Pablo Escobar is infamous for being the greatest drug lord to have ever walked on the face of the earth. At his peak, it was estimated that he had a net worth of over 64 billion dollars at his disposal and was generating over 42,000,000 dollars per week. Or, in other words, 4,200 dollars per second, enough to buy a brand new Tesla every minute. This is a small example of the astronomical money Escobar possessed.
Although most of the money was repossessed by the government after his death in 1993, it is safe to assume some of the cash still exists in his family. And so in 2015, Escobar’s brother founded a new company called Escobar Inc, and frankly was quite open about their ties with Pablo Escobar and openly criticized the government and many other prominent companies and promised to revamp the whole industry.
So, it is not surprising when Escobar Inc launched a new Crypto called ECH; the internet took notice. It has quickly gained the attention of marketers, and following the footprint of other meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu coins, it too quickly gained momentum.
But should you be riding the hype train? Well, there are a few things you must know before making up your mind. And so, here is everything you need to know about the new Escobar Cash (ECH).
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How does Escobar Cash (ECH) really work?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Escobar Cash, let me ask you a simple question. What is the fastest way to make money? Simply print it, of course! Escobar Inc literally used the same concept and started printing their own money. They are calling it the world’s first physical cryptocurrency. You have a wide choice of money that you can buy with real cash on their website. Each of this money has a tiny code engraved in it, only visible once you scratch and peel off the outer cover of the note. You can then redeem the cash by scanning the code using the Escobar app, which is then turned into ECH. So, technically you can either use the Escobar cash like real money to pay for your expenses (although we can’t imagine who on Earth would accept this currency), or you can convert it into cryptocurrency and use it like any other virtual currency.
As per what this virtual currency can do, we have to rely on official statements from Escobar Inc. They state that they took an existing cryptocurrency, Ripple, and made their own version of it, which is also known as forking. This itself is not a brand new concept as Dogecoin and Bitcoin Gold have followed similar techniques and were well received in the community.
The fact that Escobar Cash is created on the same principle as Ripple, which is a genuinely decent cryptocurrency and at the time of writing is valued at around 0.80 cents: Escobar Inc creates the illusion that their ECH will too reach a similar value, which in turn will definitely make you rich super fast.
The Problem Behind ECH
To be completely honest with you, anyone reading their white paper explaining the revolutionary idea will find it quite enticing. Physical crypto may seem like a good idea as you can get the best of both worlds. The reliability of a physical currency and the ambiguity of a cryptocurrency.
But according to experts, a physical cryptocurrency makes as much sense as a transparent toilet wall. It may look really cool, but it has no practical purposes at all. See, regular physical currency works because it holds its value in the long term. If you have a $100 bill, you know for sure that the bill will hold its value in 1 month, 1 year, or even a decade later.
I can hand you the bill, and you can hand it to someone else, knowing the money will hold its value. But Escobar Cash does not work that way. Suppose you redeem it once the note practically becomes useless. Escobar cash is more like a gift card or a portal via which you can then convert to a cryptocurrency. So, it cannot be used as any traditional cash.
Escobar Cash also lacks all the security features that any major currency has, so it is likely to get targeted by scammers with fake notes. The notes themself are also extremely fragile; it’s just a simple piece of paper with no weather protection or any feature that you would expect from a mainstream currency.
What can you do with Escobar Cash (ECH)?
Even though there are some fundamental problems with the physical currency, let’s forget them for a second and turn our focus on the actual usefulness of the ECH. As of writing this article, ECH coin is not listed on any major exchange platforms like coinbase. That means because there is no exchange, we can not convert ECH into any other form of currency.
So the bottom line is that we have a physical currency (ECH) that is quite frankly just a gift card. And you convert it into a crypto that you can not spend anywhere.
To make things worse, the app is currently not even letting its user add this virtual currency to its wallet. You just redeem the cash, and the app simply becomes unresponsive. It might very well be a bug, but it’s a costly bug if you ask me.
A Brief History of Escobar Inc.
While most crypto owners prefer to keep their identity anonymous from the public, Escobar Inc did not follow the same route. They are proud of their product and showcase their true identity on the internet. This has to be a good thing, right? Well, not exactly; let’s look at some of the past projects associated with this notorious company.
Project Fold 1: Escobar Inc made a huge splash when they entered the smartphone industry back in march of 2020. They created some of the most provoking ad campaigns with glamorous models and openly declared war against big smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. They accused the big companies of having a monopoly on the smartphone industry and wanted to prove a point by launching a folding smartphone for under $400. Now, this is precisely what consumers wanted to hear, and Escobar Inc was all over the internet.
A $400 flagship smartphone is unheard of in the industry, and people wanted to get their hands on the new phone. But things quickly fell apart when some prominent tech reviewers, including MKBHD and Arun from Mrwhosetheboss, found out that the phone is simply a rebranded Samsung Z flip, which cost more than $1000. This breaks the fundamentals of business when your product costs you 1000 bucks to buy, and your selling price is less than half of it at $400.
And soon enough, not a single person who placed an order received their phone, and it all looked like a classic scam. The website was turned down, and the money was gone.
Gold iPhone 11 Pro: In May of 2020, three months after their first smartphone, Escobar Inc released their second phone. This time they took a more direct approach, and instead of hiding, they simply named their phone gold iPhone 11 pro. Now there are existing luxury companies that add gold to existing iPhones and sell them for hefty prices, but Escobar Inc is no ordinary company, right? So they priced their gold iPhone at $500. A regular iPhone 11 pro costs $1000, and Escobar Inc is selling them for $500.
But they went to create an elaborate plan to justify how they are being able to sell their phone so cheaply. So the story they claim is that they are buying refurbished phones that have existing problems in them directly from Apple and its supplier Foxconn. They then refurbished them and sold them for dirt cheap. They even went as far as including a custom condition report stating which parts of the phone were faulty and what they changed to fix the problem.
This story is too good, and many did place orders in hopes of getting their money’s worth, and unsurprisingly no one to date received their product.
Escobar Cash is their third attempt, and things are not looking good by any stretch of the imagination.
What’s Next for the ECH Coin?
Given the track record, two probable scenarios are most likely to happen to the ECH coin now.
Pump and Dump: This is a classical scam where a company creates a cryptocurrency and creates hype around it. Now creating crypto is easier than you think, and with a few thousand dollar investments, anyone can open a new cryptocurrency. Because of the hype, people started buying the coin, and the exchange rates quickly rose.
At this point, the creators sell all their existing coins in the market and simply vanish in thin air, pocketing millions of dollars from early investors. This scam has been done several times before, and the most recent example is Squid Game cryptocurrency. It won’t be surprising if ECH follows the same path.
Never release the currency: Escobar Inc can follow a direct path of not releasing the coin at all on any exchange platform. As they are already getting paid to sell the virtual cash, they may ditch the idea entirely and move on to their next project, or should we say scam.
Should You Invest in Escobar Cash (ECH)?
Escobar cash (ECH) is aimed towards people who are not entirely familiar with the world of cryptocurrency. The fusion of physical money with the buzzwords of crypto will entice many people, especially the elderly, to invest in ECH.
If you were paying attention, you would quickly realize how Escobar cash (ECH) has no actual life application, and their previous track record points towards an elaborate scam that Escobar cash is trying to pull off. It is therefore highly advised not to make any investment into ECH as getting too greedy may cost you a fortune.