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

[acroman08]

Sure people were scamming others right since the inception of bitcoin. But that stupid twitter hack made it mainstream.

Bitcoin is not at fault there.

Take note that Twitter's security is breached by a kid making their platform's security unreliable. The point here though is that people should not believe such things with easy money. The hacker used Twitter to send the people's Bitcoin in their wallet, if anyone should be blamed here it is Twitter's security and the hacker, not Bitcoin.

I agree twitter should be blamed for this. they are a multibillion-dollar you expect them to have airtight security to protect the privacy of their users. but bitcoin already having a bad image and involve in a lot of scam people are quick to jump to blaming bitcoin since it was the most logical way for them.

[bryant.coleman]

From what I have seen during the past 8 years, scams do play a major role in slowing down the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. There are other factors as well, such as lack of legal clarity, usage in dark markets.etc, but IMO scams remain the number one factor. But is it right to blame Bitcoin for all these scams? Most of the scams occur as a result of greed or stupidity from the part of the investors. It is just like ponzis and pyramid schemes with fiat money. But in those cases no one actually blames fiat for those scams.

[GDragon]

From what I have seen during the past 8 years, scams do play a major role in slowing down the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. There are other factors as well, such as lack of legal clarity, usage in dark markets.etc, but IMO scams remain the number one factor. But is it right to blame Bitcoin for all these scams? Most of the scams occur as a result of greed or stupidity from the part of the investors. It is just like ponzis and pyramid schemes with fiat money. But in those cases no one actually blames fiat for those scams.

Yup, no one will see it cause they don't really understand bitcoin so whenever there's an illegal activity connected to bitcoin, the first thing that comes to their mind is bitcoin is the reason. They should not be involved in bitcoin and something like that. They never blame the person behind the scams, they blame the currency and technology itself, kind of unfair cause whenever they got scammed using a fiat money, they will never blame the fiat, who would do that right? It's because of the scammer and not because of the platform. I can even say that it's their fault for not researching before even doing something, I can say it both with fiat and bitcoin right? but it will feel wrong to blame them cause it sounds victim blaming, but they have the responsibility to do research. But in case of bitcoin, the currency itself takes the blame.

[Abiky]

I don't think so. There's a lot of scams happening in the crypto world that even reached those non-bitcoin users. It happens not only once or twice, it happens a lot of time that no one can even count. But we can still see how far bitcoin is right now, it still continues to move forward even after those scams, the only one who is affected with scams is the victim.

Bitcoin's level of resiliency has prevented scams from having a negative impact over its reputation in the mainstream world. Many factors contribute to this, not limited to the pioneer cryptocurrency's decentralized design. I believe that with due time, people will be able to distance scams from Bitcoin itself. The same thing happened with traditional online payment processors like PayPal and Skrill within their early days. Nowadays, people use Fiat using these services even if scams are still taking place in the industry. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seems to be going towards the same path.

All in all, it's hoped that people make good use of Bitcoin in order to avoid becoming victims of scams in the future. Since you're responsible of securing your funds against malicious actors in crypto land, the risks are a lot higher than the traditional world of Fiat. In the latter, the responsibility is transferred to a third party (a bank) making Fiat a much better option among many people worldwide. Ultimately, people will have different perceptions about Bitcoin and the entire crypto/Blockchain industry in general. Those who believe in Bitcoin's core technology to change our world for the better will stay in it no matter what. The naysayers will always try to divert people's attention by putting emphasis on the negative aspects of Bitcoin (instead of its positive ones). While Fiat will still be the dominant type of currency in the future, there will always be a place for Bitcoin due to its one-of-a-kind qualities not found elsewhere. Just my opinion

[DarkDays]

Absolutely they do, I've had several people tell me they no longer invest in cryptocurrency due to a bad experience, which usually revolved around them being scammed in the most obvious way—such as being scammed by a fake admin or handing over their private keys to somebody else.

