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Author: Bob Seeman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 154
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Book Description
Almost everything else one reads about bitcoin is either utopian fantasy, wishful thinking, nonsense, marketing, technobabble, or false propaganda. Bitcoin is not a medium of exchange. It can't be because its price is too volatile. The transaction costs are too large and transaction time too slow for regular, small transactions. Only a tiny fraction of bitcoin transactions are used for legitimate real-world purchases and there are more illegitimate purchases than legitimate. Bitcoin is not a store of value. A store of value does not regularly drop 20% in one day. Bitcoin does not qualify as an "investment" since no underlying asset exists. Accurately described, bitcoin is an accounting system for a non-existent asset. Readers will remember that, in 17th Century Holland, the price of tulips rose to extraordinary heights and then collapsed. It was called Tulipmania and is the accepted term for economic bubbles built on assets of inherently little value. At least, back then, there was a legitimate, if insignificant, asset - a tulip bulb. It is irrelevant that a limit has been set on the maximum number of bitcoin. Each coin is worth zero and the total value remains zero no matter the maximum number. Any true utility of bitcoin for the tiny fraction of one percent of transactions representing legitimate purchases that are made using this new form of purported digital currency is far outweighed by the massive risk to the punters who speculate in this risky game. Credulous people are taking the bait and gambling away their life savings. Every day that this bubble is allowed to grow, thousands more innocent bystanders are drawn into a game where only the House - those operating the bitcoin gambling casino - wins. Many people are winning in the bitcoin casino, especially the big traders and whales who can manipulate the market. However, no one is looking after the average punter. Gambling is regulated in the US and throughout much of the world. Why aren't the gambling regulators stepping in to investigate bitcoin gambling? A good number of people may be starting to consider bitcoin as part of their retirement investments. In May 2021, a popular investor information service for the retail investor wrote an article entitled, "Is Bitcoin Safer for Retirement than Social Security". Some investors may even borrow to increase their bitcoin holdings, or use their bitcoin as collateral for loans. Many people could then lose a great deal of money, question the whole system, and ask "Why didn't anybody protect me?" This book is to try to protect the average person. Bitcoin is nothing more and nothing less than gambling. About the author Mr. Bob Seeman is an entrepreneur and technology, legal and business advisor. He is co-founder of RIWI Corp., a data analytics company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV: RIWI), has advised government on technology and business issues, and has been a consultant to a bitcoin technology company. He is a California attorney, electrical engineer and entrepreneur, was a Head of Strategy for Microsoft in London and a technical consultant to the European Commission. Bob previously practiced administrative law with an international law firm. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Elec. Eng.) with Honours from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from EDHEC, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of British Columbia.
Author: Bob Seeman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Get Book Here
Book Description
Almost everything else one reads about bitcoin is either utopian fantasy, wishful thinking, nonsense, marketing, technobabble, or false propaganda. Bitcoin is not a medium of exchange. It can't be because its price is too volatile. The transaction costs are too large and transaction time too slow for regular, small transactions. Only a tiny fraction of bitcoin transactions are used for legitimate real-world purchases and there are more illegitimate purchases than legitimate. Bitcoin is not a store of value. A store of value does not regularly drop 20% in one day. Bitcoin does not qualify as an "investment" since no underlying asset exists. Accurately described, bitcoin is an accounting system for a non-existent asset. Readers will remember that, in 17th Century Holland, the price of tulips rose to extraordinary heights and then collapsed. It was called Tulipmania and is the accepted term for economic bubbles built on assets of inherently little value. At least, back then, there was a legitimate, if insignificant, asset - a tulip bulb. It is irrelevant that a limit has been set on the maximum number of bitcoin. Each coin is worth zero and the total value remains zero no matter the maximum number. Any true utility of bitcoin for the tiny fraction of one percent of transactions representing legitimate purchases that are made using this new form of purported digital currency is far outweighed by the massive risk to the punters who speculate in this risky game. Credulous people are taking the bait and gambling away their life savings. Every day that this bubble is allowed to grow, thousands more innocent bystanders are drawn into a game where only the House - those operating the bitcoin gambling casino - wins. Many people are winning in the bitcoin casino, especially the big traders and whales who can manipulate the market. However, no one is looking after the average punter. Gambling is regulated in the US and throughout much of the world. Why aren't the gambling regulators stepping in to investigate bitcoin gambling? A good number of people may be starting to consider bitcoin as part of their retirement investments. In May 2021, a popular investor information service for the retail investor wrote an article entitled, "Is Bitcoin Safer for Retirement than Social Security". Some investors may even borrow to increase their bitcoin holdings, or use their bitcoin as collateral for loans. Many people could then lose a great deal of money, question the whole system, and ask "Why didn't anybody protect me?" This book is to try to protect the average person. Bitcoin is nothing more and nothing less than gambling. About the author Mr. Bob Seeman is an entrepreneur and technology, legal and business advisor. He is co-founder of RIWI Corp., a data analytics company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV: RIWI), has advised government on technology and business issues, and has been a consultant to a bitcoin technology company. He is a California attorney, electrical engineer and entrepreneur, was a Head of Strategy for Microsoft in London and a technical consultant to the European Commission. Bob previously practiced administrative law with an international law firm. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Elec. Eng.) with Honours from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from EDHEC, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of British Columbia.
