|
Where to start.
First of all, this is an older gentlemen, probably pushing 70's. His "due diligence" consisted of believing a logo in an email and verifying a local Walmart had a Bitcoin ATM. He didn't ask for a VIN number to check, or anything like that. (Yes, they had VIN numbers even way back in 1955.)
The news article for NBC4 Washington states "Maryland Man Loses $4,400 in Bitcoin Trying to Buy ’55 Chevy Online". While technically accurate, notice it puts the onus on Bitcoin and not "US Dollars", which is really what he was using Bitcoin for as a medium of transfer. Nicely done NBC4, your corporate masters would be pleased you managed to spin it as a Bitcoin problem.
So this poor schmuck believes an email, sends the money sight unseen and wonders why he got scammed.
This is just one step removed from the "Pigeon Drop" scam where you give some money up front for a larger potential (but fake) reward later.
It preys upon someone's greed. In this case, it was the unbelievable price for a 1955 Chevy, which he paid $4,400 for. We're talking about a car (assuming it was a 2-door coupe) that runs anywhere from $29,000 to $100,000 depending on options and condition.
In short, people are stupid, and he lost his money believing someone without laying eyes on the car or the seller.
|
|
|
|
|
So, I've been in this arena for a while and this reminds me of the last exponential curve rally we had a long time ago.
I dusted off my Estimated Exponential Value model and punched in some numbers to see where we might go if we adhere to such a curve.
Interestingly enough, its saying $2,000 by May 24th, at current rates of ascent. Maybe add in some fudge factor for intermediate greed/panic retraces I suppose.
|
|
|
|
|
LTC could increase as much as it wants and still not present the same utility as Bitcoin.
BTC price is $1,755 and rising... let me know when one of those alts survives as long as BTC has and gets up there.
|
|
|
|
|
Market Cap is the measuring stick of fools.
The true value is price -- and Bitcoin is kicking every other coin to the curb. $1,755 and rising. Let me know when an alt gets up there.
|
|
|
|
|
This is like a corporation having to restate their earnings. In the equities world, this is often the beginning of the end, because getting to the state where you need an independent auditor to "clear" your business means you've run it into a very dubious place to begin with. This "audit" isn't going to solve any problems for BFX. Their reputation is already sullied in the Bitcoin sphere, and in the banking world, they've already been subject to a hard ban by one of the largest banks in the world (JP Morgan runs Wells Fargo), so don't hold your breath about those banking "alternatives".
The other guys in the banking space take heed when the big boys ban someone, so they're not going to be too keen helping out an exchange that has perceived money-laundering problems (which is probably why they got flagged in the first place). This is the legacy system pushing back, big time, but it is also part of BFX's overall pattern of incompetence that drives them into such a corner, strategically speaking.
I haven't trusted these guys since their first "hack", and when they started using Tether to magically pay people off, all the while inflating the Tether supply and restricting withdrawals to BTC only (and watch while that starts to "fail" too), all I think we're seeing is the beginnings of "Gox 2.0", even if it isn't starting out the exact same way.
Pass or Fail, this "audit" isn't going to help BFX or their trapped customers at all.
Don't even get me started on how the premium between BFX and other exchanges has now reverted back to normal limits because the management let large whales the ability to transfer out - but not the smaller suckers.
|
|
|
|
This is from a given address sending to itself 174,000 times. The good part is, the miners took the fees and burned the spammers financially. The bad part is, if there's a rich asshole behind this that doesn't care about the fee cost (*Cough* Ver *Cough*) then he'll just do it again to spite Bitcoin. For the idiots saying that "they paid the fee, so blah blah blah" go fuck yourself. This is obvious abuse of the system, you clueless gits. Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/69k199/mempool_flooded_today_with_address_paying_itself/ |
|
|
|
|
Due to the regulations coming in July, Japan has 18 firms looking into starting exchanges and other businesses.
That's a huge amount, considering a single exchange can service many users.
I suspect Japan will eclipse anything else in asia, especially since Chinese exchanges are still hobbled by the PBoC and their own regulatory nightmare.
|
|
|
|
|
So they modeled their customer-ripoff-but-no-we'll-pay-you-guys-later strategy from BFX.
Wonderful. So glad the "innovative" and "leading" exchange RipOffinex can inspire our asian brothers.
What a clusterfuck wrapped up in a shit-show.
|
|
|
|
|
I thought GDAX was the volume leader. Where did this Japan "leader of volume" come from?
|
|
|
|
|
China is facing a rather dangerous credit bubble deleveraging event.