I think it's always going to be one of the main barriers for cryptocurrency adoption, since the tabloids and newspapers love posting articles about how an old woman was scammed out of her life savings investing in Bitcoin or something similar.

Nothing we can do about it really.

[TimeTeller]

Absolutely they do, I've had several people tell me they no longer invest in cryptocurrency due to a bad experience, which usually revolved around them being scammed in the most obvious way—such as being scammed by a fake admin or handing over their private keys to somebody else.

I think it's always going to be one of the main barriers for cryptocurrency adoption, since the tabloids and newspapers love posting articles about how an old woman was scammed out of her life savings investing in Bitcoin or something similar.

Nothing we can do about it really.

We can't do anything about it but for those who are here long enough, we know how to tackle this situation.
Because we know that bitcoin is not a scam and only those people that used it for scam purposes are making the reputation of bitcoin bad.
But once they educate themselves and learn more about its true nature, they will understand that bitcoin or crypto has a lot to offer.
But sadly, we can't force those people to educate themselves. They need to learn it in their own way.

[navi_mihail]

Absolutely they do, I've had several people tell me they no longer invest in cryptocurrency due to a bad experience, which usually revolved around them being scammed in the most obvious way—such as being scammed by a fake admin or handing over their private keys to somebody else.

I think it's always going to be one of the main barriers for cryptocurrency adoption, since the tabloids and newspapers love posting articles about how an old woman was scammed out of her life savings investing in Bitcoin or something similar.

Nothing we can do about it really.

Fraud is everywhere and these people should have been aware of the risks. For this, there are forums where people can verify the resource, find a reliable one and do everything so as not to be a victim of a fraud. because no one will help them in this, the responsibility is only on them. How many bad experiences have these people had? At what point did they stop? Someone learns from their own and others' mistakes, while others give up...

[Sadlife]

The main cause for this, is the mainstream media telling inaccurate information to the public, sometimes they even call it a ponzi or a bubble that will soon pop, and tying everything negative including hacks in exchange with bias commentary.
We must educate the people, that the internet is a dangerous world. It doesn't mean when hack occurs with Cryptocurrency it doesn't mean its a scam itself. This is why, i courage to not trust financial advise to anyone but do their own research themselves.

[w0lf0.]

From what I see through my friends and relatives, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general doesn't have a good reputation, but lately by explaining their potential they are changing their minds and some of them have also started to invest something in it, unfortunately the problem is the many scams that many suffer or read on various Media have cryptocurrencies as their final currency most of the time, this in general hinders things a lot 

[DarkbLue]

No, it does not affect the reputaion. Bitcoin's reputation comes from blockchain and if really understand it you wouldn't asked this questio. This reputation does not come from individual scam or ponzi news. Fraud is everywhere.
Btw act smart and let the people think btc is scam. It gaves you more time or less efforts to collect more btc for the future, where people throw away or use fiat as a toilet paper

[Abiky]

Absolutely they do, I've had several people tell me they no longer invest in cryptocurrency due to a bad experience, which usually revolved around them being scammed in the most obvious way—such as being scammed by a fake admin or handing over their private keys to somebody else.

I think it's always going to be one of the main barriers for cryptocurrency adoption, since the tabloids and newspapers love posting articles about how an old woman was scammed out of her life savings investing in Bitcoin or something similar.

Nothing we can do about it really.

That usually happens and there's nothing we can do about it. Mainstream media and governments have done their part in minimizing Bitcoin's reputation in the mainstream world. After all, they wouldn't want people to use an alternative financial system which provides freedom and privacy. Fiat will always be hailed as the legitimate type of currency for mainstream transactions. While scams are much more frequent in the traditional Fiat world than it's the case in crypto land, most people don't care. Decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum will always have more destructive criticism than anything else. It's up to crypto enthusiasts to do their part in spreading the word out there about Bitcoin's true benefits relative to Fiat.

