Innovation is the key of evolution, since the discovery of fire to space exploration. This is also applied in the Cryptoverse, where everything happens at 10x speed. In the search for the next "Big Thing!" I stumbled on Mayfair, a project that wanted to take down the entry barriers in crypto through DTFs!
What is a DTFs? DFT stands for DEX Traded Funds, a basket of tokens that forms a crypto index! Each DTF will track the performance of a portfolio composed of chosen assets, as the Smart Index Pool is rebalanced by arbitrageurs just like any liquidity pool.
The $MAY token powers the ecosystem and will be used for exit fees, swap fees, perp trading fees, minting and redeeming DFT fees! It was all nice and cool, and crypto opportunities arise from Mayfair, with a threads competition and a zealy campaign!
The #Threadoor competition had good prizes, and I felt confident I could be one of the three winners! Any amount between $250 and $100 would be good, as I said to use it to invest into $MAY. Money from Mayfair should be invested in Mayfair!
Wrote a spicy thread then went to tackle the zealy campaign, where the prize pool was two times bigger than the threads competition. A total of $1000 was allocated for the sprint, with the top 5 users sharing the pot. The user with the most points will win $400, the runner-up $300 and the next three will receive $100 for their effort.
Some of the quests were a bit bias, specially the one that required to boost the server. You can't boost the server without Nitro, which is a rather expensive paid subscription. The cheapest pack was £15.99 and I thought is not a bad investment if I can win one of the prizes.
Bought 1 month of Nitro after doing the math and making sure I could win the zealy sprint, and powered up the Mayfair discord. Wrote, twitted, checked in on a daily basis just to make sure I stayed on the top of the leaderboard.
Red Flag #1 : Changing The Rules Last Minute
I done the quests and I was on top on the last day of the event, and I was waiting for 6 PM to celebrate the win... when things suddenly changed. The competition was supposed to finish on the 22nd of May at 6 PM and with less than 6 hours to go it was decided to extend it for an extra week!
The reason was "so more people can get their submissions in" but in fact was the easiest way to get more advertising. The $MAY token was launched and staking $MAY was added as a zealy task. Fuck it... let's do this as well and win this stupid event!
Red Flag #2 and Red Flag #3: Lack of Transparency and Discord Hack
Meanwhile, more staff happened! The Discord Mod got hacked and a scam airdrop was shared, people lost money, apologies were due... and things moved on!
The $MAY token had nice growth patterns but a lot of people were complaining about the lack of transparency and how funds were moved from whale wallets. No one knew why big amounts of $MAY were sold or if the wallets selling where part of the project. Every time it was clarified, but only after the question was asked several times.
I kept grinding the zealy quests and constantly checked for those tricky new additions that could knock me off the leaderboard. It was for the first time in history that I seen a zealy quest with 6 people on the same amount of points. Decisions to be made!
It was decided that the $1000 prize pool will be divided equally between the 6 users, each receiving $166 as a prize. The above screenshot was made at the end of the campaign, but somehow a 7th winner made it on the list. The prize was reduced to $140 and was sent few days later.
Red Flag #4: The Ghost Event
Maybe you are wondering if I was one of the top threadoors and won another prize... or maybe not! It's a mystery! Asked about the prize, as 22 days gone since the competition concluded, and was told that rewards were distributed. Maybe it was a language barrier, as I am not a native English speaker, and I shared the announcement from Discord.
Red Flag #5: Ghosting Genuine Questions!
Apparently was a confusion and a wrong announcement was shared, and a tweet with this event invited people for a ghost competition. It's nice when projects are doing competitions and then they don't pay! It's the best way to build a trusted brand!
I seen several people asking about the results of the competition on Discord and Telegram and they are simply ghosted! This also happened when people asked genuine questions about why funds are being spent without announcements and those people got accused of spreading FUD!
I would prefer to lose and some random strangers win the prizes instead of being served this BS on toast! Also I expect the top people from a project to use capital letters in their sentences.. but maybe it's just me being old school!
Red Flag #6: Muting Those That Ask Questions!
In any civilized community, you ask and you get an answer! Maybe you don't get the answer you want but definitely you don't get muted for asking questions! Is rare to be muted for 7 days for being polite
I asked why my friend was muted for trying to get an answer and I was told .... because he was annoying! I never seen such a hostile community, and I seen a lot since 2015! I was called Discord Pirate, "not a real investor" and Competition Hunter, cornered by other "genuine discord members" and insulted, accused of FUD and told that I am "harassing the protocol" to win the event and then muted as well.
Everything is wrong in there because I hold $MAY, I invested in DTFs and I won the Zealy campaign and was the most active user on their Discord! But is no wonder why Mayfair doesn't want to pay $500 for the ghost twitter thread event... the TVL for DTFs is under $8000!
Red Flag #7: Farmed $MAY Vanished After APR
Tweet saying that "additionally the APR has been reworked to 35% in order to reach a sustainable emission rate" which sounds great, but all my farmed $MAY resulted from staking simply vanished! It wasn't much, only 2.5 tokens, but it's weird when it's happening!
Meanwhile, you MAY blame it on the market, but it's FAIR to ask if acting in a dictatorial way affected this chart! I'll love you and leave you!
**Red Flag #8 (for now!): The Discord Scam Bonanza! **
A considerable amount of $MAY gets unlocked every Monday, and a considerable amount of $MAY is sold every Monday. The token lost 50% value in only one day, after another big sale! Maybe is as they say... and is because of the altcoin crisis!
However, what worries me more than FUD and lack of transparency is the amount of scam airdrops shared in Discord. This happens on a daily basis and sometimes the links are there for a considerable amount of time.
My gut feeling tells me to cash out and move on, as there are too many red flags around! I got my $MAY bag close to $1.09 and probably selling now will bring losses, but sometimes you must make a move before it gets worst!
NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE but you should stay away when a good DeFi idea is destroyed by lack of transparency and lies! Tried to unstake but it's not working, revoked the permissions and closed the chapter! Now is my duty to make you all aware!
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