Make money in crypto without scams

Blockchain catches a lot of flack for allowing the existence of scammers, hackers, and money launderers. It's important to realize that unethical behavior is rampant on and off chain. In the real world, criminals work very hard to get away with the same crimes without crypto. That's because both the real world and blockchain are permissionless environments.

If you can dream it, you can do it. Sure, there are laws and regulations that discourage bad behavior, but if you can escape notice of the people enforcing the laws, you can do a lot of harm to the world.

Blockchain attracts criminals because it's cheaper to set up a digital money laundering scheme than to hassle with legitimate front businesses, off shore accounts, and shell corporations. The trade off is that everything you do is stored on a public, unchangeable database. If law enforcement is able to connect you with even one transaction on blockchain, you're in for a bad time.

Most crypto games aren't fun today because they're too focused on the money side. When you prioritize the incentives for yourself and your players over the game, there's a natural perversion of the game. Human behavior drains what remaining fun there was. This results in unsustainable profits and can make you look like a criminal to your players and outsiders.

When building your games on blockchain, do your best to avoid focusing on profits for you or your players. Make a fun game that gives control and freedom to your players then design the economy to be more than a zero-sum game. When your players are engaged and having fun, that's when you've earned your take.

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-Luke

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P.S. Profit isn't evil, but it must be sustainable.