As far as scams go, it's up to you to take responsibility by protecting your funds against malicious actors. If you follow the necessary security precautions to protect your Bitcoin, no one will be able to successfully scam you. People need to be better educated about Bitcoin and Blockchain technology for them to make the right decisions in crypto land. I'm sure that if most people were wary of scams, Bitcoin would've had a better reputation in the mainstream world. Legitimate use cases for the pioneer cryptocurrency will eventually counterattack destructive criticism. Let's hope that with the financial system collapsing, people will put their trust on Bitcoin as the next-generation store of value. Just my thoughts

[angrynerd88]

Certainly because it appear that more scammers presently taking the advantage of utilizing bitcoin to trick others. There are numerous programmers and scammers with bitcoin usually why clients are being cautious. In any case, still being cautious isn't sufficient since these individuals doing fraud are moreover inventive and techie that can attracted one on getting trick. Similar to for an illustration utilizing the pernicious program that may utilize to phished out vital subtle elements on wallet like private key. Like that pernicious program are those like advertisements popping or browsers expansion perhaps.

[Crptomagma]

To be more logical I will say yes to the fact that bitcoin have been abused and used by scammers to penetrate and   scam innocent bitcoin investors but that’s not a red check for bitcoin as a currency because scammers will always look for way to get their prey and extort from them. Scammers capitalize more on bitcoin because bitcoin is a decentralized currency and they believe transactions made with bitcoin can’t be traced. Nevertheless bitcoin is used by scammers just like every other currency but it’s more with bitcoin because of its digital flexibility and the walllet is controlled by the user without any permission or restrictions from the bank.

[TedMosby]

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?

based on my experience since I knew about cryptocurrency, bitconnect scam (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/) was the most influential thing to bitcoin in my bitcoin journey. it was affected bitcoin negatively in my life. every time I talked about bitcoin, people will notice it as a new MLM, scam business, member get member program, or ponzi schemed business. there are also many scam crypto lending projects that were born too, during this bitconnect era. the most popular one after bitconnect was regal coin.
with these 2 big scam project, bitcoin holders were viewed with suspicion. If you are Indonesian or from SEA countries like Vietnam or Philippines, maybe you remember these scam.
not to mention, the media that always talk about the use case of bitcoin for illegal things.

[Abiky]

based on my experience since I knew about cryptocurrency, bitconnect scam (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/) was the most influential thing to bitcoin in my bitcoin journey. it was affected bitcoin negatively in my life. every time I talked about bitcoin, people will notice it as a new MLM, scam business, member get member program, or ponzi schemed business. there are also many scam crypto lending projects that were born too, during this bitconnect era. the most popular one after bitconnect was regal coin.
with these 2 big scam project, bitcoin holders were viewed with suspicion. If you are Indonesian or from SEA countries like Vietnam or Philippines, maybe you remember these scam.
not to mention, the media that always talk about the use case of bitcoin for illegal things.

Sadly, that's the situation facing Bitcoin today. No matter if another project in the crypto/Blockchain space turns out to be a complete fraud, Bitcoin gets all of the criticism. Banks and governments have a large influence over Bitcoin's negative reputation as well, as they don't want people to stop using Fiat. As long as Bitcoin has its opponents, it'll face constant criticism by the general public.

Regardless of negative comments about Bitcoin, it has managed to stay afloat after all of these years. Remember when Mike Hearn said that Bitcoin was a "failed experiment"? Yet, it's been standing strong with an ever-growing number of people backing it every step of the way. It has even reached a new ATH in price back in 2017. The decentralized and open source nature of Bitcoin will keep it going for generations no matter what happens in the mainstream world. As far as scams are concerned, I think they can be reduced to a minimum with fierce regulations by mainstream governments. Once law enforcement begins prosecuting malicious actors in mass, we can expect scams to become the minority in the crypto/Blockchain space. Ultimately, the decision of making a research about Bitcoin lies in the person himself. Anyone can either believe what it's said about Bitcoin, or simply seek more info about it to know if negative claims are true. I wouldn't worry about Bitcoin's reputation, as long as it continues to deliver as promised. Just my opinion

