Do scams harm Bitcoin's reputation in the mainstream world?

[Dominic_Crypto]

Are there really people who can call Bitcoin a scam? It's incredible. Bitcoin is the most reliable currency that humanity has come up with.

[molsewid]

Do you think that scams harm Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies' reputation in the mainstream world? What will it take for people to distance scams from Bitcoin itself? Thoughts?

Some of my fellow country who got scammed by ponzi scheme using this crypto and didn't know how bitcoin works they will think bitcoin/ethereum is scam. Most likely some of them will not invest anymore. So I think scams harm bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

[avikz]

There has been a lot of scams within the crypto space over the course of its lifetime. Most recently, a Twitter hack that took the accounts of prominent figures within the mainstream world, has been all over the news. Mainstream media has been making people believe that Bitcoin is "bad" by tying it to the Twitter hack. While malicious actors demanded to be paid in Bitcoin, it doesn't mean that the cryptocurrency itself is a scam. Unfortunately, many people in the mainstream world have commented about Bitcoin negatively because of the recent hack. Despite these unfortunate series of events, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are experiencing huge gains on the market.

Do you think that scams harm Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies' reputation in the mainstream world? What will it take for people to distance scams from Bitcoin itself? Thoughts?

Absolutely yes! It's not about mainstream media. But as a layman, when you hear about a hacking incident and invariably you hear the name "bitcoin" with it, it's bound to create a negative picture in people's mind! it doesn't affect us because we know how bitcoin works, but definitely affects a layman who doesn't know anything about bitcoin.

I have just seen a news that Canon US website is attacked by ransomware this Friday and it is down currently. Such kind of incidents are becoming more frequent now and definitely earning a bad name for bitcoin along with it!

[ethereumhunter]

Do you think that scams harm Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies' reputation in the mainstream world? What will it take for people to distance scams from Bitcoin itself? Thoughts?

Some of my fellow country who got scammed by ponzi scheme using this crypto and didn't know how bitcoin works they will think bitcoin/ethereum is scam. Most likely some of them will not invest anymore. So I think scams harm bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

It happens to many people out there. Many of them joined the Ponzi scheme without learning more about how the system works, but they joined because of invitations from other people. They can prevent themselves from scamming by reading, watching, and learning more about bitcoin. They can think when they got other invitations to join in the one program called bitcoin investment because by having bitcoin itself is the real investment for them.

[jademaxsuy]

No not really and the forum is not liable also to any scam activities of users abusing cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is not mandated for everyone to join instead it is a free will  of a certain user to join and all the phase in learning will be based on the user's capacity to learn. It will depend on how interested the user will be to learn.

Furthemore, bitcointalk is one source of learning cryptocrrency and other related to it that includes scam and fraud activities and how prevent or avoid it. Most of the users getting scam are those ignorant of the forum rules and regulations stated and jumping only to the opportunity where they can earn even if it means making the forum a mess.

[Ucy]

Well, Bitcoin is transparent/public. So its evil cannot easily be hidden unlike fiat. The decentralization of Bitcoin makes its transparency(others things should have this level of transparency or surpass it) more trustworthy than centralized fiat currencies esp in "exposing" and possibly helping to deal with most of the actual illegal things that can be done with both centralized & decentralized currencies.
 In my opinion, it's a good thing that the evil on decentralized currency like Bitcoin are transparent or "exposed", so that the good security agencies can help root them out in the right/moral manners. This is part of the reasons decentralized currency is far better

[Alert31]

No!Scams will not harm bitcoin reputation because people doesn't know  how to stop after getting scammed they will always try again and again because they want to earn as big as they can. Only people can do to avoid scam is to learn more about bitcoin and keep on reading news and books that can teach them how to avoid not to scam by someone or groups ponzi scheme.

