Ok guys, first off, thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate those of you who are encouraging while also apprehensive of the risks im taking. Because there is tons of risk in this space, and i think about my risks everyday . The decision to move in to this space full-time wasnt taken lightly , but it was mainly driven by the fact that what i was currently doing for work was burning me out , not allowing me to get ahead , and not making me happy.


This risks so far are paying off and there are signs it may continue to pay off well in to the future. There are risks for sure. But right now my biggest risk is if certain algorithmic stable coins lose their peg. And from my perspective that risk is the cost to entry to being a successful market maker/capital allocator in this space.  

Let's just say my new job is the most rewarding and most fun , game-like job i've ever had in my life. Remember rollarcoaster tycoon? Or lemonade stand tycoon (lol), well what the crypto space has become, with the insane amounts of defi chains and defi dapps popping up (ETH: curve, uniswap, 1inch, syntetix, compound BSC: pancakeswap, acryptos , cream (also on eth),venus, TERRA : Mirror, Anchor ,terraswap, and more recently THOR chain and solana)

My new job feels like im playing DEFI Tycoon, where the goal of the game is to find trading strats , or investment opportunities that provide the least amount of risk and most amount of profits , the more money you make the more you can diversify your investments and the more you can potentially* earn.

A few answers to the questions above.

I started with about 14k -> turned that in to 30k by holding some good tokens. From 30k onwards 90% of my gains have been from arbing, i always arb back in to stable coin and my primary portfolio is in stable coins.

I wont give any details about the pairs, exchanges , etc that i trade, you need to figure that out for yourself

At this point i've gone through about 8 different strats , arbing between different defi exchanges, arbing between centralized and decentralized exchanges, arbing using margin, occasionally buying dips on coins that i know are gonna go back up (monitoring twitter to stay on top of things)  

One key tip i can give you to trading on centralized exchanges is you need to understand exchange patterns  , whenever trading on centralized exchanges i will always monitor the hotwallets and sometimes the deposit wallets to understand inflow/outflow and if an exchange has paused withdrawals.

I've spent the better part of the past year researching defi , various projects looking for these types of opportunities , most of them become saturated quickly , some of them are natural inneffencies in the market where your biggest competitor is other traders .

The goal of quitting my job is to treat this as a full time gig, i need to build up my skillset so that i can better automate my strats, and at the same time i'm also going to work on building skillsets that are in demand by blockchain development companies, ie solidity, rust, python, nodejs . My day job was burning me out and crypto is something i am extremely passionate about, this is where i want to build my skillsets and take my career.

Maybe i'll make some millions on my strats , and the worst case i build a skillset that is in demand by blockchain development companies/teams and get a job in an industry i am extremely passionate about.

Having 100k in the bank from trading is huge motivator, but i very much see this as an opportunity to save myself from burnout and to do something i am passionate about. Long term the worst case is i go back to work in a year, best case i become a crypto billionaire.

In the past month and a half i've made over 100k arbing different markets and developing a very hard-to-beat strat. I submitted my resignation to my full time job last week . Wish me luck.


Long live crypto.  

Update and some answers to your questions :https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5321029.msg56477603#msg56477603

Did a historical whois search on the domain and it looks like before they moved their name servers to cloudflare they were hosting DNS on idotz.net, looks like default name servers. Might be worth contacting the host to let them know they are hosting what is clearly a ponzi scheme.

https://pasteboard.co/JjPTu3F.png

This is clearly against the hosts TOS

https://idotz.net/policy.cfm

Bump. Looks like they *allegedly* emptied that wallet.(https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/5d62b27b2e55600a) Found lots of other seemingly mixed TXes to that wallet.Anyone with more experience with this have a thought on this? Is there a legitimate reason to mix your bitcoin like that. They must be paying 1000s of dollars in TX fees to obfuscate their transactions . Is it possible these are proceeds from the ICO scam that happened a couple years ago by the same guy who runs this site? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2225492.6000) Mikhail  claims FSBT is not a scam, but please go read the bitcointalk post and follow the links it literally a ICO scam where the site has implemented some sort of opensource banking api and now tries to claim it's legit, it has no use..

 I have asked Mikhail Skoblov a few times in telegram to respond here but he refuses. He claims it's not a scam but he wont answer any of my questions.