Author: Shaen Corbet
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311071857X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
This handbook focuses on the key issues that continue to hinder the formal development of cryptocurrencies as a mainstream financial asset. It primarily examines reputationally damaging events, particularly those related to illicit behavior. The goal of the handbook is to determine whether some of these events could be mitigated by improved or at least coordinated international regulation. The handbook will be useful for specialist technical audiences such as legal, accounting and financial practices. It will also be beneficial for upper level masters and research students in economics, law, accounting, taxation, investment and portfolio management.
Author: Jamie Bartlett
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0306829185
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
175 countries, four billion dollars, one scam: the thrilling rise and fall of the biggest cryptocurrency con in history and the woman behind it all In 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a financial revolution. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin would not only earn its investors untold fortunes; it would change the world. By March 2017, more than $4 billion had been invested in OneCoin in countries all around the world. But by October 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed. Fortune was left asking, “Is OneCoin the biggest financial fraud in history?” In The Missing Cryptoqueen, acclaimed tech journalist Jamie Bartlett tells the story he began in his smash hit BBC podcast, entering the murky worlds of little-regulated cryptocurrencies and multilevel marketing schemes. Through a globe-crossing investigation into the criminal underworlds, corrupt governments, and the super-rich, he reveals a very modern tale of intrigue, techno-hype and herd madness that allowed OneCoin to become a million-person pyramid scheme—where, at the top, investors were making millions and, at the bottom, people were putting their livelihoods at risk. It’s the inside story of the smartest and biggest scam of the 21st Century—and the genius behind it, who is still on the run.
Author: David Gerard
Publisher: David Gerard
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News
Author: Roger Svensson
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 179
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Book Description
"There is little doubt that members of the cryptocurrency community have all the hallmarks of cult followers. For cult members wishing to be deprogrammed, as well as those seeking sound information and analysis, Bitcoin: Unlicensed Gambling is a most edifying and useful read." - Prof. Steve H. Hanke, founder and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise, and a senior fellow and the director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute. Promoters claim that bitcoin is a new type of money, reduces transactions costs by abandoning intermediaries and will become a safe asset that they call "digital gold". In this book, we dissect these claims and explain what bitcoin really is. Economic theory states that money should reduce transaction costs for payments, loans, and relative valuations, which requires a stable value. We show that the extreme price volatility and the high transaction costs - especially the time component - make bitcoin almost useless as money. Bitcoin increases, instead of reduces, transactions costs. Furthermore, an intermediary exists - the miner - who charges a transaction fee. The fundamental value of assets is based on their cash flow or utility, which applies for shares, bonds, real estate, and intellectual property. Gold is the best-known store of value and a hedge against financial crisis and inflation. Bitcoin has no cash flow or utility, and statistics show that it is no hedge against anything. It is, in fact, pro-cyclical and its crashes of 50 % in 2018 and 2021 are unmatched by any of the main fiat currencies in the last 50 years. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and is not anything at all like digital gold. Bitcoin is an open Ponzi scheme. The Ponzi is "open" since it is public knowledge that there are no assets at all backing a bitcoin. To the promoters of bitcoin, the lack of assets is "a feature and not a bug." The main function of the bitcoin network is simply unlicensed gambling, where new players redeem those who entered earlier. It is a zero-sum game. Finally, the bitcoin system has no responsible issuer. So, if the system breaks down, holders have nobody from whom to claim - or to whom to assign blame. Although bitcoin is nothing other than a public and decentralized ledger of accounts and transactions, the bitcoin network and its promoters have been very successful in increasing the market value of a bitcoin from 10 to 30,000 USD in 10 years. Promoters of bitcoin use methods that include: 1) distracting investors from which functions bitcoin has or does not have; 2) directing attention to irrelevant technobabble; and 3) manipulating trade and prices in the bitcoin market. Marketing of a strong brand and visual illusions in the form of physical glittering coins make the impression that bitcoin is something valuable. But we show that it is not. The average investor is succumbing to these successful methods and risks their house, savings, and pension. We show that bitcoin is also used for criminal activities such as ransomware payments, tax evasion, and money laundering. The bitcoin network consumes vast amounts of electricity and critical advanced computer chips, which consumption creates negative externalities in the form of higher prices and shortages in other sectors. With no fundamental function, not even providing governments with tax revenue specifically due from the unlicensed gambling that bitcoin really is, bitcoin's actual value for society is negative. We propose that, before there is more damage to the public, government gambling regulators immediately enforce existing regulations and take action to investigate those who operate the bitcoin network.
