I came across this post How is Bitconnect Sustainable? How is Bitconnect Not a Ponzi? written by @craig-grant which seems like a nice guy but is clearly wrong on Bitconnect.
He "tried" to state the reasons why Bitconnect was NOT a scam.
Of course, he failed.
Why is Bitconnect a Scam? I will provide you with a thorough analysis.
Please remember just one thing before we start, DO NOT trust someone's advice / Comment / Youtube Channel if he is already invested in it. Finally, I am not invested in BitConnect's platform in any way (obviously) and I do not intend to hurt this project but just to warn investors with little financial knowledge to be careful.
1. "The Guaranteed Return" is too good to be true
First and most convincing argument.
I just calculated that if you invest 10 000$ and reinvest every penny you get from your BitConnect income, with a 0.5% daily interest you would have 10 405 071 in 2 years.
This is unrealistic and I do not think anyone would believe this is a "guaranteed return".
As we say in finance, there is no free lunch. I only wish there was...
2. Creating you own coin and printing money out of thin air
@craig-grant stated that "It is not a Ponzi because they create their own coin".
I see where you want to go, but the fact that they basically print money out of the thin air for the only purpose to pay back "investors' interests" is already a huge sign of Ponzi.
In addition, except paying back interests, what is the purpose of this coin/company? They are promising ROI’s, but have no external income sources to produce those ROI’s… Oh wai I forgot about their trading bot...
3. "They have bot to trade using complicated algorithms"
First, even in his post it is obvious that @craig-grant does not actually believe in it.
Let's imagine it is true and it works, Why would a company that has already hundred of millions the need to borrow money and pay expensive interests at around 40% per month !!?
If it works as they state, why would they have the need to? In addition, as you have more money (let's assume they did not lose most of it paying the first Ponzi BCC investors) it becomes difficult to trade with the same accuracy and making money out of trading is harder when you manage more funds. This is why most Succesful Investment Funds have a limit of money they can manage to obtain the same results as before they became "famous".
4. "Only and if only the price of BCC drops it would be in big trouble".
This is a typical Ponzi sign when a company or fund cannot pay back its investors because its currency / Fund Share Value is not rising anymore.
Stating this is already admitting that it is different than Ethereum/Bitcoin/Litecoin... All these coins even with their price slashed by 3 would be able to continue developing their Blockchain and Services.
By the way, if I was managing this Ponzi Scheme, I would carefully control the price to make sure that it does not go down too fast. I didn't find any Trading platform that allows me to Short BitConnect, do you know one?
5. 1-7% Referral Bonus for sponsoring new members?
Don't get me started on this... This is the Ponzi Pyramid all over again. Don't bring your friends/family onto this platform.
6. All these people on Twitter/ Youtube/ Facebook showing how rich they became
Just realize that they need you to invest in order to allow them to make more or to withdraw their own money.
7. We do not know the Founders. How weird & convenient...
8. The company is apparently registered in the Caymans Islands, How weird & convenient once again...
9. They are promoting their platform on CoinMarketCap to attract new "customers/investors"
I don't understand? Are they in an ICO process? Why would they need to have fresh money to make their platform work?
Here is their "Advertisement"
And if you tell me it's not them, it's even worst that investors would do that as they know it's a Ponzi and need fresh cash.
10. "But it worked, I really got paid thousands of dollars"
You are lucky and probably happy with the platform. I would just advise to not double your investment after this as it is what usually happened as people are reassured that "it is not a scam".
Just remember that Madoff has been able to fool Wall Street for years and it exploded because of the financial crisis.
And during these years he always paid investors even if he admitted he never invested a single $.
Did you realize that we almost didn't speak about the purpose of BitConnect?
Except making hundred of thousands (if you were early investors) through a Ponzi Scheme, what is the point of the company? None.
If you are stupid enough to invest, just do it but don't come crying when it will explode.
To all the current Bitconnect's investors, I am sorry and get your money out as fast as you can.
Please Help me to Share this post so new investors will not be robbed by this Ponzi Scam.
Edit on November,14th:
According to the The Next Web: "The UK Registrar of Companies has threatened to shut down the dodgy platform and dissolve its operation"*
Read more here: 📣 The UK Registrar of Companies could shut down Bitconnect!📣
Please remember this is my personal opinion and not a financial/investment advice. You need to do your own research to make your own decision. Investing in cryptocurrencies can lead to financial losses.
Sources:
Image Credit
Coinmarketcap.com
Bitconnect.co
Steem prints money out of thin air everyday to pay for upvotes.
