Tag: Crypto Class Action

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Facebook: Initial Crypto Ad Ban “intentionally broad to better understand the crypto market”

A few headlines for the progress JPB Liberty has made in our Crypto Ad ban class action case against Facebook, Google and Twitter:

  • Since July 1st the financial value of submitted claims has jumped from $30m to over $200m and are still streaming in;
  • We have more than 350 claimants;
  • We’re in discussion with established sources of funds for class action legal cases;
  • Significant private contributions to legal funds;
  • Written acknowledgement of our warning letter from Google Australia;
  • Significant press coverage.

We’ve gained more press coverage and sign ups to the suit have accelerated. People, especially Crypto insiders, are realising that what the tech Goliath did, by calling their entire industry a scam, was very wrong!

Up until now there seems to have been a sort of Stockholm syndrome mentality within crypto insiders. Some crypto insiders believe there were lots of scams and the whole industry needed to feel guilty about them. They just took the punishment from these huge mega corporations and felt they deserved some of it! Evidence just doesn’t back this up. We have to fight that mentality which seems to be a very strongly held belief in a myth. You can read more about why this is a hoax here.

This article in Decrypt contains a very interesting revelation from a Facebook spokesperson:

While the suit names Facebook, Google and Twitter directly, Hamilton said he considers Facebook the principle offender, and alleged that the tech giant instigated the ban.  

In comments to Decrypt, a Facebook spokesman who did not want to be quoted by name said the social network would look into any cases where unfairness is alleged. The spokesman added that the initial ban had been intentionally broad to better understand the crypto market; the intent had been to create clearer policy around what constitutes acceptable crypto advertising.

Decrypt – Sued for billions, Facebook is accused of killing crypto businesses by Ben Munster

The spokesman
added that
the initial
ban had been
intentionally broad
to better
understand the
crypto market;

Does this phrase: “the initial ban had been intentionally broad to better understand the crypto market” mean Facebook decided to ban an entire industry before they even understood it? That would be an astonishing admission. Or are they just gaslighting now?

In the meantime JPB Liberty has received an acknowledgement of our initial letter sent to Google in Australia. They confirmed Google Australia was talking with Google in the US and a few other details.

We were also covered by Nadja Bester of BeInCrypto with an excellent and detailed explanation of the case.

https://beincrypto.com/lost-money-during-the-2018-cryptocurrency-ad-ban-you-can-now-claim-damages-in-largest-class-action-in-history/

This video I recorded in Jerusalem was especially good at driving sign ups to our case.

Not directly connected with JPB Liberty’s case (but I did mention the Crypto Add Ban) I appeared on Block TV again talking about Brexit and Bitcoin.

If you want to join the fight, instructions below. We’re always looking for class members as no-win-no-fee participants and at the same time, if you want a financial stake in this project, you can send money by PayPal or various crypto and you will receive a cryptographic token representing your share in the damages.

You can join the fight against the Tech Goliaths in two ways, you have a no win no fee claim or you wish to help finance the case.

⭐️ Please join the case if you held crypto and have a claim.

🏅 You can directly contribute crypto on Fundition. To send fiat currency via PayPal click here. If you want to talk about a large donation, Telegram or email me.

If you derive value from my work, please consider donating some value my way. You can find all the details on the donation page.

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Facebook lied about the Cryptocurrency industry to destroy it

Andrew Hamilton wrote this, it needs to be more widely disseminated. It directly refutes the malicious terms and conditions Facebook put into action when they banned cryptocurrency (and associated blockchain projects) from advertising online in January 2018.

Facebook's deceptive and malicious cyryptocurrency advertising ban terms and conditions.
Facebook’s deceptive and malicious cyryptocurrency advertising ban terms and conditions.

I’ve been running @jpbliberty‘s Class Action Lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter’s Crypto Ad Ban for over a year now.

The one objection I hear most, including from people in the Crypto Industry itself, is: “But there were so many scams”. I’ve heard people saying that over 80% of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were scams.

Well ITS A BIG LIE!

“But there were so many scams”

– Everybody who bought Facebook’s big lie

And one that was used by Facebook etc to cover their own illegal conduct.

I’ve done a detailed investigation of this issue and found that the level of scams in late 2017 / early 2018 was quite low and most Crypto Projects and actual ICOs were legitimate.

The allegation that most Crypto Industry projects were scams and billions were lost in ICO scams is patently false and lacking in any real evidence. ICOs were just a new way of startups raising money from private investors which has gone on since the dawn of investing.

It is mostly just 3rd hand hearsay and trolling of competing projects. The number and value of actual scams compared to the size of the crypto industry is small.

Official Government Statistics on Scams

The Australian consumer regulator (ACCC) did a detailed study of scams in 2018 and put out an official government report.

This is what the report finds:

  • Out of $489M in scam losses only a tiny percentage (1.25%; $6.1M) related to cryptocurrency in any way.
  • Of that 2/3rd were just other scams asking to be paid in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency investment scam losses were less than half a percent of total losses ($2.1).
  • Most of those were just impersonating cryptocurrency projects. Twice as much losses were from scams impersonated the Australian Tax Office!

I have not been able to find a single example on the ACCC’s scamwatch site of an actual cryptocurrency project ICO which was a scam.

Compared to the size of the Crypocurrency Industry, even in Australia, the percentage of scams is very low.

Huge numbers of legitimate Crypto projects

This is an amazing infographic (source) showing a huge number of legitimate cryptocurrency projects competing with the existing tech players in every area. I did not put this together, but have looked into many of the projects listed and have not found a single scam.

