The road of crypto is paved with many scandals and frauds

It's also paved with innovation and great achievements, but sadly it's the bad ones that people remember forever.

Bitconnect was the biggest and most known Ponzi scheme in crypto. It was the most hyped and most hated at the same time, until it died in early 2018. Officially, the money did not actually come only from referrals, so I'm not sure if the term "Ponzi Scheme" actually applies, but let's just say there was a big "lack of transparency" as to how these amazing interest rates were achieved and could be maintained.

You could earn in two ways with Bitconnect:

1. By receiving 1% interest on your investment on average per day from a trading bot (which nobody had ever seen)

2. By referring other investors

1% a day does sound a bit too good to be true, doesn't it? But they paid it. For a long time. Until the day they didn't, of course.

Many people lost their money

It's incredible just how much money they lost. In the clip below, you can hear some of their accounts.

This is puzzling to me. I run into so much scepticism when I tell people about Bitcoin and crypto - understandably and rightly so - but then there seem to be thousands of other people who just jump at things without even questioning just a little bit. It's like the world is split in two camps: The people who just believe anything they're told, and the people who dismiss everything that sounds too good to be true.

What happened to the "middle ground"? Or the "calculated risk"?

I was in Bitconnect, too.

It took me a long time to decide to put some money in, because, well, it sounded to good to be true and it looked like a Ponzi scheme... But then, I don't like to judge things, unless I can back up my judgement with personal experience. There was no proper way to judge Bitconnect from the outside, because the Bitconnect world was split in two camps, too: the hypers on the inside and the haters on the outside.

So at some point I did decide to just go and see for myself. After learning that I never had to recruit anyone in order to receive my daily payouts (which would have been a big no-no for me) I walked in fully conscious and with wide open eyes :) I knew the risk, but I was also on a mission to truly gain experience in the crypto space, and that meant getting to know not only the good, but also the bad and the ugly.



So I calculated my risk and only put as much money in Bitconnect as I was prepared to lose (which is what we should do with any investment, trade or gamble). I also used money from earlier profits - so basically it didn't cost me anything.



Once I received my daily payouts, I cashed out several times a week instead of reinvesting it. With a daily return of 1%, it takes approximately 3.5 months to get your investment back. So I cashed out for 3.5 months and decided to reinvest only once I broke even. I was in my 5th month or so, when Bitconnect died.

I guess I was lucky - while I made no or very little profits, I also had no losses.

I feel sad for all the people who lost their money.

Watching the interviews in the above documentary, of course part of me wonders, "How could you do that? How could you put sooo much money in?" And if you look at the comments under the clip on Youtube you can see many people feel the same. They're just a lot more rude about it...



Whether the victims fell for people like the shady sales guy in the clip above, or for any of the affiliate marketers on Youtube - it doesn't matter. We shouldn't judge them. Yes, it was stupid to put all their life savings in it, and greedy to keep reinvesting, and gullible to put all their trust in some invisible people and a non-existing trading bot. But you know what, I bet they know that. And they're kicking themselves for it every single day.

The real predator here is our money system - our society and power structures that come with money-stress already built in. Most people are pretty much born into money worries and debt. All they crave and desire is freedom. Freedom from worrying about money, security, health, their children's safety and education. I don't blame them for wanting to believe unbelievable things. I don't blame them for hoping for their lucky break. I don't even blame them for making the huge mistake of going all in. Our school system explicitly doesn't teach us financial literacy, risk-management and how to spot and properly evaluate opportunities. Our system wants to keep us poor. So let's not judge the wrong people.



Learn to discern.

The most unfortunate thing to come out of all this, in my view, is that many people - the ones who got burned and the ones who've been watching the above clip - will now equate Bitconnect to Bitcoin and completely dismiss anything crypto related.

That is truly sad. Because this way, they will miss out again. Crypto can quite possibly be the biggest financial opportunity of our lives. But becoming an investor does take education - both in the subject matter of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, as well as in money- and risk management. It takes a lot of self-responsibility to fill the financial education gap.

It's only with proper education that you can evaluate whether something that sounds too good to be true, is indeed too good to be true, or actually true - as incredible as it sounds :) The crypto space is full of wonderful things that previously sounded too good to be true. Like posting on a platform and earning tips in cryptocurrency for it - would you have believed that a few years ago??

There will always be another Bitconnect somewhere. Don't be too gullible.

But don't be dismissive either.

Be curious, cautious and discerning.

Educate yourself, so you can stay safe in the crypto space.

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Anja Schuetz is a crypto explorer and mentor for absolute beginners, with specific focus on non-digital natives. She also consults as a Customer Communication & Operations Manager for blockchain start-ups.

Follow Anja @connecteconomy on Twitter | Youtube | Publish0x