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Top 10 Bizarre Facts About Bitcoin

Bitcoin has fast become a global phenomenon. Since its launch in 2009, the digital currency has won the approval of young, tech-savvy investors. Unlike the dollar or the euro, there is no central government regulating Bitcoin, which has made it particularly popular among anti-authoritarians and libertarians. Elon Musk recently invested $1.5bn (£1.1bn), sending the price skyrocketing. At its peak, one Bitcoin was worth over $48,000.

But the currency has a weird side. A really weird side. Retailers sell sex toys that mirror its fluctuations in value. A co-founder of LinkedIn made a YouTube rap battle to explain its pros and cons. There was even a dodgy action movie starring Kurt Russell about money laundering. Robin Hood hackers, tricksy TikTokers, and Marxist broadcasters. Bitcoin has inspired all manner of weirdness. Here are ten bizarre facts about the contentious cryptocurrency.

Man Accidentally Throws $290 Million Into Landfill

We have all lost a bit of money through thoughtless mistakes. Who among us has not left a banknote in their jeans pocket and accidentally put it in the wash? But imagine throwing an old hard drive into landfill, then finding out it contains over $290 million (£210 million) in Bitcoin. For James Howells from Newport in South Wales, this nightmare scenario is a living reality.

Howells purchased 7,500 Bitcoins shortly after the currency’s launch in 2009. After spilling drink on his laptop, he decided to stash the hard drive away in an office drawer. Years later, Howells had “totally forgot about Bitcoin altogether,” and, in 2013, he binned the hard drive. At the time, it contained around $7.5m (£4.6m).

As you can imagine, Howells is desperate to retrieve his lost hard drive. He has even offered to pay the local council a quarter of the money for permission to excavate the site. But Newport council says this is not possible under their licensing permit. Given the cost and potential environmental damage of excavation, they refuse to do so “without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.”

‘Robin Hood’ Hackers Donate Stolen Bitcoin

In October 2020, the shadowy altruists announced that they had given $10,000 to The Water Project. The Water Project is a charity that provides clean water to sub-Saharan Africa. They also donated to Children International, but the charity declined their money on moral grounds.

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10 Amazing Facts About Bitcoin http://blockgeeks.com

“We think that it’s fair that some of the money the companies have paid will go to charity,” the group explained. “No matter how bad you think our work is, we are pleased to know that we helped changed someone’s life.

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BitCast Sex Toys

Most investors enjoy the feeling of making a profit from their financial ventures. But now, thanks to BitCast, users can derive sexual pleasure from Bitcoin.

In December 2017, Camsoda launched an online service that allows people to link their sex toys to Bitcoin. BitCast tracks the currency’s market performance and feeds the information in real-time to your vibrator. If Bitcoin suddenly increases in value, you might feel an acute surge of pleasure. But if it drops, BitcCast will tell your toy to dial down its intensity.

7 Journalist Broadcasts The Communist Manifesto Into Space

JORDAN PETERSON Perfectly Explains Why MARXISM Will ALWAYS FailWorkers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your blockchains. In March 2019, a technology journalist used Bitcoin to transmit a short extract from The Communist Manifesto into space. Jordan Pearson beamed his rabble-rousing message up into the atmosphere then back to Earth via a network of satellites.

Blockstream offers a satellite service that broadcasts Bitcoin-related information to most of the world. In 2019, the company updated that service to include messages. So Pearson decided to send a section of Marx and Engels’ famous text because, in his words, “why the hell not?”

With help from journalist Dan Williams, Pearson confirmed that Blockstream had beamed his Marxist message across the globe. As Williams explained, anyone with the right setup can send and receive satellite messages.

6 TikTok’s Misleading Trading Advice

In 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning about unsound financial advice on TikTok. The FCA alerted users to accounts using the app to push high-risk trading practices. The worry is that TikTok users, many of them young and naive, are being drawn in by get-rich-quick schemes.

Some astrologers are even getting in on the act. Among the most popular is Maren Altman, an influencer with over a million followers. Altman creates surreal content that combines unsound financial advice, horoscopes, and a “sexy, Goth, dominatrix vibe.” In a recent video, she encouraged people to invest in Bitcoin based on the positions of the planets. “Venus is crossing Bitcoin’s sun,” she explained. “The sun is crossing Bitcoin’s Jupiter, and Bitcoin’s Jupiter is still doing cute shit.”

