If you haven't read my last blog, it touched on how nigerians lost 18 Billion Naira (nigerian currency) from the famous MMM ponzi-modeled platform.
MMM normally uses Bitcoins as the preferred currency to run its platform. Bitcoin is not controlled by any one organisation (decentralized) making it more difficult to seize bitcoins used to run the platform or to shutdown the platform altogether.
In my quest to make money online, one thing I've learnt is, when any online business opportunity is found and offered to you, much needed research should be done. Even then, when everything gets a pass, you can never be too sure. 90% of online businesses (especially investment opporunities ) are either too risky, illegal or a scheme aiming to rip you off the money you have not yet even started earning.
But people usually ignore their conscience when there is much pleasant noise about peopke already enjoying a 30% profit after just 30 days. And before you know it, other people jump in without even researching or caring to understand how the system works, if its legal or not, the risk etc. Yes, they jusy jump right in, head first. So in all this "while it last" moments, not many people cared to do some serious research on something they knew almost nothing about or ask the question, Why is MMM using Bitcoins and what is it?
Bitcoins is the first successful digital currency ; and its success is evident to the solution of a long overdue problem-->the transfer of digital assets.
Before knowing about MMM, I was well aware of 100s of ponzi schemes which launched and crashed daily. In a nutshell, they pay off earlier investors from funds donated by new users being sucked into the system. MMM was no exception! I immediately started doing some thorough research on MMM. And well, it wasn't too hard to predict it's collapse and the devasting effect it would have on the people who wholeheartedly trusted in the platform.
My attention had long drifted towards the use of bitcoins as the platform's currency of choice and this pushed me to researching more about Bitcoins and led to my understanding of the importance of it's underlying blockchain technology. My eyes were immediately opened! That year I bought a few Bitcoins. At that time, Bitcoins was still undervalued at about $200.