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BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

bloomberg.com

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Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#241

Post by throwaway413 »

metamet wrote: post #236
throwaway413 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they're not - they are separated by the fact that one's sole purpose is to commit fraud, while the other actually has to do - however much - with technical merit. The however much part exists in every other type of market..there is a subset of people that will always try to game the system of any system they exist within. This is nothing new. That subset can vary in size based on qualities of said market, yes, but…

You completely missed the part of my post where I said "in terms of traditional financial advisement".

Ok. Would you mind clarifying/elaborating on that?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#242

Post by conanbatt »

beefield wrote: post #91
conanbatt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ponzi scheme work because people believe the fraud (promise of high returns). Lotteries work the same way and are legal.

My understanding is that lotteries are quite open about the expected return that is heavily negative (and most people do understand that the expected return is negative). So they do not work the same way.

Even if you are open to being a Ponzi, it is illegal in the U.S.

As another user says, the only legal Lottery is the one that is run by the State.

Isn't it interesting.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#243

Post by geoffreyhale »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6
ve55 wrote: 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…

> 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…

This was a known ponzi scheme. Can participants actually recoup losses here? Shouldn't they be held just as accountable/guilty as any other participant?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#244

Post by thephyber »

geoffreyhale wrote: post #243
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

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…

This was a known ponzi scheme. Can participants actually recoup losses here? Shouldn't they be held just as accountable/guilty as any other participant?

> This was a known ponzi scheme.

What does it mean to be a _known_ ponzi scheme? How many people outside of the core conspirators are required for it to be reclassified from _suspected_ to _known_?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#246

Post by js2 »

unknown_apostle wrote: post #213
Pyxl101 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What is absolutely amazing is that, since your comment (only 24 days ago), they granted 500.000.000 new USD tethers.

Beginning on January 1, 2018, Tether Tokens will no longer be issued to U.S. Persons.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#247

Post by LrnByTeach »

ve55 wrote: 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…

This is text book ponzi scheme .

> 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 encouraged to re-invest your returns.

> What has happened today is Bitconnect has closed the exchange on their website, and so users flocked to some of the only other exchanges (of dubious reputation, since no reputable exchange wanted to list the BitConnect coin) in order to sell their now-worthless tokens, resulting in losses of around 90% today:

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#248

Post by teknologist »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #237
alien_at_work wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most investors knew Madoff was cheating some how, they just all assumed they would get out in time.

Was bitconnect cheating though? I totally thought it was possible that they were a ponzi scheme until I ran my own bitcoin trading bot. But, don't take my word for... if you look at bitcoin trading bots that you can run yourself (many example on youtube of people running their own), bitconnect's return rate was significantly lower than typical bitcoin trading bots. So, if bitconnect was getting typical returns (and i…

This is new to me. What does a Bitcoin trading bot do exactly? Do they trade alt-coins through exchanges?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#249

Post by dang »

roel_v wrote: post #70
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the youtubers would have had to phrase their claims very carefully Ponzi schemes are one of those things you can't disclose your way out of. Sort of like HIPAA [1]. If you violate HIPAA, "we disclosed our non-compliance to the patient" is an inadequate--and borderline aggravating--excuse. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_a... Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

Remind me, because your comments in this thread don't make it quite clear to me - are you a lawyer? Is this legal advice?

This crosses into incivility and offtopicness. Please don't; it leads to junk, as the subsequent comments here demonstrate.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#250

Post by dang »

nradov wrote: post #43
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

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…

If you lost money in this scheme you are too stupid to live. Go hide your face in shame instead of wasting taxpayer money trying to fix your mistake. "A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place." - Gordon Gekko

This breaks the HN guidelines. Other people being dumb (assuming that's the case) is not a license to be brutal, and in any case you owe the community much better when commenting here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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