Deep-dive: BikeRush dApp
Is BikeRush legit or no? Is it just another STEPN-copying dapp attempting a rugpull?
Stumbled upon this new dapp claiming to be the new Web3 lifestyle app, similar to STEPN.
In its first post on Twitter on Apr 6, BikeRush claims to be the first project to effectively implement a Ride-To-Earn concept.
I went ahead to dig more, and studied their whitepaper. Here is my summarized opinion about it for those who are lazy to find out the details.
TLDR CONCLUSION
Founders? = Undoxxed
Concept? = Vague and not established, straight up copied from STEPN
ContractAddresses? = None provided
Partnership? = Unconfirmed, but no direct links / sources
🚩 LEGIT? = BIG NO, RED FLAG ALERT 🚩
But I mean, since you’re already here, why not read on to find out how I arrived at this conclusion?
🚩Founders
Undoxxed.
All of them have short descriptions about themselves, but a further dig on them yield no results whatsoever.
After deepdiving into Google and even Facebook, Berlin Cycling Association (Berliner Stahlrittere.V.) does not exist. If someone finds any information about this association, please let me know.
One would expect someone who managed to organize an event with 592 teams, riding 1.77 million kilometers, to at least have a social media coverage, story, article. Nope, none of that. Even Google thinks I’m spelling the person’s name wrongly.
If we compare this to STEPN, at least they had their pictures and relevant LinkedIn / Twitter profiles introduced right smack on their website. At least we know, they have nothing to hide.
This segment alone is enough for me to say NOPE to the entire project, but there’s more.
🚩Concept
Copy-paste
I mean.. just look at this comparison.
I guess in BikeRush’s defense, they are trying to target the bike-riding community. But in my opinion, it feels that not much effort has been put in into creating this. On top of that, whatever they described in their Whitepaper was vague and simple with no further explanations or illustrations.
🚩Contract Address
None, not provided (yet?)
This may not be a very strong point, since they may release their contract address later in the future. But as of now, no such addresses are provided.
🚩Partnerships
Negentropy Capital?
Under their Whitepaper, it stated that Negentropy Capital has invested USD $1.5M in BikeRush, which will be used to “accelerate the development and implementation of BikeRush products and the promotion of the global market"
Some digging on Negentropy Capital’s website shows no such investment. This goes the same for their official LinkedIn company profile.
I have dropped them an email asking to verify the authenticity and accuracy of this investment, and will proceed to update here if I receive any replies.
Second round of $6.5 million funding?
Another segment announced their completion of second round of funding. The round was “led by Negentropy Capital, followed by LinkVC Capital, Wall Street hedge fund Vingo Capital, and the Middle East Dubai Kasan Amina Family Fund”.
The funds will be mainly used for “R&D team expansion, market promotion, and user Community Building.”
Once again, no relevant source links were provided.
🚩🚩Biggest Red Flag of them All 🚩🚩
Poor command of English
Added multiple red flags for this. The Whitepaper is riddled with English mistakes. From spelling, to grammar, to capitalization, it just shows the unprofessionalism of this project. Below are a few examples:
There you go, I believe with all these red flags, a cool, level-headed investor will know to stay away from this project. Under normal circumstances, I believe people will possess a more discerning judgement towards such projects. However, given the success of the most recent STEPN, investors who failed to jump on the STEPN bandwagon are out looking for the next one. Hence, when BikeRush was released, they rushed for it mindlessly, failing to see the obvious red flags.
Conclusion / Personal Opinions
Here’s what I think:
I think this is a Chinese project, judging from the English and how it looks directly translated from Mandarin. Also, they have been gathering a lot more Chinese comments on their social media.
If it’s undoxxed, run.
It is very important to read the Whitepaper to understand how everything works, before mindlessly spending your time grinding for an allocation just to see yourself getting rug pulled.
Hope after reading this research, you guys are able to make a better decision whether to invest in BikeRush ($BRT token sale on MEXC Global soon)
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