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Fake cryptocurrency lists 'Ryan Gosling' as its graphic designer

A cryptocurrency with Ryan Gosling as the graphic designer? That doesn't seem right...

Mark Serrels Editorial Director
Mark Serrels is an award-winning Senior Editorial Director focused on all things culture. He covers TV, movies, anime, video games and whatever weird things are happening on the internet. He especially likes to write about the hardships of being a parent in the age of memes, Minecraft and Fortnite. Definitely don't follow him on Twitter.
Mark Serrels
2 min read
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Screenshot by Mark Serrels/CNET

On the face of it MIROSKII looks like any normal initial coin offering for a brand new cryptocurrency. 

Buzzwords, "banking without bankers", a team of cryptocurrency experts working together on a new piece of ground breaking technology. Great stuff. 

But then you scroll down its list of advisors and notice something a bit weird. 

Is that... Ryan Gosling?

Meet Kevin Belanger, an "[e]xperienced graphic designer with a clear focus on identities and illustration." He is apparently working on MIROSKII. He also looks a lot like Ryan Gosling. That's because his profile picture is literally a stock image of Ryan Gosling.

So is Ryan Gosling working on an ICO for a brand new cryptocurrency?

No, he is not.

For background, an "ICO" is an "initial coin offering". An ICO allows potential buyers to invest in a cryptocurrency before launch. ICOs are used to help fund the development of a new currency. If the technology is legitimate, it can be good to get in early before it starts getting traded freely on exchanges.

But the MIROSKII ICO appears to be an elaborate fake.

The MIROSKII ICO (and the Gosling connection) was intially brought to our attention by Jackson Palmer, the founder of Dogecoin, who we profiled as part of our Blockchain Decoded series

It was initially uncovered by Twitter user @CryptoShillNye.

Incredibly, it looks as though almost everyone on MIROSKII's list of advisors is fake.

From our own research, Perry Henderson is listed on the site as a "Blockchain enthusiast", a CEO of multiple online companies, but a quick Google search uncovered this: Perry Henderson is actually a real estate agent from Texas.

Joel Hermann ("Founder of Mysterium Network" and a "[h]uge technology fan") is actually Ben B. Rubinowitz, a practicing lawyer from New York

Claus Wahlers has just completed a list of all the people apparently advising MIROSKII and their actual real identities.
So far every single person on the team he's looked into is "fake".

For example, "Mark Anderson" is Christopher Cane, the image was taken from his Twitter profile. Craig Gulledge is Peter Roper, a business developer. Many others appear to be taken from stock images. 

Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story: MIROSKII appears to have raised $833,000 already. We have no real way of verifying at this point if the money raised is a legitimate figure. 

Most likely it's not legitimate, but we have no way of telling at this point. We've attempted to get into touch through MIROSKII's social media, but we've yet to hear back and don't expect to hear back at this point.