This ‘web3 game console’ marks a new low for crypto grifts

Whether we like it or not, web3 and its accompanying technologies has weaseled its way into a lots of products over the past two years. We’ve got blockchain phones, NFT games, and now — at least allegedly — a “web3 game console.”

A recent Medium post from a company called Polium claims that the group is “building the products and infrastructure for Web 3 Gaming.” The focus of the company is to introduce something called a Polium One, which marks “the world’s first multi-chain gaming console.”

There’s just one problem: A lot of the information regarding this theoretical product is either overly ambitious, or in some cases, impossible.

Trust me, Web3 is the future — While no specs have been revealed, the company’s official site touted that its console would be in both 4k and 8k, a blatant contradiction, as noted by Kotaku. The processing and graphic power is being attributed to NVIDIA and the console will have its own cryptocurrency wallet, to facilitate blockchain transactions.

Polium’s site also promised the incorporation of Apple’s TouchID, as mentioned above, but you can’t currently visit said site to check that claim out for yourself, since the entire thing seems to down. The company’s Discord server appears to be faulty as well, considering invitations don’t work anymore through the company’s own Twitter account.

Speaking of Twitter, the amount of backlash Polium received has maybe influenced the way it is proceeding with the project. Take a look at this ratio:

To make matters worse (if that’s possible) Polium’s logo is a pretty obvious re-work of the one used by, well, Nintendo’s GameCube. After being lambasted over Twitter, Polium basically conceded that their initial effort was a rip-off.

So this week, the company unveiled its new logo and has since deleted all traces of the old design — for anyone interested web3isgoinggreat has the original archived here.

Rug pulls, galore — Rather than re-inventing the hardware or console space, Polium has instead re-written the script for NFT rug pulls. Normally, the scam will promise a purely digital experience to prospective buyers, with the possibility of real-world reward.

The Polium One on the other hand inverts the form by dangling a physical product as a gateway to online rewards. It’s telling that the company wants to take pre-orders “before the console’s hardware is completely built.” In order to get your hands on something that will not exist, Polium is offering an NFT collection known as Polium Pass, which supposedly grants owners access to the console in Q3 2024.

Crypto grifts aren’t slowing down any time soon, in fact, if Polium is any indication, they’re becoming more brazen. The twist here is the promise of physical product, which in most case would lend credibility. But given the fact there’s no actual proof of concept, Polium looks to be just another run-of-the-mill web3 scam.