Skill Dragon, launched late last year as a mobile e-sports venture, has quietly rebooted as a cryptocurrency mining operation under its parent company, Smart Media Technologies. The shift abandons its initial gaming premise for a model that requires affiliates to pay $600 to join and $30 monthly to stay commission qualified, before investing between $500 and $10,000.
The company's website has been stuck in a maintenance mode for months. This lack of a functional online presence is a major red flag for any business, let alone one operating in the volatile cryptocurrency space. For potential participants, this should be the end of their due diligence.
Skill Dragon is the latest iteration from Smart Media Technologies, a company previously behind the YOBSN social media network. YOBSN was a recruitment-focused pyramid scheme. Its social network component never gained traction, and the entire operation collapsed after Indian authorities arrested top Smart Media Technologies executives in late 2014. Skill Dragon’s initial e-sports model also failed to gain traction and was short-lived.
The current cryptocurrency mining operation offers two tiers of investment, Bitcoin and Ethereum mining pools. Affiliates investing $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000 are designated as "Founders." These Founders gain access to a special pool, presumably funded by a portion of company-wide investments and shared among them.
Commissions are distributed through a binary compensation plan. In this structure, an affiliate sits at the top of a two-sided team, left and right. Recruitment fills out the positions, with each level doubling the number of spots. Investment volume on both sides of the binary is tracked. Commissions are paid each time $600 in investment volume accumulates on one side, balanced against the other. This structure incentivizes aggressive recruitment to earn commissions.
The lack of transparency, the history of the parent company, and the reliance on a binary commission structure for recruitment suggest a high-risk investment. Potential participants should exercise extreme caution.