BUSTED! Shipchain pays contributor $1000 for Forbes article, gets caught

10728
SHARE

As “the blockchain boom” continues, it will become clear which companies provide meaningful solutions through the use of the blockchain, and which are made from wishful thinking.”

This tactic of pay-for-play without disclosure is an FTC violation.   More troublingly though is that Shipchain, whose raised over $30M from investors from its ICO offering, published an article on Forbes that unwary investors may believe is an accurate Forbes article depicting a great company that is taking over a billion dollar business, when in reality Shipchain paid $1000 for the story.

On a call with one of our investigative reporters, Shipchain’s vendor, Adam Torkidson, described in details how the process of pay-for-play articles works with him:

“Everything I do operates exactly like a sponsored article where you get to write the content, decide the anchor text, decide whatever clients you want, but its not labeled as sponsored.   It’s on a per article fee.”

When we asked Adam if he could get us published on sites like MSNBC or Forbes, he was quick to offer an example of a recent client he published for: