I had a discussion with the author and he just don't seem to get it at all. I've also written about BitConnect few weeks ago. As I analysed in my post, the supporters seem to be living in some unicorn land or some communist pipe dream. https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@vimukthi/trevon-james-vs-vitalik-buterin-in-depth-analysis-commentary-on-bitconnect
Eg comment: This is just human kindness people helping people, that's what the world needs and financial abundance is our basic inheritance not greed and fear like the controlling power wants us to live in and believe. They treat us as we are puppets and we are not. Love on....
According to their interview they have an office in Vietnam and in other places around the world, and they plan to add more currencies to their exchange.
By more currencies you mean instead of taking just Bitcoin, they'd be selling their BCC for alt-coins. That'll bring more money in. But if you need a decentralized exchange, try Bitshares DEX or Waves Dex or Komodo or Cobinhood. If you need lending, try https://www.saltlending.com/
Your sentiment is perfectly aligned with the sentiment before Tulips, before great depression, before the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble and also echo with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff incident. Everybody was using the exact same logic before the housing bubble pop.
If you really trust BitConnect why don't you prove you are putting at least 50% of your savings on it.
To justify my sentiment so you understand where I'm coming from and can approach from the right perspective:
Now that my perspective is disclosed and out of the way, no one is looking out for me financially. Bitconnect is looking out for itself financially, but I think they have more to gain by staying in operation longer than by shutting down if they want to make as much money as possible. If they believe in their mission and want to make money then they will not shut down easily.
It is the same with Bitcoin. I do not trust the miners and we aren't supposed to. They get paid, and they get paid a lot. Crypto could be in a bubble and could pop at any moment. Any crypto could be banned at any time. Any argument you make about Tulips have been made about Bitcoin already and are not new. The Ponzi Scheme argument has been made about Bitcoin since it was invented and is not new.
So tell me why are you in Bitcoin if you are worried about bubbles, Ponzi Schemes, etc, and why do you suggest to me ICOs which offer even less return for more or the same risk? Are you going to invest in them?
Bitcoin was never a ponzi. It serves a purpose. It's P2P digital cash. Bitcoin will die because the competitors like Dash,NEM,BCH,PIVX,XVG are doing a far better job that Bitcoin. BitConnect add nothing to the world. It totally fits the criteria of a ponzi which BTC doesn't. Bitcoin solves real world problems. It allows people to be their own bank. Bitcoin is digital currency; not some speculative vehicle.
Can't say the same about BitConnect.
In a previous comment you called https://www.saltlending.com/ a ponzi. How do you even prove your point. SALT give you real money while keeping your crypto as collateral. It's not different from getting a loan using your house as collateral.
Digital cash already existed and the banking system already is P2P. The federal reserve gives dividends to it's peers (other banks). Jamie Dimon said Bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme and why don't you believe him? You believe random Youtubers and developers about Bitconnect yet you cannot see the same game being played on people who hold fiat?
The bankers don't want you to use it so they call it a Ponzi Scheme but then the people who bought Bitcoin 3 years ago are millionaires now. So why do you think people lending to Bitconnect cannot become millionaires 3 years from now if it happens routinely in this space?
Real money? I suppose if you trust the fiat Ponzi Scheme where they create the money out of thin air? Yet you get upset if in crypto it is deflationary where they remove tokens from the supply? In either case they manipulate the supply,
In the federal reserve it is even worse because they give dividends to the banks that sign up. Where does the money come from? I guess if you trust the bank you can accept that they generate real money but real money does not mean real wealth.
The Dollar is nothing more than numbers on a ledger. Bitconnect lets you lend in dollars and pays back in dollars, and is acting like a bank. If you are a lender, you get the dividend which is like a revenue share. I do honestly have issues with how they do it but as long as they keep paying out what they owe then it's no scam.
Money talks. Those traditional banks you trust did not give you a dividend, or interest, or bail you out. Bitcoin was founded from the perspective of being anti-bank specifically because these banks inflate the currency, take dividends for themselves, and the rest of us pay fees for the privilege (along with taxes).
You trust the code of salt lending? Smart contracts fail all the time. Maybe humans fail too but it is the same risk. You just decide you want to trust programmers you don't know and code you probably can't read instead of trust people you don't know and can't see.
