CEO of BTCJam here.

I’d like to address the claims made by Avastar1:
1- We are not a scam. We are a legitimate business that started out in Brazil, hence the Ovo Comsico LTDA. We recently moved to San Francisco and raised money from various Investors, including Ribbit Capital who also backed Coinbase and Xapo.
http://ribbitcap.com/bets/btcjam/

2- I am the inventor of the patent mentioned, and here is the link to patent that includes my name. The LinkedIn profile posted is the one of my father, who carries the same name as me (I am officially Celso Cardoso Pitta Jr.)
http://www.patentesonline.com.br/dispositivo-computadorizado-para-detec-o-autom-tica-do-estado-de-vig-lia-e-n-vel-183518.html

Avastar1 is mad at BTCJam because we blacklisted his account after he started harassing other users, which is against our Terms of Service. We haven’t taken any Bitcoin from him, we’ve simply closed his account. For about 3 days, he was not able withdraw his coins and is now trying to claim that we are a scam.

3- While we’ve had a few scammers in the past, our credit scoring algorithm has improved a lot and our repayment rate for the last 4 months is over 90%. More importantly, investors are averaging 19% year over year returns, further proving that the core of our credit scoring algorithm works. Just be sure to invest in A and B loans, diversify well enough, and you will make good returns.
Here are some tips on how to do that: http://blog.btcjam.com/post/75934926878/the-3-rules-of-peer-to-peer-lending-for-investors

when does this auction end?

1 @ 2.5 BTC

1 @ 1.80

As of right now, our current investors are enjoying 19.3% APR. We have a very active Investor/Borrower community that are mostly on a user-ran Facebook group called Investors of BTCjam.com. Check it out if you're interested!


You can be completely anonymous as an Investor on BTCjam. We require identity to be submitted in order to rate another user as a method to weed out multiple ratings that could be from one source with several accounts.

1 @ 1.5

1 @ 1 BTC

If you're a jack of all trades entrepreneur looking for that big opportunity to break through the tech industry to prove what you can do and show what have to offer to the world, then the BTCJam Founder Internship is your calling. We are the world's first and leading global P2P lending network using Bitcoin with a user base that is rapidly increasing. We promote lending without borders where people can borrow and lend bitcoins, making credit accessible to the people who need it most, while providing very healthy returns to investors.

The moment you walk into the office of BTCJam, you will be immersed in a fast-pace, eccentric, and diverse learning environment (not to mention a few crazy Brazilians). This hands-on opportunity will empower you to not only develop your current skill set, but also open you up to a world of connections that include the brightest minds of our time. Our CEO has built cryptographic systems for Visa and Citibank EDI platforms, our CPO is founder of Migux, a Brazilian social network that 3.5 MM registered members, the CMO cofounded and headed the marketing for Switzerland's largest daily deals site doing 35MM in sales in 2011.
We have funding from respected investors who also invested in Coinbase and Palantir.

Professional development is not all that we offer, we are providing a once in a lifetime opportunity with a company that is revolutionizing and innovating the financial industry. This is your time to be a part of the action.

What you will be doing:
- Collaborate with the marketing, design, and product development teams to determine campaign goals and to build appropriate product and marketing strategies
Conduct research on consumer insights and competitors, creating reports using the latest analytics tools
- Manage the BTCJam community by keeping us connected and upholding our presence across social media channels and updating the blog.
- Work closely with the founders, aiding them with your own ideas
- Work in an office in SoMa, the trendiest location in the world for startups
- And much, much more

Qualifications:
- Strong computer skills
- Ability to manage multiple projects and communicate effectively
- Proven self-starter with strong to drive to be the best at what you do
- Curious, fast-learner that questions the status quo
- Humble with a willingness to admit mistakes
- From a top school is a plus, but we are willing to review all candidates

To apply:
- Send your resume to jobs@btcjam.com
- A link or description of your greatest work
- Your availability for the internship
- And an answer to the following question, what can you add to BTCJam?


This is a full-time, 6 month internship and your salary will depend on your experience.

We are glad to announce that we have updated the site with 2 factor authentication using Google Authenticator.
(My Account -> Settings -> Security)

View our listings as an Investor: https://btcjam.com/listings
Create a loan to start borrowing Bitcoin now: https://btcjam.com/borrow/overview

New improvements and features are in the works!
Let us know what you think should be changed or added here, or on our uservoice forum: https://btcjam.uservoice.com/forums/175861-general

The same way planning your business or family budget, planning is an important part of using BTCJam. Our credit score takes into account open loans you have and we try to prevent scammers from opening more loans before they've repaid old ones.

The best is for you is probably to buy a less powerful mining hardware, repay the loan and then try again with a bigger loan from the get go. Always makes sense to go a bit bigger than what you really need, in case your loan gets only partially funded. We should make this clearer in our user education and I will forward this to our product team.

ncsupanda, I'm sorry you've had negative experiences. Can you elaborate? We've come along way in recent months with our credit scoring algorithm and also now have more support resources. I'd love to hear your inputs in how we can make the service better.

You should know that there are two different types of loans: bitcoin loans and linked loans.

Linked loans have the amount linked to the bitcoin exchange rate for a given BitstampUSD asset. The payment size in bitcoin will fluctuate over time following the exchange rate that asset. This type of loan makes sense if your income is denominated in USD or other fiat currencies, and you don't want to expose yourself to Bitcoin volatility: both as an investor and borrower.

Bitcoin loans are expressed in pure bitcoin. This type of loan makes sense if your income is denominated in BTC.

Yeah either post your user ID, or contact me at alexis@btcjam.com

The algorithm that determines credit score takes into account many different variables. Submitting identity information is a lot, but also payment behavior and outstanding balance are among the factors. In this specific case with user #9705: he has never had a payment, pays early, has almost all of his identity documentation confirmed, etc... If he did not have so many listings open, his credit score would more than likely be an A.

We have been looking into this issue for awhile, and you are correct, the user #9705 has many open listings. Users are penalized for having multiple open listings in their credit score. (See how his is at C currently).
User #9705 has never made a late payment out of his 16 loans, 11 of which are paid in full. It is impossible to decipher that this is a ponzi scheme, which you have accused him of in your email. 

You will have to bear with us since we are new and learning how to deal with these type of issues. We appreciate you reporting this and if any suggestions about how to go about it, we would happily chat with you via email.



Could you please email support@btcjam.com? I will review your ID submission and explain why it was denied.

The scammers and dishonest people are a minority within our community, that are decreasing day by day. When a borrower activates his/her loan, they are under a legally binding contract called arbitration, and the personal information of the borrower will be handed to the investors if they do not pay back on their loans (See more below). However, currently, our repayment rates are above 90% and investors are getting 19% APR on average.

 See here as to why we think investing with BTCJam is such a great idea:
http://blog.btcjam.com/post/75930899818/why-invest-with-btcjam

And here is what happens when someone doesn't pay back:
http://blog.btcjam.com/post/78529756680/what-happens-when-a-borrower-does-not-pay-back-his

To minimize risk and increase returns, read this:
http://blog.btcjam.com/post/75934926878/the-3-rules-of-peer-to-peer-lending-for-investors