[sapnu]

based on my experience since I knew about cryptocurrency, bitconnect scam (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/) was the most influential thing to bitcoin in my bitcoin journey. it was affected bitcoin negatively in my life. every time I talked about bitcoin, people will notice it as a new MLM, scam business, member get member program, or ponzi schemed business. there are also many scam crypto lending projects that were born too, during this bitconnect era. the most popular one after bitconnect was regal coin.
with these 2 big scam project, bitcoin holders were viewed with suspicion. If you are Indonesian or from SEA countries like Vietnam or Philippines, maybe you remember these scam.
not to mention, the media that always talk about the use case of bitcoin for illegal things.

Sadly, that's the situation facing Bitcoin today. No matter if another project in the crypto/Blockchain space turns out to be a complete fraud, Bitcoin gets all of the criticism. Banks and governments have a large influence over Bitcoin's negative reputation as well, as they don't want people to stop using Fiat. As long as Bitcoin has its opponents, it'll face constant criticism by the general public.

Regardless of negative comments about Bitcoin, it has managed to stay afloat after all of these years. Remember when Mike Hearn said that Bitcoin was a "failed experiment"? Yet, it's been standing strong with an ever-growing number of people backing it every step of the way. It has even reached a new ATH in price back in 2017. The decentralized and open source nature of Bitcoin will keep it going for generations no matter what happens in the mainstream world. As far as scams are concerned, I think they can be reduced to a minimum with fierce regulations by mainstream governments. Once law enforcement begins prosecuting malicious actors in mass, we can expect scams to become the minority in the crypto/Blockchain space. Ultimately, the decision of making a research about Bitcoin lies in the person himself. Anyone can either believe what it's said about Bitcoin, or simply seek more info about it to know if negative claims are true. I wouldn't worry about Bitcoin's reputation, as long as it continues to deliver as promised. Just my opinion

Obviously it does. It is quite unfortunate at some point that bitcoin had become the most famous cryptocurrency in our age because whenever a certain individual a certain scam by another cryptocurrency, without further research, as it goes public, all the blame will be given in bitcoin. Even those campaigns which involves the use of bitcoin, it will easily be put to bitcoin's reputation whenever it comes from a fraud. Nevertheless, as one of those who had the privilege to know about bitcoin, we should make sure that when we encounter a person who talks about bitcoin being a scam, let us lend some of our time and enlighten them on what bitcoin really is, through that, we won't have to worry about bitcoin's reputation going down because even just by bit, we lessen those who see it as a form of fraud.

[CLS63]

It is so frustrating to see that there are still too many scam projects. The annoying part is that we can't prevent them from coming out. For example, there has been many scam DeFi projects in the market and some of them weren't realized that they were scam for some time. This situation affects not only Bitcoin but also the market in general badly.

[Traderbtcc]

There has been a lot of scams within the crypto space over the course of its lifetime.
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?

Due to the high rate of ponzi schemes and scam projects in the crypto sphere has made most people to be weary of bitcoin, but to me that doesn't change the fact that bitcoin is the currency for the future, there will always be some bad guys who will want to take advantage of others that's why there are ponzi schemes, and I don't think all those bad reviews will affect the reputation of bitcoin, i have seen alot of anti-crypto's change into crypto lovers now, bitcoin is turning doubters into believers.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

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?

Of course it harms and will continue to harm their reputations until mainstream media finally decides to stop treating it as a special case vs the myriad of fiat-based scams.

The various news media outlets only love pointing out crypto scams because the other (fiat based) scams are just a yawn to most folks. Mention Bitcoin or other crypo coin being involved and folks notice...

[dizzy1996]

Unfortunately, fraud in general undermines the image of any asset as for bitcoin, since most people think that bitcoin is another scam and this is due to various kinds of actions, for example, there are scammers who call people and ask for their card details and then buy bitcoin through unlicensed exchangers. cardholders don't even know about it and then they say that bitcoin cheated them and there are a lot of such cases