Such as
1. How are the black shoals parameters calculated .
2. I have asked him to provide data on the countless 1:100 "gains" that show up in the community gains feed every few seconds, i have specifically asked him to not include user data, just data about when the investment accrued and the parameters of the investment, he refuses.
3. I asked for a CSV showing the black shoals calculations for a 24 hour period and the parameters that make up these calculations. He refuses

Here's his most recent response on telegram
https://pasteboard.co/JjPGAZ8.png

Also these guys keep accusing me of slander but im honestly trying to be as transparent as possible with this scam accusation . Please tell me if im being unfair here .

And lastly is it just me who is horrified that Fractal a company used for KYC for many exchanges is promoting this crap? If you use Fratal for KYC they will sell your email and bombard you with emails promoting scams such as this.

This didnt age well. RIP cryptobridge.

So just an update here. I was able to withdraw my funds from this site and only suffered a total loss of 30$ . I am genuinely impressed my withdrawal actually went through. Kudos to bitlevex for that.

While testing the mechanics of this site , i created a 1:10 option with 20$ , and ended up with 10$ profits. I really dont know what to make of this because the owner of the site has been quite vocal with me on telegram accusing me of blackmail and slander (Which this is not.) . Because of the opaque nature of this platform and my experience with the 1:2 options how do i know they just didnt flip a switch to make the scam engine not take all my money.

There are still quite a few issues with this platform that i find extremely concerning.

1. The earnings feed appears to be fake and shows users constantly profiting on 1:100 options . I have asked the Bitlevex admins to show some sort of proof of how this is possible , without sharing user data and they refuse.
2. The "loss prevention" temporary rules that prevent users from selling options until 24 hours has passed, seems stacked against users investing in the "profitable" option not to mention the other options that seem to lose significant value with little explanation.
3. The opaque calculations used to calculate option prices . I again asked bitlevex to clarify this and they refuse . The answer i got from Mikhail was "I am expert in this, but support team is not. That is why some specifics is hard for them to explain". How are the parameters used in the black scholes formula calculated? (Ie volatility)
4.There are no audits that prove that the bitlevex platform actually has the BTC to cover the leveraged options they are selling. Bitlevex should provide a signed message proving BTC ownership.

This is the transaction they sent my withdrawal in, https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/c40661ee0443e34062b0b3e49800d466a2c7088b79d4848316bd98da0bea708a
 Im no expert in this but following the transactions starting here https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/0d8d5b69b24cb24e?from_address=3ASszxkxoo89vze7a4145fbbjx8bU9E98M
I came accross this wallet that contains a total of 20 BTC https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/5d62b27b2e55600a , this wallet typically interacts with binance. And it certainly doesnt look like a lot of withdrawals are coming out of this wallet. I have no evidence this wallet belongs to bitlevex and it does seem there was an attempt made to obfuscate where the withdrawal is coming from, but i cant say this for certain.

Update 7-21 . I noticed something pretty suspicious about the "Community Gains Feed" Today , it appears to show "Live" gains , new gains showing up every few seconds with the time stamp showing the current time. Well take a look at this one , i thought this was pretty funny, and this also further confirms that this is a scam.

In this "Community gain" the "user" leveraged 1:100 on a put option .Since you can only invest a max of 100$ at a time and you have to wait 24 hours before you can sell your option . Please tell me how this "user"'s option didnt stop out, and please tell me how this put option went up 300% when the price of bitcoin has gone up 2% today?

Fake Options platform where the users always lose their money.

When the users complain about losing their money the scammer declares the user doesnt know what they are doing and that option pricing is done using "Nobel prize winning black-scholes method" . Unsuspecting users may accept that answer and accept their loss, when really it's a huge scam.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5262258.0

