Ethical Communication Guidelines
This is a guideline for ethical communications about the project. It is recognized that for PKT to accomplish its goals, there must be a community who understands and uses the technology. In this way communication cannot be avoided. However, poor communication, even made with the best intentions, risks harming the reputation of the project and the general public. So these guidelines exist to help community members represent the project in the best way possible.
A Far Higher Standard
Within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, there are a significant number of outright criminal activities. Beyond those, there is a wide gray area of communication activities which have not been subject to any regulatory enforcement, but still fall far outside of what these guidelines established as ethical.
Community members are cautioned that due to the scale of these "gray" activities, there is a large body of publications, influencers, marketers, "shills" and other professionals who, if consulted or emulated, are highly likely to put a person in ethical peril. The reason is because these guidelines establish a far higher standard of communication ethics than that which is generally considered to be legal.
Principle of No Expected Return
It is acknowledged that buying and selling are central aspects of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, so it is difficult to effectively communicate about the project without ever addressing reasons why a person might do these things. Therefore these guidelines offer a pre-approved narrative which is considered to be maximally protective of the reputation of the project while also providing a healthy perspective regarding the risks associated with cryptocurrency.
The Principle of No Expected Return is that one should buy cryptocurrency if and only if they believe strongly enough in the vision of the project that they would be proud to own the coin even if they were never able to sell it. In the early days of Bitcoin, it was widely believed that it would be legislated out of existence or otherwise collapse, and so this principle was pervasive throughout the community. Many people chose to hold Bitcoin as a political statement regarding the morality of modern financial institutions, especially after the 2008 financial crisis.
The key components of the Principle of No Expected Return are: * A clear understanding of what the technology is and what it is not. * A belief in the social change which that technology can realistically facilitate. * The mental and financial preparedness to lose any money or effort that is used to acquire the token, as one has when one makes a donation.
When you’re considering buying a token, you need to ask yourself: If you were to lose everything you put into a token, would you look back on the day you bought it, proud to have been a part of the project at that time? If the answer is no, then you’re either planning to buy too much, or you’re just not ready.
Guidelines
Dishonest, intentionally misleading, or otherwise unlawful communication is obviously unethical. Beyond that there is no clear definition for unethical communication, though one could characterize it in the words of Justice Stewart, "I know it when I see it". These non-exhaustive guidelines exist to give community members an understanding of the types of communication which are most likely to be unethical. They are listed in order of importance with the most important first.
- Communications which follow the letter, but not the spirit, of these guidelines are unethical. One example of this is token disclaimers such as "this is not financial advice". Disclaimers can be useful for helping a person understand the limitations and caveats of a communication, but a token disclaimer exists more to make the communicator seem innocent than to help the audience have a clearer understanding. The use of fine print, or disclaimers which "feel out of place" in the overall communication should be regarded as red flags, and communicators using these should review the objectives of their message and whether it is being communicated clearly.
- Communications which a person of sound judgment could plausibly interpret as presenting a low risk low effort opportunity to make money, or “something for nothing”, are unethical. Presenting an opportunity can take many forms including implication though specific selection of facts, or an over-celebratory tone. Generally speaking, communications should be explicit about their objective so that there is minimal chance of mis-interpretation.
- Communications in which a person suffering impaired judgment has an unusually high likelihood of interpreting as a low risk low effort opportunity to make money are unethical. Topics like “winning”, “pump”, “FOMO”, “YOLO” (spend all of your money), “moon”, and the idea of being rich, may strike the average person as nothing more than a bit of low-culture humor, but for a pathological gambler these can trigger a harmful thought process and should be avoided.
- Communications related to investment and trading of the token should be addressed to investors and traders — professionals who know how hard it is to reliably beat the market and who make decisions based on their own unique portfolio and risk management strategy. Any kind of communication around these topics which has a celebratory tone, or which could reasonably be interpreted as investment advice is not ethical.
- Communications which focus entirely on explaining a piece of technology, without any mention or implication of buying, selling, price, or potential future growth (including growth in usage of the technology), are probably ethical.
- Communications which address the topic of buying, selling or staking, but are specifically focused on the Principle of No Expected Return, are probably ethical.