The Deuce: Hcash - something smells fishy

The Con: Cloned source from Decred. False feature promises. Led by phony 'industry experts'.

Welcome to the Deuce, where investigative reporting meets deuce coins. To receive the shame of being labeled a deuce coin, said coin must meet the following requirements:

• Be listed in the top 100 of CoinMarketCap
• At best, grossly misleading marketing

Please share this article. The crypto community needs to do a better job of kicking these types of projects to the curb. Scam coins snare unsuspecting investors, steal attention from other deserving coins, and dissuade future investors from entering the marketplace.

Time to drop a duece on Hcash. I present the evidence, you draw your own conclusions.

UPDATE 1: The Hcash con is much more interesting than I originally thought.

UPDATE 2: It looks like Hcash copied their source code from Decred (DCR). Source Tweet

Hcash has one of the most ambitious feature sets of any coin on the market. Hcash promises to deliver some of the most technically difficult features all in one coin. Their website lists those features prominently and I have listed some of them below:

HCash is Hive: It has a dual sidechain composed of blockchain and DAG systems, designed to implement an unrestricted flow of information and value between blockchain-based and blockless-based distributed systems.

Hcash is Hidden: Your privacy can be protected. Hcash will adopt Zero Knowledge Proof technology to achieve bi-directional encryption and many other areas demanding transactional privacy.

Hcash is Hard: Quantum Resistance. Hcash takes quantum resistance into consideration from the very beginning of system design. Therefore, Hcash still has a natural advantage over other systems at the system level, even after the rise of practical quantum computers.

WOW! Impressive right? This is the who's who of crypto buzzwords! Not only that, these are some of the most difficult to implement features.

• Ask IOTA about the difficulties of properly implementing quantum resistance.
• And... who wants that outdated and cluncky blockchain technology, DAG is so 2017, Lighting is for newbs. Hcash has a better solution, Hive, or as I like to call it, the offchain blockchain DAGinator.
• But wait! There's more! It is a privacy coin too! And we all know, implementing a privacy coin is a walk in the park.

OK, OK, OK... I know what you are thinking, Hcash will deliver these features becuase Hcash is led by 3 clones of Vitalik Buterin. And sure enough, if you peruse the Hcash website you will find Vitalik #1, Vitalik #2, and Vitalik #3.

The problem is... Vitalik Buterin clones they are not. The depth of these guy's knowledge about cutting edge crypto technology rivals that of my sweet ol' grandma Ethel (Hey, she is pretty sharp for an old lady). My proof? Enjoy the following video or skip to transcribed highlights below.

00:59
Chief Technology Officer (Khal Achkar): "My name is Khal, I am a computer engineer. I have a masters in management. I have been into the technology world for years now, and I have been into the cryptocurrency since 2013. I am actually seeing the future with cryptocurrency and using blockchain technology to solve the real world problems."

Not exactly an impressive intro for the CFO of a coin that promises the MOST cutting edge crypto features.

01:27
Business Development Manager (Andrew Wasylewicz): Hi, my name is Andrew. I acquired a Master of Applied Science. I have experience within the insurance and superannuation industries. I have been involved with Blockchain about 4 years and get involved in strategic investment and got in on the process of approximately $100, and now is doing quite well. And just looking for the opportunity I think it's just at the very early stage of what's to come."

WHOOOAAA!!! $100! Let's see... $100 of bitcoin 4 years ago would be around $2,500 today. Andrew's credentials are... lacking to say the least.

02:06
Chief Executive Officer (Dallas Brooks): "Dallas Brooks is my name. I am the CEO of Hcash. I compere here in Melbourne a TV program called Dollars with Sense. It's a legal finance show that has been going since about 2009. I got involved in this industry approximately 4 years ago through Sam Lee, who I was helping to mentor him here in Australia. And he got involved first and asked me to have a look at it. Having my background being in the finance and investment industry, I didn't know a whole lot about it. I've slowly built up my knowledge. I took the plunge and fortunately it paid off and here I am right now" (queue big goofy grin from Mr. Brooks)
Interviewer (Sam Lee): "Excellent! So the Hcash team as you could see is highly experienced within the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem."

Hold on sec while I wipe off the coffee I spit up all over my computer screen after reading Sam Lee's statement "highly experienced within the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem."?!?! WTF Sam! Didn't the CEO, Mr. Brooks just say, "Having my background being in the finance and investment industry, I didn't know a whole lot about it."

Hahahaha. You have to watch the whole video, Dallas, Andrew, and Khal are the 3 stooges of the crypto executive world. Can you believe that a few weeks ago, their coin had a market cap of 1.7 billion USD?

If I let my conspiracy theory side get the best of me, I'd swear Sam Lee (the interviewer) conned Dallas into fronting the money for Hcash in an elaborate pump and dump scheme. And poor Andrew... he probably got roped into this scheme by his favorite uncle Dallas. Now, the 3 stooges are stuck as the front men for the next great crypto con (step aside BITCONNNNECCCCT!!!).

But wait! There is more!

03:29
Interviewer (Sam Lee): "I think it is a good time for Khal to talk through on a high level what makes Hcash so fundamentally special."
Chief Technology Officer (Khal Achkar): "Thanks Sam. You mentioned about the 7 H's. One of them is quantum resistance, which is Hcash will be using the algorithm. Hcash will be using features from the best currencies in the market, like the Zcash it will be using the zero knowledge protocol. For instance, it should be using the messaging and encryption of the messages from the example of what Byteball is using to chat. so there will be the gateway between all the blockbase and blockless blockchain and then it will talk at the same time and interact with the tangle as well which IOTA based on top of it. So this is the hybrid currency that will live forever at this ecosystem and then interact without any inforce with all these existing technologies on the blockchain using its security and its protection will stay with it."

Wow Khal! Any other features you want to throw in there? You forgot the kitchen sink! And Kahl, seriously, thanks for keeping your descriptions 'high level' as Sam Lee suggested, for a second there, I thought you didn't know what the hell you were talking about and just regurgitating the marketing buzzwords you memorized 10 minutes ago.

Something is definitely fishy about Hcash. As always, do your own research!