Bitcoin Forum

Just noticed HHampuz posted an issue with Bitcoin Suisse notes and wanted to make sure others saw it too (see below).  He has tried reaching out with over 10 emails to 3 different email addresses and has gotten no response.  He also sold another note before knowing this and the purchaser upon trying to redeem found it empty, despite it being funded before order was shipped.

Edit : I believe this applies only to their second release. You had to create an account, are given your address to fund ahead of shipping. Note has different address than the one given at account setup.

Any volunteers to test your notes / report back? I would if I had any.

https://i.ibb.co/BgH8Kxq/F87043-BD-FAE2-4-FAA-AC91-69-EB99-D9-BE7-F.jpg (https://ibb.co/brjpRZz)

Accident

when you say second issue can you specify which notes those are? I know mine are series 2 - is that what you mean? or is there "first" issue with series 1 and 2 and a "second" issue?


I only ask as my series 2 have a public address which I can scan directly on the note - so I dont understand why anyone would create an account to get a "funding" address.

edit - after reading your post several times, I am still stumped - they put a different "public" address on the note vs the one that is on the note? wtf?\


2nd edit - after again looking - you do realize his post is over a year old right?

I am now confused myself on exact details. What I know is they sold notes that were supposed to be funded that weren’t, and will not return messages. I am hoping someone who knows the purchase process can chine in.

I believe they had a head guy leave recently and were denied a banking license as they were deemed to be set up that would make for easier money laundering. Wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Yes that’s why it’s extra concerning, a year of  ignoring a client who was not given what was promised and in a shady fashion

Does this mean that the Suisse notes may have been unfunded or wiped? This would be really bad if it was the case. There are a large number of these notes in circulation.

Well this is bad... I also have some loaded Bitcoin Suisse wallets  >:(

I just checked my notes (series 2) and they are still funded.
But the only public address i have is the QR code on the note.
In my Bitcoin Suisse account i see no info regarding the notes.


If i remember correct i needed to send a security code (that i had received in a letter with my notes) by mail to fund my notes.

Just checked the ones I have, all funded.

The only way you can check is if you peel it,


I can't believe nobody peeled one till now

That's a joke

I still cannot understand why you have to register to get an address to send funding to vs sending the funding to the address that is actually on the wallet.


or is it that they want you to pay them in their wallet and then they are supposed to send funding to the address on the wallet?

I had an issue myself. The 500 XTZ note I bought shows empty when I scan the QR code, though I certainly paid to have it funded in the group buy.

The 500 XTZ note appears empty. tz1UTpvzShtRxv297JjEW2i3UZZ4TxpAC3uW
https://imgur.com/a/BwQxdMQ

Bitcoin Suisse said this in an email to me:

"In order to load them you would first have to have the correct amount in the respective currency on your Bitcoin Suisse account.

Once you have enough funds on your account, your can send us the security code that was delivered with the certificate (Please note that it has to come from the e-mail address you are registered with on Bitcoin Suisse).

After the reception of the security code we will then be able to load the certificate with the respective amount."

As this was purchased in the group buy with Hhampuz, I reached out to him to sort this out. He says that he did not get any response when reaching out to Bitcoin Suisse.

This was about a year ago that I noticed this, and never really followed up. The last update I got from Hhampuz after asking if there was an update was "No reply as of yet.. :/" - that was Feb 12th 2021.

Are you able to able to access the coins?




Over a year ago. Wow. So I wonder if everyone in that group buy had a problem or just some people. So you did mail in that security code ? This is really disappointing, I had always held Bitcoin Suisse to such a high standard / high regard.  There older notes were one of my all time favorite collectibles ever produced.

The process went like this:

1. Add funds to your bitcoin suisse account.
2. Order notes (select funded or unfunded).
3. Receive notes, with security code.
4. Send in security code through email and they'd make a withdraw from your bitcoin suisse balance in each corresponding wallet to fund the notes (So you had to have ETH on there to load the ETH wallets, for example).

I received notes, sent them out and once confirmed as received would send in security code to bitcoin suisse and then I saw the withdraw was made on my account so figured all was OK.

See the following:
https://i.imgur.com/H6xvEKU.png

I just logged on to my account now and where I previously could see the txID it has now been removed with the following message "Address not detected".

Thanks for sharing Hampz!

