Bitconnect The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

After reading many articles on Reddit and Steemit, I feel like I should shed some light on what Bitconnect is. So let’s start off with the main question, is it a scam? Personally I think it could eventually turn into scam. Keyword being “could”. Don’t be surprised when one day you type in their link, and end up with a blank page. That said, it is a high risk investment; but that doesn’t mean that I’m not invested in it, since there are still ways to make money off of it. I would like to say “Just ride the wave,” but you’ll have to know when to pull out. Last year, the ICO price of Bitconnect coin was below a dollar and today it has reached $100+. If you bought the coin when it was still at the ICO stage and actually believed in the project, you my friend are a smart man. Especially if you held onto it until it reached $100. Let’s move onto the detailed review and what Bitconnect promises. I will only be looking at the lending aspect of Bitconnect, and not the staking.

1. Volatility Software
   I’ve seen a lot of YouTuber’s giving their thoughts on the volatility software since the only information bitconnect has actually given us about the software, is that it exists. What some YouTuber’s are saying is that the fluctuation in the market (movement in the price of BTC either up or down) is what determines the rate of interest for that day. The more movement in the market, the higher the interest you will receive. I personally have no clue how the software works,so although this may seem true, I still have my doubts. I have done some research about the software but came up with next to nothing. Many high level investors have “supposedly” seen the software behind closed doors. However, they were not allowed to film, so they have no actual evidence, but they do say it exists. If you are one of those people who ‘don’t believe it till you see it’ then you’re out of luck. Keep in mind, that the average interest over the last 30 days have been 0.94% without bonuses, so close to 1%. It is possible that a bot averages 1% a day, but it’s highly unlikely it can be doing that every day. At the end of the day, we all have the same information about the bot and were all going to have different opinions, but personally I think it might be possible.
   *Update: Top investors have said that they actually hold back over 50% of the interest they make on good days so that they can spread it out throughout the month. So if they made 5% interest today they don’t actually give you that 5% but rather give 1.5% and spread the rest of the percentage to the other days where there is close to no movement in the market. This isn’t necessarily something bad, because they still try to deliver what they promised, which is close to 1% monthly.
   **Update: A member of the Bitconnect team has said that they will never actually release proof of the Volatility Software due to privacy reasons, but that they might give more information about it when they add more cryptocurrencies into Bitconnect and improve the software.

2. Bitconnect Coin Price
   It is also important to keep in mind that they “Bitconnect” actually own 1.7million Bitconnect coins, so you never know if they are manipulating the market with it, or just cashing it out pay people off, that's just speculation though as there is no evidence. Something people need to understand, is that every time you lend (let’s say $10,000) that ammount of Bitconnect coin is actually being locked up. This means that the number of Bitconnect coin available for circulation decreases. this could be a reason why the Bittconnect’s coin price increased so fast. The more lending that takes place, the more bitconnect coin will be locked up. Then again it can also be manipulation of the market since they own 1.7 million coins.
   Bitconnect also promised that the coin was going to be listed on multiple exchanges, such as Poloniex and Bittrex. However, when asked about it during an August interview, they actually threw the ball at the exchanges, and said that for some reason they weren’t allowing the coin to be listed. The member then went on to speculate that it might have been due to the fact that they have an investment platform, along with Bitconnect coin.

3. Bitconnect Coin Lending, Profits, and Interest
   This is where Bitconnect’s lending gets interesting. As you can see the more you invest, the more bonuses you get. I have been investing in the 4th tier, so I receive 0.25% bonus every single day. This means that even on days where the daily interest is 0% I get a 0.25% bonus which is amazing because it means there will literally never be a day where you are making nothing. Every single day you will be making at least 25 dollars. One aspect about the lending is the days your capital investment will be locked in for. With the 4th tier your money is locked in for 120 days which is roughly 4 months. The shorter the amount of days, the better it is for you. Because again, the site could just disappear. This may seem too good to be true but from someone who actually put over 10k into Bitconnect I have cashed out multiple times. Yes it is possible to cash out, but I personally think it’s a smart idea not too.
   *Update: The Bitconnect team has actually confirmed that they are working with Visa and other card providers to create a Smartcard that will allow you to spend the money directly from your lending wallet. The complete news about this will supposedly be revealed towards the end of October.

