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Topic: Bitconnect : learning from the past. How is it possible to invest life savings ? - page 2. (Read 217 times)

hero member
Activity: 1680
Merit: 845
Okay, although I was here in 2017, I vaguely remember the whole BitConnect incident. I hardly remember anything after over 6 years. However, this isn't the first incident, is it? We've had plenty of similar ones in the past year or two. Starting from the FTX exchange and their token, FTT, which went downhill after the exchange shutdown and is now worth peanuts. Guess what, there were people who had invested millions in FTX and the token itself. It's sickening to think that at one point you're a rich and successful investor and, in the next moment, you have absolutely nothing. Don't get me started on Terra, which crashed within a day or two, vanishing billions of dollars worth of crypto and, of course, no solution was ever found for its investors.

Thus, it's best to stick to known and reputable options, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and a few others you think are to be trusted, while at the same time avoiding the storing of funds on centralized exchanges that provide you with zero power over your money and, even then, there is no guarantee regarding Bitcoin or any other coin.
legendary
Activity: 3024
Merit: 2148
Well even people with strong financial education cab still get scammed if they drop their guard, scammers are always improving their format so as to still be able to scam more people, I believe that regardless of our financial background we should still strive to understand more and new ways scammers are employing to carry out their activities.

Those people don't fall for ponzi schemes. It's very easy to spot a ponzi scheme if you have basic financial education. You see a promise of unrealistically high returns with regular payouts, you see that a company doesn't have a solid business model - the only conclusion is that they are paying out from the funds of new investors.

Experienced investors might fall for startup scams, when they get promised a groundbreaking new invention that will take some time to show even the first results, but that's very different from scams like bitconnect.
hero member
Activity: 2786
Merit: 902
yesssir! 🫡
The catch is everyone is built different, for instance some people are more gullible than others, less educated on relevant topics than others, more emotionally vulnerable, you name it.

And that's ladies and gents is why scams are here to stay. You don't need to come up something orginal or elaborate AF idea, you just need to find the right audience. Let's take ponzi scams for instance, it's pretty much a classic and just gets rehashed all the time and yet it's still as popular.  

Perhaps most people won't risk as much as their life savings but history says there are at least a number of people who would stoop that low so it's not unthinkable to assume there could be more people who leans that way. Imagine what happens if they somehow get into the clutches of a scammer and given the right push....
hero member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 702
The problem is, people with no financial and business education can't differentiate between a legitimate startup and a ponzi scheme or an obvious scam. This is why it's generally not advised for such people to get into risky investments and instead stick to safer options. But crypto community rejects this idea, they actively promote crypto investments to their friends and family, because they think it's a golden opportunity to get rich quick. They think they can't be scammed, because they did their research, and by research they mean watching a Youtube video and reading a Medium article.
Well even people with strong financial education cab still get scammed if they drop their guard, scammers are always improving their format so as to still be able to scam more people, I believe that regardless of our financial background we should still strive to understand more and new ways scammers are employing to carry out their activities.

sr. member
Activity: 1232
Merit: 475
Dear op i didn't really catch what you mean by all of this happening again. Because AFAIK, BCC is flopped/rug-pulled and I also do know there are huge amounts of tokens and new projects that are still rug-pulling. So to which project are you referring to? And i do agree that such projects are ponzi schemes that offer huge returns but to the question of why people always fall prey to them is very simple.

Venture capitalists attract new or I would say newbie investors towards new projects and most of the projects are DeFi. And once they reached their fund capital limit they rug pulled with investors' money. I know not all VCs are meant to attract newbie investors but in most cases, they are just insiders.

The point is, we should avoid from such schemes that promise huge return which looks unbelievable. By doing so, we could save our money and tbh i am against all the staking types instead of one with no fixed apy or returns but still, i do not prefer anyone to do staking.
full member
Activity: 588
Merit: 119
Epsiloan Protocol

But on January 17, everything came crashing down: the site abruptly shut down and thousands of investors were left out in the cold.

Some had put their life savings into it  Shocked

This is greediness and this is what kill people most even in crypto space. Why will one put all your life savings in just one investment. People should learn to diversify their earnings. This will definitely save them if there is an issue in one of their business. The other can bail them out.

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A classic Ponzi pyramid: a fraudulent financial scheme in which customers' investments are remunerated by funds provided by new entrants. In this type of scheme, if the scam isn't discovered, it eventually comes to light when too many investors claim their stakes at the same time. This is what happened at the end of January 2018, when most cryptocurrencies experienced a severe correction.

"Influencers:": BitConnect created a sponsorship and affiliation system. Influential Twitter and YouTube personalities advise beginners to give BitConnect a try, while pocketing a 7% commission.

Scammer just full almost everywhere this days and people keep failing into their trap. Some of this influential Twitter and YouTube personalities even sometimes make people to be scammed just because of their selfish interest. Most don't even make research on the investment before advertising for them. They are just being carried away with the money they will make forgetting their personalities is at stake. This is why is better to make ones research before investing in anything.

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how you could put your life's savings[/b] into a single cryptocurrency (unless it is bitcoin, that's my opinion).


Nothing in this life is 100% sure. Impossibility sometimes become possible. Try diversify your earning to save your money and investment. If all your investment is on Bitcoin and you plan to hold for long but accidentally Bitcoin price now dropped heavily and you need money urgently at the moment. What will happen? You sell part in lose right!!! If diversification is your key, you leave the Bitcoin and seek fund from your other business. Diversification save investor from business risk alot.

