Other currencies, fundraising in crypto-currencies, dummies ... The scams are flooding the web despite vigilance and warnings in the community.
The bitcoin community is growing: your time and money funds are noticed that you bet on there, the American bank Goldman Sachs is planning to open a separate trading desk, Amazon recently bought web addresses linked to crypto-currencies ... But this popularity isn't safe. Bitcoin scams as well as other crypto-currencies still flourish on the web rapidly vigilance from the community. It really is impossible to find out the extent of this phenomenon but some continents will be more affected than others. "The place on earth where scams are spreading essentially the most is Southeast Asia, especially China, plus the gambling culture is very strong there. that China contains a severe attitude towards crypto-currencies.In Europe, there's also scams however are less organized versus Asia, "says Alexis Roussel, co-founder of Bity, trading platform bitcoin and ether.
With an amount of over $ 7,000, which has risen sevenfold in only a year, bitcoin stop being offered to everyone. "Today, the psychological aspect would be the starting place of the scams.You are told: you missed the bitcoin, it is better to supply," said Alexis Roussel. "We put" corner "following anything and that we say that it is cryptocurrency while absolutely nothing is behind," mourns Manuel Valente, director from the House of Bitcoin.
"We put" coin"following anything and that we say that it is cryptocurrency while absolutely nothing is behind"
The favourite of the scams is Onecoin. Created in September 2015, Onecoin looks being a cryptocurrency much like the others except it is based on a Ponzi scheme. That technique employed by Bernard Madoff contains remunerating your time and money of absolutely free themes on account of the funds due to the new entrants. The creators of Onecoin ask interested Internet surfers to transmit money against Onecoins. Many of the pocketed money would be used to give the amounts that other victims expect to receive after they also select the investment. Another problem regarding Onecoin: this "currency" isn't exchangeable on any cryptocurrency platform. "The creators of OneCoin are inventing their own e-commerce platform that works well only within their own ecosystem," says Manuel Valente. And a common Xcoinx trading platform, created in 2015, remains to be under maintenance ... Despite bans in lots of countries, arrests of some members and investors, warnings from major media much like the British Mirror, Onecoin continues to work. "There is certainly still a type of fever that drives individuals to want to bring in more money with crypto-currencies," regrets Manuel Valente.
Inside fake series, there's also fake cryptocurrency trading platforms or fake Ethereum portfolios. Another new scam: online mining. To secure the bitcoin network and verify transactions, "miners" use machines with significant computing power (much regarding green computer or even an enterprise server). In return, they receive newly created bitcoins and transaction fees they will confirm. Today, mining stop being a profitable business for folks as a consequence of rising competition. Only companies and industrial sites, dubbed "mining farms", develop the technical and financial capacity. Some websites offer online mining to opportunity seekers, which is not truly one.
"In lieu of buying machines that you put in at your house, you create a merchant account on a website, you send out bitcoins and so they start using thise bitcoin to order machines they keep at home and they mine within our place. keep money and you can't win anything, "says Manuel Valente.
Fakes ICOs
The ICO (initial coin offering), these cryptocurrency fundraisers that exploded come july 1st, also brought their lots of scams. The majority of projects collected many millions of dollars in the future while no product was out yet. Either the team you want simply will take time to produce its technology, or it's going to take benefit from the ICO craze and therefore doesn't have aim of starting a different business. Andreas Antonopoulos, a well-known figure in the bitcoin community, recently said that 99.99% of current ICOs are
"junk, they may give no return on investment."
"If you employ a token (or token, note) within the ICO and you then can resell it on the platform, it's essential, if you send out your ethers and bitcoins to the website and so they tell you merely thanks, making this wii sign, "warns Manuel Valente. In the meantime, no ICO has yet been counted as a gimmick since phenomenon remains to be new. However it is only dependent on time. "ICO projects is going to be sued for scams, we will have rules and legislation arise," says Alexis Roussel.
Many aren't the sole ones afflicted with scams, companies may give the price. "The best banks are committing to scams, blockchain projects which might be failing separately, people from consulting firms selling projects which might be unreliable", regrets Alexis Roussel, without quoting names. Whether conspiracy you aren't, the consortia are criticized: high costs, disagreements between participants, long projects to be successful ... We are never too careful.