To newcomers: make sure when you buy bitcoin you are buying bitcoin!

[pooya87]

Back in 2017 a hyped up trend started where people kept creating copies of bitcoin and called them bitcoin something (like bitcoin gold for example), sold it to newbies, pumped and dumped it a little and pocketed the money.
All of these coins are useless, weak with security flaws, without any innovation or future and only get some pump and dumps every now and then.

Among these altcoins there is a notorious one that has been scamming a lot of newcomers by telling them it is "bitcoin". This shitcoin is called "bitcoin cash" with the ticker "BCH". This altcoin is owned and controlled by centralized entities one of whom owns a high ranking website called bitcoin.com which is one of the main places that scammed newcomers a lot in the past.
They went as far as changing the name of "bitcoin" to something else while calling their own shitcoin which they sold to newbies "bitcoin". See the screenshot below:



With that background out of the way, the reason I started this topic is that as bitcoin price is going up and it gains more popularity a lot of newcomers are starting to come into this community and many of them seek to buy bitcoin.
These days I am seeing an increased activity from the same scammers who are repeating their scam all over again by trying to sell their shitcoin to newcomers by disguising it as "real bitcoin".

Be very careful who you trust and where you buy your bitcoins from.
Wallets[1] listed on bitcoin.org and exchanges[2] there are the safer options to use. Also you should always do some research into each of them before you jump in. Search the name of the exchange for feedbacks, start a new topic asking whether it is trustworthy or not, ...

[1] https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
[2] https://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges

[AB de Royse777]

Wallets[1] listed on bitcoin.org and exchanges[2] there are the safer options to use.

Regarding wallets - I would include to verify the signature that was on the individual sites against each wallet.

For example if one is choosing Electrum then it does not matter if you are downloading it from official Electrum website or going through bitcoin.org or having a copy from a friend or from any other website, always have the PGP signature and verify it against the core developer team. If verification fails then you have fake copy and do not risk yourself to install a fake copy of a bitcoin wallet client. To newcomers of course.

[Sammy9ce]

Thanks for this..  How do they even come out with that wallet...
Bitcoin- bitcoin core
Bitcoin cash- bitcoin
Scammers way...

[BlackHatCoiner]

Bitcoin.com is a big problem for bitcoin. Anyone seeing the dot com over a brand name will believe it more than the dot org. I still don't get why developers didn't buy it back in 2010 and redirect it to bitcoin.org. Right now we have 2 different "bitcoins". The original from .org and the shitcoin cash from .com.

They're so pathetic. They've named "Bitcoin" the bitcoin cash and "Bitcoin Core" the original!

[bakasabo]

Something about real bitcoin and "buying just a name" must be said also.

Before doing any purchase, check what you buy and what you will hold. For example on PayPal you don't really buy bitcoin, but you buy and hold just a name. If you buy there, you don't really have a bitcoin, because you don't have or own an address where Bitcoin is stored. You can't transfer it to other bitcoin owners address.

[Lucius]

It is logical that there can be only one original, everything else is copies that only their owners call the originals and something that is actually a real BTC. The only thing they are competitive with is the price, which is often one of the reasons why beginners buy this cheap fake BTC - and to make the problem even bigger, we have this damn page that promotes it and has a very high rank when it comes to search engines.

However, even if someone buys such a fake BTC, the thing can always be fixed by selling it - because I think that sooner or later most people must realize that something is wrong, especially if they look at the price.

I still don't get why developers didn't buy it back in 2010 and redirect it to bitcoin.org.

I think that domain changed hands several times, and it was only in 2014 that it came into the possession of Bitcoin Judas Roger Ver, and for a time it was managed by OKCoin. Unfortunately, from 2017 it serves to promote the most famous fork as a real BTC - and so it will be until the owner changes.

[tranthidung]

One of scam I learned from 2017 hype is scammers sell their bit but the buyers naively think they are buying bitcoin.  

Newbies don't know difference between bitcoin and bit as well as don't know the bitcoin units. Bit is one of bitcoin units

• Bitcoin Units (from bitcoin.it wiki)
• One bit (micro bitcoin -- μBTC) equals to 0.000001 Bitcoin
• Also the testnet abused by scammers: Bitcoin Testnet. Activate, experience it, but don't trade and get scammed.
• In 2020, I knew the shit altcoin that tries to say it is Bitcoin 2.0, namely Bitcoin Vault (BTCV)

[Japinat]

That's very misleading to newbies as some might fall for the wrong coin, and worst is if they hold it and expect that it's the real bitcoin.
I have known a lot of people that does not even understand what bitcoin is, they thought bitcoin is a ponzi because these ponzi scammers are also using the name of bitcoin, maybe not popular in the crypto space, or in this forum but in our community (real world), there's a lot of scammers trying to take advantage on greedy investors who does not even research hard what is bitcoin.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I still don't get why developers didn't buy it back in 2010 and redirect it to bitcoin.org.