1. Yes Bitlevex does have a license from Estonia but this doesnt necessarily say that it's a legit company . Obtaining a crypto license from estonia is not a difficult task.
2.I understand interest is 10% per year.
3. Explain why a call option with 1:2 leverage , decreases 10% per day when the call price is increasing.
4. There's no way to make money on this platform , even with a bonus and low leverage options i still loose $50+ as you can only lose money on this platform
5.Explain how a call option with 1:2 leverage loses 10% per day when the call price is increasing . I trade options on the stock market regularly. The funny thing with Bitlevex options is you cant actually execute them , you can only buy and sell the options, and there is no market or orderbook for this so the pricing is solely controlled by bitlevex.
6.Understood. But for your "profitable" option plan with 1:100 leverage. You only allow users to invest a max of 100$ and you dont allow users to withdraw that for 24 hours . If BTC flucuates 5$ you will lose all your money, in my case my option stopped out when the BTC price was the same as my call price.
7.Doubtful, talked to many people in the telegram chat who also lost money. Bitlevex has a "community gains" section of their website that constantly shows users profiting on 1:100 leverage options, but it is litterlly impossible for 1:100 leverage options to not stop out .
8. The options guide on your website doesnt mention anything about STOPPED_OUT options or time decay . You keep trying to indicate the platform is profitable but even the youtube videos demoing the platofmr have shown huge losses in the demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8unEn7ThFUg
9. The creator of this platform was involved in an ICO scam recently FSBT bank https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2225492.0

Show some examples of your blackshoals calculations and show how your platform can actually be profitable. Because im not buying it, losing 10% daily when the price of BTC is above the call price of the option and when there is 29 days left in a 30 day option doesnt make any sense.

Edit : So , investing in a 1:10 option , after 24 hours it decreased in value 51%. I bought a call option at 9190.46. Bitcoin is currently 9168$, that's a .24% decrease in price , now i've leverage 1: 10, so let's multiple that loss by 10, 2.4% , where did the 50% loss come from? The option is valid for 30 days. This platform is undoubtedly a scam . See for yourself https://pasteboard.co/JiAXFlp.png

Bump. Any thoughts on this? Would be interesting to get the communities opinion about Fractal's involvement here.

Like im starting to wonder if it's intentional, Fractal is a "KYC site" but they use it to siphon your data and expose you to scams . Are they selling our data, identity theft,?

Fractal get's it's name out there because lots of small/medium exchanges need to comply with kyc and dont have a system for it. They use their trust in the community to promote scams and profit off it's huge user base.

Fractal support wont respond to my questions asking why they are promoting this scam . Fractal is even promoting a bitlevex referral program https://fractal.id/deals . And that doesnt really make sense considering  fractal is trying to be a KYC site...yanno not a scam coin/site promoting service.

Hello all,

Today i wanted to share some information on the scam platform Bitlevex. Bitlevex claims to be a "revolutionary trading platform" that allows traders to trade bitcoin options with up to 1:100 leverage.

Bitlevex was allegedly created by Mikhail Skoblov and claims to be "Licensed by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Republic of Estonia"

Mikhail Skoblov's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/mskoblovs/

The person responding to Bitlevex support is Maksis Nikušins, and he can be found here https://www.linkedin.com/in/maksisnikusins/



In getting scammed by Bitlevex, i learned a bit about how the scam operates and i have to say as far as scams go, Bitlevex is a very creatively executed scam.

The scam is the platform gives you the impression that you've made a bad investment decision and thats why you lost your money. But in fact the platform is designed to take all your money no matter what .

I was brought to the platform because of Fractal, i used them to do a kyc on cryptobridge, and they have since sent me advertising emails claiming i could get 150$ signup bonus.



This is how the site makes you think it's your fault for loosing your money.

On the bitlevex website there is a feed that shows "Recent community gains" where users are constantly profiting crazy amounts of money, every few seconds, this feed never shows users loosing money



When you click the invest button on bitlevex it shows you some predefined investment options , there is also a section on the website where you can define your option parameters.

This is where the scam begins.

On the investment page there is a "profitable" option that says it's the option most traders use for the most profit. But the thing is, for this option it will only allow you to invest a maximum of 100$ . This basically means if the BTC price fluctuates 10-20$ your option will "lose" more money than you put in and it will be automatically liquidated.

Now unless you thoroughly read through all the documentation on the website, you wouldnt know that Bitlevex doesnt allow you to sell your option until it ages for 24 hours. Because of normal BTC volatility and because you can only invest a maximum of 100$ when leveraging 1:100 , you will always lose your money, usually within the first hour.



