BitConnect promoters cover their asses as site struggles with server downtime

One of the things that made BitConnect so resilient to criticism was its wide network of promoters, shamelessly shilling the company on YouTube and other social media channels. But it seems that even these “once-passionate” supporters are leaving the Bitcoin investment platform behind – though probably not for the right reasons.

Following a menacing string of cease and desist orders served to the sketchy operation, BitConnect has been experiencing a series of long windows of server downtime over the past several days.

The website claims the reason for the outage is a “continuous DDoS attack” but a notice on its site reads its team is “performing some maintenance.”

Whatever the reason, the downtime comes at a particularly ominous time for BitConnect.

Back in November last year, the company got slapped with a cease and desist letter from the UK, threatening to confiscate its assets and dissolve its operation unless further action is taken. The problem is things are only getting worse in 2018 so far.

In a matter of two weeks, BitConnect has received two more cease and desist orders – one from the Texas Securities Board and one from the North Carolina Securities Division . Both of these are targeting its main branch in the UK, as well as a few additional BitConnect registrations that appear in the British Companies House registrar .

Among other things, the orders accuse BitConnect of misrepresenting the risk involved in its investment scheme, failing to properly disclose material facts about its company and founding members, and failing to to establish a legitimate affiliate program for its promoters.

For context, BitConnect and its promoters – or affiliate marketers if you wish – have profited millions from such promo campaigns.

While long overdue, the legal action followed a slew of warnings from cryptocurrency pioneers like Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, both of whom cautioned investors that BitConnect has all signs of a Ponzi scheme .

Meanwhile, BitConnect withdrawals continue to be unavailable; still, users are allowed to invest and lend loans. Yesterday the website insisted, that following a downtime of over 50 hours, its team needs another 24 hours to enable withdrawals. This is yet to happen.

Although BitConnect promoters have in the past proven themselves quite stubborn when it comes to registering obvious red flags, it seems most of them are finding it difficult to ignore the latest heap of issues their favorite investment platform is facing.

In fact, it all but looks that many of them are abandoning ship – and perhaps for good this time around.

Among the first ones to make an exit was leading BitConnect promoter Glenn Arcaro, who has been listed as a director in the company under one of its many registrations on the British House Registrar. Interestingly, Arcaro has claimed in the past that the registration details behind his name are false. He continued to promote the company regardless.

Arcaro, who previously had numerous videos promoting the Bitcoin investment platform, has suddenly purged all footage from his YouTube channel. His “colleagues” are following his lead too, it seems.

Craig Grant, another promoter associated with BitConnect, has also stated his intention to stop promoting the company in the future – at least until it has sorted out its problems. Instead, he has now shifted his efforts to shilling initial coin offerings (ICO).

In a similar fashion, fellow promoter Trevon James – who recently suffered a mental meltdown over the possibility of going to jail for fraud – is also distancing himself from BitConnect.

CrpytoNick, a 17-year-old YouTuber promoting the dodgy Bitcoin investment platform to his almost 200,000-strong user base, is also taking a step back from BitConnect.

In a recent video titled “Is BitConnect Pulling A Exit Scam,” the 17-year-old says he should not be “considered a promoter” for the website. That is despite the fact that he’s netted over $800,000 in affiliate rewards from BitConnect. Then he goes on to show off his $60,000-worth altcoin portfolio.

Whether BitConnect is indeed approaching its last days is still difficult to tell. But given the free-falling price of Bitcoin, it seems its most trusted defenders are surely preparing for a doomsday scenario. Indeed, many had argued that the only thing keeping BitConnect afloat was the incredible bull run Bitcoin pulled back in 2017. Unfortunately, this streak appears to be coming to an end.

Needless to say, the promoters are still getting the better end of the deal – despite the fact they’ll probably take home smaller profits. The bigger losers, of course, will be the regular investors, especially those that were late to the party.

If only they had listened to Lee’s sage advice from a few months back…

[H/T @BCCPonzi ]

Iranian gov reportedly offering bounties to those who rat out illegal Bitcoin miners

The Iranian government is reportedly offering a bounty for anyone that dobs illegal Bitcoin mining businesses to the authorities.

A spokesperson from Iran‘s Energy Ministry reportedly said that anyone who outs those using subsidized electricity for cryptocurrency mining will be rewarded with up to 20 percent of the funds recovered from the miner, PressTV reports . Damages are based on how much electricity the cryptocurrency miners have used.

Energy Ministry spokesperson Mostafa Rajabi made the announcement in an interview with the IRIB News yesterday.

Rajabi said that using the national grid to mine cryptocurrencies during peak hours will be outlawed under new regulations used to calculate electricity prices.

To calculate the financial impact of Bitcoin miners on the grid, Rajabi said a baseline figure of $0.08 per KWh will be used.

According to the report, businesses that set up their own power plants for cryptocurrency miners — and meet the country’s mining regulations — will be given incentives. The national grid will be used to support these farms when renewable energy levels drop.

In June, Iranian authorities seized 1,000 Bitcoin mining machines from two abandoned factories that had been using state subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrency without a license.

In August of this year, the Iranian government ratified a bill that recognized cryptocurrency mining as a legitimate industry .

While it’s becoming clear that the Iranian government is against using subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies, mining itself is not outlawed.

The practice will be allowed inside Iran but only under certain conditions: if miners get the green light from the country ‘s industry ministry, don’t mine coins within a 30-kilometer radius of all provincial centers except for the capital Tehran and the central city of Esfahan.