Interesting point. 'out of thin air'. haven't really given that a thought.
not even up to date article the referral level is only 3 now..and nothing I've read here is any different than what I've read elsewhere about this thing. plus people are forgetting that everyone that hates on bitconnect says the same things as the haters of bitcoin itself...time will tell i guess.
Don't worry about Grant, he ripped thousands in referrals. Its his best interest to send fresh meat to bitconnect to be slaughtered. Karma is a bitch, right. I heard he got hacked.
This post is upvoted by Polsza for 47 %.
If you want help us growing upvote this comment.
Thanks !
VIDEO RESPONSE – https://www.facebook.com/groups/afinocrypto/permalink/817142951801731/
Yeah all coins are as useless as BitConnect ...
Sounds like a more complicated onecoin scam all over again...
Bitconnect sounds to good to be true? but in the short term? People earn money.
Yea, there is no doubt people are earning real money. But that doesn't change the fact that it is unstable and will collapse. Eventually screwing thousands of misled people out of their hard earned cash. At the end of the day it is up to you how you want to invest your money when presented with the risk. My issue is the amount of disgusting people out there trying to lure people in through Social Media.
I agree with you @trystonperry11 100% its too bad these things are out there but they are... ive always been skeptical of this one as well as the most recent version ethconnect. these things play on peoples greed so they become highly profitable for a select few. anything that promises to pay you a percentage daily or that you have to sign people up underneath you is most likely a ponzi. and Thank you @vlemon for posting this valuable warning for people who may not know about these sorts of things. definitely following both of you and upvoting. wish you both much success!
You are more than welcome and I hope it helped some investors to not risk their money into Bitconnect.
@trystonperry11 I agree with this is not realy stable. But do you think stock market is stable? All investments are risky. It depense on the people witch level of risk they want to take. But everybody should make their own research!
It's a ponzi, which relies on misdirection and lies to lure people in to perpetuate what is eventually an unsustainable scam. It was not started with good intentions, it is a hoodwink for the owners to walk away rich.
VIDEO RESPONSE – https://www.facebook.com/groups/afinocrypto/permalink/817142951801731/
Dude! If you didn't know it was a ponzi scheme when they said you could earn 1% daily, there's no hope for you!
Very well done. It still astounds me to this day that this ponzi is operating in broad daylight and has such a large market cap. I thought it was in the process of collapsing 3 months ago and wrote about it then, but they will probably keep it alive as long as BTC keeps going up. I'd love to short it if you can find a way. Followed.
I guess the only would be through HiBTC but i don't even want to have an accound on this platform since they listed BCC. It shows how little due diligence they do on the coins they propose.
It's an obvious ponzi but so many dumb people are investing shitloads of money in that it's actually going to last for couple of years. I'm sure of that.
Also most of them who earn from lending to bitconnect reinvest all of their earnings. That will make it sustainable even more. But god knows for how long. I wouldn't put a cent into it. Because no one knows when it's going to fall. And I'm sure it will.
When the supply of new investors stops or people stop reinvesting they are fucked.
People thought that beanie babies were a good investment too,
If they have dollars in their eyes , then their's none to talk them out of their stupidity.
Thank you for the comment @runicar.
I think with the UK looking closely into it, the affiliate programs being lower and more and more influencers calling it a scam, it should go down soon.
Please find below my latests update published a few minutes ago with the UK investigation!
📣 The UK Registrar of Companies could shut down Bitconnect!📣
Will look into it. But I still think people's greed will overrule. There is nothing better than free money for the dumbed-down, moral-less and uninformed people. That's why I think it will continiue for a couple of years because let's face it. Bernie scammed much smarter and more influental people than bitconnect is scamming now. And he was doing it for 50 years.
VIDEO RESPONSE – https://www.facebook.com/groups/afinocrypto/permalink/817142951801731/
Great post @vlemon
I think people that want to take part should take your points into consideration and then when they join they should only blame themselves when they lose money.
This is very high risk business and is not sustainable like you pointed out. 40% pm is crazy.
Hello @colinbrazendale,
This what my goal, make new investors aware that they could lose it all.
If they still want to risk-it, it is their own decision.
I just want to say that Bitconnect make also money with the transactions fees on their OWN MARKET !!!
Thank you for the info.
Why nobody talk about that fact ??
But they have a trading bot, and some guy named Craig told me it’s the real deal. And he seems to have a lot of money. /sarcasm.
Their are literary hundreds/thousands of trading bots. When everything is opensource. It's not too hard to implement something too automate the process.
But the people who invest in these scams are probably not the most knowledgeable people.
Ahah @justiceak.