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And yet it's happening all over again. People don't seem to learn from the past.

This can't easily be stopped in a country with high rate of poverty. People see those things as a golden opportunities to get rich easily but at the end they got scammed. After being scammed they still continue to try because they believe if you don't lose, you can't gain. And keep thinking their golden opportunities is at the door.
hero member
Activity: 644
Merit: 661
- Jay -
there was a time I was actually seconding a motion that all this influencers or celebrities be held accountable for the actions of the products they promote because they need to know everything about it.
Their culpability in scams that they engage in can be investigated and if it is discovered that they willfully promoted a scam, they should be held accountable for it. But if they were also swindled like everyone else they are also victims.

No one should let someone else do the thinking for them. If you are going to put your money into it, you should also be able to put your time and energy into doing your research.

- Jay -
hero member
Activity: 812
Merit: 927
It is a classic scam and people are still falling for the every day, all you need is someone who the public trusts and an investment that gets all the hype.

Exactly, influencers have always part of the reason why all this Ponzi schemes get to lure people into there service, there was a time I was actually seconding a motion that all this influencers or celebrities be held accountable for the actions of the products they promote because they need to know everything about it. Then I thought like what if they were given just the information they needed and the rest were hidden. Moreover I couldn’t blame them because it is even stated clearly by some that any investor should take caution. So the only way to avoid scam is to do your research no matter who the promoters are?. And no matter how legit something is do not invest your savings in them.

You should not even put your life savings into bitcoin no matter how much you trust it. Diversification saves your investments and gives you different timelines of gains and periods of hodl, meaning you are not always waiting on a particular asset to rise or fall but have different options to profit from.

- Jay -

Yes one needs to diversify their portfolio but I don’t see buy of alticoins as diversification because they just follow the bitcoin. And should anything bad happen to bitcoin as was the fear for diversification then the entire crypto space might collapse. So the best way of diversification should be an investment in differents assets like Gold, Stock, Real Estate and Agricultural hoarding.
hero member
Activity: 644
Merit: 661
- Jay -
It is a classic scam and people are still falling for the every day, all you need is someone who the public trusts and an investment that gets all the hype.

Then I didn't understand how you could put your life's savings into a single cryptocurrency (unless it is bitcoin, that's my opinion).
You should not even put your life savings into bitcoin no matter how much you trust it. Diversification saves your investments and gives you different timelines of gains and periods of hodl, meaning you are not always waiting on a particular asset to rise or fall but have different options to profit from.

- Jay -
legendary
Activity: 3024
Merit: 2148
The problem is, people with no financial and business education can't differentiate between a legitimate startup and a ponzi scheme or an obvious scam. This is why it's generally not advised for such people to get into risky investments and instead stick to safer options. But crypto community rejects this idea, they actively promote crypto investments to their friends and family, because they think it's a golden opportunity to get rich quick. They think they can't be scammed, because they did their research, and by research they mean watching a Youtube video and reading a Medium article.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1045
Goodnight, ohh Leo!!! 🦅
People Will never desist totally from it...
The one thing about humans is that; for the fact that they weren't a victim of a Certain Ponzi scam, they'll always feel people have different fate and that could prolly make the case different with anyone else that tried before them.
Secondly, GREED has become man worst enemy.. indulging in a scammy project would also be the worst decisions anyone would take, buh for the fact that they feel it's actually paying and investing in it would be a great liverage, they'll still wanna try.
P/s: about investing Thier life savings?.. humans can do anything incredible for money... mostly when it's made to sound really strange and fascinating

Sandra 🧑‍🦰
hero member
Activity: 1820
Merit: 775
Remember the big Ponzi Bitconnect and learn from the past.

At the height of the Bitcoin hype in late 2017, one company in the cryptocurrency sector was almost as much the talk of the town as its illustrious representative.

BitConnect (then the sector's seventh-largest capitalization) was at its peak on December 28, 2017, and one BCC (BitConnect's stock symbol) was traded for $477. Bitconnect's market capitalization soared to $3 billion. But on January 17, everything came crashing down: the site abruptly shut down and thousands of investors were left out in the cold.

Some had put their life savings into it  Shocked

A classic Ponzi pyramid: a fraudulent financial scheme in which customers' investments are remunerated by funds provided by new entrants. BitConnect then exchanges bitcoins for its BCC "cryptocurrency", while promising a return on investment at a fixed rate over several months. The more money you leave locked up, the higher the return. In this type of scheme, if the scam isn't discovered, it eventually comes to light when too many investors claim their stakes at the same time. This is what happened at the end of January 2018, when most cryptocurrencies experienced a severe correction.

"Influencers:": BitConnect created a sponsorship and affiliation system. Influential Twitter and YouTube personalities advise beginners to give BitConnect a try, while pocketing a 7% commission.


This short documentary shows people being scammed => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMP0ZpGlDw

I remember that at the time I couldn't understand how you could exchange btc for this unknown currency  (BCC). I didn't understand why people were so trustfull in staking for so long. Then I didn't understand how you could put your life's savings into a single cryptocurrency (unless it is bitcoin, that's my opinion).

And yet it's happening all over again. People don't seem to learn from the past.
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