i created a bitcoin account a few days ago. from my observation, i can see another disaster about to happen just like in liberty reserve.

Some years back, liberty reserve used to be the major method of transferring money online. majorly used by forex traders, and gamblers and money launderers. yes, money launderers.

because you can sign up, fund your liberty reserve account and transfer money anonymously without any control, someone can easily use it to launder money.

one morning, we woke up to the shock, that the americans have blocked the liberty reserve website. just like that without notice. meaning that even if you have one million dollars in it, it is gone forever. there;s nothing you can do about it.

so, when i sign up for a bitcoin account with just my anonymous email and was ready to fund anonymously, i just knew that another liberty reserve disaster is about to happen.

paypal is not like that. your account is linked to your bank and there is control. paypal is legally registered but how legal is bitcoin?

bitcoin is risky, and it's even more risky than mmm

be warned!

selfemployed:
i created a bitcoin account a few days ago. from my observation, i can see another disaster about to happen just like in liberty reserve.

Some years back, liberty reserve used to be the major method of transferring money online. majorly used by forex traders, and gamblers and money launderers. yes, money launderers.

because you can sign up, fund your liberty reserve account and transfer money anonymously without any control, someone can easily use it to launder money.

one morning, we woke up to the shock, that the americans have blocked the liberty reserve website. just like that without notice. meaning that even if you have one million dollars in it, it is gone forever. there;s nothing you can do about it.

so, when i sign up for a bitcoin account with just my anonymous email and was ready to fund anonymously, i just knew that another liberty reserve disaster is about to happen.

paypal is not like that. your account is linked to your bank and there is control. paypal is legally registered but how legal is bitcoin?

bitcoin is risky, and it's even more risky than mmm

be warned!

The only similarity between LR and BTC is that they are anonymous payment system. Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system and can't be shutdown by anyone. You can only shut BTC down when shut the internet down.

Gold2Naira:


The only similarity between LR and BTC is that they are anonymous payment system. Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system and can't be shutdown by anyone. You can only shut BTC down when shut the internet down.

being able to transfer funds anonymously can encourage money laundering. one day the government will come after bitcoin users

selfemployed:


being able to transfer funds anonymously can encourage money laundering. one day the government will come after bitcoin users

Guy, no dey reason backwards, if you read about bitcoin the security features of it being decentralized gives no government such powers to shut it down.

Yes, do government not get involved in clandestine activities?

Right now, the FBI holds one of the largest bitcoin wallets, what do they do with it? Is it for paying staff salaries?

When VHS was introduced, it was for adult and shady contents yet it went mainstream with block busting movies, killing cinema in the process.

The world as we know it is passing away...

The guy na otondo, instead of him to ask professionals on how bitcoin work, he dey yarn trash.. .

Do u even know that no trusted exchanger will sell large btc for u without strict verification.. .. Check this to learn little w w w. b i t x . c o

Oga created BTC account a few days back and observed for a few minutes and concluded that BTC will go the way of LR.

Where the Bloody Hell did he pull that inference from? If you ask me, I think it's his a**.

Mr. OP, if you had framed this thread as a Q&A thread to understand more about BTC and to ask others to allay your fears about the seeming similarities between BTC and LR, then you should have learned a lot more to cure your ignorance.

But your thread just proves that you should be left alone to wallow in your echo chamber of doom.

-Lord

LordAdam:
Oga created BTC account a few days back and observed for a few minutes and concluded that BTC will go the way of LR.

Where the Bloody Hell did he pull that inference from? If you ask me, I think it's his a**.

Mr. OP, if you had framed this thread as a Q&A thread to understand more about BTC and to ask others to allay your fears about the seeming similarities between BTC and LR, then you should have learned a lot more to cure your ignorance.

But your thread just proves that you should be left alone to wallow in your echo chamber of doom.

-Lord

Yeeeh!

selfemployed:
i created a bitcoin account a few days ago. from my observation, i can see another disaster about to happen just like in liberty reserve.