Good one!
Saved. This should be shared in every craig-grant post that is about Bitconnect, he's really hurting the crypto by advertising the site. People who lose their money on these ponzis will not come back to crypto and will talk negatively about the whole experience.
Indeed this is my goal with this post. Preventing people to lose it all. Or if they still do it they knew about the risk of à Ponzi Scheme.
Take care
Many will get burned. Someone told me how their friend got burned by one coin or something. Hard to believe but it does happen sadly.
Thanks for the article. We have done a due diligence and found out that it is indeed an outright fraud and scam. http://blog.icoindex.com/why-icoindex-has-labeled-bitconnect-as-an-outright-fraud/
Very good detailed post.
I have had a lot of hate for calling this a dodgy platform and probable scam.
On the companies house front.
Unfortunatly back in early september a group of marketers set up bitconnect international and another bitconnect listing. The latter is now bitcoin amr so watch out for that.
Not sure if the uk gov is looking at them too but i hope so.
The first listing was an obvious fraud listing.
From the bottom of my heart i thank you. Im not the best at writting and would never have out together such a good post. And its nice to not feel so alone with my stance.
Also food for thought
Mathematically its more profitable to hold their token than loan it to them. Based on figures fron june 4th/5th to oct 2nd this year. Without reinvesments or referrals but including 0.25% bouns. You could of made 20k more on a $10010 loan of you just held the token amount instead.
I only add this as people seem to respond to the $ value of all this than real logic.
All my findings are based on historical data from bitconnects own site for interest payments and CMC for token value growth during the time period.
Id also like to add that after a flash crash bitconnect admitted they hold enough bcc to stop tge market crashing or going to high now. So you can add market manipulation to the list.
All mr grant IMO is not a nice idividual. I was in a chat back in late may early june on facebook with him. Its sole purpose was to create more marketers and a bigger chain. They way he spoke to anyone who didnt 100% with him was awful. He treated people like dirt and it was a classic "this isnt right" kind of vibe and he knows exactly whats going on.
This is how i know most youtubers are only reinvesting a small % referral money for the camera.
Thank you for your comments. I feel what you might have been through.
I had a lot of love for this post until now but I see smaller accounts only there to promote Bitconnect Ponzi are coming at me right now.
Luckily in Steem it works with reputation so they are harmless and I feel that experienced Steemians mostly agree with the fact that it is a Ponzi.
For the longest time ive tried to be nice to the people that disagree. More in an attempt to get more information or proof of the claims. But all seem to just basically say "but its paying"
Its like talking to a wall lol. Now i just spend my time mocking if they come around. Maybe i shouldnt but after 3 month what more could i really say that might help them out to realise its a damn scam smh
I started flagging these level 25-30 that come to say "Invest in bitconnect" then you go to their account and it is 2 posts with one of them is an affiliate link to Bitconnect of COURSE!
War is on ! And I am going to protect the less experienced investors into not falling in the Ponzi Scheme Trap (and Bitconnect is just one of them unfortunately...)
Reporting for Duty SIR!
Ask not what crypto can do for you, but what you can do for crypto!
It is definitely a Ponzi scheme...problem is that everyone as you said in the post is showing on social networks their huge profits, stimulating fomo into their followers and no one knows when it will collapse, potentially could last for years so some people are willing to take the risk for a daily 1%. But one day it will vanish for sure, who made big profits are the ones on the top of the Ponzi, all of the others will be left with nothing.
The referral levels have changed, now bitconnect only have 3 levels, and the first level is 5%, no longer 7%
Thank you for the Update @Stef.
Nice post. This whole pile of bitconnect bollocks has got me interested too. After a little digging, it looks to me like the bitconnect clowns are gearing up for further ponzis, probably to fund bitconnect itself when it starts to slow and needs extra capital.
Check the lameness of these $10 sites. Similar in (crap) style and content.
http://coinnuggets.com/
http://coinomiaprelaunch.com/
And then check where this one takes you!
http://DEBTPAYOFFSERVICE.COM
The end is nigh!
I wish there was a way to short it!
I almost lost a $ 100 investment in bitconnect, but since you've told me this important information, I'm not investing there, thank you for sharing this important information!! @vlemon
This is a kind of post that will help make Steemit a major social media center of the world. Why?
Most internet-based investment and trading platforms are SCAMS. But ordinary people who are looking for opportunities online do not know which of these sites are to be avoided. Many small investors are therefore victimized and lose their hard-earned money. So, if anyone has the reliable information about a scamming site offering investment opportunities, many of us will really appreciate it.