[Leviathan.007]

Even after many crimes happened in the world using bitcoin, many criminals abused bitcoin to somehow take advantage since it's not trackable. All these things could never hurt bitcoin and so the scammers. For some newbies in these markets, bitcoin is something new and and unknown if they get scammed by someone who is doing the scam with bitcoins they will lose their trust. However, they will start learning more and more because bitcoin is officially well known in all over the world. I believe lack of knowledge by some newbies can't hurt bitcoin market.

[Vatimins]

     Of course it does. Heck, even scams unrelated to bitcoin contributes to how people see bitcoin since it naturally looks like a ponzi scheme. And so, despite the fact of bitcoin not bing a scam, people see it as a scam automatically since they are already wary about all the scams they have seen through their entire life.

     Now, in regards for the question of how to distance bitcoin itself from scams, it is entirely impossible. Because there will always be people who would take advantage of anything for their own greed even if it means giving pain or problems to others. Although there may be many ways or ideas that may come to people's minds on how to make this happen, they are only ideas or dreams that cannot be applied onto real world situations. In short, it's just entirely impossible.

[Anonylz]

I think it does has a negative impact on btc reputation, it is not easy to hear a hack or scam activity from a company or business and be cool with it, this also affect the trust of investors, they may feel insecure and wonder if their investment is safe, who knows maybe such bad behaviour are among the reason why adoption is slow, why many people are having cold feet to come in.

That can make people out there will believe in bitcoin because they don't see that bitcoin can be a good thing. But if we can spread the advantage of bitcoin to them, I am sure that they will realize that bitcoin is like the money which can be used for good and bad things, and that will depend on us how we will use bitcoin. When many people can use bitcoin for good things, the bitcoin reputation will lift, and more people will join the crypto world, and that can make crypto can be accepted in all countries.

i think it boils down to what comes up immediately when people make a search about btc on the internet, this news outlet can't be compare to individual social media accounts, this are sites with high traffic and visitors per day, so it is very easy for any bad publication about btc from them to get to the top, and can easily suppress any other type of individual or group post on the internet, but then, i guess it is left to people to chose what to believe.

[mezzaluna]

There has been a lot of scams within the crypto space over the course of its lifetime. Most recently, a Twitter hack that took the accounts of prominent figures within the mainstream world, has been all over the news. Mainstream media has been making people believe that Bitcoin is "bad" by tying it to the Twitter hack. While malicious actors demanded to be paid in Bitcoin, it doesn't mean that the cryptocurrency itself is a scam. Unfortunately, many people in the mainstream world have commented about Bitcoin negatively because of the recent hack. Despite these unfortunate series of events, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are experiencing huge gains on the market.

Do you think that scams harm Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies' reputation in the mainstream world? What will it take for people to distance scams from Bitcoin itself? Thoughts?

Yes, Of course. It affects Bitcoin's reputation and other Cryptocurrencies reputations because of the news that spreads fast pertaining to them as scams and fraud. These news are easily read because of their headlines and since people are spending their time on social media networks this days because of the pandemic, anything that they read is worth their while. We must always be careful on how we present Cryptocurrency since being involve around it can really help us.

[GideonGono]

It depends if the person knows what is Bitcoin and knows that Bitcoin was just used as a tool just like a Fiat in other scams as well.
Only those who doesn't know would think bad about it since all currency could be used to scam and scammer are already doing there job right before Bitcoin was created.
But I think it doesn't really harm the reputation of Bitcoin since the one's who doesn't know it wouldn't really care about it.

[Eugenar]

No matter how huge our trust is, toward Bitcoin and other cryptos, there will still be people who will talk negatively about it. But what's ironic is that, everytime the market price, or let's just say something about it is being profitable, they will still ride with the trend. To put it simply, those who are calling Bitcoin a scam are those who know nothing much about it. There are indeed cases in which cryptos are involved in scams, and so do fiat currencies, because that is mainly dependent to the people who are using it. No matter how bad its reputation is, those who know more about it, will surely stay.

