What the HEX: A Look at Richard Heart's Controversial New Crypto

HEX is a new financial tool and cryptocurrency launching on the Ethereum network via a Bitcoin UTXO snapshot on December 2.

Richard Heart, the outspoken man behind HEX, sat down with Cointelegraph to talk about the upcoming launch and counter a few of the criticisms surrounding the project.

HEX is essentially a crypto version of the traditional fixed deposit.

Rather than losing against inflation, HEX users earn it by locking up coins, Heart said.

Secondly, lending BTC in the hopes of making interest requires trust, whereas HEX does not, Heart said: "To earn money on your Bitcoin, you have to lend it out to a counterparty and hope that you ever see it again. With HEX, you lock it in a smart contract. It's trustless interest."

"I can't believe how this thing is set up. Its core design could make it one of the most prolific schemes to funnel money to a single party that I've seen in the crypto space." Swann expressed further concerns, comparing it to OneCoin in its "Brazen means of aggregating vast sums of all invested ETH and HEX supply under a single entity's keys."

Swann explained, "To get HEX after the airdrop, you participate in an 'Adoption Amplifier,' which makes a game out of bidding on new HEX tokens by sending ETH into a 'pool'. That ETH then goes directly to Richard" Swann concluded, "Everything in this ridiculous token is designed to look like a game and encourage gambling. But the one universal factor in every game element is that Richard gets wealthier and you get a worthless token that he invented for free".

Others have fired criticisms at Heart for HEX's purportedly Ponzi-like structure, as well as for privacy and security concerns regarding its claiming process.

Heart addressed the issues surrounding privacy and security, saying "Every HEX claim is safe and secure." For extra anonymity, users can claim each "BTC Freeclaim" to a new ETH address over TOR and click "New circuit" after each claim.

Heart has extremely ambitious hopes for the project, envisioning HEX "Overtaking all other cryptocurrencies and onboarding people in the real world." He explained the project uses "Tactics a scam might use," like referral bonuses, in order to attract interest - but offers an honest, real project.