Sometimes you think you see a chocolate pudding, and it turns out to be a bowl of shit. It all looked so well for the HempCoin ($THC) when we wrote our Hodl That #8, and at first, the plan seemed to work out nicely, even with the bitcoin moves that massacred altcoins across the board. The support around 2k sats held bravely and once the team behind $thc published their new whitepaper, with further masternodes and other significant pieces of information for a bright future the price went up slowly. And then it went it south. It dived deeper then Hagbard Celine's Lief Erikson. And even FUCKUP (First Universal Cybernetic-Kinetic Ultra-Micro Programmer) would not have been able to predict this mess, we guess.*

Well, guys – you know us. We never wanted to play the judge in any case. When we wrote about the LitecoinCash Hard Fork, everyone screamed “SCAM!” and grabbed their forks and torches. We just presented the info, but as we like to keep a balanced view, we thought “hey, why don't just ask them if it's a scam in an interview, can't hurt to have some more input”. The result has been bans in subreddits and more torch burns. Well the fork is done, we got our LCCs, didn't get robbed, and all LTCs are still in place.

However, this post is not again about LCC, but about the HempCoin – and here as well, we don't want to judge about the team and their intentions, but we want to tackle down some somewhat notable happenings. As you remember, when we posted the HODL THAT issue, they traded at a crucial strong support line and had obviously great news to come. The announced hard fork was planned to take place earlier but has been postponed. The market reacted great to the first hard fork announcement, and the price shot up. Unfortunately, we did not found where the first delay of the hard fork has been mentioned first (please comment if you have a source for the first appearance of it), but when we took note that it will postpone, the price has already plummeted. No source of proof here, so I did not happen.

However, if you scroll through the twitter account of the hempcoin, you will see many posts, which seem to aim for a price push. An example here, where they predict the price to become $10 as future “reality”:

Thanks to all who supported $THC this year. 2018 will be EPIC with the Anonymous fork and #masternodes!#THC will soon eclipse $1.00 and with what's in store, $10 isnt just possible but will become a reality! From the #HempCoin Team, #HappyNewYears ??#THC #Darksend #HempPAY — Hemp Coin (THC) (@TheHempCoin) 31. Dezember 2017

If you research their twitter you will often find an announcement for upcoming announcements. We know this game well and remember the Einsteinium ($EMC2) case. This is often used by crypto companies that want to artificially push the price, as the young crypto markets still react very hefty to the most news. Maybe this perception is flawed, but there is a taste of something leftover.

Besides all these assumptions – and we have to stress, this is what it is, an assumption – the Hempcoin team seems to be notorious for being late and for disappointing the community with announcements of dates they are not able to hold. This tweet gives a cute overview how many forths and backs we had alone with the hard fork.

The writer of this article feels teased to place a joke about unreliable pot smokers here but resists…

But it is not the hard fork alone. Check this tweets out. On the 5th of January, they announce the Masternodes with needed collaterals of 20k coins.

HempCoin $THC update New website and fork later this month We have a direct line with @BittrexExchange and they are aware of our fork. The change will be automatic and ALL of your coins are safe on Bittrex Masternode will be 20,000. Instructions for the masternode upon release — Hemp Coin (THC) (@TheHempCoin) January 5. 2018

Then on the 27th, hooray, they decreased the collaterals to 10k. Wowser, that's some cheap masternodes! Despite the fact the THC masternodes won't be very rewarding, this a dirt-cheap entry for those that plan to stake for the long run and want to get some “interest” for their holdings.

The #Hempcoin team is proud to officially announce 10,000 $THC will get you one masternode! The #THC node will require 10,000 THC Collateral – 15 THC per block – 1 min Block time – 2 MB blocks Check the attachment for more information on the $THC node! HempCoin #BTC #HempPAY pic.twitter.com/snQFjvoWQs — Hemp Coin (THC) (@TheHempCoin) January 27, 2018

Today, we have a look at their recently uploaded whitepaper. We find the masternodes – oh bummer – back on 20k:

Thinking of the multiple hard fork date, the switching masternode facts – which are pretty important -, we understand why the price is that low right now. This is the kind of uncertainty every investor just loves. Big time. The GitHub that seems not to change at all since weeks is the cream of the top and the not working block crawlers, and block explorer gives us also no good feeling at all. And then… One day the before the announced hard fork date, they postpone again.

Final thoughts and conclusions on The Hempcoin

We want to stress, that this post is not about bashing the Hempcoin project. Frankly, we don't think that we have it to do with an actual scam here, like with intentional price manipulation. Matter of fact is, that we don't have any proof for a scam – we read it often right now, but think it is important to have rock-solid evidence before screaming “SCAM!”. One can hurt an honest company so fast nowadays with this kind of emotional reactions and we want to refrain from that. But we have another point, which we see as a more concerning fact. The communication, the ongoing changes of conditions and the ridiculous delays are facts, which should make the common investor hesitating. The given indicators are that the team is not very stable in their output, they whether give out release dates and facts in too early stages (so they have to change things later) or they don't care too much about their promises and announce them without the needed seriousness. Either way, it is not good. Investing in crypto means to invest in uncertainty to a given degree. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt make our crypto lives already tricky – the last thing we need are companies that add up to this on their own by uncautious business behavior.

*See Robert Anton Wilsons and Robert Sheas Illuminatus! trilogy to get those references.