The Affluence Network Review: Crypto tokens & pyramid recruitment
The Affluence Network website names Troy R J Hogg (aka Troy James or TJ) as owner of the company.
The Affluence Network has existed in one format or another since 2010, however the latest incarnation of the business was only launched in early 2017.
Prior to launching The Affluence Network, Hogg founded the GC Money Tree pyramid scheme. Under the guise of selling carbon credit certificates, GC Money Tree affiliates paid a fee and received commissions for recruiting others who did the same.
Read on for a full review of The Affluence Network MLM opportunity.
The Affluence Network Products
Affluence Network has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market The Affluence Network affiliate membership itself.
The Affluence Network affiliate membership provides access to internet marketing tools, courses and a PLR product library.
The Affluence Network affiliates are also given “crypto tokens”.
These tokens are very different than any other token or cryptocurrency available globally as they are backed by physical bullion or other top level cryptocurrencies.
The company claims crypto tokens are ‘exchangeable or saleable on over 7 Cryptocurrency Exchanges‘, however no specific details are provided.
The Affluence Network Compensation Plan
The Affluence Network compensation plan pays affiliates when they recruit new affiliates.
The compensation plan is broken down into separate plans for each The Affluence Network affiliate membership level.
Note that all commissions paid out by The Affluence Network are done so in bitcoin. The company also charges a 10% “processing fee” on all payable commissions.
Bronze
Recruitment commissions at the Bronze affiliate membership level are paid out via a binary compensation structure.
To qualify for commissions, a Bronze The Affluence Network affiliate must recruit at least two other Bronze affiliates.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).
Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.
Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note that there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.
Commissions are paid per affiliate recruited into the binary team, at a rate of $10 per month per affiliate placed on the smaller side.
Binary commissions are capped at $2500 a month, with a new position generated once an affiliate hits this cap.
Each new binary position must be maintained via payment of an additional $97 monthly fee.
Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond
Silver, Gold and Diamond commissions are paid out via a 2-up model and are paid out when binary commission qualified Bronze ranked affiliates “upgrade” to Silver.
Each Bronze affiliate who upgrades generates a commission for the affiliate who recruited them.
The 2-up model sees the third, fifth and seventh commission generated passed up to the first immediate upline affiliate.
In turn, affiliates placed below (commission earning positions) must also pass up their third, fifth and seventh generated commissions.
In addition to paying the Silver membership fee, a The Affluence Network affiliate qualifies for Silver commissions when two of their personally recruited binary commission qualified Bronze affiliates also pay the Silver membership fee.
At the Silver level, $73.50 is paid out each month. The same amount passed up if the commission generated is a passed-up sale.
To qualify for commissions at the Gold level, the Gold membership fee must be paid as well as three personally recruited Silver qualified affiliates also upgrading.
At the Gold level, $98.50 is paid out each month. The same amount is passed up if the commission generated is a passed-up sale.
To qualify for commissions at the Platinum level, the Platinum membership fee must be paid as well as three Gold qualified affiliates also upgrading.
At the Platinum level, $123.50 is paid out each month. The same amount is passed up if the commission generated is a passed-up sale.
To qualify for commissions at the Diamond level, the Diamond membership fee must be paid as well as three Platinum affiliates also upgrading.
At the Diamond level, $148.50 is paid out each month. The same amount is passed up if the commission generated is a passed-up sale.
Joining The Affluence Network
Full The Affluence Network affiliate membership requires five separate fee payments each month:
- Bronze – $97 a month
- Silver – $147 a month
- Gold – $197 a month
- Platinum – $247 a month
- Diamond – $297 a month
Conclusion
From what I gather, The Affluence Network’s crypto tokens are basically points the company attaches to purchased cryptocurrency.
The Affluence Network affiliates have no control over what a crypto token is tied to, but can exchange the token for a represented dollar value through the company.
I can’t see a legitimate public cryptocurrency exchange accepting “crypto tokens” (which are worthless in and of themselves), so all that’s probably happening is a regular cryptocurrency exchange on the backend.
Why does any of this matter?
Because The Affluence Network market their crypto tokens as an investment opportunity.
The Affluence Network has not one, but eight of our own Crypto Currencies.
Although there are several uses for the tokens coming available within TAN, they are a better store of worth because their value will grow with every passing day.
At the time of publication Alexa estimate that 80% of traffic to The Affluence Network website originates out of the US.
The Affluence Network does not appear on the SEC’s Edgar database, meaning the company is potentially offering an unregistered security.
On top of that, The Affluence Network’s compensation plan is entirely focused on pyramid recruitment.
Nothing is marketed to or sold to retail customers, with 100% of commission revenue generated via affiliate recruitment and payment of affiliate fees.
The pass-up commission structure primarily benefits early created positions. Early created positions in a pass-up model receive the majority of pass-ups company wide.
The earliest created position in a pass-up plan is that which belongs to the admin.
You can independently verify this by visiting The Affluence Network without an affiliate referral code, which will default you to the admin account. If you then click “join now”, the affiliate name attached to the admin account is revealed to be “Troy James”.
As with all pyramid schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will commission payouts.
Can I get a refund?
No. All purchases are non-refundable. All sales are final.