I looked deeper at Saltlending, not only is it not profitable for investors but it is evil. It promotes people borrowing rather than loaning money, and promotes putting people in debt by encouraging people to spend money they do not have. Sure banks will love this as it will put even more people in debt but it does not promote freedom.
I will never be dumb enough to use Saltlending or a credit card. First it is risky to be a long term holder in crypto so the idea of taking loans against something which has so much volatility and unknown value makes no sense. Then how do loans actually give you anything?
The more loans you take, the more you owe someone else, when it is better and wiser to have someone else owe you. I think it is better to be your own bank and lend than to borrow.
I hate loans, and credit. I prefer to earn and then spend. If there has to be loans then I prefer to give loans rather than take them so you only encourage me to like Bitconnect even more if that is the alternative.
From what I understand Bitconnect is trying to become an unregulated exchange like BTC-E once was. This would mean allowing people to trade multiple currencies against each other. In 2013 the high risk high reward attitude was normal in the space and in that setting BTC-E launched. People used the exchange for years but it was not shut down until the government shut it down. BTC-E did not run off with the money but this is not to say they were not corrupt. Bitconnect charges a fee for exchanges and these fees can be used to provide interest for lenders. If it is an exchange then the lenders are liquidity providers.
In my opinion they should transition into something regulated if they are allowed to but who knows if they can because this is a competitive space and there are other exchanges plus banks which probably don't like what they are doing. So that argument in my opinion is truly believable for why they don't come out of the shadows, but even if they were in the open and working directly with the government it wouldn't mean their token is more profitable to hold or that their business model will be more profitable under scrutiny.
I think if you want trust then stick your money into a bank account. Crypto is not safe, never was safe, and risk free profit does not exist. So if you want high returns you must take high risk. Bitconnect is high risk high return which is the only way to get a big win off an investment.
Crypto is about high risk high return investments. Crypto is not about 'trust' and I don't know why you believe Bitcoin and crypto was founded on trust. I say always do not invest or lend what you cannot afford to lose.
If you can afford to lose $100 then putting $100 in Bitconnect is the same risk as putting it into an ICO. If you can afford to lose $1000 then Bitconnect is the same risk as putting it into an ICO. If you can afford to lose $10,000+ then lending to Bitconnect is the same risk as lending to an ICO.
So it is the same level of risk. Most businesses (9 out of 10) fail. So you have a 90% chance of losing your money. At the same time you tend to reveal high risk low return investments like Salt or you show me Bitshares which if it were just launched would make sense but isn't really any better of an opportunity than Bitconnect is now.
The typical investor in an ICO is either a person who truly believes the ICO will change the world, or someone who believes they can get rich, or someone who believes a combination of the two. I cannot imagine anyone would think any ICO is going to make them rich while also being low risk and if they do believe it then they don't understand investing.
The main risks of Bitconnect are a government shut down, or the developers discontinuing. I do not think they will run out of money based on math. I do trust the math that the network will be profitable but I do not think an unregulated exchange will be able to last without going regulated or being shut down sooner or later.
No one should put 50% of their savings into Bitcoin or any crypto. No one should trust any developer(s). No one should trust any code produced by any developer(s). Once you realize it is not an industry based on trust, or based on regulation, then you understand what Bitconnect appeals to. Bitconnect appeals to those who want to self regulate the financial system and it even says that is the goal of what Bitconnect wants to do. I don't know if that is a wise goal, but even if it is not, I also don't trust banks which charge us interest for giving them money, nor do I trust the companies integrating into that because if you think about it what put you into debt if you are in debt now? Was it banks or was it crypto? So if it was the banks why would you turn to them to get you out of debt?
The choice is yours though. If you feel safer with your fiat in a bank then I'm in full support of you staying there. If people want to risk their money in crypto and they lose, well that is what it takes also to have the chance to get rich, this is the way it is if you invest in a startup with 90% chance of failure.
My personal reasoning for my rant against banks is that those institutions are the main institutions charging me interest right now, and crypto institutions are willing to pay interest to me. Fiat is lower risk and if you have a lot of it then you don't need to keep taking risks to simply invest in very low risk low or moderate yield investments, but if you aren't a multi-millionaire you never will become one if you don't take a gamble at some point.
I love unicorns <3