[ethereumhunter]

I think it does has a negative impact on btc reputation, it is not easy to hear a hack or scam activity from a company or business and be cool with it, this also affect the trust of investors, they may feel insecure and wonder if their investment is safe, who knows maybe such bad behaviour are among the reason why adoption is slow, why many people are having cold feet to come in.

That can make people out there will believe in bitcoin because they don't see that bitcoin can be a good thing. But if we can spread the advantage of bitcoin to them, I am sure that they will realize that bitcoin is like the money which can be used for good and bad things, and that will depend on us how we will use bitcoin. When many people can use bitcoin for good things, the bitcoin reputation will lift, and more people will join the crypto world, and that can make crypto can be accepted in all countries.

i think it boils down to what comes up immediately when people make a search about btc on the internet, this news outlet can't be compare to individual social media accounts, this are sites with high traffic and visitors per day, so it is very easy for any bad publication about btc from them to get to the top, and can easily suppress any other type of individual or group post on the internet, but then, i guess it is left to people to chose what to believe.

We need to let people choose what they believe, and they want, and we can not force them to do what we want. I am sure if they think that bitcoin can benefit them, they will still use bitcoin, or they will learn about bitcoin because they see that they can change their lives for the better. We don't need to use bitcoin for bad things because we need bitcoin to stay with us for a long time, so we can only spread the good thing about bitcoin to the public.

[Abiky]

The only harm i think scam will cause is more restrictions rules from the SEC cause scam was the reason why KYC/AML was introduced in crypto investment. However, people seems to have already understand the risk in crypto investment.

Agree. The more scams emerge, the tighter regulations will be. KYC and AML will be a requirement to get access to Bitcoin in the mainstream world. While decentralized solutions are an option, their low liquidity makes them widely unpopular in the crypto/Blockchain space. There's no denying that scams will harm Bitcoin's reputation worldwide, due to lack of people's education. If they'd learn more about how Bitcoin works, they wouldn't believe everything that's said on mainstream media. The majority doesn't care more or less about Bitcoin, as the world goes around Fiat nowadays. Bankers and governments will try their best to prevent people from using Bitcoin on top of Fiat. This means that its reputation will be in the ground, in order to make people use the traditional banking system more thoroughly. Only veterans in the crypto space and those looking for an "exit route" will use Bitcoin no matter what.

While it's true that people are starting to understand the risks in crypto investment, there's still a long road ahead. The crypto/Blockchain space needs more time to mature in order to be widely recognized as legitimate in the mainstream world. With good education, people will be able to distance Bitcoin from scams in cyberspace. Let's hope that heavy-handed regulation puts an end to scams once and for all, for the prosperous growth of Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry. Just my thoughts

[Nellayar]

The truth about bitcoin is that it`s anonymity feature did not use for good but it use as a factor to scam people while hiding the real identity online. This is the most reasonable fact that happens in bitcoin. It is used by scammers as a payment or promises to the people. In fact, during the 2017 bull run period bitcoin was exposed to the mass due to its volatility, it was also the time where many scammers had been conveyed people to send some money to their account and it will double in a month when it was converted in BTC.

Many people also thought that bitcoin is the scam, without finding enough facts and research about it.

[Reatim]

The only harm i think scam will cause is more restrictions rules from the SEC cause scam was the reason why KYC/AML was introduced in crypto investment. However, people seems to have already understand the risk in crypto investment.

Agree. The more scams emerge, the tighter regulations will be. KYC and AML will be a requirement to get access to Bitcoin in the mainstream world. While decentralized solutions are an option, their low liquidity makes them widely unpopular in the crypto/Blockchain space. There's no denying that scams will harm Bitcoin's reputation worldwide, due to lack of people's education. If they'd learn more about how Bitcoin works, they wouldn't believe everything that's said on mainstream media. The majority doesn't care more or less about Bitcoin, as the world goes around Fiat nowadays. Bankers and governments will try their best to prevent people from using Bitcoin on top of Fiat. This means that its reputation will be in the ground, in order to make people use the traditional banking system more thoroughly. Only veterans in the crypto space and those looking for an "exit route" will use Bitcoin no matter what.