Some years back, liberty reserve used to be the major method of transferring money online. majorly used by forex traders, and gamblers and money launderers. yes, money launderers.

because you can sign up, fund your liberty reserve account and transfer money anonymously without any control, someone can easily use it to launder money.

one morning, we woke up to the shock, that the americans have blocked the liberty reserve website. just like that without notice. meaning that even if you have one million dollars in it, it is gone forever. there;s nothing you can do about it.

so, when i sign up for a bitcoin account with just my anonymous email and was ready to fund anonymously, i just knew that another liberty reserve disaster is about to happen.

paypal is not like that. your account is linked to your bank and there is control. paypal is legally registered but how legal is bitcoin?

bitcoin is risky, and it's even more risky than mmm

be warned!

Ignorance is a disease i swear, you know nothing OP. May God forgive you for not pursuing Knowledge.

djlaqua91:



Ignorance is a disease i swear, you know nothing OP. May God forgive you for not pursuing Knowledge.

As if you can guarantee that bitcoin is not risky

who are the people behind it?

Do they have a license to operate as a financial institution?

I guess you also need to pursue better knowledge



Legal status and regulation
Main article: Legality of bitcoin by country
The legal status of bitcoin varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them. While some countries have explicitly allowed its use and trade, others have banned or restricted it. Likewise, various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified bitcoins differently. Regulations and bans that apply to bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.[299]

In April 2013, Steven Strauss, a Harvard public policy professor, suggested that governments could outlaw bitcoin,[300] and this possibility was mentioned again by a bitcoin investment vehicle in a July 2013 report to a regulator.[273] However, the vast majority of nations have not done so as of 2014. It is illegal in Bangladesh,[301] Bolivia,[302] Ecuador.[303]

In China in December 2013 the Chinese government declared that "bitcoin is not a currency and should not be circulated and used in the market as a currency." 'While people there are free to buy and sell it, financial institutions have been warned away'.[304]

Criminal activity
The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and the media.[34] The FBI prepared an intelligence assessment,[36] the SEC has issued a pointed warning about investment schemes using virtual currencies,[34] and the U.S. Senate held a hearing on virtual currencies in November 2013.[35]

Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods.[141][305] In 2014, researchers at the University of Kentucky found "robust evidence that computer programming enthusiasts and illegal activity drive interest in bitcoin, and find limited or no support for political and investment motives."[292]

Funding Terrorism
Bitcoin is transparent in its reporting of how much gets transferred and when, but lacks oversight about reporting suspicious activities in comparison to the regulated banking system. Bitcoin provides 'cover' to 'move money around without triggering the usual alarm bells associated with giant transfers of cash.' Jennifer Shasky Calvery, former head of the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency that fights money laundering and terrorist finance, has stated that 'powerful payment technologies could facilitate bad actors.' She stated that "What keeps me up at night when I am thinking about digital currency...the real threats out there, these days we’re thinking a lot about ISIL," Calvery said. "How they’re moving their money, and how potential US-based individuals are becoming foreign fighters: Are they moving their money, can we identify them from the movement of their money? What does it mean if they start moving their money through bitcoin? We’ve started to see some public articles suggesting that has occurred." [306]

Theft
There have been many cases of bitcoin theft.[71] One way this is accomplished involves a third party accessing the private key to a victim's bitcoin address,[307] or of an online wallet.[308] If the private key is stolen, all the bitcoins from the compromised address can be transferred. In that case, the network does not have any provisions to identify the thief, block further transactions of those stolen bitcoins, or return them to the legitimate owner.[273]

Theft also occurs at sites where bitcoins are used to purchase illicit goods. In late November 2013, an estimated $100 million in bitcoins were allegedly stolen from the online illicit goods marketplace Sheep Marketplace, which immediately closed.[309] Users tracked the coins as they were processed and converted to cash, but no funds were recovered and no culprits identified.[309] A different black market, Silk Road 2, stated that during a February 2014 hack, bitcoins valued at $2.7 million were taken from escrow accounts.[310]

