeasance? Not necessarily, but certainly the team’s Hollywood-sex-scandal type response to the thing is a major red flag.