5 Crypto, The Bitcoin-Based Crime Drama Starring Kurt Russell

CRYPTO Official Trailer (2019) Kurt Russell, Luke Hemsworth Movie HDIn 2019, Kurt Russell appeared in a strange financial crime drama based around corruption in the New York Bitcoin market. The movie, Crypto, received a tepid reception from both critics and regular viewers. Some described it as a “so-bad-its-good” tech drama. They said it reminded them of the cheesy Internet movies of The 1990s, like The Net and You’ve Got Mail.

The plot is mostly nonsense. It centers on a lucrative money-laundering scheme set up by a shadowy gang of Russian cybercriminals. And the cringe-worthy tagline—”Fear is the ultimate currency”—does the movie no favors either.

4 Larger Energy Consumption Than Argentina

Bitcoin uses more energy than the whole of Argentina, say analysts at Cambridge University. Bitcoin is created through an energy-expensive process called mining. Mining is a strange mix of puzzle-solving and verifying transactions. Both of these tasks eat up a vast amount of computer power.

In total, mining consumes 121.36 terawatt-hours of energy a year. That same amount could power every kettle in the UK for the next 27 years. Researchers say that if Bitcoin were a country, it would be in the top thirty global energy users.

The amount of energy used depends on the price of Bitcoin. As the price rises, the currency becomes more desirable. Miners are willing to burn through more electricity to get their hands on the next batch.

3 Some Say It Could Save The Porn Industry

The pornography industry is in crisis. Sex workers are increasingly struggling to put food on the table. While major platforms like PornHub generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year, some performers are expected to work for little money or the empty promise of exposure.

Some porn actors say that Bitcoin could hold the solution, but not everyone is convinced. For the last few years, Pornhub has allowed viewers to pay for content in cryptocurrency. For many sex workers, this is a key component of their online revenue. Viewers can pay their favorite performers directly over the internet. Porn actors are profiting from what they see as a more democratic way to sell their content, offering custom videos and live streams to a considerably-sized audience of customers.

But not everyone in the industry has welcomed Bitcoin with open arms. They point out that only a handful of users are prepared to pay for porn using Bitcoin. Many, they argue, are unwilling to pay at all. In 2018, a study by The Next Web found that less than one percent of Pornhub accounts paid in cryptocurrency. With MasterCard and Visa both recently parting ways with the adult platform, online payments are expected to dry up.

“There is no empathy or compassion for creators, at any level. If they are amateurs, then their porn ‘isn’t good enough to be paid for.’ If they are pros, then posting their content for free is ‘fine because they’re hoes with too much money,”’ argues Canadian performer God Ciara. “They view men who make money from porn as geniuses, but the women are just sluts with an iPhone.”

2 India’s Bitcoin Kidnappings

India has been hit by a wave of kidnappers demanding payment in Bitcoin. In December 2020, an eight-year-old boy was kidnapped in Karnataka while walking with his grandfather. They insisted that his father, a wealthy investor, pay 100 Bitcoin ($2.3m) for his son’s return.

Luckily, state police rescued the boy before his father paid. Six people were arrested. This kidnapping was the third case of attempted Bitcoin extortion to take place in the country since 2018. In Gujarat, one businessman even tried to fake his own kidnapping, hoping to scam $3m in Bitcoin.

1 LinkedIn Founder Creates Bitcoin Rap Battle

Bitcoin Rap Battle Debate: Hamilton vs. Satoshi (BITCOIN GIVEAWAY) [feat. EpicLloyd, TimDeLaGhetto]. In September 2019, Reid Hoffman released a Bitcoin-themed rap battle video on YouTube. Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, was inspired after watching the musical Hamilton. He thought hip-hop would be an excellent way to explore the “vigorous debate raging between cryptocurrency and centralized currencies.”

The video sees Alexander Hamilton go head to head with Bitcoin’s enigmatic creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The unlikely MCs throw a wild array of boasts and insults at each other. “The banks serve Wall Street. Crypto serves all streets,” Nakamoto declares. Hamilton fires back, “Untraceable money—wow, so clever. One typo in your address? Now it’s gone forever.”