Now you might think "duhh of course your gonna lose your money if you buy a 1:100 option" and i might agree with you, but bear with me this next part will prove to you Bitlevex's malintention and how this platform is undoubtedly a scam. I will also mention it's not clear that your option would be liquidated if the price of BTC went below your call price.

So lost my initial deposit investing in a 1:100 option , but i still had my 150$ bonus, so i used this to better understand the mechanics of this scam(They wouldnt let me withdraw it).

I invested ~148$ in a 1:2 30 day option . This option was a call option at the price of 9200$

Since i didnt lose all my money in the first hour, i was able get to the point with this option where i could sell it.

Now Bitlevex has it posted on their website that they charge 10% interest per annum and it's charged daily.

Ok , so my 1:2 30 day option aged for 24 hours , and actually at the time the price of BTC went up, however my option lost 10% in value.




Bitlevex claims "It is a unique product with trusted pricing method by Noble prize winners Black & Scholes"

And when i asked Bitlevex support why i lost 10% on my call option when BTC was above my call price . They referred me to an investopedia article (see the following quote below from our telegram conversation.

https://pasteboard.co/JhGCyqZ.png

They tried to indicate that it was because BTC volatility was low , however the thing is BTC has been pretty bullish for a while now and not only that my option contract had 29 days left until expiration and it was a call at 9200 and BTC was 9300.

So to see if maybe this is some sort of legitimate automated modal , i didnt sell my option with a 10% lost, i let it age another 24 hours, and as i expected after another 24 hours my options lost another 10%!



Now this is absurd , this was a call option , with 28 days left, and BTC was 100$ above my initial call price . This modal is fake and is designed to take all your money.

Basically on this platform BTC would have to increase 1000$ each day in order for your option to break even.

TLDR: this is a scam because
Bitlevex encourages users to invest with 1:100  leverage and they only allow users to invest a maximum of 100$ per 1:100 option. They do this by indicating this is the "profitable" investment choice. But it is literally impossible to not lose all your money because Bitlevex wont let you sell your option for 24 hours and the investment parameters are as such that even a small volatility in price will result in you losing all your money.
Regardless of leverage and BTC price movement your investment will lose 10% per day due to the "trusted pricing method by Noble prize winners Black & Scholes". The only way to make money is if you leverage a small amount (1:2) and the price of BTC increases more than 10% per day.
At first i attempted to withdraw my 150$ bonus, after loosing my initial 150$ deposit and they told me i couldn't withdraw unitil i purchased options with it. So i used it to better understand the mechanics of the platform .
Fractal is implicit in this scam as they promote it to users via email. Given this i would never use Fractal for KYC.

Since i was smart enough to use a privacy.com virtual debit card for my bitlevex "investment" ,i have since cancelled the card and requested a refund. Not sure if i will get it or not. Be careful folks!

Edit: here's their bitcointalk post
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5181927.0

Is there any concerns that the network dropped 143 hosts in the last month?


https://siahub.info/network

d - octomon

Username: guitarguy94

OP can you fix your shit?

Hi,

Downloads are not working on this site, ive made two purchases as a registered user and as a unregistered user, the payment is complete but the download links are broken.

Could you refund order 418 and send me a download link for order 421?

Also there is no support on the website, the email support@posserver.com is broken

Crypto Bridge is a good bet https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/cryptobridge/

Check BCO, crypto bridge, it has lots of potential and is pretty cheap right now

https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/cryptobridge/

Anyone else have an issue with sending coins?

I sent 1500 DAS coin to novaexcahnge and the coins seem to have disappeared. The transaction shows in my wallet , it has 20+ confirmations, i've tried redownloading the blockchain on a different pc and the transaction is still there, But the transaction never showed up in my novaexcahnge account and its not showing up on the block explorer http://das.explorerz.top:3002/search



Status: 26 confirmations
Date: 8/29/2017 22:40
To: D6r6anB1t8QnUVzxm8mjNawyXPqeyvgCtj
Debit: -1513.00000000 DAS
Transaction fee: -0.00240600 DAS
Net amount: -1513.00240600 DAS
Transaction ID: e7a416f458e33d5b53ffc66a2f0eca8fd2deab29572525484125022fc7462b5b-000