Source: Dina ElBoghdady, Washington Post ( Free Registration )

For $100, Micah Lubens bought a share of a vacant, two-story brick building that was promoted as the next up-and-coming hot spot along D.C.’s bustling H Street corridor.

Gathering small sums of money from a large number of people online — known as “crowdfunding” — is poised to take off in the investing world, with backing from Washington policymakers who see it as a chance to involve the masses in an arena dominated by big Wall Street firms and the super-wealthy.

But given its potential to upend the nation’s investment landscape, critics are worried that crowdfunding will leave unsophisticated investors vulnerable to fraud or big losses, especially since small businesses generally suffer high failure rates and the firms involved in crowdfunding will have to make only limited financial disclosures.

Read Full Article: ‘Crowdfunding’ trend poised to make mark