Sites where users exchange bitcoins for cash or store them in "wallets" are also targets for theft. Inputs.io, an Australian wallet service, was hacked twice in October 2013 and lost more than $1 million in bitcoins.[311] In late February 2014 Mt. Gox, one of the largest virtual currency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo amid reports that bitcoins worth $350 million had been stolen.[126] Flexcoin, a bitcoin storage specialist based in Alberta, Canada, shut down on March 2014 after saying it discovered a theft of about $650,000 in bitcoins.[312] Poloniex, a digital currency exchange, reported on March 2014 that it lost bitcoins valued at around $50,000.[313] In January 2015 UK-based bitstamp, the third busiest bitcoin exchange globally, was hacked and $5 million in bitcoins were stolen.[314] February 2015 saw a Chinese exchange named BTER lose bitcoins worth nearly $2 million to hackers.[315]

A major bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was hacked and nearly 120,000 bitcoins (around $60m) was stolen in 2016. Bitfinex was forced to suspend its trading. The theft is the second largest bitcoin heist ever, dwarfed only by Mt. Gox theft in 2014. According to Forbes, "All of Bitfinex's customers,... will stand to lose money. The company has announced a haircut of 36.067% across the board."[134]

Black markets
Main article: Darknet market
A CMU researcher estimated that in 2012, 4.5% to 9% of all transactions on all exchanges in the world were for drug trades on a single dark web drugs market, Silk Road.[316] Child pornography,[317] murder-for-hire services,[318] and weapons[319] are also allegedly available on black market sites that sell in bitcoin. Due to the anonymous nature and the lack of central control on these markets, it is hard to know whether the services are real or just trying to take the bitcoins.[320]

Several deep web black markets have been shut by authorities. In October 2013 Silk Road was shut down by U.S. law enforcement[321][322][323] leading to a short-term decrease in the value of bitcoin.[324] In 2015, the founder of the site was sentenced to life in prison.[325] Alternative sites were soon available, and in early 2014 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the closure of Silk Road had little impact on the number of Australians selling drugs online, which had actually increased.[326] In early 2014, Dutch authorities closed Utopia, an online illegal goods market, and seized 900 bitcoins.[327] In late 2014, a joint police operation saw European and American authorities seize bitcoins and close 400 deep web sites including the illicit goods market Silk Road 2.0.[328] Law enforcement activity has resulted in several convictions. In December 2014, Charlie Shrem was sentenced to two years in prison for indirectly helping to send $1 million to the Silk Road drugs site,[329] and in February 2015, its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted on drugs charges and faces a life sentence.[330]

Some black market sites may seek to steal bitcoins from customers. The bitcoin community branded one site, Sheep Marketplace, as a scam when it prevented withdrawals and shut down after an alleged bitcoins theft.[331] In a separate case, escrow accounts with bitcoins belonging to patrons of a different black market were hacked in early 2014.[310]

According to the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based charity, bitcoin is used to purchase child pornography, and almost 200 such websites accept it as payment. Bitcoin isn't the sole way to purchase child pornography online, as Troels Oertling, head of the cybercrime unit at Europol, states, "Ukash and Paysafecard... have [also] been used to pay for such material." However, the Internet Watch Foundation lists around 30 sites that exclusively accept bitcoins.[317] Some of these sites have shut down, such as a deep web crowdfunding website that aimed to fund the creation of new child porn.[332][better source needed] Furthermore, hyperlinks to child porn websites have been added to the blockchain as arbitrary data can be included when a transaction is made.[333][334]

Money laundering
Bitcoins may not be ideal for money laundering because all transactions are public.[335] Authorities, including the European Banking Authority[33] the FBI,[36] and the Financial Action Task Force of the G7[336] have expressed concerns that bitcoin may be used for money laundering. In early 2014, an operator of a U.S. bitcoin exchange was arrested for money laundering.[124] A report by UK's Treasury and Home Office named "UK national risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing" (2015 October) found that, of the twelve methods examined in the report, bitcoin carries the lowest risk of being used for money laundering, with the most common money laundering method being the banks.[337]

Ponzi scheme
In a Ponzi scheme that utilized bitcoins, The Bitcoin Savings and Trust promised investors up to 7 percent weekly interest, and raised at least 700,000 bitcoins from 2011 to 2012.[338] In July 2013 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company and its founder in 2013 "with defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme involving bitcoin".[338] In September 2014 the judge fined Bitcoin Savings & Trust and its owner $40 million for operating a bitcoin Ponzi scheme.[33

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Liberty Reserve was a Costa Rica-based centralized digital currency service that billed itself as the "oldest, safest and most popular payment processor... serving millions all around a world".[1] The site had over one million users when it was shut down by the United States government. Prosecutors argued that due to lax security, alleged criminal activity largely went undetected, which ultimately led to them seizing the service.[2]

In May 2013, Liberty Reserve was shut down by United States federal prosecutors under the Patriot Act after an investigation by authorities across 17 countries. The United States charged founder Arthur Budovsky and six others with money laundering and operating an unlicensed financial transaction company. Liberty Reserve is alleged to have been used to launder more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds during its history.[3]

selfemployed:


As if you can guarantee that bitcoin is not risky

who are the people behind it?

