It is not certain that nrd525 actually did suspend the site. He just claims he did. Don't give him too much credit, unless we get some firm proof, or hear back from Mr MakeBTC. Unfortunately, it's not looking good right now, site still suspended.

Also, nrd525, if you are so influential, why don't you get bitvestor.us suspended as well? They have actually taken BTC to get to level 8 and not paid out when they reached it - unlike makeBTC.org, which always paid...

I'm not even sure that nrd525 is taking credit for something they actually did. Any proof of your actions, nrd525?

I would have hoped that Mr MakeBTC would have used a host which didn't mind whether the sites do gambling or not. After all, gambling is legal in plenty of places. It's possible that some busybody complained to the host and threatened to sue them for some part of (for example) a fraud which claimed to be an investment when actually it was gambling, then the host took it down out of an abundance of caution.

So, I'm guessing Mr MakeBTC has a back-up somewhere but it'll take him a few days to get it all sorted out. The site has been through worse; got hacked a couple of times already and he repaired it.

Still, it would be nice to hear from Mr MakeBTC on what is probably still the only dedicated, open, thread on his website anywhere on the internets...

Who's to say what is "late"? It is getting about 0.5 BTC net income per day, so it will go through the next banks slowly but surely, which is fine. It's not called "passive income" for nothing...

I also did not receive my withdrawal. Instead all my income was reinvested. But it appears that additional investors are still coming in to add the 1BTC to get to the next bank. I have asked for 0.1BTC withdrawal from bank 20. We will see if that happens or not.

I have to say, this is all fairly strange. Very slow for a couple of weeks, and now this.

Mr MakeBTC seemed to have very good control over things for a long time - I remember there was a hack about a month ago which he just reversed with no apparent ill effects.

Let us hope that he can post an explanation of what is going on and hopefully fix things.

I vaguely remember somebody saying that he was Russian - I hope he is not caught up in all the craziness currently happening in Ukraine. That would be a pretty good explanation as to why we haven't heard from him! But I hope that is not the case.

Heads up everyone, something strange happening over at the ranch. Some dude named yqzip just deposited 5 BTC over the course of one minute in 8 transactions (?!) and now the bank says

"Bank has collected 17.14 of 17 BTC" but no payout.

 

I suspect something fishy going on. Hopefully Mr MakeBTC can fix it, let's see.

Back in the good old days when you could specify any bonus level, I set up so that I would sell my whole 1BTC level at 0.05 discount, i.e. I would get 0.95 BTC. Totally legal but unfortunately Mr MakeBTC noticed and changed the rules so that the minimum discount is 50%.

I could sell my whole level at 50% and clear a net profit on the venture, but I will stay in for a few more rounds until I do that. Gotta admit, MakeBTC is quite fun.

Mr MakeBTC is correct, this is not a pyramid scheme in the exponential sense of the diagram above. For example, as of now to reach level 16 we need about another 6 BTC. Then to reach level 17 we will need 17 BTC. If history is any judge, 25% to 50% of those 17 BTC will be reinvested from those who received BTC from level 16. The remaining amount will come from new investors, or possibly from old investors adding new funds (who are in this situation equivalent to new investors).

So technically it is correct that new investors are required to reach each bank, and in that sense MakeBTC has some qualities of a pyramid scheme. However, the amount of BTC required to reach each bank is so small in comparison to the number of BTC in existence it is quite plausible to think that new investors entering even now, will make a profit on their investment. At some point in the future, new investors may slow down so much that it will take so long to reach a new bank, that it will be clear that it would take years to clear a profit. But we are a long way from there at the moment.

The fact that existing investors can now "cash out" by selling their acculmulated levels for BTC (at a discount) also makes it easier to lock in profits after having reached a few banks.

The interactions between beetje2007, opnoskatt and Mr MakeBTC on this forum have been very instructive; MakeBTC has shown itself to be transparent, honest and willing to fix problems. As far as I can tell, this forum is the only place on the internet (!) where MakeBTC has been discussed in detail, and with the owner participating.

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Site is up and working fine, closing in on the next level too.  Added bonus, looks like they are still actively developing the site, so I don't see it going away anytime soon.  They introduced a "selling" feature sometime early this morning.  You can now sell back your level at 50%; the other 50% gets paid as a bonus to the next depositors (deposit .5, get .25 free).  I sold off a small portion of my level to test and it worked perfectly; I'm now above even and making profit off each level.  Good luck to everyone else who joined early, should be a good couple of days.
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The selling feature is very interesting and should lead to an acceleration in investment. Presumably there is a queue of people to sell, and when you deposit you won't know if you are going to get a bonus or not.

The clone site is interesting, I would guess it is the same people or they have some major copyright issues (does that even apply with BitCoin?). Either way, hopefully they will introduc the selling feature as well.

Opnoskatt, once ahead you are ahead of the rest of us - I am behind you on the clone site, getting in at level 6, let's hope it's good for another 10 levels at least...

I just used Google to translate this page. It's about the closing of Chinese banks during Chinese New Year holidays (starting January 30). Nothing about BitCoin.

Am I missing something?

Progress has slowed down a lot over the past few days. Average 0.5 to 1 BTC per day, mostly small deposits. At this rate, it will take about 2 weeks per bank. Still, that is OK, the total bank is only 15 BTC so we are not talking huge input requirements.

Previous comments were correct, the first investors are the big winners. Still, the site is very transparent with logs for all activities, so you can see what is going on and evalulate your option fairly easily.

Ki$$, who was the first investor, put in 0.3BTC. He is now taking out 1BTC on each bank, has done for a while now, so he is well into profit.

Our local hero, opnoskatt, did very well by putting in a large amount (over 1 BTC), although later on. He should be profitable soon.

Basically, the earlier you invest, and roll over, the more profit you will get. If you invest later, you will not get any profit, or will have to wait a long time.

On the market generally, it is taking a while to get to the 15BTC bank, but still make progress.

My friend, you are clearly not that familiar with China... just look at the amount of fraudulent schemes they fell for, for example to get a green card for the US - google China EB-5 visa fraud...

Interesting thing happened earlier today - the site crashed, I think I saw why. A new user, I think named roeder, joined and then wierd things happened. He deposited 3+ BTC and reached the next bank, it paid out. Then he deposited -5 BTC (yes, I know, impossible), then 6 BTC, then 1 BTC, then -2 BTC or something. I managed to look at his profile, it said his level was -1 BTC. Of course, all of that is impossible. But he did trigger the bank. Then the site went down.

My guess is that they checked the bank manually and realised something was wrong. For him to enter those numbers, my guess is he managed to hack the site somehow. It was very very wierd to see that happen. I thought, how could that bank happen so quickly? And I looked just before the bank, it said that roeder deposited 3.25 BTC or something. No user deposits such an amount!

Anyway, they must have reversed the bank and kicked him out, everything seems back to normal now, if a bit slow. I wonder if they will tell everyone what happened.

I like the site, anyway. Yes, it is a pyramid scheme, but bear in mind that after each bank most of the "new" investors are actually the old investors who are reinvesting their income - like me, probably because they want to maintain their level and future income in comparison with the other investors.

So it seems to work pretty well. I admit to being somewhat jealous of the first user Ki$$ who invested 0.3 BTC on day one, reinvested every time, and now is earning over 1 BTC for EACH bank! Wow.

Also, opsnokatt, you have a lot of courage to invest 1.5 BTC, but it looks like it is paying off for you. I salute you.