What a cryptocurrency mining firm must do to obtain the go ahead from the country’s industry ministry remains unclear.

You could always go completely off-grid and hide the mining machines in a skyscraper water park .

H/T – The Block

Here’s how much ‘Bitcoin Twitter’ loves presidential candidate Andrew Yang

The hype surrounding the US presidential election in 2020 is growing palpable, and one candidate, Andrew Yang, is getting significant attention from the cryptocurrency community.

Yang, of the Democratic Party, is absolutely the favorite of internet memelords , but he isn’t the only one appealing to the blockchain crowd.

Hard Fork investigated the Twitter feeds of every confirmed presidential candidate (as well as a few rumored ones) to figure out who the cryptocurrency community prefers most.

Andrew Yang is winning over ‘Crypto Twitter’

Our analysis reviewed tweets from an exhaustive list of potentials (from Trump, to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Tulsi Gabbard – even Kanye West .)

Apart from Kanye’s infamous “decentralize” message , the data shows only three individuals have mentioned cryptocurrency or blockchain tech in some way: Andrew Yang, John Delaney, and John Kasich.

Focusing purely on tweets related to blockchain and cryptocurrency, Yang has garnered 75 percent of the interaction total, proving his effectiveness at capturing the attention of decentralized tech fans.

Most notably, Yang found traction when he opened his campaign to accept donations via Bitcoin , Ethereum, and a handful of other digital assets in July last year.

The move came in tandem with a message directly addressing the cryptocurrency community , sent during an “Ask Me Anything” Facebook session.

In it, Yang declared himself a fan of blockchain‘s “underlying technology,” and said cryptocurrency could be critical in creating a “digital-social currency.”

Yang Bucks are gonna pump Bitcoin, so let’s get this bag

The cornerstone of Yang’s appeal with the Bitcoin crowd is an apparent shared belief in the concept of “ Universal Basic Income ,” which (in this case) involves the government distributing $1,000 every month to each US citizen over the age of 18.

Yang explained this vision during a recent appearance on the wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast. The effect this had on Yang’s exposure shouldn’t be understated.

This is a chart of Yang’s Twitter following over the past year. After Yang’s JRE debut on February 12, his count more than tripled, from below 50,000 to over 188,000 today.

While “ Yang Gangers ” are not exclusively cryptocurrency fans, Bitcoiners have been quite receptive of Yang’s plan to regularly hand out free bags of money.

A popular idea is to potentially spend the free “Yang Bucks” on Bitcoin, in hope of pumping its price (which would make them even richer .)

“Amateur economists” have even made a handy infographic displaying how Yang Bucks (in combination with Bitcoin) are poised to fuel a self-sustaining economy that’s supposed to protect against “AI & robots & shit.”

Here’s what Delaney and Kasich have to say about blockchain

The presidential buzz in crypto-circles is not all about Yang (just most of it). Delaney, another Democratic candidate , has recently tweeted about blockchain twice, both times with official-sounding rhetoric.

“Chair Giancarlo’s speech at the DC Blockchain Summit sponsored by the Chamber of Digital Commerce highlights the need for tech-forward regulatory solutions,” wrote Delaney . “We want savvy leaders guiding the country on blockchain.”

He backed those comments a few days later, when he described the blockchain community’s innovation as “inspirational.”

The true crypto-wildcard is John Kasich . Towards the end of 2018, Ohio’s former governor tweeted an article from a local news source that described blockchain technology as “Internet 10.0.” (For reference, the rest of the blockchain industry is still stuck in “Web 3.0.” )

Regardless, neither Kasich or Delaney have enjoyed as much engagement as Yang. While there have been efforts to squeeze “blockchain” into social media feeds, Yang is the only one to find true success by discussing decentralization.

Seriously, Yang almost hit 300,000 Twitter interactions last month, while Kasich and Delaney currently average just 21,000.

Cryptocurrency celebs among prominent #YangGang influencers

Using social monitoring tool CrowdTangle, Hard Fork also looked into the most prominent “Yang Gang influencers.”

By analyzing tweets with #YangGang and #YangGang2020 hashtags, we’ve ranked authors by interaction volume (their influence).

Whistleblowing non-profit WikiLeaks is the sixth biggest Yang Gang influencer (not counting Yang), having earned over 4,200 interactions with Yang-infused tweets.

There is also a surprising number of established “crypto-celebs” amongst the top 100. Indeed, our data suggests blockchain think-tanker Neeraj Agrawal is the 42nd most visible Yang Gang influencer, having earned over 400 interactions with hashtagged tweets.

Popular cryptocurrency personality “ Bully ” came a few positions later (number 47), and even the ever-infamous Kevin Pham appeared on the exclusive list (he’s number 72).

Nic Carter , public blockchain investor, was number 86. We detected he received 92 interactions across a pair of choice tweets. Lawyer-slash-cryptocurrency pundit Jake Chervinsky just made the cut at number 95.

Perhaps the coolest find, though, was that Yang’s interest in Bitcoin is not recent. He actually tweeted about Bitcoin way back in 2013 , when the world’s most popular digital asset was four years old.

“I sense the bitcoin [sic] price correction will make some Fellows [sic] nervous,” he wrote, referencing an article that detailed a sudden drop in Bitcoin price (from $1,079 to $576.)

The 2020 elections are still a year-and-a-half away, but consider that Yang’s rise in popularity was incredibly sudden (and super hilarious). With so long left in the race, it’s probable the Yang Gang is yet to reach its final form, but it’s definitely wising up to its potential.

#YangGang2020