@cryptographic,
"North America and Europe are the places where bad things are least likely to happen, in my opinion, and I wouldn’t do business with anyone outside of those geopolitical regions."
I am agree with North America, but I have doubts about Europe zone. Because, this is my personal experience. Before I am joining the STEEMIT, I was an active revenue sharing program investor. But most of the programs were ended up with huge scams! Most of programs are from Europe Zone! Personally I lost more than 25 BTC in early 2017 due to those programs!
But North America, it has a different story! People are well bounded to the rules and regulations! So, I had a chance to do my best in crypto world with those people!
One of the latest scam and fraud was BitConnect (BCC). If I am not mistaken it was registered to GB!
Therefore, my personal experiences says when we are going to select wallets or exchanges better select them from US and other North America zone! For me it's a safe heaven! That would be a great idea to discuss about this topic! Most of people don't know until they trap into huge scams and online frauds!
Cheers~
Revenue sharing has a pretty bad reputation, especially in the U.K. (but I'm sure they're not alone). Sorry to hear about that. I like what I see on the continent though, with respect to crypto adoption, that is. Nevertheless, once you've bought into crypto, you're in complete control and can keep what you own in your own wallet, on your own computer, wherever you are. You don't even need to depend on any exchange or broker for safekeeping.