Although it seems like a gimmick, Hoffman’s video neatly sums up the conflicting attitudes towards Bitcoin. The rap battle shows how stubbornly some investors reject digital currencies. But it also explains that diehard Bitcoin fans refuse to grasp the currency’s many flaws.

By: Benjamin Thomas

Source: Top 10 Bizarre Facts About Bitcoin – Listverse

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Legendary Investor Makes Sudden, ‘Psycho’ Attack On Bitcoin

Bitcoin has divided opinion since it was created a little over a decade ago, with some seeing it as a sort of digital gold, while others dismissing it as a scam or pyramid scheme.

The bitcoin price, up over 200% so far this year after a disastrous 2018, has remained highly volatile, despite some thinking bitcoin has become a safe haven asset, similar to gold.

Now, legendary investor Mark Mobius, who last year founded his own Mobius Capital Partners after some 30 years at Franklin Templeton Investments, has attacked bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, branding them ‘psycho currencies,’ and predicting their emergence will ultimately push up the price of “real, hard” assets, such as gold.

“I call them psycho currencies, because it’s a matter of faith whether you believe in bitcoin or any of the other cyber-currencies,” Mobius told Bloomberg, a financial newswire.

Earlier this year, Mobius expressed his tacit support of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, saying they fulfill “a desire among people around the world to be able to transfer money easily and confidentially,” and he expected them to be “alive and well” in the future.

Mobius, who once branded bitcoin a “real fraud,” appeared to have changed his tune on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

However, his latest comments suggest Mobius’ belief in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies extends only as far as their emergence will boost the price of gold.

“I think with the rise of [bitcoin], there’s going to be a demand for real, hard assets, and that includes gold,” he added.

Gold has recently hit a six-year high due to a sharp rise in expectations of a U.S. and global recession, looser monetary policy from the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks, and the escalating U.S. China trade war.

Earlier this month, some bitcoin and cryptocurrency traders and investors excitedly proclaimed bitcoin a so-called safe haven asset, declaring it had joined the likes of gold as a refuge from rocky or uncertain markets.

However, a sudden, sharp fall in the bitcoin price as global markets continued to slide put paid to hopes bitcoin had become a safe haven asset.

Meanwhile, Mobius said investors should be “buying [gold] at any level,” pointing to dovish moves from many of the world’s biggest central banks, including the European Central Bank and the Fed.

“Gold’s long-term prospect is up, up and up, and the reason why I say that is money supply is up, up and up,” Mobius said.

Follow me on Twitter.

Billy Bambrough

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com. Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Source: Legendary Investor Makes Sudden, ‘Psycho’ Attack On Bitcoin

Bill Harris, former PayPal CEO, discusses his op-ed on why he thinks bitcoin is a scam. »

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Former PayPal CEO Bill Harris Reveals Why He Thinks Bitcoin Is The Biggest Scam In History | CNBC

Pay Attention to These 7 Bitcoin Scams in 2018 – Anne Sraders

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Bitcoin the possible Pandora’s Box of the currency world – has never been short of controversy. Whether it be aiding the black market or scamming users out of millions, bitcoin is no stranger to the front page.

Still, the jury is out on the legality and usefulness of bitcoin – leaving it in a proverbial grey area. However, there have been several legitimate bitcoin scams that have become infamous – but, what are the top 7 bitcoin scams? And how can you avoid them?

What Is a Bitcoin Scam?

For most cases, it may be pretty obvious what a scam is – but with bitcoin, things become murkier. Bitcoin itself is an unregulated form of currency that essentially is a mere number that is only given value because of an agreement. It’s basically like a moneybag with a lock on it – the code of which is given to the recipient of the bitcoin (an analogy drawn by Forbes in 2017).

Bitcoin scams have been famously criminal and public in nature. With no bank as a middleman in exchange, things become more complicated; so hackers and con men have had a heyday.

Top 7 Bitcoin Scams

There have been (and undoubtedly will be) nearly countless bitcoin scams, but these frauds make the list of the top 7 worst bitcoin scams to date. Take note.