In this connection, I want to request you to please see if Chain.Group Escrow Service is not a SCAM. I have investments in this company and I plan to go on investing as I believe it is legit and sustainable for the long time. But if you find it otherwise and you can persuade me by the evidence you could get, I will stop my investment activities there. Thank you and more power!
Chain group for sure is.
@godcomplex you said little but it is nice to hear from you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you @win1254 for this comment.
I unfortunately do not have the time to look at this one but check where it is based, if the founders are known and ask the community about it.
I just don't know what to think anymore.
Some say a this is a scam. Some say BTC Cash is a fraud. Other say it's the future of BTC. Others say it's being manipulated by the chinese.
Damm, if their was just some kind of authority, to acces the trust ability of a platform.
Thanks brother for the information I was thinking about investing in the site but today I will not do thanks for the effort
As I've watched others point out, the money is currently trapped in bitconnect. To my knowledge none of those earnings are actually being withdrawn.
How do you know the actual value of bitconnect coin when 98% of the trading is happening on bitconnects exchange?
The value of a coin is dependent on its uses and what value it may bring in the future. What is the goal of Bitconnct except making Ponzi money?
The fact that you can only trade it on their own platform shows that they do not want the "market" to put a price on their project. Also it is only possible to control the price if they control the trading platform. Which is the case.
It allows them to make this Ponzi only last longer.
Correct!
It makes à Ponzi run longer. How is it good for the crypto world?
It's not. Sorry just was saying I agree with you.
Hey my friend @gniksivart.
Sorry for being a little bit aggressive, I have been under attack by some spammers Pro-BitConnect.
I hope you'll accept my apologies.
Take care my friend.
No worries. You'll have the last laugh when they eventually go belly up.
You could just join them and start spamming all the money you're making and help cause the next biggest downfall of crypto since Mt. Gaux
Tôi thấy các coin khác đều hoạt động mô hình tương tự nhau mà
they only recently got put on hitbtc(i am boycotting them now). However until recently in their internal exchange you could not cancel a trade temporary. They just recently added the cancel feature
Steemit also has an internal exchange to turn Steem into Steem dollars.
So...? Your point? In bitconnect internal exchange you could not cancel a trade temporary. They just recently added the cancel feature.
And steem internal exchange is not calculted in coinmarketcap=
So steemit can use a bot and do a mega buy order but it won't be collected in the outside exchanges.
thus not increasing steem price. BItconnect internal exchange is counted in prices
It is on Hit BTC.
Bitconnect is scam and ponzi, but it is paying right now!
I won't blame this people joining bitconnect and they are risk taker and ready to loss and earn,
Only the risk taker will earn more in online investment!
I don't have money to join bitconnect too!
That guy, Craig Grant, ooooh god, how disgusting he is. He is just by himself would be an anti-promotion for anything.
Cannot believe someone sees him and his fake girlfriend and still considers what they promote!!
PS. Any idea how can I make YouTube stop showing me this guy 🤮🤮🤮 before every single video I watch?
Ahah, unlike his videos maybe?
Everything about it seems like a scam, to the over-zealous commercials which seem to beg you to believe them to the unbelievable returns that no one in their right mind would share if they had such an advanced trading bot.
Oh, and the referral links and not to mention the lower levels are no longer getting paid out - new money in and no new money out. I wonder if its about to collapse?
I give it less than 2 months.
Promoting ponzi scam is a crime in the USA. If you were making cash why would you need to suck in Others? Sole reason is you know it's unsustainable.
This post is wrong, screenshots are not even from Bitconnect!
also there are not 11 tiers! only 3 tiers.
tier 1 5%
tier 2 3%
tier 3 2%
end.
Nowhere in their platform do they say there is guaranteed returns. You have a chance of a return from 0-2%. There have been days where I am getting 0.00% or 0.02%. There is so much wrong with this article I don't know where to begin, but I guess it's one of those flavor of the month things to continuously keep hating on the platform which has so far not scammed people. Meanwhile you have actual scams, such as Roger Ver and his BCH. Actual manipulation, done in actual malintention. I'm not seeing the deserved hate there. I'm not seeing hundreds of articles coming out against that. If you don't like bitconnect, fine. Don't invest in it. But don't sit here and pretend that none of you have the exact same goal.. To make money. Don't sit here and pretend you don't want Bitcoin to reach 10000% in the hopes of making money, where all the people who got in early are the ones who come out on top, where all the new money is paying for all the old money. A digital asset that NO ONE KNOWS who created and whose creator currently holds 1 million Bitcoins.. Hmm sounds like the grandest ponzi scheme if I ever heard one.
there are different opinions of different spectrums on this subject. But the truth of the matter. FUD prevents people from progressing in life and there were nonbelievers when bitcoin was .001 cents for 1 and they are just angry that they didn't take part in it sooner, the same goes for every ICO. Cryptocurrency was made with decentralization in mind for the community to create a community outside of the lines of society.