4. Compounding Interest
   Let me start off this section with a quote from Einstein “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it”. I’ve seen a few people say that they are only making a $100 a day from their original investment and that they could have made more in 120 days if they had just put that into BTC, ETH, or LTC. Yes this is true because if you were to invest in another coin you could have potentially made more. However, the one problem is that most people that are on Bitconnect and are lending, are compounding their money. Now I’m not going to sit here and explain compound interest. You have Mr. Google for that. You need to realize that potentially if you compound initial profits with your $10,000 investment, you can potentially make $500-$700 daily, compared to the $100 dollars you would be making if you didn’t compound your interest. Now just because I said this doesn’t mean you should just go and invest all you money and compound each time. You need to understand a few things before you do. When you compound, you are ‘reinvesting’ your profits, (I will continue to use the $10,000 example). Every time you reinvest, you are essentially creating a new lend, so if I made 1% today ( around $100) I can take that money and reinvest it, and my new lend will fall into tier 1 which is the 299 day hold (which provides no bonus). Not only are you not receiving the bonus, but your money is locked in for even longer. That’s why it is better to let that money accumulate until you've made the $1,000 barrier, so you can receive a bonus. Plus your money is locked in for a shorter amount of time. At this point some of you might say “then why don’t I just let it sit till it hits $5,000 and reinvest then since that will give me a higher bonus, and less days”. The problem with this, is that, mathematically it is more beneficial for you to invest every time it hits $1,000. Eventually it will get to a point where yes, it is better to wait till it hits $5,000, and so on, until it will be more beneficial to wait until it hits $10,000. I can help you with this if you are interested, as I have already created an excel sheet for myself, and can share it with you. Compound interest when lending on Bitconnect is the key to maximize your income, but there is one thing you need to consider, which is the amount of days your ‘reinvestment’ has been locked into as all of these “reinvestment” are technically new lends. For example, if I had started lending on September 12th, with $10,000 and made $1,000 in interest by Sept 20th (8 days) and decided to reinvest that money. Keep in mind that the release date for your $10,000 initial investment will be different from your reinvestment of your profits. The release date of your initial 10K investment will be January 10, 2018 (120 days) whereas the date of release for your 1k investment will be May 17, 2018 (239 days) as it falls into tier 2. I hope I explained this topic in the simplest way possible, if you have any questions my information will be at the bottom of this document.

5. Bitconnect Shadiness
   As I said before I honestly can’t tell you that I truly trust Bitconnect and I have also mentioned that it is a high risk investment. Now moving on from that mini disclaimer I just gave you I feel like the company as a whole is very secretive. For example, these top investors. How do you become classified as top investors? what are the requirements? can anyone become one? I emailed the Bitconnect team a month ago, and have still not received a reply about how to qualify for the meetings and ceremonies that they hold in Asia. I also watched a few YouTube promoters say that it’s open source, and that you can find the code for it on GitHub but their information is questionable at best. I quote a top promoter who went to their closed meetings “30% of the code is not released and they won’t release it” now you can sit here and tell me well “70% is released what more do you want? the whole thing? blah blah blah”. Yes, I want the whole thing as I’m potentially going to invest $10,000, and would prefer if they were as transparent as possible. Hell, they should be clear as Evian Water (I am not sponsored by Evian) now moving on. Apparently Bitconnect had their address listed as The Panorama Park Street Ashford England TN24 8EZ. This Youtuber “CryptoCam Channel” actually called the address and you can watch what happened in the phone call here

. Now after this I was like yeah this is a scam and no way am I investing, but then I came across this comment by Mike Lucks. Who said the following.
After doing some research I know understand this is commonplace for most big businesses. Now I am not saying that it’s safe, and normal. I still consider it a shady business, and like I said, I don’t fully trust Bitconnect. Also about their so called offices in Asia, I have personally never been to any, and supposedly the locations are hidden as I could not find any address on any of their sites. I did however find a video of a Youtuber revealing their office in Vietnam and I am currently in touch with the said location to see if they truly do have an office or not. I will keep you readers in the loop by constantly updating the news I find. Now all of this being said there is some positive news. Apparently Bitconnect held an event in Australia with 60 people, and the door sponsors were Pacific Jaguar Land Rover and Wayne Connell and his team. I can’t verify if this meeting actually happened but this information was obtained directly from their site. Their site also says that they will have more events in the future. There is also news circulating that they will be in Silicon Valley for the blockchain expo which I will try to attend to speak with representatives for more information about the company.

6- Referral
Bitconnect has actually changed their policy and it’s a 7 layer referral program perfectly explained by the diagram below. I feel like another reason for people being very skeptical about it is the fact that the referral program is just very generous. 7% is actually a very high percentage. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it. I thought it was 0.7%. I personally have never referred anyone to bitconnect. I’m sure most of you won’t believe me when I say this, but it’s the truth. After writing this article I have decided that I should take advantage of this but also help the people who are investing. I will give you back 75% what I make by referring you no matter your initial investment is. The reason I’m taking the 25% is just for the time I spent writing this article and for future articles. I hope you guys understand.

Conclusion
I feel like it has the potential to be a scam so you should be the judge of whether you want to invest. You can lose the money you invest overnight, and that is a decision you have to make. The money I have invested into Bitconnect I am ready to lose. If it goes sideways and overnight it shuts down and my money is gone, I will be sad, but I took the risk of investing that money after knowing all these facts, so I am prepared. I still advise many of you to do your own research, and not to take my word as any investment advice. I also may have gotten some of the information wrong, if I have please inform me so that I can make the necessary changes. I may have also missed certain areas that people still have questions about so feel free to email me or comment below so that I can answer the questions you have.

If you guys feel like donating here is my Ethereum Address:
0x82933A4E514F1CAFb314c1379ea4d30e05378bE9

Also after reading the article if you decide to invest use my referral code and I will give you back 75% back of what I make off referring you.
https://bitconnect.co/?ref=CryptoOttoman
If you guys want more in depth review of other lending programs or coins similar to Bitconnect please let me know either by commenting or emailing me at [email protected]