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BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

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Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#151
post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

The only question remaining is - how on earth is it still worth anything? Who is buying?

Remember when MtGox was transparently dead, and people were still sending in bitcoins? There are an awful lot of incredibly gullible people into this stuff.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#152
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t fraud require deception? Wasn’t this pretty upfront about being a Ponzi scheme?

Ponzi scheme work because people believe the fraud (promise of high returns). If they said, deposit your money and we'll pay you back only if enough people after you also deposit their money then you'd have an interesting point, although I'm sure it's still illegal even if you announce your intentions before doing something illegal.

> Ponzi scheme work because people believe the fraud

That is not always the case. Sometimes you have a Ponzi like Madoff where it may seem legit to investors but most ponzis are blatant and the people involved know it is a ponzi but think they can profit by selling it to greater fools.

Of course they will all express shock and feign ignorance when they are trying to get their money back or defend themselves from the angry people they hustled.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If $200M was printed today, then it likely doesn't exist. Hilarious that this is going on. At some point the music has to stop.

Just as reference as the comment here was deleted. Pretty important stuff. http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=3MbYQMMmSkC3AgW... https://i.imgur.com/BsPSZKO.png

Basically I think the tether are fraudulent. I do not have proof but they likely are. What is the best way to make money on them? Can one short tether?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#154
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, they don't deal in USD at all. They deal in "USDT", which isn't at all USD but a token called a tether that is somehow magically supposed to be pegged so 1 USDT == 1USD that you can... well... I dunno what you can do with a tether but one thing you can't do is turn it into actual fiat money on Bitfinex. You might be able to convert it to cold hard fiat on some other exchange though, but odds are good sa…

The fact that Tether does not guarantee in their terms and conditions that they'll exchange Tether back into equivalent reserve currency makes it _super_ sketchy from my point of view. The only way that Tether should be considered backed by and equivalent to USD (risk-reduced) is if Tether is contractually obligated to convert it back into USD. Instead, this is what their TOS says: > Tethers are not money and are not…

I'm by no means an expert, but I'm wondering why the people responsible behind Tether do this? Why don't they ask people for a dollar for each Tether coin and then store those dollars indefinitely, wouldn't that guarantee that the currency is pegged? They would always be able to exchange the Tether back to a dollar.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#155
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several of the "get referrals!" videos literally use pyramids in their thumbnails to illustrate the program. Holy crap.

There are plenty of large long-running "pyramid" structured marketing companies that are totally legal though. Just because it's a pyramid scheme doesn't mean it's a ponzi scheme nor automatically imply that it's exploiting people. Just wanted to make that distinction. Not commenting on BitConnect directly.

Multi-level marketing is perfectly legal if you are selling a real product. If you are selling stock in your business that doesn't actually produce anything except for marketing materials to sell stock then not so much.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#156
post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

>other exchanges (of dubious reputation Yeah, HitBTC has the most volume, and it has a terrible reputation. See all the reports of "maintenance issues" when a coin traded there can be sold at a higher price on another exchange.

Any exchange trading this crap should probably be avoided like the plague.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Famous Youtubers and other individuals with influence convinced hundreds of people to put their money into BitConnect in order to profit off of referrals If you lost money in this scheme and are in the United States or Canada, contact your state securities regulator [1]. Mention any such referral sources. Those individuals may be liable for securities fraud under state and federal law. If you're in the United State…

Most of them took down their videos by now

The fact that the videos are "taken down" from public view doesn't mean that they won't be available in google's archives when the authorities file a subpoena for them.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to think they're smarter than those 'experts'. It's a combination of Tall Poppy Syndrome [1] and the Dunning-Kruger Effect [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

You can add to that that "experts" are pretty clueless as well, 2000 and 2008 are reminders of that. Close to none saw it coming and the ones that did where laughing stock amongst them, you have to be a pretty remarkable person to swim against National bank presidents, government officials and other high ranking people like Alan Greenspan, that was a super respected economist but also has made some of the worst mista…

Perhaps then your definition of 'expert' is incorrect? Would it not be that the ones who saw it coming were really the experts? And those who laughed at them were anything but? I would argue that those who laughed at the doomsayers of 2000 & 2008 are the same as those now arguing that BitCoin can only go up. Your reply is a rather odd justification for self-destructive financial behavior.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#159
post #133
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video was deleted by the user. Any other source?

Not sure, but this is what I've found: https://bitconnect.com/images/referal_bonus.png

Image also archived here: http://archive.is/wdET3
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