The technology underlying the Crypto-currency can be complex, incomprehensible to a simple person and because of this is sufficient to turn a head. The technological nature and use of slang can embarrass even a less savvy person. Also, the lack of universal rules and control by the state further aggravate the situation: it is a favorable environment for scammers, creating coins and schemes that serve to deceive or mislead ill-informed people.
Given that the crypto-currency market has attracted many due to the opportunity to get the mega-percent profit from its investments, the market has turned into a speculative boiler. Given the huge number of tokens and coins (see what's the difference), it's difficult to distinguish good and bad.
Before you know what to invest in, you need to know what NOT to INVEST. Here is a list of common characteristics that many potential fraudulent schemes have. For convenience, we divide them into three groups.
Unrealistic expectations
Now quite often it is possible to hear, that investments in a crypt will give the guaranteed profit in day or month. This is an attractive offer for those who like easy money. However, it is impossible to get a stable, fixed profit on crypto-currencies!
Programs that offer a fixed yield, such as 500% per month, should have a permanent source of income. And if they do not sell a product or service (with confirmed earnings through these channels), the only way is to maintain a guaranteed profit through the pyramids, Ponzi schemes.
The pyramid, or Ponzi scheme, is a fraud in which the income for old investors is generated at the expense of later investors without any legal transactions.
ICO scams usually use 3 common fraudulent schemes, which are advertised as a source of incredible profitability without risks.
1. Cloud MiningMining is a process in which computing power is used to solve complex mathematical equations for processing and protecting transactions, and "miners" are rewarded with a crypto currency for their efforts.
Fraudulent web sites for cloud computing provide an opportunity to participate in the operations of mining bitcoins (and other coins) and receive a reward for mining. You need to invest an advance, but you do not need to buy your own equipment. This is a pyramid that pays if there is a continuous pool of new users.
Famous scams in cloud mining: HashInvest, Hashpoke, Biteminer, Cointellect, HashOcean, Gawminers.
2. Bitcoin investment packages (BIPs)BIP is a high-yield investment program that promises high profitability. You start with the purchase of a subscription package, which allows you to receive a permanent payment every day or every week, which is very profitable at first. However, because of the structure of the pyramid it works for, BIPs have a limited life cycle and are closed when there are no new users. More often than not, BIPs are misled by complex phrases and terms to confuse those who are interested in how they actually make a profit.
Example of the offer of one of the services:
3 investment packages for 250, 500 and 1000 dollars for 150, 200 and 300 days. They promise charging from 0.2 to 1.2% per cent. Each period is divided into several stages, from which the commission is withdrawn from the received percentages (about 30-50%). In order not to lose on the commission, there is an affiliate program, and registration of new users is not through a referral link, but by the hands of the invitee. And in this case incomes of already other level - on 20% from purchase. The only chance for depositors not to lose their money is to pump the pyramid.
List of well-known BIP: bitcoinhyip.org
Statistics show that, although packages are offered for a long time, the life of these projects rarely goes beyond 200 days.
3. Multilevel Marketing Schemes (MLM)A common feature of MLM is the ambiguity of their actual offers or services. A typical scheme: one person entails people who promote the investment scheme associated with crypto-currencies, and the only way to participate in it is to join them through their referral links. MLM is extremely easy to identify, because the main source of income is through affiliate marketing.
Famous scam MLM: Onecoin, Centurion Coin.
Common features that need to be addressed:1 Guarantees of high profits or interest rates,
2 Referral and partnership schemes,
3 Ambiguous statements about how this works,
4 Minimum information about the team or parent company,
5 Complexity of withdrawal of funds.
6 Sites that collect the MLM list:
http://www.badbitcoin.org/thebadlisthttp://behindmlm.com
Non-existent codeGiven that most crypto-currencies are distributed with open source, closed-source projects or those that do not disclose their base seem less credible. The main reason they are closed can be caused by the fact that the project code is not available at all. You can check the code on Github and similar services.
Although not all crypto-currencies that are closed are scammers, but all the crypto-currencies that have been exposed as fraudulent do not open their code base or simply do not have it.
Open source can be tested and changed, anyone can read the code, check it for vulnerabilities, suggest improvements. The use of open source in the community is considered useful for the project, because "one head is good, but two is better."
Lack of key information
No white paper
White Paper details the information you need to know about a particular project. It is white paper that should form investment expectations, allowing to evaluate the project, and its absence gives a red signal. Most block-start-ups do not have experience with the running product, so it's even more important to publish the WP with the necessary information and disclosure of your plans.
Ghost Team
This refers to the lack of information about the founders and the development team. Trust in any project depends largely on the experience and level of his team. Most often, the ICO scum will not publicly disclose information about the founders for obvious reasons. If information about them can not be found, then the honesty of the project is doubtful.
Services where you can see the ratings of ICO:
https://icorating.com (TOP RISK list)
https://tokentops.com/ico/scamThe result
There are certain unique features of crypto and lock-up: it's decentralization, full transparency through a public ledger and open source code that everyone can see. Scammers and pyramids do not have these common characteristics, they are usually centralized and opaque.
The best way to avoid getting into these shadow schemes is to determine the general characteristics of the project listed above. And do not believe the reviews and the assurances of "ordinary people", because they may be directly interested in dragging you into the pyramid.
Embrace technology, not bubbles.
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