1. Malware Scams

Malware has long been the hallmark of many online scams. But with cryptocurrency, it poses an increased threat given the nature of the currency in and of itself.

Recently, a tech support site called Bleeping Computer issued a warning about cryptocurrency-targeting malware in hopes of saving customers from sending cryptocoins via transactions, reported Yahoo Finance.

“This type of malware, called CryptoCurrency Clipboard Hijackers, works by monitoring the Windows clipboard for cryptocurrency addresses, and if one is detected, will swap it out with an address that they control,” wrote Lawrence Abrahams, computer forensics and creator of Bleeping Computer.

The malware, CryptoCurrency Clipboard Hijackers (which reportedly manages 2.3 million bitcoin addresses) switches addresses used to transfer cryptocoin with ones the malware controls – thus transferring the coins to the scammers instead. And, according to Asia Times, even MacOS malware has been connected to malware scams involving cryptocurrency investors using trusted sites like Slack and Discord chats – coined “OSX.Dummy.”

2. Fake Bitcoin Exchanges – BitKRX

Surely one of the easiest ways to scam investors is to pose as an affiliate branch of a respectable and legitimate organization. Well, that’s exactly what scammers in the bitcoin field are doing.

South Korean scam BitKRX presented itself as a place to exchange and trade bitcoin, but was ultimately fraudulent. The fake exchange took on part of the name of the real Korean Exchange (KRX), and scammed people out of their money by posing as a respectable and legitimate cryptocurrency exchange.

BitKRX claimed to be a branch of the KRX, a creation of KOSDAQ, South Korean Futures Exchange, and South Korean Stock Exchange, according to Coin Telegraph.

BitKRX used this faux-affiliation to ensnare people to use their system. The scam was exposed in 2017.

3. Ponzi Scheme – MiningMax

“Ponzi bitcoin scam” has got to be the worst combination of words imaginable for financial gurus. And, the reality is just as bad.

Several organizations have scammed people out of millions with Ponzi schemes using bitcoins, including South Korean website MiningMax. The site, which was not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, promised to provide investors with daily ROI’s in exchange for an original investment and commission from getting others to invest (basically, a Ponzi scheme). Apparently, the site was asking people to invest $3,200 for daily ROI’s over two years, and a $200 referral commission for every personally recruited investor, reports claim.

MiningMax’s domain was privately registered in mid-2016, and had a binary compensation structure. The fraudulent crypto-currency scam was reported by affiliates, resulting in 14 arrests in Korea in December of 2017.

Korea has long been a leader in technological developments – bitcoin is no exception. However, after recent controversy, it seems as though this is changing.

“But a lot of governments are looking at this very carefully,” Yoo Byung-joon, business administration professor at Seoul National University and co-author of the 2015 research paper “Is Bitcoin a Viable E-Business?: Empirical Analysis of the Digital Currency’s Speculative Nature,” told South China Morning Post in January. “Some are even considering putting their currencies on the blockchain system. The biggest challenge facing bitcoin now is the potential for misuse, but that’s true of any new technology.”

4. Fake Bitcoin Scam – My Big Coin

A classic (but no less dubious) scam involving bitcoin and cryptocurrency is simply, well, fake currency. One such arbiter of this faux bitcoin was My Big Coin. Essentially, the site sold fake bitcoin. Plain and simple.

In early 2018, My Big Coin, a cryptocurrency scam that lured investors into sinking an alleged $6 million, was sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to a CFTC case filed in late January.

The CFTC case further details that the suit was due to “commodity fraud and misappropriation related to the ongoing solicitation of customers for a virtual currency known as My Big Coin (MBC),” further charging the scam with “misappropriating over $6 million from customers by, among other things, transferring customer funds into personal bank accounts, and using those funds for personal expenses and the purchase of luxury goods.”

Among other things, the site fraudulently claimed that the coin was being actively traded on several platforms, and even mislead investors by claiming it was also partnered with MasterCard, according to the CFTC case.

Those sued included Randall Carter, Mark Gillespie and the My Big Coin Pay, Inc.

5. ICO Scam – Bitcoin Savings and Trust and Centra Tech

Still other scammers have used ICO’s – initial coin offerings – to dupe users out of their money.