The domain bitcoin.com had already been purchased by an unaffiliated entity prior to the bitcoin whitepaper being published. Roger Ver initially bought it over in 2014, long before BCash existed. He leased it out to the OKCoin exchange for a while, before turning it in to the scam site it is today after the BCash fork. He is unlikely to sell it anytime soon, as using it to scam newbies in to buying his dying shitcoin continues to make him money.

They're so pathetic. They've named "Bitcoin" the bitcoin cash and "Bitcoin Core" the original!

Not the first time and won't be the last. They know their coin can't stand on its own (lack of) merits, so their main marketing target is to disguise it as a different coin - bitcoin - which is actually useful, secure, and hasn't been successfully 51% attacked.

especially if they look at the price.

Man. I hadn't looked at the price of BCash in long time, but it is dying. The whole month of November it has just been hitting new all time lows pretty much every day. I remember selling my forked coins for almost 0.2 BTC each - now they are worth less than 0.015 BTC. That's an almost 93% decrease, and continuing to fall.

[Marvelman]

There's one thing that I can't get clear on.
Basically, nobody claims any rights to the name "Bitcoin", right? No trademarks, brands or related registrations? So anyone can make 'a new coin' and market it as "Bicoin"?
Well that sounds really awful...

[Lucius]

Man. I hadn't looked at the price of BCash in long time, but it is dying. The whole month of November it has just been hitting new all time lows pretty much every day. I remember selling my forked coins for almost 0.2 BTC each - now they are worth less than 0.015 BTC. That's an almost 93% decrease, and continuing to fall.

I remember when it was very close to the price of the original BTC, somewhere around $3000 and that was the best time to sell it - and I have to admit that I haven’t sold it yet, I almost forgot that I have it. Its current price is just under $300, but it is still in the TOP 10 according to CMC, which just means there are still those who believe in the project.

~snip~

That's right, the name Bitcoin is not protected globally, but this year one person protected it at national level in Spain. Surely the situation with all this forked BTC would be much better if the name was protected, so we can ask the question why no one did it, maybe no one could have predicted that there would be so many copies?

[Yogee]

....
Surely the situation with all this forked BTC would be much better if the name was protected, so we can ask the question why no one did it, maybe no one could have predicted that there would be so many copies?

Or the founder/s thought having a Bitcoin or bitcoin trademark is against the nature of the blockchain and coin which is supposed to be decentralized?

[sujonali1819]

There's one thing that I can't get clear on.
Basically, nobody claims any rights to the name "Bitcoin", right? No trademarks, brands or related registrations? So anyone can make 'a new coin' and market it as "Bicoin"?
Well that sounds really awful...

It's wired really. I have agreed with Lucius that maybe none think that we could see so many copy projects. Recently most of the projects are coping/targeting an old project. Now, who will take an action against it?  Bitcoin creator is now hidden. So I think none will take this action to protect the name of Bitcoin. And a lot of projects are waiting for us which is name ****Bitcoin. 

[pooya87]

There's one thing that I can't get clear on.
Basically, nobody claims any rights to the name "Bitcoin", right? No trademarks, brands or related registrations? So anyone can make 'a new coin' and market it as "Bicoin"?
Well that sounds really awful...

It's wired really. I have agreed with Lucius that maybe none think that we could see so many copy projects. Recently most of the projects are coping/targeting an old project. Now, who will take an action against it?  Bitcoin creator is now hidden. So I think none will take this action to protect the name of Bitcoin. And a lot of projects are waiting for us which is name ****Bitcoin. 

This is not new, from early days when bitcoin was created they have been copying bitcoin. The oldest standing copy coin today is called Litecoin which was copied from bitcoin (it still copies every code that bitcoin core team pushes to their repository). But in early days they used a different name and didn't copy its blockchain, also they had some new thoughts of their own (eg. LTC changed PoW algorithm, difficulty, supply for the first time) but nowadays the copycoins have nothing new.

As for the name, we can't have both decentralization and claims over the name. Even if Satoshi were still around there was nothing he could do about it since he doesn't own the Bitcoin!

[hatshepsut93]

Why no one has taken Bitcoin.com to the court over this clearly scammy behavior? I'm not a lawyer, but shouldn't there be some sort of way to argue that Bitcoin is an implicit trademark, and selling the same type of good under the same name is a serious trademark violation. Maybe Roger Ver has some legal right to say that bcash is Bitcoin, but he absolutely shouldn't be able to present it as such on his trading platform, because it causes real financial damage.