It involves WMPs (Wealth Management Products) that essentially mimic leveraged money-market accounts based on assets that are underperforming. The interbank rate in China spiked to 9% from 4.5% and is currently exhibiting stress that you'd see when large banks don't trust each other enough to lend at normal rates.
Combine that with some banks that have taken money for WMP's, and didn't even invest the money -- making it a total ripoff -- you have a credit bubble amounting to about 1 Trillion USD that is going to come crashing down. This will devalue the Yuan considerably and probably crush their equity markets.
Beware... its in the early stages, much like Feb '07 was the first rumblings of the 2008 CDO housing disaster. Nobody knows how fast this sucker will deleverage once it gets going.
|
|
|
|
|
What nobody is talking about is the rapidly expanding amount of Tether that BFX is issuing.
This is like fiat on steroids, like QE-Infinity with no legal recourse if you can't redeem your tokens. It seems to be custom-made for this "crisis" that BFX is having.
Another suspicious trend is the premium between Bitstamp and BFX has shrunk from 10% to 5%, which suggests that someone on the inside is able to transfer their money out, even with BFX's claims otherwise. The owner of the exchange has been caught saying that he's "talking to their biggest customers", which to me makes me think he's catering to a few whales to keep his paycheck coming. Not that it surprises me at all.
So, the supply of Tether has been rapidly inflated, they aren't letting any USD out, and redeeming Tether could be cut off at any point, and they'd be legally covered.
Sounds like someone has a nice scam brewing.
I guess we won't see the conclusion until all the whales pull out. Then there will be nothing left to protect, so BFX can allow the inflated Tether market to crash due to USD/Tether redemption demands. (But I bet you they won't redeem tethers at parity, probably at a fraction citing some "unforseen difficulties")
Just watch....
|
|
|
|
|
I'm glad Craig Wright started this company -- it lets us keep track of all the scam-artists in one spot. No surprise the people joining his effort are prior hucksters and con-men.
It will be fun watching them implode.
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, and maybe Gavin should have had more recognition of scammy characters in the Bitcoin space, too.
It might have prevented his choice to buddy up with Mike Hearn, and to trust Craig Wright.
I'm glad Gavin is fading into the background radiation of Bitcoin. He was a lost soul ever since his CIA meeting. Shame when someone gets leverage over you, the things you're compelled to do.
|
|
|
|
Another buzzword-laden shit coin. This is all you need to know: There's nothing on consensus mechanisms in any form on the site, nor anything about the code. I've seen similar "comparison lists" on the OneCoin site. Unless they come forth with anything that actually addresses these basic and fundamental issues, they are uninteresting whatever their other claims. They seem to aim their marketing at people who have read some news about cryptos who do want to get rich, but want to do this without any risk. Crypto without cryptography makes no sense. Next.... |
|
|
|
|
It was a backdoor intended to shut down miners.
It was not a "bug".
It was reported in 2016 and ignored.
Jihan Wu is a lying sack of dogshit.
|
|
|
|
Goes to show that an idiot with money is still an idiot. BU Nodes - 540 - 7.9% Bitcoin Core - 5,878 - 86.01%https://coin.dance/nodesNo one cares about Barely Unusable, and it shows... I guess its Roger's turn now to do something desperate not to look like a complete fool. |
|
|
|
|
So, its some indie movie production that could've raised money on Kickstarter or GoFundMe but instead chose to use some craptoken.
Whatever, not like there's a shortage of people throwing money at things.
|
|
|
|
|
I bet RipoffFinex screwed it up for everyone.
Likely scenario, a pattern of wire transfers or banking operations between banks alerted their money-laundering controls. Upon closer inspection, the bank finds much to its horror that the money flowing in and out of BFX could easily be categorized as laundering, putting the bank at risk.
Instead of asking for clarification, the bank does what it always does, covers its ass by cutting off the client. This in turn causes other banks to take notice and then inspect THEIR clients activities more closely. Bingo, there's more problems with exchanges that had accounts that didn't make it obvious they were money exchangers.
And so on and so on until all the little mickey-mouse operations are plowed under by the cogs of regulation and big business.
|
|
|
|
|
How is this some major revelation?
No kidding, you start dicking around with the underlying network, you can cause problems. Routing protocols and the inherent communication protocols of TCP/IP handle some of this, but no application riding on top of an IP network can withstand an attacker getting control of routing or shaping of packets.
Put another way, there is no application on earth that can withstand someone fucking with its communications on a fundamental level.
Just put this in the "no shit, sherlock" file, and maybe hope someone gets a viable mesh networking solution going to compete with commercial ISPs.
|
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
