Update:
@adam
@lainfinity
@adam Regarding Swarm If I want to crowd fund I can create an asset token in counterparty and promote the asset for funding like Tatianacoin.
Then what is the objective of Swarm coin, how does it differentiate from counterparty.
Swarm, like coinpowers.com, is a front-end that adds features on top of the ones already provided by Counterparty. You don't have to use either, you can just use Counterparty and promote the project yourself.
The point of something like swarm is that whenever a project hits that platform, everybody knows if it succeeds they get some of it (relative to their swarm tokens), and so they have a vested interest from minute one in helping it succeed.
Thus the theory goes, the swarm will propel worthwhile projects to success more than doing it alone because you get the entire swarm community instead of having to start from scratch.
That said, I've eliminated my involvement with the project and cannot recommend it after some recent experiances with the team leadership. The model could just as easily be done by anybody else, and in an environment where the best community wins I'm not confident swarm will be it.
The catalysts of projects like this have an undue amount of impact on the cultures they create, so founders really matter when I look at a project.
Original Post:
I'm a bit tainted in this conversation as I've been one of the guys pushing Joel to do swarm as it's being done. Needless to say, I think it's a good idea but you need to do your due dilligence.
To your questions
1 - Is it legal?
A: It looks an awful lot like a gray area, but if anyone is going to test the "is it legal" question, it'll be swarm. Everybody else is couching their phrasing (backers instead of investors) but Swarm is going in with all the red light words except equity. Note I am also a part of Coinpowers.com
2 - Are the founder credible?
A: This seems like a personal judgement. They seem credible, but they fundraised before building the platform so it's hard to tell.
3 - What swarm offers is simplicity and stake - You hold their tokens, you get some of everything that launches successfully. There's other stuff in there too, but thats most of the value. Because of the number of token swarm is releasing, it is really difficult to tell if this is a sure-fire win or not, even if the swarm platform succeeds but they only launch small projects or projects that do not go on to succeed, having tens of millions of tokens out there means whatever return there is will be split many many ways.
Another thing to note is that Swarm is the first to use this model but certainly won't be the last, so again you're back to the "is it better to bet on a particular horse winning the race, or is it better to make a less lucrative bet that the race will happen at all".
BTC is a bet that crowdfunding is a thing, and that Bitcoin is a primary vehicle for it. That increases the utility of the ecosystem, which increases the demand for the token without impacting supply which causes the price to bias higher, all other things being equal.
Conversely, if you think SWARM is the right team to bring this thing mainstream (Think "You've Got Mail!" in the late 90s suddenly giving the older generations an idea of why the hell you'd want to have an AOL account anyways), it makes sense to keep your bitcoin in that form because even though its more likely crypto-property crowdsales will succeed than swarm individually will succeed, if swarm does succeed you will see an outsized return compared to the bitcoin-ecosystem bet.
This is not advice, I am not a lawyer.
