"Is crypto still fair?"
Ummmm, since when was crypto "fair"?
Also, since when was any kind of market "fair"?
Startups have the right to accept or reject whoever they want.
It can be argued that allowing anyone to participate can build trust in the company, but seriously, that's not the case.
It's not that way because when you strip it down, it's a we're in it for the money scenario, on both sides..
With that being said, it honestly just seems to be a technical problem.
Most startups have only 10 to 20 employees. Going through thousands of KYC applications is likely to cause errors.
Although it does suck, it seems inevitable that there would be problems that pop up.
Best thing is to move on to another one. There are so many legitimately good startups and ico lately that you are bound to find another one.
It's not a market unless it's open to anybody. It's a common misconception that a market with entry barriers is anywhere near what a libertarian would call a free market. It's actually the opposite and quite interestingly, people who tend to be against a free market often are the same exact people who will come up with some kind of bureaucratic-socialist pseudo-solution to maintain fair chances for everybody.
I think it's hypocritical to come into this crypto sphere, build a company around an idea and then be picky about your community. And if that's what Dether or anybody else is doing, then they should be honest about it and say: Listen, guys, we want money, but we don't want anybody's money. Instead, these people show up and talk about decentralization and changing the world and helping people but implement a KYC-process that is exclusive as fxxk. That being said, yes, they can reject whoever they want but they should not pretend to be a community project.