Do they have a license to operate as a financial institution?

I guess you also need to pursue better knowledge



Legal status and regulation
Main article: Legality of bitcoin by country
The legal status of bitcoin varies substantially from country to country and is still undefined or changing in many of them. While some countries have explicitly allowed its use and trade, others have banned or restricted it. Likewise, various government agencies, departments, and courts have classified bitcoins differently. Regulations and bans that apply to bitcoin probably extend to similar cryptocurrency systems.[299]

In April 2013, Steven Strauss, a Harvard public policy professor, suggested that governments could outlaw bitcoin,[300] and this possibility was mentioned again by a bitcoin investment vehicle in a July 2013 report to a regulator.[273] However, the vast majority of nations have not done so as of 2014. It is illegal in Bangladesh,[301] Bolivia,[302] Ecuador.[303]

In China in December 2013 the Chinese government declared that "bitcoin is not a currency and should not be circulated and used in the market as a currency." 'While people there are free to buy and sell it, financial institutions have been warned away'.[304]

Criminal activity
The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and the media.[34] The FBI prepared an intelligence assessment,[36] the SEC has issued a pointed warning about investment schemes using virtual currencies,[34] and the U.S. Senate held a hearing on virtual currencies in November 2013.[35]

Several news outlets have asserted that the popularity of bitcoins hinges on the ability to use them to purchase illegal goods.[141][305] In 2014, researchers at the University of Kentucky found "robust evidence that computer programming enthusiasts and illegal activity drive interest in bitcoin, and find limited or no support for political and investment motives."[292]

Funding Terrorism
Bitcoin is transparent in its reporting of how much gets transferred and when, but lacks oversight about reporting suspicious activities in comparison to the regulated banking system. Bitcoin provides 'cover' to 'move money around without triggering the usual alarm bells associated with giant transfers of cash.' Jennifer Shasky Calvery, former head of the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency that fights money laundering and terrorist finance, has stated that 'powerful payment technologies could facilitate bad actors.' She stated that "What keeps me up at night when I am thinking about digital currency...the real threats out there, these days we’re thinking a lot about ISIL," Calvery said. "How they’re moving their money, and how potential US-based individuals are becoming foreign fighters: Are they moving their money, can we identify them from the movement of their money? What does it mean if they start moving their money through bitcoin? We’ve started to see some public articles suggesting that has occurred." [306]

Theft
There have been many cases of bitcoin theft.[71] One way this is accomplished involves a third party accessing the private key to a victim's bitcoin address,[307] or of an online wallet.[308] If the private key is stolen, all the bitcoins from the compromised address can be transferred. In that case, the network does not have any provisions to identify the thief, block further transactions of those stolen bitcoins, or return them to the legitimate owner.[273]

Theft also occurs at sites where bitcoins are used to purchase illicit goods. In late November 2013, an estimated $100 million in bitcoins were allegedly stolen from the online illicit goods marketplace Sheep Marketplace, which immediately closed.[309] Users tracked the coins as they were processed and converted to cash, but no funds were recovered and no culprits identified.[309] A different black market, Silk Road 2, stated that during a February 2014 hack, bitcoins valued at $2.7 million were taken from escrow accounts.[310]