It is different:
Bitcoin HAS NEVER said it would give profits/returns to its users or even their money back!
Bitconnect has as its core marketing principle the "return" you get daily for some "algorithmic trading" and you get your money back after a certain amount of time. It is also based on new people joining to make the current investors richer.
This is a Ponzi Scheme.
You are supporting a crypto currency and by doing that you are adding value to it. the site itself says it. To build trust and reputation in cryptocurrency, it is doing just that by attracting more people to the platform through bitcoin which is creating in turn more demand.
Yup and? How is bitconnect or yourself adding any value ?
What is Bitconnect developping? Nothing.
I'm sorry, you are either already too invested in the platform to be objective or you just don't get it.
BtW to other people browsing through, @maxpayne created its Steemit account today and is already sharing his Affiliate Link to Bitconnect.
This discussion is closed, I won't reply anymore.
You are a scammer, at least try to not force other people into losing money.
I understand where you are coming from. Im new to this community and im getting a feel for it I didn't mean to cause a commotion. So how can I make money with my bitcoin?
By thinking, reading and studying.
The most important is to make your own research.
I like cryptos but I don't "like" Bitcoin, nevertheless I understand why people would want to own it as I understand what it is, how it works and what it could be.
If Bitconnect keeps expanding their website they can turn it into a semi-decentralized exchange or trading platform. How much would that be worth?
Imagine if Bitcoin came packaged with it's built in centralized exchange and used loans as a liquidity pool for that? Would the math and economics make sense or is it still not sustainable?
Thank you for sharing this post. You raise some interesting points .
I have struggled with what to believe about bitconnect. I have seen and read so many contradicting things. I have seen some interesting videos which debunk every common conception, yet the whole thing remains 'too good to be true'.
A part of me is waiting for it to 'fall apart'.
However I am interested in knowing for sure.
So I have invested just $200 to see how far it goes. I am going to keep a log of my journey with it whether it fails or not. In the meantime I will continue to research peoples stories, opinions and information and share my own experience.
Here is my link: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@laurabean/my-bitconnect-experience-if-you-don-t-know-anything-about-bitconnect-start-here
This is the chance I took with Bitcoin, and with Bitconnect it is the same. Only the risk takers have an opportunity.
Check out my post on the math of the investments. They actually don't need to Ponsi to do what they are doing. 1% a day does not keep up with Bitcoin across 239 days, so they end up taking your BTC and returning you back about half:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jnorthwest/bitconnect-explained-how-they-take-your-btc-and-give-you-less
VIDEO RESPONSE – https://www.facebook.com/groups/afinocrypto/permalink/817142951801731/
Thanks for this post. It was interesting read being that I'm relatively new to the crypto-currency world. I'm definitely going to do my due diligence of the business before I think about investing.
Still scam, still people are investing, do not know why.
Barely an elaborated Ponzi. Can't wait for scams to be out of DLT for good
nice post broo
Thank you for the post !
Pour quand la traduction en français ? ;-)
Héhéhé bientôt mais beaucoup de taff au boulot :(.
Mais crois-moi avec le monde qui arrive, ça me titille très fortement!
Solid post.
Visit CoinCheckup.com | SteemIT - Daily Technical Analysis
Yes I have also thought about investing here at first. But then decided not to after reading the latest news about UK government trying to ban it if it cannot prove it is infact a legit business
It's amazing how many people have been taken in by Bitconnect!
Why is it that people simply don't realise the truth in the old adage - if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
if it smells like a rat, walks like a rat and feeds like a rat then its a ...?
When do you think it will explode?
great article. but im pretty sure the advertiser on coinmarketcap is just some dude trying to get referrals.
This sounds really bad
Ditto for Eth Connect. Just say NO!
Please address the question in my post. If Bitconnect is a scam why isn't Bitcoin?
Nice post. The information you present here is an honest review. Give me the idea not to join bitconnect.....
Excellent post @viemon. Thank you for making us all aware of the danger. I understand many people got hurt with Bitpetite (another Ponzi scheme) and I would not like other people to experience the same fate with this or other similar lending programs. It’s much safer to invest in altcoins with good businesses behind them instead. Upvoted and retweeted this post and will now be following your work with interest in future. Thanks again.