Initiative Q: Scam or Legit?

In the last one week, I have been invited by scores of people to join Initiative Q, hyped as the next Bitcoin. As so many people in my network are promoting Initiative Q, it piqued my interest in Q tokens.
2017 and 2018 have seen their fair share of pump and dump schemes in the crypto world. Is Initiative Q a pump and dump scheme or a pyramid / MLM scheme?
Who are the people associated with Initiative Q?
Initiative Q is founded by Saar Wilf, who previously founded Fraud Sciences, a payment security company which was acquired by PayPal in 2008. And Lawrence H White, an economist at George Mason University has worked out the economics of Q private currency.
What is Q token?
Q token is a centralized private currency issued by Initiative Q, presently it is worthless and is not exchangeable. Initiative Q hopes to build a payment ecosystem to compete with Visa and MasterCard in future. As per the timeline given on their website, the payment network would be developed somewhere between 2019-2021.
Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Q doesn’t use blockchain. It uses old centralized database.
What is the worth of 1 Q token?
At present, the Q token is worthless, meaning you can’t do anything with it. As per their website, in future, 1 Q token would be equal to 1 USD.
The point to note that like every other currency out in the world (both crypto and Govt issued), the value of Q token will also fluctuate based on demand and supply.
Is Initiative Q a Pyramid Scheme or MLM?
In the late 2017 and early 2018 we saw a lot of pump and dump schemes in the crypto world. In a pump and dump scheme, the early adopters of a cryptocurrency are incentivised to recruit others “HODLers” (a Bitcoin’s term to Hold a currency) by telling them a particular currency is going “to the moon”. Those others rush to buy, driving the value up and giving the earliest adopters the ability to sell for the heftiest gains.
In the FAQ section of Initiative Q they have explained why Initiative Q is not a pyramid or MLM scheme.

If you look at the marketing of Initiative Q is a straight-up Pyramid Scheme – you need an invitation to join, and then you and the person inviting you get some Q tokens, and you get five invitations in turn.
Invitation Message Sent by Initiative Q
Initiative Q is an attempt by ex-PayPal guys to create a new payment system instead of credit cards that were designed in the 1950s. The system uses its own currency, the Q, and to get people to start using the system once it’s ready they are allocating Qs for free to people that sign up now (the amount drops as more people join – so better to join early). Signing up is free and they only ask for your name and an email address. There’s nothing to lose but if this payment system becomes a world leading payment method your Qs can be worth a lot. If you missed getting bitcoin seven years ago, you wouldn’t want to miss this.
Here is my invite link: https://initiativeq.com/invite/SZfk-Vf27
This link will stop working once I’m out of invites. Let me know after you registered, because I need to verify you on my end.
The invitation message stresses on two points: (i) Need for recruitment and (ii) Money which you can make, if you join. Combine the both, and you have the classic sign of a pyramid or MLM scheme.
Should You Get Involved?
As per David Gerard (David had written about Initiative Q back in June 2018, when Initiative Q was gaining traction):
The signup list collates the following information:
- people who think get-rich-quick schemes can work;
- people who will get their friends to sign up for a get-rich-quick scheme;
- a full network graph of said people. Any number of disreputable people and companies would throw their hats in the air at getting hold of a database like this. Affinity fraud loves this sort of list of pre-screened suckers.
Advertising trackers on the Initiative Q site include Facebook and Google Tag Manager — so these ad networks will also have categorised you as someone susceptible to this sort of pitch. So if you signed up — you’re marked as a prime target for more pitches of this sort in the future.
As per the privacy policy of Initiative Q it doesn’t share the data with any other 3rd party but, as Facebook users know, privacy policies can evolve. It is always worth remembering that if you’re not paying for it, you are the product.
Initiative Q — a non-crypto private currency, marketed by pyramid scheme – By David Gerard
You can read more about Initiative Q at their website – https://initiativeq.com/