Author: Jennifer Robertson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1443463914
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 259
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Book Description
She met the man of her dreams and suddenly had it all. Then, in one fateful night, she lost everything, and the nightmare began Jennifer Robertson was working hard to build a life for herself from the ashes of her first marriage. Still only twenty-six, she swiped right on a dating app and met Gerry Cotten, a man she would not normally have considered—too young and not her type—but found she’d met her match. Eccentric but funny and kind, Cotten turned out to be a bitcoin wizard who quickly amassed substantial wealth through his company, Quadriga. The couple travelled the world, first class all the way, while Cotten worked on his multitude of encrypted laptops. Then, while the couple was on their honeymoon in India, opening an orphanage in their name, Gerry fell ill and died in a matter of hours. Jennifer was consumed by grief and guilt, but that was only the beginning. It turned out that Gerry owed $250 million to Quadriga customers, and all the passwords to his encrypted virtual vaults, hidden on his many laptops, had died with him. Jennifer was left with more than one hundred thousand investors looking for their money, and questions, suspicions and accusations spiralling dangerously out of control. The Quadriga scandal touched off major investment and criminal investigations, not to mention Internet rumours circulating on dark message boards, including claims that Gerry had faked his own death and that his wife was the real mastermind behind a sophisticated sting operation. While Jennifer waited for a dead man’s switch e-mail that would probably never come, it became clear that Cotten had gambled away about $100 million of the funds entrusted to him for investment in his many schemes, leaving Robertson holding the bag. Bitcoin Widow is Catch Me If You Can meets a widow betrayed, a life of fairy-tale romance and private jets torched by duplicity, as Jennifer Robertson tries to reset her life in the wake of one of the biggest investment scandals of the digital age.
Author: Alastair Dorsett
Publisher: Alastair Dorsett
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 83
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Book Description
Are you curious about whether you should be investing in cryptocurrencies? There are over 4000 cryptocurrencies in existence, so how do you know where to start? Or whether you should start at all? Even if you have already invested in cryptocurrencies or you are just thinking about it, you need to know what the facts are. You want to make the best investment decision you can, separated from the social media hype. Cryptocurrencies: Ponzi Schemes, Bubbles and Bitcoin presents an independent viewpoint and considers the facts behind cryptocurrencies, their utility and suitability as investments. There are risks involved with investing your hard earned money into cryptocurrencies. The rosy picture painted in popular culture doesn’t always reflect the reality that exists beneath the surface. Don’t fall victim to the Ponzi schemes and speculative bubbles. Arm yourself with the knowledge to avoid the scams and make the best decisions you can. Cryptocurrencies: Ponzi Schemes, Bubbles and Bitcoin considers: The most notorious Ponzi schemes and their similarities to cryptocurrencies The difference between currencies and cryptocurrencies Common myths about cryptocurrencies. Separating facts from fiction. Common cryptocurrency investment scams The biggest market bubbles of the past and how they relate to the cryptocurrency market How it could come to an end Look beneath the surface into the world of cryptocurrency investing. Ponzi schemes will be exposed, market bubbles will be popped and the “get rich quick” promises will be torn apart. Don't get caught up in the hype, read Cryptocurrencies: Ponzi Schemes, Bubbles and Bitcoin!
Author: Erica Stanford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781398600683
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Uncover the scandals and scams that have rocked the cryptocurrency world and learn how it also could bring positive change for banking and the global economy.
Author: Katherine M. Skiba
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
A female embedded journalist in Iraq shares a riveting memoir that provides a vivid you-are-there account of her experiences with the Army's legendary 101st Airborne, the division celebrated for its heroism in World War II as the "Band of Brothers."
Author: Andy Greenberg
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385548109
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis) Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money. But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could uncover an entire world of wrongdoing. Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak, a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur, and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet. Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?
