Haha, I noticed the language there too, good catch.
When they reveal what bank they've agreed to acquire I'm sure it will change the whole conversation and make it very real. Regardless of what happens, a project of this kind of ambition and magnitude will be remembered, hopefully for better and not worse.
So I can assume if everything works out you'll have an account like me haha
Yup, I'll probably do some banking with them if everything shakes out as described. Guess that might mean banking through a vpn.
My biggest concerns (aside from the risk of outright fraud and the much stronger possibility that they shot themselves in the foot by targeting $1 billion as an initial fundraising goal instead of something more feasible like $300 million) are: 1.) US regulators could block the sale of the bank, and 2.) the bank Arise plans to acquire might have major problems with its balance sheet that are not immediately apparent, which could expose the whole Arise project to serious liability. These things would be less concerning if Arise had a well-established banking industry insider on its team. But as things stand, I'm not convinced they're in possession of the specialized knowledge required for the level of due diligence called for by a deal of this size.
All that said, I still might buy into the ICO; ) But hell, I'm holding tezos, so obviously my judgment on such matters isn't great.
How do you know this is not a fraud? The process is very obscure. No headquarters. No team. (At least not at the site). No proof of developed platform. The founder says they don't use Bitshares platform but partner with them ... for what reason. An as you mention $1 billion is way too much. And there is no (verifiable) info how much they collected so far.
It could well turn out to be a fraud. But I don't think it will. The more likely risk in my opinion is the risk that all of the planning done to put this together falls apart when government approval of the venture fails to materialize as anticipated.