BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales • Hacker News Board

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#81

Post by brokensegue » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 8:35 AM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #25

spookthesunset wrote: post #18

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 dotcom bubble wiped out $5T of value. I think the cryptocurrency bubble is still smaller than $1T. I think that many are not falling for the scams but rather are "momentum investing" and hoping their timing is good.

i believe that counts as falling for it

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#82

Post by brokensegue » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 8:45 AM UTC

a_t48 wrote: post #74

brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

BitConnect is definitely a ponzi, but I think this sets the wrong precedent. Exchanges should have voluntarily delisted BCC (many already have, but it still trades on some markets and is listed on coinmarketcap) rather than being forced by threats from the government. This gives regulators credence as our protectors and suggests they will try these strongarm tactics again in the future.

If all parties involved did the right thing, we wouldn't need regulators, would we?

bitcoin: a tool for teaching libertarians the reasons we created regulations at high speed

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#83

Post by aiCeivi9 » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 8:46 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #42

Iv wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To have that line of defense, the youtubers would have had to phrase their claims very carefully. I am willing to bet a fistfull of dogecoin that this was not the case of all of them. Make them discover these actions have consequences, I can only see good sides to this.

> 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.

Is disclosing yourself as not a lawyer enough to excuse from giving legal advice?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#84

Post by bringtheaction » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 8:57 AM UTC

dbcooper wrote: post #10

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…

>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.

HitBTC sucks less than a lot of other exchanges IME. It's not my favorite exchange but it's decent enough that I rank it pretty highly.

I have noticed that if you look at reviews for different exchanges, most will have a large amount of negative reviews. Some deserve it but I suspect that a lot of the reviews are not real - competing exchanges may have paid someone to write fake negative reviews.

Not saying HitBTC is the best or anything.

As an exercise, try this: Take the name of your absolute favorite exchange, combine it with the word "review" (sans quotation marks) and do a Google search for that. Look through the results.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#85

Post by drexlspivey » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:05 AM UTC

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…

Most of them took down their videos by now

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#86

Post by taberiand » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:14 AM UTC

t3chn0SchO0lbus wrote: post #71

dudus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you trade it for bitcoin someone is selling you that bitcoin for tether. That person will go ahead and trade that tether for some other coin.... rinse repeat, but in the end someone is holding that Tether, if exchanges stop accepting tether eventually your only option is to cash out to USD. USDT is basically being used as a trade coin, to avoid cashing out (maybe to avoid taxation) or to speculate on USD with the…

I keep trying to wrap my head around the economics of this and maybe give Tether the benefit of doubt. I think the most damning technical detail is that there is no client-side wallet. We can't trade Tether amongst ourselves or engage in any trades that Tether doesn't have at least indirect control of.

Tether is a scam, 100%. It's fake money materialized out of thin air to pump Bitcoin.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#87

Post by Fnoord » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:16 AM UTC

drexlspivey wrote: post #85

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…

Most of them took down their videos by now

Google surely must have a copy, as well as Archive.org. These people benefitted from the scam; they should be held accountable as well.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#88

Post by andypants » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:18 AM UTC

zhjansbnas wrote: post #67

bhouston wrote: post #27

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.

How does the printed tether enter the market?

Bitfinex buys cryptos with them on their own exchange. They get free cryptos, and everybody else gets monopoly money in exchange. Tether is such a scam it's unbelievable.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#89

Post by ForHackernews » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:19 AM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #27

dudus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you trade it for bitcoin someone is selling you that bitcoin for tether. That person will go ahead and trade that tether for some other coin.... rinse repeat, but in the end someone is holding that Tether, if exchanges stop accepting tether eventually your only option is to cash out to USD. USDT is basically being used as a trade coin, to avoid cashing out (maybe to avoid taxation) or to speculate on USD with the…

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.

There's a twitter account that tracks the printing of new Tether: https://twitter.com/tetherprinter

There was another $100m invented 11 hours ago, in addition to the $100m created on Monday.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#90

Post by JustFinishedBSG » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 9:21 AM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #16

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…

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

No, Ponzi schemes are illegal. Even if you write in huge bold red letters "HEY THIS IS A PONZI SCHEME" before people "invest" it wouldn't change anything legally.