Where exactly is the connection between GetGemz, PayKey and CoinDash? I visited PayKey's website and indeed Peled is stated to be the "CEO", but I found no connections between them and CoinDash. I also didn't saw them running an ICO or something, but stating that they are "partners" with giants such as CitiBank, Banco Santander, Commerzbank and MasterCard to name a few, is a huge red flag. They should be notified about this.

Long story short:

- GetGems had VC governance from day one, there wasn't any misuse of funds.
- The validation to this is that very reputable additional investors such as MasterCard, Santander InnoVentures, CommerzVentures, Siam Commercial Bank, SBI Group invested in the company in the round A and round B investment rounds.
- Every one of these investors is exposed to the financials statements of the company and disclosure schedule detailing all the agreements and history of the company. If there was even a slight risk that the company is a scam or that there was any wrongdoing these reputable investors would have never joined.

Some facts:

GetGems was the first ICO in Israel back at 2014, it was also the first israeli crypto company to receive funding from a reputable VC (Magma) with many strong portfolio companies such as Waze, Argos, TabTale etc.

GetGems was also the first ICO to raise funds with a milestone based structure (using Koinify platform). This meant that the project didn't receive the $800k raised instantly but based on accomplishing development milestones that were detailed in advanced. Adam Krellenstein the co-founder of Counterparty and a well respected protocol developer was the arbitrator for the GetGems funds which were held in a multisig wallet.

GetGems built the promised milestones (and a lot of other features) and reached 300k+ organic mobile downloads which was a big accomplishment only few other crypto apps reached at the time, but unfortunately the adoption wasn't strong enough to raise additional funds to keep the project alive as is.

As many startups do in such a situation new ideas were thought out and eventually the project pivoted to become PayKey.

It's important to note that none of the funds raised during the token sale were used to build PayKey rather funds from Magma and additional funds from respected investors such as MasterCard, Santander, CommerzVentures were raised during the Series A round: https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/67161/paykey-raises-6-million-in-series-a-funding and Series B funding: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/19/paykey-raises-10m-for-its-millennial-targeted-social-banking-smartphone-keyboard/.

Some people don't realize but $800k isn't a lot of money in the startup world, it's about 12 months of operation. If you get a product market fit and traction you might be able to raise additional funds if not most likely you will close the business. A lot of startups with much more money have failed. It's hard to build a real sustainable business. Working hard and having partial success or even failing eventually is very far from a scam, and is what nearly every real entrepreneur has experienced.

Too bad GetGems didn't work out. The concept had elements that remain valid and interesting. I'm certain it wasn't intended as a scam. However, once it began to fail, there was a troubling lack of transparency and very possibly a major conflict of interest.

Have you guys considered making a pact among your team to put aside like 10% of the Lisk forging rewards that each delegate makes towards Ark? You guys could be the first crypto to have an outside revenue source before you even begin, how cool would that be?

Per the original direction of Lisk management, it was recommended that those interested in becoming delegates for Lisk solicit votes by offering to use the forging rewards on Lisk related projects. Ark was founded to be able to run as a blockchain which can be bridged to Lisk and operate as a blockchain application with Lisk, so Lisk developers would have access to the blockchains bridged to Ark and Ark developers would have access to the Lisk blockchain applications, so it qualifies as such a project. Since there are very few salaried positions with Ark, and the current budget is under $15,000 USD per month, the use of Lisk forging positions as alternate compensation to develop a Lisk related project allows the current funding level to last much longer, and to have the cash on hand for hiring additional developers as blockchain qualified candidates to fill as needs and opportunity arise, to pay for other operating expenses, and for marketing when mainnet is released.

The current operation of Ark is completely within the guidelines originally presented by Lisk management.

bet you 5 bucks you're a bitbanksy sockpuppet lol

lol mandate like a king?  You do know that crypto is about decentralization and people being able to take charge of their own decisions.  Not to be dictated like, well a dictator.

It's supporting ark, just depends on how you look at it.

Okay, let's try this from a different angle.
ARK doesn't have the funds to vote up delegates. Currently the minimum entry into 101 is 7m lisk, ARK hold 4.7m not even close to make any delegate active if that delegate doesn't already have a lot of votes.
And if an individual delegate already have millions in weight that is because they have been working on gaining in for months now, most 8-10 months. Do you think any of this individual would be willing to say, "I give up" just use my gathered weight to fund ARK. I don't think so.

So ARK delegates in Lisk are not happening. Period.

I'm saying that ensuring the success of the ARK project should be the priority rather than using ARK TEC funds for personal gain. Saying people didn't invest in ARK and it was a donation for tokens is basically putting lipstick on a pig. People who supported the ARK TEC invested in its success. Using ARK TEC funds to forge Lisk is fine. However the returns should be used to further the ARK project and not misappropriated for profits of individual delegates.

I'm not saying that ARK TEC participants should get a distribution of Lisk forged from ARK TEC funds... again that would be using ARK funds for personal gain.. but that rather that forged Lisk should go back into a fund towards wages for ARK developers, foundation setup costs, towards the success of ARK. 

so basically you are saying we should give you more.

There's nothing unethical about it.

I don't need to explain it.  That's just the way it is.  Like it or not, it's not like you invested in ARK.  You exchanged your coins for ARK tokens to be used on the ARK platform.  Nothing more.  Having these tokens don't entitle you to any decision making and or explanations.

That's what the community needed to hear. Thanks for clarifying your real intentions.

To sum up: 30 ex-liskers have found a way to get paid while setting up a copycat... as for the ICO funds? Unless ARK does succefully setup a foundation as promised, the team reserve the right to spend funds the way they wish without being held accountable... Bravo! That's a good plan

I just linked our ICO wallet with ByteBall. I hope everything works fine, as it was quite a hassle.

For now the BBs will just go into the foundation's assets. We will communicate next year what we are going to do with them.


Thanks!

Best regards,
Max

They are different things! It would even be very interesting ICN background to list ARK, sure this will happen when ARK have a few months of life and deliver some projects.

hmm how did you hear about phase two?