So, you lost money. Now, what are you gonna do?
What I'm NOT going to do: give you a crappy holier-than-thou lecture about Ponzi schemes blah blah blah. I'm sure you've gotten enought of that already from other places.
Let's talk. This whole thing SUCKS. Bites. Both. I think we all need a cup of coffee. Or two. Or tea... lots of tea.
I did not lose money in Bitconnect, BUT, I do admit that I am lucky in that I have quite a bit of experience recognizing ponzis and their ilk. I have dealt with various MLM (Multi Level Marketing) companies, and I worked for a few of them, both some legit ones and some... not-so-legit... ones. I got the hell out of them for many reasons, one of the reasons being that even if you are a good marketer and salesperson, even if you know what you are doing, it is nearly impossible to make a good living even if you're good at it and know how to get recruits-- UNLESS you were one of the lucky few to get into that scheme near the beginning, when there would have been a lot more interest, less saturation in your local area, etc. Anyway -- my experience dealing with MLM companies goes back to my teenage years, at this point more than a decade of experience (I'm a 35 year-old mom now, ya dig it? I'm getting old, ha ha ha ha. Gotta laugh at myself!).
I have seen a ton of posts in the past day about the collapse / death / implosion / explosion / what-have-you of Bitconnect, a lot of "I told you it was a scam" comments, a lot of DOOM and gloom, etc. What I have not seen anything about is, what are we all going to do about this, how can we help others learn from this, and how can we help and learn from each other?
So. My questions are, now that you have lost money in Bitconnect or if you know others who have--
What happened, and what are you going to do?
How are you going to operate differently?
How are you going to try to be sure you don't get burned by oter projects?
Are you going to change your strategies with how you invest in cryptocurrencies?
How do you see yourself using Steemit to possibly help you come out of this or to make the crypto space better?
Anything else you want to share, I would love to hear it.
I'm really curious about these thoughts and would love to have some feedback from folks about this issue. The thing is, one of the main reasons that I didn't invest in Bitconnect, even though I had opened an account to look around a little bit about a month ago, is that I had seen just enough people warning against it, people who know a lot more than I do about cryptocurrencies, that I decided to sit and wait. Bitconnect made me feel skeptical, it reminded me WAY too much of some of many of the way too-hyped-up MLM companies I have come into contact with over the years (I still get contacted and emails from some folks about "new opportunities...." , I think I must still be on a few mailing lists, LOLZ). With all of that said, I'm certainly not an expert, and this post is not about telling anyone what they should do, it is not an "I Told You So" or anything similar. I was definitely interested and was monitoring what was going on with Bitconnect. But, my reality is that I am not a huge big time investor, I do not have a lot of money in the cryptocurrency space at the moment, and I absolutely cannot afford to lose anything-- so I am extremely, extremely conservative with how I play with my cryptos right now. I feel pretty darn lucky that I happened to connect months ago with a handful of people who very strongly warned me away from Bitconnect. Even with my experience of having been exposed to MLM companies for almost half my life, and the fact that Bitconnect reminded me so strongly of some of those experiences, I was still very, very tempted to put a chunk of my Bitcoin into that program. I didn't, but only because I have been spending so damn much of my time learning about cryptos for the past few months, that I took most of my advice from a few others who, luckily, had spotted it as a scam, knew how to read the code (I'm working on that... not there yet!), and could tell that the stuff about "trading" etc. was crap. Not all of us are that lucky. This space is full of scammers and those willing to take advantage of others. Now we know that the people behind Bitconnect were no different.
I know that a lot of people got really burned with this meltdown, and I feel for them. :( If this was you, and if you have any thoughts or experiences to share, would you take a moment to share a comment with me?
The thing that I have come to love about Steemit, even though I've only been here for such a short period of time so far, is the potential and the community experience. I have come to love this space because there is so much love and support, there are so many cool people and cool projects. Yeeeeesss, there is a lot of shady craziness going on behind the shadows that I've already learned about, i.e. the Whale Wars and flagging wars Etc. Etc... and that is a thing I am learning about all this and trying to understand how I can help to figure it all out. But on the other hand, I think that we can rise above that. We all have the opportunity to lift each other up. I don't have a ton of voting power, but if you lost money in Bitconnect, drop me a comment, upvote me if you want to, tell me your story please! I would be happy to connect back, check out your posts, upvote you especially if you are a Minnow like me, and keep in touch -- I will be happy to try to help you even if I can't do much with my small Minnow-power at the moment.
I hope that others with more voting power can take notice, too -- re-steem me please if you can and want to, and if you have made a post about your Bitconnect story or loss, include the link in your comment to me -- and maybe we can get more folks with more voting power to help lift up some of those here who have been hurt and are trying to get by.
I do think that, if we all connect and are willing to help each other out and help each other in dark moments like this that have burned so many, it can really show the power of this platform. Bitconnect may have been a Ponzi and a scam, but, Steemit is not! This is a real space, with a serious, real product and a very invested community. We have the power to make this so much more, and I want to be a part of that. This is NOT an "upvote for upvote" post!! What it IS, is a reminder that we can indeed use those upvotes to support each other. Whales and dolphins, please upvote me or even delegate Steem Power to me if you want, I will PAY IT FORWARD to help out the Minnows out there who need a hand if they have lost money to the Bitconnect disaster, as well as to help out those who have cool, under-appreciated content and deserve recognition!
I hope that I can be a positive force in this community. I see this as a place to start, by reaching out, even if it was an ugly downturn in the crypto space that has prompted these thoughts. Sometimes it takes a disaster to bring a community closer or to make positive changes. From this shadow, we can rise, we can try to make Steemit into what is meant to be, to show the world that there is value here and that all is NOT lost in crypto-land. That may sound cliche', but I don't care-- I'm feelin' it. ;) There is going to be a lot of FUD being sown in the next few days as the market will continue to probably go crazy. I believe that Steemit can be a shining light in the midst of this. So, let's make it happen, people!
Thanks for reading. All images are mine, my Bitconnect "chomp" image made using Bitconnect's public logo.
Paz y aloha nui loa ~~
~~ Mama