Wow, that is a lot of money owed right there.  This company hasn't gotten back in touch with you for over a year right now.. completely unacceptable.  Have you or anyone else you know tried calling them?  I will try and reach out myself, including this thread. As far as I know they are still operating as an exchange correct?  I will be posting this thread in every possible review of this company that I can find.  I would encourage others to do the same.  This why I'm always making these types of threads, otherwise it just lets them off the hook and likely only scam people further on down the road.  

I would encourage anyone else with funded notes to do the same thing as Hhampuz has done here and report back to let us know whether your notes have been properly funded or not.

If I owned any funded notes from Bitcoin Suisse I would be very hesitant to leave them that way.  

Interesting read- Bitcoin Suisse hitting some regulatory issues with banking license request- https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bitcoin-suisse-bank-license-bid-hits-regulatory-roadblock/46455618.  I'm guessing their shareholders wouldn't like to see something like this going on.  Doesn't help putting much faith in the company not responding to simple inquiries.


Edit: I have submitted an inquiry directly to their "contact us" section on their webpage. I have included this thread.  

Sent them a query and a link to this thread as well.

If anyone else wants to do same... https://support.bitcoinsuisse.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360001344619

Correct me if I'm wrong @BookofNick, but I believe you said the address you got from the privkey after peel was not the same address that showed up when you scanned the QR code, right?

Hhampuz

Have you peeled and redeemed any of these wallets yet? Are they funded or are they empty?

Correct me if Im wrong but from your presentation it appears to be that Suisse never funded your wallets?

This could be an isolated incident. People do make mistakes but it is still really bad practice to make any mistake when dealing with private keys.

I didn't purchase any loaded notes for myself, only for other people who could not order/didn't want to go through the entire KYC process.

Maybe it is a mistake, but is ignoring handfuls on emails for over a year a simple mistake?

Does Bitcoin Suisse have an account or any presence here?  I'm a bit surprised this issue seems to have been going on quietly for so long.  So many customers here seem to be effected that I would assume they had some account here promoting or selling them.  Should we not try to get a public response from them here?

I'm always amazed that customers don't require a public list of all addresses used for physical Bitcoin goods.  I understand that nothing is concrete until all private keys have been claimed and addresses emptied, but as a community we really should require public lists of addresses so that it is possible to monitor any "fishy business" that might occur regarding funding of said addresses.  It's been over a decade now, it's time the community starts having higher standards.

I remember they being here on one of the threads where they offered someone to buy back 1BTC note from their 2014 series.. Will do some more research..

EDIT : - Found it - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=393467

Also they suggested to email anything at certificates(at)bitcoinsuisse.com in this message https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5188329.msg52619346#msg52619346

I never peeled anything. You did send me a message saying to the effect that you wondered if it really was loaded, just that the pubkey didn't match the priv key. I suppose that's possible but I'm not willing to peel quite yet.

Also, for the record, I bought two notes in this group buy - a 1000 XTZ note and a 500 XTZ note. The 1000 XTZ note appears to be loaded (at least the public key that's displayed on the outside shows a balance). Just the 500 XTZ note that showed an empty pubkey.

They responded as follows...

Thank you for your message.

We are looking into this thread to see what the issue is.

Kind regards,
Raphael Burnier

I received a similar message ..

"Raphael Burnier (Bitcoin Suisse AG)
Feb 17, 2022, 17:40 GMT+1

@Hi,

Thank you for reaching out.

We are looking into this thread to see what the issue is.

Kind regards,
Raphael Burnier
| Bitcoin Suisse AG
www.bitcoinsuisse.com | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram”

Hopefully they will address these issues shortly and make you guys whole.

Ty....and more info from these people?

Nothing.  Spoke with Hhampuz as well and he said no one has reached out to him.

I've been in contact with Bitcoin Suisse now since yesterday and they have located this one particular note which @BookofNick owns and claimed it was human error involved which didn't load it. They have told me the note is now loaded and perhaps @BookofNick could confirm it in this thread.

After that, assuming nobody else experienced similar issues, this matter could be considered closed & resolved.

Glad to hear it, thanks for sharing hampz. Hopefully everyone else has checked their notes and everyone is issue free.’

   Good to hear and hopefully that is the only one.

I can confirm that my unloaded 500 XTZ note is now loaded. Thanks for reaching out to them again, Hhampuz.