The Great Bitconnect Heist - Greedy, witless birdbrained users at Bitconnect overdraw their accounts - August 2017
Greedy, witless birdbrained users at Bitconnect overdraw their accounts - August 2017
I have a small amount of money $$$ invested at Bitconnect. I really and truly don't know what to think about Bitconnect but I'd seen lots of people on Youtube making money with Bitconnect so I bought a couple of the coins and lent some back to them.
I'd like to see their lending program continue to be successful but if it cannot do so I have been prepared from the outset to lose the relatively small amount of money which I invested. Moreover, aside from the chance at making a little money I was also interested in the Bitconnect lending program as a social experiment.
In any event..
on or about the 20th day of August (2017) I realized, for the first time, that when withdrawing Bitcoin at the Bitconnect.co site that it was possible to overdraw the account.
I didn't overdraw my account though. Do you want to know why? If you do, then please read the following reasons in support of not over overdrawing an account at Bitconnect (I'm sure it's impossible by now anyway) -
I just generally don't like swindling, defrauding or living a deceitful life. I'm not saying that I haven't ever done (or that I still wouldn't do) some of those things in my entire life but I am saying that I don't like it and it's dirty and it's better to live a positive, honest, productive and worthwhile life.
If you have money invested (lent) in Bitconnect then how do you figure that you can both:
As with all important decisions in life (especially financial stuff, stuff that might land you in jail and stuff that may break your heart) one should think as many (at least several) moves ahead. What will happen tomorrow if I do this today? What will happen next month if I do this today? What other obstacles will I be forced to confront later on if I do this today? How will this decision affect my loved ones?
On or about the night (late night) of August 24, 2017 or early morning (very early morning) of August 25, 2017 the Bitconnect site went down. No one was able to log into their account.
At some point during the day of August 25, 2017 Bitconnect issued a statement indicating that their site would reopen in two (2) days on August 27, 2017.
At some point during the day of August 27, 2017 (that was yesterday) the Bitconnect site was back up and many users were able to log back into their accounts and access their funds (including @nandibear!).
However, Bitconnect issued another statement on that same day (yesterday) indicating that users who had somehow previously (in the days leading up to the time that the site went down) withdrawn more money/coins than they really had would not be able to access their accounts for another number of days.
Moreover, when the said users are finally able to access their accounts (in a number of days) they will have a very limited amount of time to repay the missing money/coins.
If none of the foregoing made sense to anyone reading this post (I don't see how it wouldn't) then at very least, if nothing else, just consider the following -
You did the right thing.
I would have done the same but my reasoning is a bit different. I live my life under one philosophy best summed up in these three words: I believe in karma.
Well said @tytran, well said. I'm glad that we both did the right thing. And I absolutely and categorically advocate your philosophy and the reason why you did the right thing too.
Wow...I like your integrity. I too would have been tempted to overdraw my account. Everything said and done it is always best to do the right thing, as you said it saves you from guilt, criminal charges, regret and all the bad stuff that follows. By the way I heard bitconnect is back to normal now?
Hi @practicaleric and thanks for your kind words regarding integrity!
Yes, the Bitconnect site is back up (as of yesterday - August 27). Users who don't have overdrawn accounts are allowed to log into their accounts. However, the users who overdrew their accounts are not yet allowed to log back in.
On or about the night (late night) of August 24, 2017 or early morning (very early morning) of August 25, 2017 the Bitconnect site went down. No one was able to log into their account.
At some point during the day of August 25, 2017 Bitconnect issued a statement indicating that their site would reopen in two (2) days on August 27, 2017.
At some point during the day of August 27, 2017 (that was yesterday) the Bitconnect site was back up and many users were able to log back into their accounts and access their funds (including @nandibear!).
However, Bitconnect issued another statement on that same day (yesterday) indicating that users who had somehow previously (in the days leading up to the time that the site went down) withdrawn more money/coins than they really had would not be able to access their accounts for another number of days.
Moreover, when the said users are finally able to access their accounts (in a number of days) they will have a very limited amount of time to repay the missing money/coins.
Hi friend, I want to ask you a favour please go here and vote for me in the comments https://steemit.com/africa/@jimbojones/i-want-to-give-someone-in-africa-a-free-laptop
Hello @practicaleric I have now voted and commented in support of you at that thread! Good luck in the contest for the laptop!
Thank you for you support @nandibear, I hope I will get the laptop. Will let you know
All I can say is that I'm glad I never invested in bitconnect. I am trying to stick to steemit and bitcoin. I might get into some other coins that are being talked about on your websites. But not bitconnect. I will never buy bitconnect, espeiclaly after what recently happened with them and their website. Thanks for the informative post and I will keep checking back with your steemit posts to see what the latest news is. Stay cool Nandibear!!
That was a very entertaining and intelligent post :)
I'm still very new to bitconnect, and invested with a small amount only, like you. I'm very aware that they could run away with our money anytime. But I'm also super curious about the crypto space and like to leave nothing left un-tried-out :)
Let's see! Good luck to all of us :)
Hi @connecteconomy thank you for your kind words regarding my post!
It's fantastic that you are super curious regarding the crypto space (I know how you feel)! Thanks for the good luck and good luck to you and everyone else too!
There is a very real possibility that this "hack" was in fact committed by an insider who knew of the flaw. The site could have easily bought up cheap tokens that were dumped on other markets in order to give themselves some more capital to keep operating on.
Additionally by them coming back online and continuing to do payouts during that outage period their reputation has strengthened. People will have increased confidence in their system since the prices almost returned to what it was before the hack AND they have addressed the issue head on.
If they were going to pull an exit scam they probably would have just taken the money and ran rather than putting the site back online. Or so they want you to think :P
I'm glad someone has the intelligence to figure this out. Wow, what a cover! blame the users.
Right now a person cannot remove Bitcoin from the site.
I hear that BCC can be moved. But in my opinion, the valuable asset is not being released.
I wish more people would use some brain and not their greed in dealing with HYIP's .
Sadly it is still being reported that Bitconnect is back , bigger and better than ever.
Shame one those!
H. G.
I hope that it does come back. I still have money that I would like to recover (5.0% left from the experiment.)
I'm not sending more though!!
The whole crypto-currency space is filled with actors of unknown backgrounds, motivations and experience. There is a high level of opacity when it comes to crypto-currency businesses, so customers are simply making a leap of faith that their trust in the business is warranted. With blockchain the whole point was to build trust and reduce fraud; however, the businesses that overlay the blockchains may have built-in flaws.
Well said, @swingsleuth! You make an excellent and very valid point - "With blockchain the whole point was to build trust and reduce fraud; however, the businesses that overlay the blockchains may have built-in flaws."
New comers to crypto need to understand the difference between:
(1) the blockchains
(2) the business that now often being built over the blockchains.
While the blockchains are secure the businesses (and any programs which they may offer) may not be secure at all.
oh sir its really sad ok i ask to my friend if they know about bitconnect investment i inform you