Wow... I feel like it has been several ages since the last Binance Launchpad... I guess in a bear market, there aren't that many projects launching, but those that are are getting a good deal of free and quiet air as there is very little hype around! Recently, Hashflow (HFT) was featured in the Launchpool... where you stake BUSD and BNB for allocations of the HFT token. Now, that was an interesting one... Hashflow does seem to have some decent use case, and a novel approach to solving OTC liquidity with an on-chain solution.

Anyway... back to the point, the newly announced Binance Launchpad, which conveniently starts just as the current Hashflow Launchpool finishes! Out of curiosity, I quickly looked up the last Binance Launchpad... and it was StepN, a Move-to-Earn project... and if you remember, Move-to-Earn was real fad at the time. I dumped it...

Now this time, we have Hooked Protocol... and I feel like it yet another Learn-to-Earn sort of thing. This is a project that is aiming to onboard people to crypto via learning courses that is incentivised with tokens. Sigh... I'm really not convinced that education and lasting learning is incentivised by "money"... and even if it is, it isn't the proper sort of motivation... the chasing of tokens isn't really going to be a lasting incentive, especially when the token dries up and the intrinsic motivation is found to not be there at all!

Anyway... who wrote that byline. Word salad crap that belongs in a board-room with people who think that they are important and critical to the running of humanity. Bleah...

Why do so many crypto projects seem to believe so whole-heartedly in economic incentives being the solution to all problems? It really is useful sometimes, but market incentives are not always applicable to every situation! Even the most die-hard economist will tell you that...

So, what gives the HOOK token value? Well... they say that it is "innovative"... I'm checked out already! Honestly, why do people describe anything as innovative?

Governance, social access, platform coin, rollup gas token, and staking... well, that ticked all the boxes of questionable use-cases already. However, they were all the big rage at some point... but it isn't looking good!

Hooked ($HOOK): Binance Launchpad (Thoughts)png

So, the actual "education" mechanics. Quiz to earn... yes yes, we have seen this gamed to death. Just hunt around on the internet within seconds of a "learn to earn" campaign starting... and you will find countless blogs advertising the answers. So, unless our modern version of learning involves googling and pasting in answers... this isn't learning, it is token chasing.

Proof of work and time... sigh... well, lets start with the time thing... unless your app is horribly invasive, the proof of time is essentially loading up a page and then going off to have a coffee and then collecting the tokens. And don't get me started on this horrific perversion of the understanding of "classic proof of work"! Is this actually teaching real cryptocurrency and blockchain concepts? Because that is a terrible marketing perversion right there...

... yes, the interface looks a lot like an education app... and definitely not like a gambling one.

Sigh... "web3 social graph", sure. Bleah...

Stake and swap... well, these are very interesting basic use cases for cryptocurrencies... but is it really done on chain, and in non-custodial wallets.. if so, then perhaps this is a useful gateway... even if all the education parts are flawed. Still, it would be better to just get a decent non-custodial wallet and read some REAL educational material!

So, around 5 percent of the supply will be allocated to the Binance which means that it will be half the circulating supply when it hits the listing time.... with the Launchpad sale being roughly in a similar region to the private sales in pricing (0.1 USD per HOOK). At listing, it is only the community tokens that are otherwise circulating but I assume that most of the community tokens were essentially acquired at zero cost.

A breakdown of the various pots that will be dumping (sorry, investing).... in text and pretty picture formats.

Anyway, there is a whole heap of tokens (90 percent) that will be vested over the coming year... so, a crazy amount of incoming sells.... and I'm really not at all convinced that there is a real long term use-case and intrinsic value for the HOOK token!

So, Hooked had launched WildCash to decent usage statistics in Indonesia and Brazil... but I really wonder how many actually came for the learning, and how many came for the free tokens. I do wonder how many actually stayed after getting drops... and I wonder who the hell thought that WildCash was a good name for an educational app? It sounds more like a gambling app...

So, I have to say that I'm not really convinced about this one... it will follow the same format as all the Launchpads... snapshots of BNB balances on Binance, followed by a staked lockup, and the proportional purchase allocations. I will allocate and stake... and then be ready to dump like crazy. I don't like the concept of this project, and I don't really see the intrinsic value of the token OR the project. I think it is a perversion of the concept of education, and it is likely to only train a wave of entitled drop-seekers. This isn't the vision of crypto that I was thinking of...

Still... a pragmatist always keeps a small moonbag stashed away... in the event that I'm wrong, or if a quick pump-and-dump happens in the far off future!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
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Publish0x

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