Exploring Fictitious Capital: Tagcoins, Chikns, and the Future of Value
I met Ryze Conley, an enthusiastic, amiable crypto entrepreneur in Tulum last year. A few months ago, he reached out to me on Facebook. He was working on an innovative new blockchain-based cryptocurrency project, Tagcoin. As an admirer of my work, he wanted me to explore the project, interview the founder and write something about it. In return, he would pay me for my piece. I was reluctant at first, but he persisted.
I told him that I generally don’t write sponsored articles for marketing purposes. Finally I relented. I agreed to do it as long as I maintained control over the copy. I genuinely liked Conley’s vibe and his enthusiasm won me over. We agreed on terms.
I resisted because I suspected Tagcoin was a scam of some kind — yet another complex mechanism for extracting value that my non-mathematical mind would struggle to understand. In the end, after reviewing Tagcoin and speaking to its founder, I don’t think it is more of a scam than most other well-known and respected crypto projects. It may even be less of one. In fact, I enjoyed delving into this operation and would be happy to do the same with other projects in the future. It gave me a lot to reflect upon, which I will try to unpack in what follows.