At that point the majority of The Affluence Network affiliates realize they’re not recovering their monthly membership fees, resulting in widespread losses.
I know this one.
Wasn’t it called The Effluence Network at some point? 😉
All in all an excellent article however there are few inaccuracies here..
First, you get access to 24 SAAS products and 25 training courses for your monthly 97 dollar Bronze membership payment. Autoresponder, Keyword tools, email address checker, etc. So you don’t need to recruit anyone and you will still receive significant value in the tools and then the training courses.
Second, we are just in BETA launch phase at the moment, moving slowly to ensure all of the systems work properly.
Thirdly, the coin wallets are now active for all of the cryptotokens. You want to know why they are called that? Since they ride on the Ethereum Blockchain as a smart contract that is their proper name.
You get them as a bonus when you make your monthly membership payments. You can’t buy in, you can’t take huge package to get a ton of coins.
So am at a bit of loss how you classify this as a Ponzi/Pyramid scheme.
The reason the exchanges are not shown is the first tokens are going through the required ICO phase to be able to trade on the public exchanges, that will happen soon.
All of the crypto tokens are backed by mining, a certain number of mining servers per quantity of tokens. These servers then will mine various alt coins (whichever are most profitable), sell them for Bitcoin and then depending on the token, either keep the funds in Bitcoin (Bronze, Unity and Life Ingots), or buy Silver (Silver Ingot), Gold (Gold Ingot) or Platinum (Platinum Ingot).
These bullion accounts will be at a reputable bullion provider (BullionVault.com) and the tokens smart contracts are tied to the appropriate bullion account.
A portion of the proceeds covers admin, server upgrade/purchase and a fund to enable management of an orderly market. All of this is transparent and shown to all in the token descriptions.
You also are not correct on how the accelerator levels work, as you promote up they are reverse 3-Ups, you get the first 2 that follow you, your upline gets the third, you get the fourth, pass up the 5th, you get number 6 and your upline gets number 7. Anything above that is all yours.
Your downline members also pass up to you making those levels potentially very rewarding.
I would welcome an opportunity to discuss this further with you.
Doesn’t change the fact that there is no retail and all commissions paid out are tied to affiliate recruitment.
Optional recruitment is not justification for a pyramid scheme. And when you’re running a pyramid scheme, any attached product or service is irrelevant.
So affiliates pay money each month … and get tokens … and you’re saying they’re not “buying in”?
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
because there are no public exchanges that accept The Affluence Network’s crypto tokens.
newly invested affiliate funds and nothing else. How else do the tokens “grow in value every day”?
Whether you convert invested affiliate funds into another currency or not is irrelevant.
“Mining” the tokens is, for lack of a better phrase, nothing more than a token effort.
The Affluence Network run a script, generate tokens and offload the tokens to gullible affiliate investors in exchange for real money.
That’s all that’s going on here.
How could I be? I didn’t mention “accelerator levels” in the review.
You mean, kind of like this?
Yeah no, those are clearly totally different concepts.
Rewarding perhaps but still a pyramid scheme.
Now with all that out of the way, you mentioned “a few inaccuracies”. Perhaps we can now address them?
(Ozedit: abuse removed)
Retail? yes there are absolutely hundreds of products that member get inside.. (after it opens) The Affluence Network has not yet launched.
The prices. You are misleading people. There is an entry price and it is monthly and the price is for the products alone and nothing else. Thinga marketer use everyday like and autoresponder and 26 other SAAS`s inside.
Besides that there are top selling products from some of the top marketers in JVzoo and the warrior forum. These products have been supplied by the product makers who are also in the system as instructors.
As a bonus for entry into the system at he entry price of $97 a month the buyer also gets these cryptotokens which are backed by gold. The tikens are smart contracts based on Etherium. If the buyer wants to sell these they can on the exchanges after 3 months in the system. hes cryptotokens are in the “ICO” process at this moment.
Only if the buyer decides they want to promote the system they will be admitted to the affiliate program and if they sell 2 subscriptions that qualifies them to pay into the next affiliate level. here is no other way to pay more for the upper levels unless you are already making money with the first level.
So you see.. (Ozedit: more abuse removed)
Members are affiliates, not retail customers.
Yawn. Whatever garbage you bundle with recruitment commissions doesn’t matter, it’s still a pyramid scheme.
No they aren’t, because the storage costs alone would be unprofitable. “Backed by gold” is just marketing buzz in MLM.
The only thing backing up crypto-tokens are invested affiliate funds, which are used to determine their value (Ponzi + unregistered security).
Everyone signs up as an affiliate, whether they recruit or not is irrespective of this fact and that commissions are paid on recruitment (pyramid scheme).
I guess the simple answer is wait until the tokens are officially through the ICO and trading on the exchanges and the exchanges are named.
And all of the mining servers as noted on the various token pages are actively mining alt coins and generating profits that go to back the crypto tokens. Then see the linkage to either BTC accounts, Gold/Silver/Platinum accounts.
As stated in the last post this has not even launched yet, it is in Beta phase working out all of the issues.
All of the tokens are real tokens on Ethereum smart contracts, so can see them live, they are not some fictitious tokens generated by a back office script that do not yet exist for real. I will publish them in another post.
History has shown reputable public exchanges aren’t interested in MLM Ponzi points.