Sites where users exchange bitcoins for cash or store them in "wallets" are also targets for theft. Inputs.io, an Australian wallet service, was hacked twice in October 2013 and lost more than $1 million in bitcoins.[311] In late February 2014 Mt. Gox, one of the largest virtual currency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo amid reports that bitcoins worth $350 million had been stolen.[126] Flexcoin, a bitcoin storage specialist based in Alberta, Canada, shut down on March 2014 after saying it discovered a theft of about $650,000 in bitcoins.[312] Poloniex, a digital currency exchange, reported on March 2014 that it lost bitcoins valued at around $50,000.[313] In January 2015 UK-based bitstamp, the third busiest bitcoin exchange globally, was hacked and $5 million in bitcoins were stolen.[314] February 2015 saw a Chinese exchange named BTER lose bitcoins worth nearly $2 million to hackers.[315]

A major bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was hacked and nearly 120,000 bitcoins (around $60m) was stolen in 2016. Bitfinex was forced to suspend its trading. The theft is the second largest bitcoin heist ever, dwarfed only by Mt. Gox theft in 2014. According to Forbes, "All of Bitfinex's customers,... will stand to lose money. The company has announced a haircut of 36.067% across the board."[134]

Black markets
Main article: Darknet market
A CMU researcher estimated that in 2012, 4.5% to 9% of all transactions on all exchanges in the world were for drug trades on a single dark web drugs market, Silk Road.[316] Child pornography,[317] murder-for-hire services,[318] and weapons[319] are also allegedly available on black market sites that sell in bitcoin. Due to the anonymous nature and the lack of central control on these markets, it is hard to know whether the services are real or just trying to take the bitcoins.[320]

Several deep web black markets have been shut by authorities. In October 2013 Silk Road was shut down by U.S. law enforcement[321][322][323] leading to a short-term decrease in the value of bitcoin.[324] In 2015, the founder of the site was sentenced to life in prison.[325] Alternative sites were soon available, and in early 2014 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the closure of Silk Road had little impact on the number of Australians selling drugs online, which had actually increased.[326] In early 2014, Dutch authorities closed Utopia, an online illegal goods market, and seized 900 bitcoins.[327] In late 2014, a joint police operation saw European and American authorities seize bitcoins and close 400 deep web sites including the illicit goods market Silk Road 2.0.[328] Law enforcement activity has resulted in several convictions. In December 2014, Charlie Shrem was sentenced to two years in prison for indirectly helping to send $1 million to the Silk Road drugs site,[329] and in February 2015, its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was convicted on drugs charges and faces a life sentence.[330]

Some black market sites may seek to steal bitcoins from customers. The bitcoin community branded one site, Sheep Marketplace, as a scam when it prevented withdrawals and shut down after an alleged bitcoins theft.[331] In a separate case, escrow accounts with bitcoins belonging to patrons of a different black market were hacked in early 2014.[310]

According to the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based charity, bitcoin is used to purchase child pornography, and almost 200 such websites accept it as payment. Bitcoin isn't the sole way to purchase child pornography online, as Troels Oertling, head of the cybercrime unit at Europol, states, "Ukash and Paysafecard... have [also] been used to pay for such material." However, the Internet Watch Foundation lists around 30 sites that exclusively accept bitcoins.[317] Some of these sites have shut down, such as a deep web crowdfunding website that aimed to fund the creation of new child porn.[332][better source needed] Furthermore, hyperlinks to child porn websites have been added to the blockchain as arbitrary data can be included when a transaction is made.[333][334]

Money laundering
Bitcoins may not be ideal for money laundering because all transactions are public.[335] Authorities, including the European Banking Authority[33] the FBI,[36] and the Financial Action Task Force of the G7[336] have expressed concerns that bitcoin may be used for money laundering. In early 2014, an operator of a U.S. bitcoin exchange was arrested for money laundering.[124] A report by UK's Treasury and Home Office named "UK national risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing" (2015 October) found that, of the twelve methods examined in the report, bitcoin carries the lowest risk of being used for money laundering, with the most common money laundering method being the banks.[337]

Ponzi scheme
In a Ponzi scheme that utilized bitcoins, The Bitcoin Savings and Trust promised investors up to 7 percent weekly interest, and raised at least 700,000 bitcoins from 2011 to 2012.[338] In July 2013 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company and its founder in 2013 "with defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme involving bitcoin".[338] In September 2014 the judge fined Bitcoin Savings & Trust and its owner $40 million for operating a bitcoin Ponzi scheme.[33

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Go and read up on Satoshi and Bitcoin investments worldwide