ICO Warning: Stream41 is a Scam

Unfortunately, this is the only thing the company has built — and it’s not particularly a good website at that. [bctt tweet=”Lack of a working product, poor whitepapers, and a CEO who has a track record of not paying employees makes this an ICO to avoid at all costs.” username=”beincrypto”]

Stream41 Isn’t That Original of an Idea

On initial glance, the solutions this ICO seeks to build are practically revolutionary. The main idea rests on creating a decentralized network for content creators to share their work in return for tokens, given to them by their fans and consumers. It points to video services such as YouTube demonetizing content creators as a sign for potential growth. However, five minutes of Googling will yield other and older cryptocurrency projects which have the same business model with a user base already in existence. Here are two examples of other decentralized projects that are miles ahead of Stream41.

LBRY

A decentralized software that allows users to upload videos and share them with the community. It has a working product and a large user base. If investors are looking for video platforms in the crypto space, this project that is at the forefront of the movement.

STEEM

A decentralized protocol that hosts content creation from blogs to videos. It has working products and a large community adding to the content base on a daily basis. The team has created their own token and a brand new protocol to help content creators earn tokens for their work.

Watch Out for ERC-20 Tokens Claiming Video Streaming

Stream41 wants to compete in a space where they are heavily outgunned. The two projects mentioned above have built their own blockchains and have unique tokens. Steam41 is supposed to be an ERC-20 token, built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It’s an easy way out of doing the hard work of designing a blockchain that can technologically handle the demands of video streaming. Without plans to create its own blockchain, Stream41 is looking like a company more interested in a massive payout then it is in building a product.

Stream41 Doesn’t Even Have a Token

Trying to invest? Sorry, you can’t. Even though it claims to have an ERC-20 token, in reality, nothing exists. Clicking on the “invest” button on its website shows a popup which asks you to send an email to [email protected]. (Seriously, its email has the handle “hello.”)

Sloppy Site Editing

If the goal of an ICO is to raise money, the website that promotes it should be perfect. Instead, Stream41 is a testament to laziness and unmotivated work.

Broken Links

Trying to click an internal link to follow their progress on their supposed “ICO website” brings up an error message.

Poor Grammar

Throughout the site, lack of commas in the right places and seemingly discombobulated sentences make it clear that the content creators are not native-English speakers. The reason this is a problem is that, supposedly, the company is headquartered in California. If it can’t even afford a copywriter to edit its content, how can it afford to pay developers to create a decentralized protocol?

Terrible White Papers

When a product has a “technical white paper” that is barely two pages long, there is a huge problem. Investors are looking for the underlying algorithms and a deep dive into the tech developers will be implementing. With Stream41, there is barely mention of how it will work or in what way it will be manifested digitally. It’s pathetic. There is more detail in the initial Bitcoin Whitepaper, which is only nine pages long.

Poor Social Media and Marketing Efforts

One look at its Instagram account and it’s painfully obvious the lack of original content. The photos are stock images with cheesy words overlaid. There are no pictures of their development team — or anyone in the company, for that matter.  Update: The Instagram link on Stream41’s homepage directs to a page that no longer exists.

The CEO, Andy Chaudhuri, Doesn’t Pay For Work Performed

There are more than a handful of disgruntled contractors that have never been paid for work they have done on Stream41. When doing the research for this article, we stumbled upon emails from previous contractors who never got paid. What’s more, in a recent marketing blitz, a team of cryptocurrency marketing professionals was compiled and contracts were signed promising ERC-20 tokens on a monthly basis. After the first pay period came and went, not a single person was paid. Any individuals asking for their compensation, which was agreed upon in writing, were deleted and blocked from any correspondence. There is no reason to think Chaudhuri won’t treat investors the same way and steal from them.

Front End Design Does Not Make a Cryptocurrency

Just because a website exists, doesn’t mean an ICO is real. Stream41 is nothing more than a dishonest company (or single person) that is trying to capitalize upon the popularity of cryptocurrencies. As follows is a recap of what makes this ICO a danger to avoid:

• No working product
• The video streaming niche already has successful projects
• No original blockchain
• Terrible whitepapers
• Lazy website
• Corrupt CEO

ICOs are exciting and democratize investment opportunities for regular folks to become investors. Getting into a project early has the potential to make millionaires out of ordinary people. Unfortunately, Stream41 is one of those infamous projects that will steal investor money and never create a return on investment.  What do you think about Stream41? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Also, you may be interested in: 

• KeepStake Claims to Have Raised $55 Million (It’s a Lie)
• Korean Exchange Pure Bit Exit Scams During Token Sale

[Editor’s Note: This article is not investment advice and is for informational purposes only. BeInCrypto has no relationship with any of the projects mentioned.]