Along with the rise in blockchain-backed companies, fake ICOs became popular as a way to back these new companies. However, given the unregulated nature of bitcoin itself, the door has been wide open for fraud.

Most ICO frauds have taken place through getting investors to invest in or through fake ICO websites using faulty wallets, or by posing as real cryptocurrency-based companies.

Notably, $32 million Centra Tech garnered celebrity support (most famously from DJ Khaled), but was exposed for ICO fraud back in April of 2018, according to Fortune. The company was sued for misleading investors and lying about products, among other fraudulent activities.

The famous DJ wrote his support in a caption on Instagram back in 2017.

“I just received my titanium centra debit card. The Centra Card & Centra Wallet app is the ultimate winner in Cryptocurrency debit cards powered by CTR tokens!” Khaled wrote.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission even issued a warning in 2017 about ICO scams and faux investment opportunities, brought on by a slew of celebrities who promoted certain ICOs (like Paris Hilton and Floyd Mayweather Jr. to name a few).

“Any celebrity or other individual who promotes a virtual token or coin that is a security must disclose the nature, scope, and amount of compensation received in exchange for the promotion,” the SEC wrote in an Investor Alert in 2017. “A failure to disclose this information is a violation of the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws.”

Another example is Bitcoin Savings and Trust, which was fined $40.7 million in 2014 by the SEC for creating fake investments and using a Ponzi scheme to scam investors. According to Coin Telegraph, Trenton Shavers, the organization’s leader, allegedly scammed investors into giving him 720,000 bitcoins promising a 7% weekly interest on investments – which he then used to pay back old investors and even fill his personal bank accounts.

6. Bitcoin Gold Scam – mybtgwallet.com

Nothing catches the eye of the naïve quite like the promise of gold – bitcoin gold, of course.

That is exactly what mybtgwallet.com did to unsuspecting bitcoin investors.

According to CNN, the bitcoin gold (BTG) wallet duped investors out of $3.2 million in 2017 by promising to allow them to claim their bitcoin gold. The website allegedly used links on a legitimate website (Bitcoin Gold) to get investors to share their private keys or seeds with the scam, as this old screenshot from the website shows.

Before the scam was done, the website managers (slash scammers) was able to get their hands on $107,000 worth of bitcoin gold, $72,000 of litecoin, $30,000 of ethereum, and $3 million of bitcoin, according to CNN.

Bitcoin Gold, the site’s wallet used in the scam, began investigating shortly after, but the site remains controversial. Still, firm released a warning to bitcoin investors.

“It’s worth reminding everyone that it will never be truly safe to enter your private key or mnemonic phrase for a pre-existing wallet into any online website,” Bitcoin Gold wrote. “When you want to sweep new coins from a pre-fork wallet address, best practice is the same as after other forks: Send your old coins to a new wallet first, before you expose the private keys of the original wallet. Following this basic rule of private key management greatly reduces your risk of theft.”

7. Pump and Dump Scam

While this type of scam is certainly not relegated to just bitcoin (thank you for the education, “The Wolf of Wall Street”), a pump-and-dump scam is especially dangerous in the internet space.

The basic idea is that investors hype up (or “pump up”) a certain bitcoin – that is usually an alternative coin that is very cheap but high risk – via investor’s websites, blogs, or even Reddit, according to The Daily Dot. Once the scammers pump up a certain bitcoin enough, skyrocketing its value, they cash out and “dump” their bitcoin onto the naïve investors who bought into the bitcoin thinking it was the next big thing.

Bittrex, a popular bitcoin exchange site, released a set of guidelines to avoid bitcoin pump-and-dump scams.

While “stackin’ penny stocks” may sound like an appealing way to earn an extra buck (thanks to its glamorization by Jordan Belfort), messing in bitcoin scams is nothing to smirk at.

How to Avoid Bitcoin Scams

With the inevitable rise of bitcoin in current and coming years, it is becoming increasingly important to understand and be on the lookout for bitcoin scams that could cost you thousands.

There is no one formula to avoiding being scammed, but reading up on the latest bitcoin red flags, keeping information private, and double checking sources before investing in anything are good standard procedures that may help save you from being duped. After all, knowledge is power.

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