Since Franko is a new technology, what it is and how it works may be initially unclear. Franko is sometimes presented as being one of three things:
- Some sort of online 'get-rich-quick' scam.
- A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.
- A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.
In fact, none of the above are true. Let's look at them independently.
As an investment, is Franko a sure thing?
Franko is a new and interesting electronic currency, the value of which is not backed by any single government or organization. Like other currencies, it is worth something partly because people are willing to trade it for goods and services. Its exchange rate fluctuates continuously, and sometimes wildly. It lacks wide acceptance and is vulnerable to manipulation by parties with modest funding. Security incidents such as website and account compromise may trigger major sell-offs. Other fluctuations can build into positive feedback loops and cause much larger exchange rate fluctuations. Anyone who puts money into Franko should understand the risk they are taking and consider it a high-risk currency. Later, as Franko becomes better known and more widely accepted, it may stabilize, but for the time being it is unpredictable. Any investment in Franko should be done carefully and with a clear plan to manage the risk.
Will I make money by installing the software?
Most people who use Franko don't earn anything by doing so, and the default client has no built-in way to earn Frankos. A small minority of people with dedicated, high-performance hardware do earn some Frankos by "mining" (generating new Frankos, see What is mining?) with special software, but joining Franko shouldn't be construed as being the road to riches. Most Franko users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don't earn anything by doing so. This is also why you won't find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Franko anywhere on this site: Franko developers owe their dedication to the project's intellectual yieldings more than to those of a monetary nature. Franko is still taking its first baby steps; it may go on to do great things but right now it only has something to offer those chasing conceptually interesting projects or bleeding edge technology.
- Is Franko a 'get-rich-quick' scheme?
- If you've spent much time on the Internet, you've probably seen ads for many 'get-rich-quick' schemes. These ads usually promise huge profits for a small amounts of easy work. Such schemes are usually pyramid/matrix-style schemes that make money from their own employees and offer nothing of any real value. Most convince one to buy packages that will make them earn hundreds a day, which in fact have the buyer distribute more such ads, and make minute profits.
- Franko is in no way similar to these schemes. Franko doesn't promise windfall profits. There is no way for the developers to make money from your involvement or to take money from you. That Frankos are nearly impossible to acquire without the owner's consent represents one of its greatest strengths. Franko is an experimental, virtual currency that may succeed or may fail. None of its developers expect to get rich off of it.