The Web 3.0 ecosystem already consists of over 3000 variegated crypto coins and over 900 decentralized apps or DApps (a single DApp can mean a team of up to 50 members, each dedicated to disrupting a specific industry). And even though the industry is still in its infancy, the market cap has already exceeded 800 billion.

Big Lie comes from one flawed report

Tellingly for a Big Lie, all the news allegations about a very high percentage of ICOs being scams can be traced back to a single flawed report by a group called Statis.

I don’t know who they are and they have no official status. But under the terms of their own report they classified Reddit posts about an ICO that other people said was a scam as an ICO scam. They also admit the vast majority of money lost on so called ICO scams was in just 3 scams. Thus they vastly inflated both the number of ICOs and the number of scams based unverified, defamatory hearsay and trolling. Anyone can say another project is a scam. It doesn’t make it so.

Failed projects are not scams. 95% of all tech startups in all areas will fail. That is the nature of innovation and capitalism.

And I’m not the only one calling out the vast overuse of the word “scam” in the Crypto Industry. Here is Naomi Brockwell (@skycorridors on Steem) on the topic with a follow up video here.

Technical requirements make real ICO scams rare

An ICO in late 2017 / early 2018 required smart contracts to be set up on the Ethereum (or other) blockchain. A simple Reddit post does not constitute an ICO. And other people calling it a scam on social media doesn’t make it one. The level of unjustified and defamatory attacks on other projects in the Crypto Industry is high. It is not evidence of a real scam.

The technical requirements for actually sending money to an ICO and receiving ICO tokens during late 2017 & early 2018 were pretty high and certainly not for naive investors.

  1. Having purchased or mined Ethereum (ETH);
  2. Sending the ETH to your own cryptocurrency wallet;
  3. Sending ETH from your own wallet to the ICO wallet.

No one without a decent understanding of Crypto could even work out how to do this! So the people who lost money in real ICO scams knew about crypto in detail and were, in that sense, experienced investors.

I note here that because of the very large amounts of money which early crypto true believers made and were looking to reinvest, the huge numbers of projects available to invest in, and the practical limitations on individual investor’s time, the strategy of just putting some money in everything your heard of, without doing due diligence, was a legitimate investment strategy.

Yes, you might lose some money to scams, but it made sure you had money early in the projects which would be hugely successful and make up for all the other failed and (few) scam projects. This is the essence of the entire venture capital business model. If you want a safer investment, invest in companies that are regulated and on the stock market Enron or Bear Stearns (oh… wait..)

So this is the BIG LIE which Facebook used to cover its own illegal banning of all crypto industry ads on 30 Jan 2018.

You can join the fight against the Tech Goliaths in two ways, you have a no win no fee claim or you wish to help finance the case.

⭐️ Please join the case if you held crypto and have a claim.

🏅 You can directly contribute crypto on Fundition. To send fiat currency via PayPal click here. If you want to talk about a large donation, Telegram or email me.

If you derive value from my work, please consider donating some value my way. You can find all the details on the donation page.

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Podcast updates on JPB Liberty #CryptoClassAction progress

BrianofLondon's Forest Talks
BrianofLondon's Forest Talks
Podcast updates on JPB Liberty #CryptoClassAction progress
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This show, from Friday, gives a progress update on JPB Liberty and the attention we received last week following our press release.

At the end of the show I paraphrased the end of the Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill. Here’s the full quote I was recalling from memory:

But I cannot conceal from the reader of this truthful account that as I went to bed at about 3 A.M., I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed me from ordinary party antagonisms. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.

The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill

You can join the fight against the Tech Goliaths in two ways, you have a no win no fee claim or you wish to help finance the case.

⭐️ Please join the case if you held crypto and have a claim.

🏅 You can directly contribute crypto on Fundition. To send fiat currency via PayPal click here. If you want to talk about a large donation, Telegram or email me.

If you derive value from my work, please consider donating some value my way. You can find all the details on the donation page.

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People Are Starting To Notice JPB Liberty’s Massive Law Suit Against Facebook, Google and Twitter

Yesterday Andrew and I traveled a few minutes to meet up in Ramat Gan, one of Israel’s top business districts abutting Tel Aviv to visit startup Block TV and their beautiful studio and offices. Here’s the interview (you can also see it on their site).

Andrew laid out the case clearly and very well. He covered the basics of the actions taken by these companies and why Australia is such a good place to bring this case. I added some points about the deplatforming background of the social media Goliaths. If you want to deeply understand what’s really going on with advertisers dictating the moves of the tech Goliaths, you really should listen to this section of the No Agenda Show.

Back when Andrew first told me about this case, I told him to stop saying the case was worth $500Bn, nobody would believe him and he sounded like a Bond villain. As I’ve got deeper into the story I’ve realised that’s probably at the low end of what these companies have done. And when Facebook brazenly launched their Libra cryptocurrency, it became absolutely obvious that having destroyed journalism, and gobbled up global media advertising, these companies are fully intending to take over the world’s money supply.

Additional coverage in this round:

You can join the fight against the Tech Goliaths in two ways, you have a no win no fee claim or you wish to help finance the case.

⭐️ Please join the case if you held crypto and have a claim.

🏅 You can directly contribute crypto on Fundition. To send fiat currency via PayPal click here. If you want to talk about a large donation, Telegram or email me.

If you derive value from my work, please consider donating some value my way. You can find all the details on the donation page.