Ethical Integrity in the World of Crypto and NFTs

Hi. I am Ryan. I know most of you know me better as "ArtLynx" or simply, "The Lynx," but I am a real person with a real name. I live in a middle-class neighborhood in a medium-sized town in the eastern United States.

I teach ethics and philosophy online at a small university. I have taught and written on the subject of ethics for nearly two decades. Besides being a blogger here on Publish0x, I am also an artist, writer, speaker, and outdoor enthusiast. The information that I just gave you is far more information than what many people know about the founders or administrators of crypto and NFT projects on which they spend lots of their hard-earned cash and crypto. At any given point, these developers can "pull the rug" and leave investors and collectors scratching their heads, heart-broken, or in financial disarray. 

I have met a lot of amazing people in the world of crypto and NFTs. Unfortunately, I have also met some seriously dishonest people as well. It is this threat of dishonesty and being scammed that keeps a lot of people outside of this world and wondering if they should even give it a try. Sometimes an outsider gets BRAVE enough and tip-toes inside our world and then the news of a rug-pull sends them into a state of panic to a far-away place. Others have jumped in with both feet, only to be scammed or hurt in some other way.

I believe that the future of crypto and crypto-related projects and platforms needs to be built on ethical integrity. It does not need to be on the level of a doctoral dissertation. Just a simple ethical code would be enough to give a lot more people a vote of confidence. Projects should not be required by law to have an ethical code; rather, the community members should rally around and support the ones that do and ignore the ones that do not.

The community needs to do more to protect itself. This should start with the leaders. NFT project developers should have a certain level of transparency. It is one thing to be in favor of de-fi and not having authority figures looking over your shoulder for every financial move you even think about. However, it is another thing altogether to be a decent and honest enough person to say, “Hey, this is who I am. I am accessible. I have credentials. I can be held accountable.”

So here is my “work-in-progress” proposal for an ethical code:

1. All crypto projects and platforms, including NFT projects and gaming communities that are built on crypto, should have a reasonable level of transparency. This is about one of the most fundamental human virtues--honesty. This might look different on a website than it would on a Discord server. Gamers may have different expectations than NFT collectors. Therefore, each project can determine what this looks like within their community.
2. Project leaders should have detailed road maps, blue prints, or white papers of their projects posted for all within the community or for those considering being a part of the community to review.
3. Community members who are not part of a development or administration team should fully expect a certain amount of reasonable access to or communication with said developers or administrators.
4. When a project takes on a new direction, developers and administrators should communicate changes in a timely manner.
5. The financial data and direction of the project should be accessible to those who are committed to the project. This statement is left somewhat open and vague for interpretation. Every project is different. The world of crypto is different than other areas of finance. Data and transaction records on the blockchain are already public information. Contracts are readily available to be viewed. However, a crypto project/platform/community ought to have a sense of responsibility to communicate financial decisions and directions of the project as a whole.
6. Community members should be aware that most new projects (especially smaller ones) will have very little to report in the area of finances. Creators and developers often put so much of their personal resources into getting new projects off the ground.

This code will not prevent every scam. However, the more community members have high expectations and hold developers accountable, the fewer rug-pulls and scams we will see. 

This is just a very rough sketch, but perhaps it can be a first draft of something that develops over time into a reality that helps protect collectors, investors, as well as administrators and creators.

I welcome your input or ideas in the comments below.

Ryan “The Lynx”

https://www.cryptolynx.co