If you read what I said, I specifically said I don't know if that is what happened or not. I'm not invested in this, not remotely - I just gave a simple explanation to a question you asked. The argument that it would have to be the stupidest company of all time though holds no water. Plenty of companies have done equally stupid things with little to gain from it. Besides, all it takes is one stupid person in the chain of command, not a company that is stupid from top to bottom.
It's an explanation that doesn't make any logical sense, if you read what
I said. And I highly doubt "plenty of companies" have done something on the level of what some people think happened here.
You can make good arguments for why it's not LIKELY - and if that is enough to satisfy you that the investment is safe, great - you're the only person you have to satisfy, and if you make good returns, that justifies what you have been saying. But to completely dismiss others concerns as "fake news" like that seems awfully akin to willful ignorance. There absolutely are reasons to be concerned by that kind of behaviour, and it is not something unique that has never happened before, except amongst the "dumbest of all time" companies. Maybe further investigation should alleviate those concerns - seems to me to be more reasonable to point that kind of thing out to people rather than to continue insulting their intelligence.
Except no, there isn't. With the absence of any evidence that this was an orchestrated event (and keeping in mind where the burden of proof lies), why would you not go with the more likely explanation rather than believing in a conspiracy theory? There is a legitimate concern here: why was an employee -- no matter what level or the possible prize -- allowed to participate in this contest? That's just common sense. There are other legitimate concerns that have nothing to do with this event: why does the website still suck? Can I trust that there will not be a further delay to the genesis block, now slated for Q2? But fears that Walton would rig a small-dollar contest (giving out an asset that THEY control) solely for the PR is so unfounded that it frankly blows my mind that anyone could seriously entertain that thought. But then I remember how 2016 turned out.
You're right though, I don't
have to convince anyone but myself. I'm not posting on here to sway the 10 people that read this thread (and probably less that are even interested to read my posts on this topic) in an effort to affect the price, or for my own personal gain. I am of the belief that we're all posting in this thread to help each other find good investments and hopefully all end up as winners at the end of the day. I want all of you to make sound decisions based on facts, and not because of something somebody heard from somewhere on a reddit thread that could contain some amounts of bias. So when I see people repeating things like "RIGGED!" or "damn, how could I ever trust Walton again?" without doing a little bit of actual thinking about what occurred, yeah, I'm probably going to correct that person.