An article on HackerNoon has a list of 24 red flags for crypto projects to look out for: https://hackernoon.com/24-cryptocurrency-red-flags-21362adba27a 

We will compare these red flags with the actual animecoin website: https://anime-coin.com/ Please note: This is entirely our personal opinion and nothing here is meant to be construed as fact or accusation. We’re just putting out our opinion publicly so the world can be better informed before investing in crypto projects like these. 

RED FLAG 1: No Public Code Repository- PASSED

AnimeCoin actually does have a public code repository here: https://github.com/airk42/AnimeCoin/graphs/commit-activity The bad news? It hasn’t been updated since May of 2018 and their proposed fork is supposed to happen in the Summer of 2018. 

RED FLAG 2: Low / No Activity - FAILED /  PASSED

As stated above, the last activity on their GitHub was in May! Almost 3 months ago, where did their developers go?

UPDATE: I have located a newer GitHub that has been updated quite recently: https://github.com/ANIME-AnimeCoin/AnimeCoin/graphs/commit-activity

RED FLAG 3: Small Team - FAILED

They only have 7 people listed on their website, most crypto projects have a lot more + advisers + influencers. 

RED FLAG 4: No Advisers - FAILED 

It is possible that someone on their “team” actually is an adviser, but it’s hard to tell since they don’t have official titles listed on the website. Even if one or two people on that team section actually are advisers, it’s too small of a list to actually take seriously.  

EDIT:  Anthony Georgiades is listed on the site as a “Strategic Advisor.” So they have at least one advisor on the project. Still a fail, as we would like to see multiple advisors on this project.  

RED FLAG 5: NO DIVERSITY IN POSITIONS - FAILED

Beyond “positions” let’s just look at the background of these guys. Finance, Poker Player, Anime, Poker Player, Developer, Investor/Developer/Poker Player? Do you see a trend in their team “diversity” and all their team members are white males, talk about being inclusive. 

RED FLAG 6: ANONYMOUS TEAM - PASSED 

Their names and LinkedIn accounts are listed on the website, however it is extremely suspicious that nobody on their team actually has “AnimeCoin” listed on their personal LinkedIn accounts. Why is that?  Also their Developer Airk42 is not a real name. This looks really bad. Not even a LinkedIn account associated with this person. Strange? Yes. 

RED FLAG 7: LOW TEAM ENGAGEMENT - FAILED

Look at their discord: https://discord.gg/xnR6AVh  There is a discussion breaking out on their server and people are getting angry about the lack of team response or transparency. Nobody knows that this “anime art exchange” is supposed to be or how it works and people have been calling for the team to give an official response. None has been given. 

Also their official website has a blog which hasn’t been updated for months. And the fork is supposed to happen in Summer of 2018? Really???

RED FLAG 8: PUBLIC TEAM INFIGHTING - PASSED

Because the team is so unresponsive, there’s no way we could know the public frustrations of their internal team. 

RED FLAG 9 - NO FUNDING - ????

It’s unknown whether or not they have funding. However, a simple google search of one of their team members,  Anthony Georgiades, reveals that he is involved with investment. Not to mention the poker player nature of their team, it’s quite obvious that they have money, but it is uncertain if they have a healthy source of funds to tap into for the sake of the project. 

RED FLAG 10: MYSTERY FUNDING - ????

They aren’t claiming that they have any funding on their website, so that’s good, but we also don’t know how or where they are being funded from. 

RED FLAG 11 - NO WHITE PAPER - FAILED

There is no white paper listed on their website. However they have a really terribly written “Roadmap” section on their site, does that count? I think not. 

RED FLAG 12 - PLAGIARIZED WHITE PAPER - FAILED

Seeing as how they have no white paper, it’s hard to give them any points for this. Technically they don’t have a plagiarized white paper (because it doesn’t exist), but they don’t deserve a passing grade for this either!

RED FLAG 13 - NO TECHNICAL DETAILS - FAILED 

Their Roadmap does contain details about their project, fork, and yes algorithms, however this entire debate and a lot of heat they have been facing on 4chan, discord, reddit, has been as a result of them giving ZERO information about their supposedly upcoming “anime art exchange.” Anime artists are desperately asking for information about this and nobody is answering. 

The actual use case for the coin is not well explained. 

RED FLAG 14 - NO TIMELINE - FAILED 

No timeline seen on the website, in fact, their fork date simply says “Summer 2018″ it doesn’t get more vague than that. 

To make matters worse, they DID have an actual fork date on their site before, but it was replaced with “Summer 2018” after that date had past without a fork. 

RED FLAG 15 - OVER HYPE - PASSED

The only hype this project had was the price increase in April which quickly dropped. This coin isn’t featured in an anime publications that I can see. 

RED FLAG 16 - MISLEADING FEATURES - FAILED

As stated above, anime artists on their discord and 4chan are demanding answers which AnimeCoin hasn’t given yet. While on their homepage of their website it clearly states features such as “buying and selling art” “prevent art theft” and other very nice sounding features for artists which aren’t elaborated on in any way. 

RED FLAG 17 - GRAND VISION - FAILED

The team expects us to believe that some platform where users can sell and buy random fan art of anime is going to be a huge success. They expect that their new coin with 21 Billion ANIME coins will some how have any worth or value? Nobody is going to pay for someone’s random fan art. 

RED FLAG 18 - PUBLICITY STUNTS - PASSED

Nothing to see other than a price spike. Unless that was an artificial price spike? Then we might be on to a real conspiracy here. 

RED FLAG 19 - MARKET SIZE - FAILED 

Anime art is a very tiny market. There’s no way this coin’s value is justified. 

RED FLAG 20 - NEED - FAILED

Many anime artists are very confused about crypto and have asked many questions in the Discord which have gone unanswered. There is clearly no need for this coin as it doesn’t solve any existing problems in the anime art community. 

RED FLAG 21 - COMPLEXITY - PASSED

The project does seem simple enough, sell and buy fan art online using anime coins. Not very complicated, easy to grasp idea. 

RED FLAG 22 - PONZI SCHEMES - PASSED

This doesn’t look like a Ponzi scheme as they aren’t asking us to recruit members in exchange for coins or a percentage of their earnings or investments. They don’t guarantee any earnings or growth as far as I can see. 

RED FLAG 23 - NO HARD CAP - PASSED 

Their “Roadmap” clearly states 21 Billion total ANIME Coins.  https://anime-coin.com/roadmap/

RED FLAG 22 - DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS - PASSED

It does not look like massive amounts of the coin are being allocated to the team. It is unknown how much of the original ANI coin the team actually owns collectively, but it doesn’t appear that a large percentage of the coin will be owned by the team at this point. 

CONCLUSION 

Out of 24 Red Flags to watch out for in crypto projects, AnimeCoin failed 13 of those Red Flags, with a few unknowns, and the rest as passing. 

50% is not a good success rate. 

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