Jun 9, 2021

GAW Miners’ controversial plan to provide market support for the value of its bitcoin competitor has recently come under fire from customers, critics and community members. At issue is that, in contrast to bitcoin’s decentralized network, in which no companies or entities have overarching control of the market, paycoin could arguably be seen as a more centralized alternative. In addition to managing the development of the decentralized paycoin currency, GAW Miners operates a paycoin brokerage ( PayBase ), an exchange for the currency ( Coin-Swap ) and a network of coin-generating wallets – an ecosystem that many suggest counters the decentralized spirit of the cryptocurrency movement. Opponents claim that GAW Miners and its CEO, Josh Garza, reneged on promises to back the coin at $20 on the open market, as well as a broader commitment to provide a mechanism – the floor – that was meant to shield it from market speculation. By contrast,  GAW Miners  argues that the plan to ensure customers can “use your paycoins in PayBase at a $20 value” was attacked by groups opposed to the success of its project. GAW has since issued a statement on the subject of how the $20 valuation was reached. Furor over the floor support and $20 value recently dominated the front pages of r/bitcoin and elicited comment from several notable figures in the industry. Since then, the company has seen businesses like exchange service ShapeShift drop support for paycoin, while a growing chorus has called for Garza to cancel an appearance at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida, of which it is a sponsor. Sensitive customer information was also exposed during a PayBase security failure on New Year’s Eve. Complicating the situation has been the sometimes rabid anti-GAW sentiment that has pervaded bitcoin websites and forums. In turn, the company’s backing by experienced inter-dealer broker Stuart Fraser, confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, casts doubt on accusations the company is a scam. The debate Underlying the debate is a lack of clarity among some in the community on whether GAW and Garza definitively committed to the floor and its $20 value, and if they did, how long such a price support mechanism was meant to be enacted. Signs that GAW staff and representatives have edited, deleted or restricted access to content that could prove significant to the ongoing discussion have also complicated matters. Ultimately, the plan to institute the floor was put aside after what the company described as uncontrollable paycoin sales volume and concerns that GAW could be held liable for manipulating the market  should it become more involved with its actions in the market. A review of posts from Hash Talk, as well as insights gleaned during a new interview with Garza, suggests that GAW actively used language that was likely to invoke the idea of both the floor and the $20 value when pitching the project. By directing the development of the coin and establishing an online platform that conducts market operations across all exchanges, GAW  sought to make known its strong presence in the market. In the run-up to the launch of PayBase, Garza divulged market movements, indicated that so-called “whales” were about to enter the market, and used language that, while inconclusive but unquestionably energetic, is suggestive of the pump-and-dump culture that GAW said it sought to fight with paycoin’s stability mechanism. Forum posts suggest that GAW had reason to suspect that customers and observers were perhaps misunderstanding GAW’s claims regarding its intentions in the market, as well as the relationships that would add value to its core products. However, the firm did not act to put the record straight. The misconceptions extended past paycoin. The idea that retail giant Amazon may partner with GAW to accept paycoin for purchases in particular had been circulated  by Hash Talk users, but according to Garza, GAW opted not to correct prior misconceptions about the anticipated partnership because “we thought it would add more issues to things, so we just ignored it and just moved forward”. Garza explained: “What was happening at that time behind the scenes, we bought a company at the time that made that announcement that had the relationships with those merchants to be able to allow us to technically or programmatically be able to fulfill those purchases.” Garza’s comments suggest that perhaps overenthusiastic community members could have also played a role in shaping the public discourse about its market movements. “That was another miscalculation,” he continued. “I didn’t realize that people would continue to talk about it over and over and over and it would snowball into something much bigger than we intended it to be.” GAW’s original post on the subject of the floor could be seen as an indicator that it was aware that perception about the project was perhaps being distorted. Origins of the floor Garza told CoinDesk that GAW never explicitly committed to buying paycoins at $20 without question. He suggested that assumptions about the floor mechanism spread among customers and acknowledged that GAW “should have done a better job of managing” customer expectations about the exact nature of the stability mechanism. Today’s statements could be seen as a move to correct this. Garza informally announced a public offering of what was then known as ‘hashcoin’ for a suggested price of around $20 in late October. During this period, more details about the coin emerged and a  development roadmap was released that included the $20 public offering price. Plans for a coin adoption fund were also disclosed. According to the plan shared with customers prior to the launch of paycoin, the fund’s purpose is to “provide a safe floor price”, as well as facilitate other projects like developing apps, building data centers and developing relationships with merchants. The hashcoin ICO thread linked above is currently unavailable, but a pair of Hash Talk posts  from 31st October include a number of customer questions that Garza answered on the subject . On 28th November , a question-and-answer session hosted by Garza on Hash Talk focused on GAW’s HashStaker service and involved another reference to both the market floor support and indications of a $20 value. The floor in action On 22nd December, Garza published a post on the company’s Hash Talk forum entitled ‘Spread the Word’ in which he referenced the much-discussed $20 floor he and his company have invoked both prior and since to the launch of paycoin. In the post, Garza told users that the company was beginning to institute the floor: The use of these measures was first disclosed on 22nd December, when Garza indicated that trading bots controlled by GAW were actively participating in the paycoin market on cryptocurrency exchange Cryptsy.