[Lucius]

As for the name, we can't have both decentralization and claims over the name. Even if Satoshi were still around there was nothing he could do about it since he doesn't own the Bitcoin!

Well, if we agree that decentralization and name protection at the global level has never been an option, what do you think of the case that happened in Spain (link in my previous post), where the name and logo of BTC is protected on national level? What are the implications there if someone now tries to abuse a Bitcoin name or logo? I guess then the person who protected the name and logo can sue anyone who in some way abuses what is protected - and what would be interesting to know in this case is how this protection affects all existing BTC forks traded in Spain?

@DdmrDdmr could perhaps have some more specific information.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

It sounds pretty much, stretching the distance, like when one purchases a domain in hope of it getting a pretty penny from someone who needs that domain later on. Probably a long shot, with no real practical echo (besides briefly appearing on the press).

I’ve looked at the case’s status here: http://consultas2.oepm.es/ceo/jsp/busqueda/consultaExterna.xhtml?numExp=M4046141

The historical shows that on the 07/07/2020, somebody opposed the brand being registered as a trademark, but was seemingly late for the deadline.
On the 11/08/2020, someone proceeded to appeal the concession, probably thorough a different legal procedure than above.

There's no more detail on the matter, but it does seems like a freak attempt to end-up making some cash (or Bitcoin).

[KingsGambet19]

What about paypal? Someone made a thread in bitcoin discussion board and told a story about his friend buying bitcoin in the platform. He was stating that it isn't real bitcoin that paypal has been selling. I want to confirm if it was true or not for there are many users here that are actually using the paypal platform. Hopefully, someone can check using their paypal accounts to verify all of this and give a feedback. Thanks!

[The-None-Above-All]

There is another big problem nobody notices, besides the bitcoin-dot-com name:

Craig Wright must be spending big on SEO. Recently I searched for some bitcoin information. (not saying search term, to not give faketoshi scammers any tips.) SERP position #2 was a page from a so called "Bitcoin Wiki" at a BSV scam site. SERP position #3 was the real Bitcoin Wiki.

I urge anyone with real SEO skills to evaluate the search engine influence of real Bitcoin sites vs scam sites

real Bitcoin vs BCH sites
real Bitcoin vs BSV sites

real Bitcoin information sitse have the problem, many are made by volunteer effort. Core developers focus on code and protocol improvements. Bitcoiners focus on talking about Bitcoin. Scammers put resources on domain names, SEO... what brings in the new money from people who don't know any better

I'm not a lawyer, but shouldn't there be some sort of way to argue that Bitcoin is an implicit trademark, and selling the same type of good under the same name is a serious trademark violation.

There is no such thing as an "implicit trademark" owned by no identifiable entity.. owned by nobody?

There's one thing that I can't get clear on.
Basically, nobody claims any rights to the name "Bitcoin", right? No trademarks, brands or related registrations? So anyone can make 'a new coin' and market it as "Bicoin"?
Well that sounds really awful...

....
Surely the situation with all this forked BTC would be much better if the name was protected, so we can ask the question why no one did it, maybe no one could have predicted that there would be so many copies?

Or the founder/s thought having a Bitcoin or bitcoin trademark is against the nature of the blockchain and coin which is supposed to be decentralized?

see:
http://cypherspace.org/CPL/

We could argue about this if it's good or bad, but I am not interested.

Someone made a thread in bitcoin discussion board and told a story about his friend buying bitcoin in the platform. He was stating that it isn't real bitcoin that paypal has been selling.

maybe he meant "not your keys, not your coins" .
I hope that's what he meant.

Paypal is offering Bitcoin (BTC) but also scam (BCH). hmm.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/palling-up-to-crypto-could-paypals-bitcoin-accommodation-lead-to-widespread-adoption

One vitally significant aspect of PayPal’s move to accommodate bitcoin is the fact that it, along with other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin cash, ether and litecoin, can now be used to shop with the firm’s 26 million merchants across the world from 2021 onward.

[CryptocurencyKing]

Lol, this is a important topic though, it seems wickedly funny! It's a good thing you thought of this and had to make emphasis on it because, a lot of persons might not know the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash. They almost assume in one instant based on any that they are approached first with to be Bitcoin. Having no prior knowledge of what bitcoin is. But there is really a difference, one is more valuable than the other. Should you @newbies & Beginners have any prior knowledge of bitcoin with regards to it's value or price, it could be a determinant for which is which.
Bitcoin is top coin with a price fluctuation around $18k currently so, when buy a coin, check its current price and from that, the relativism could be determined.