While it's true that people are starting to understand the risks in crypto investment, there's still a long road ahead. The crypto/Blockchain space needs more time to mature in order to be widely recognized as legitimate in the mainstream world. With good education, people will be able to distance Bitcoin from scams in cyberspace. Let's hope that heavy-handed regulation puts an end to scams once and for all, for the prosperous growth of Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry. Just my thoughts

Good point and we all agree to that, time and proper education regarding to this system will open up minds by those people who are still looking oppositely. With proper information and right knowledge not just a biased one coming from mainstream medias which  more likely being corrupted by people around traditional banking industries. This negative views will be replaced once people realized that bitcoin is not a tool for scamming but a useful system to help the financial industry. From that point, more and more people will start to embrace  and adopt this currency, it takes time but it will happen.

[ilovealtcoins]

I think the rumors of bitcoin scams only make bitcoin bigger than ever and more people will know bitcoin. I firmly believe that people who own a lot of bitcoins and buy bitcoins are tech savvy and understand what bitcoin does. Bitcoin is not just a cryptocurrency, it is an asset for you to store your assets against inflation. It's a quality investment, when you look at the bitcoin chart you'll see what I say makes perfect sense.

[ololajulo]

The last scam on twitter that requested for bitcoin, increase the search for bitcoin on search engine. Criminal are only exploiting the anonymity and security behind the coin, however, the anonymity has other advantages. For any bitcoin stolen into a known address it will require more expertise to protect being monitored and converted into fiat, so it is more difficult to keep stolen bitcoin that keeping. I just hope countries dont adopt Russia restriction on bitcoin transaction but it will great process to control hackers

[Savemore]

The only harm i think scam will cause is more restrictions rules from the SEC cause scam was the reason why KYC/AML was introduced in crypto investment. However, people seems to have already understand the risk in crypto investment.

Agree. The more scams emerge, the tighter regulations will be. KYC and AML will be a requirement to get access to Bitcoin in the mainstream world. While decentralized solutions are an option, their low liquidity makes them widely unpopular in the crypto/Blockchain space. There's no denying that scams will harm Bitcoin's reputation worldwide, due to lack of people's education. If they'd learn more about how Bitcoin works, they wouldn't believe everything that's said on mainstream media. The majority doesn't care more or less about Bitcoin, as the world goes around Fiat nowadays. Bankers and governments will try their best to prevent people from using Bitcoin on top of Fiat. This means that its reputation will be in the ground, in order to make people use the traditional banking system more thoroughly. Only veterans in the crypto space and those looking for an "exit route" will use Bitcoin no matter what.

While it's true that people are starting to understand the risks in crypto investment, there's still a long road ahead. The crypto/Blockchain space needs more time to mature in order to be widely recognized as legitimate in the mainstream world. With good education, people will be able to distance Bitcoin from scams in cyberspace. Let's hope that heavy-handed regulation puts an end to scams once and for all, for the prosperous growth of Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry. Just my thoughts

Good point and we all agree to that, time and proper education regarding to this system will open up minds by those people who are still looking oppositely. With proper information and right knowledge not just a biased one coming from mainstream medias which  more likely being corrupted by people around traditional banking industries. This negative views will be replaced once people realized that bitcoin is not a tool for scamming but a useful system to help the financial industry. From that point, more and more people will start to embrace  and adopt this currency, it takes time but it will happen.

In reality, there are only few people who are interested where we can say that they are hungry to learn information about bitcoin. It is sad because most of the people in my community became victim of fake news where when they heard bitcoin, they always think that it is a form of investment where it is scam.

This is the result of the past scammers before who keep creating ponzi scheme investment where they keep inviting a lot of people and in the end many people will lose their money. Scammers are keep tarnishing the not only the bitcoin but the whole cryptocurrency community. It is so sad because people view it as negative and not a new payment system that will change the broken system.