Hello Steemians!
Today, let's look at an ongoing ICO Serenity (set to close on March 7th), that is picking up a fair share of hype and has managed to raise $2.3 million out of their $19 million goal. In all likelihood they will not reach their $19 million goal, but nevertheless, its sad to see funds transferred to projects that will surely fail. Let's check it out!
# What is Serenity?
Serenity is an ERC-20 token(built on the Ethereum platform) that proposes to protect Forex traders from fraud by intermediaries such as brokers and scammy exchanges. Their solution is explained in their fuzzy 13 page [whitepaper](https://serenity-financial.io/uploads/uploads/WP_SERENITY_ENG.pdf), and oh my, it is a complete mess. The whitepaper is obviously targeted to benefit from lack of education, because they throw out random buzzwords, whereas anyone who has even a remote understanding of the topics they cover should realize that the entire idea behind the project has nothing but hype appeal. Let's look at some key points:
* The only value proposition they make is that they will help regulate the activity of Forex brokers and various middlemen, thereby eliminating fraud. They propose do do this by creating a "single transparent regulatory system created on the basis of modern technologies" ([Serenity whitepaper](https://serenity-financial.io/uploads/uploads/WP_SERENITY_ENG.pdf), p.4). By modern technologies, they mean the blockchain, and they either can't understand what it is, or they are delibarately misleading people. The blockchain is not a transparent way of regulating the activity of middlemen, it is a way of creating a self-sustaining distributed ledger that can be used to **cut out middlemen alltogether**.
Furthermore, a blockchain by itself has little value, especially if you set it up in the wrong way. With essential parts missing, you will not get the benefits of decentralization, you will create harm. The utility of the blockchain is to create an open, distributed ledger that has no central point of failure.
* Forex trading, the market they want to regulate, is already decentralized:
>One unique aspect of this international market is that there is no central marketplace for foreign exchange. Rather, currency trading is conducted electronically over-the-counter (OTC), which means that all transactions occur via computer networks between traders around the world, rather than on one centralized exchange([Investopedia](https://www.investopedia.com/university/forexmarket/forex1.asp))
Unlike most blockchain projects, the goal of Serenity is further centralization, not decentralization. Serenity wants to create a centralized database, calling it "blockchain", and have a significant portion of the Forex market, [the largest, most liquid market on the globe](https://www.investopedia.com/university/forexmarket/forex1.asp), trade on their centralized platform. A platform, that would not eliminate middlemen, but would work with them, creating a standardized system of returns for brokers and exchanges. This plan is entirely too grand and stupid to ever succeed, and it has no hope to gather investments from anyone familiar with the technology. What will more than likely happen, is that this project will end up riding the success of legitimate projects for some time, until it becomes clear that it is not going anywhere, because it has nothing going for it.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Thanks for reading!
[<center></center>](https://steemit.com/@cryptoasis)