Daily Archives: September 8, 2021

Saifedean Ammous and Peter St. Onge, in my opinion, are the thought leaders on the macroeconomic effects of adopting a bitcoin standard. The Austrian school of economics tends to shy away from making specific predictions and rather focuses on theory and grand outcomes. Mainstream fiat economists, who do tend to make these predictions which are consistently inaccurate dont understand bitcoin or its value proposition and thus only produce cringe-inducing views such as this.

This leaves a gleaming gap of confusion and uncertainty about what will happen as the world transitions from using fiat currency to adopting bitcoin.

This article will try to fill in that gap, to sketch a picture for the reader of what is possible and what is probable for our economic future on Earth.

I am not of the opinion that there is a major depression looming or that the world economy will at some point collapse, but I rather envision a long period of transition, or realignment. There already exists a parallel economy of people living and transacting only in bitcoin. This bitcoin economy will grow while the fiat economy will gradually become smaller as time passes and people transition.

Bitcoin adoption will be brought about not by the public choosing to pay with bitcoin, but rather by producers and sellers preferring to be paid in bitcoin and thus incentivising customers to use it. Expect to see discounts for paying in bitcoin and sellers accepting only bitcoin.

This is not to say that there will not be turmoil. The fiat system has injected (2008) and re-injected (2020) the world economy with cheap money, causing malinvestment. At some point, there will be a large correction, or corrections a market crash.. When this will happen is impossible to predict. According to Austrian Business Cycle Theory, the longer it takes for the correction to occur, the more capital is malinvested and the more drastic the correction will be.

This will not draw a large part of the economy into bitcoin immediately. The BTC price might even initially fall as everyone panic sells everything. Central banks and governments will not simply roll over and submit defeat. There will be more money printing, stricter laws and higher tax rates, etc.

Hyperinflation will occur in some areas, but remember that bitcoin is right there to be used as a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe did not have this luxury. They had to go back to a barter system and this is what decimated their economy as everything came to a standstill. Venezuela appears to be slowly getting into bitcoin and things there seem to have gone better than originally anticipated. They also didnt have a functioning bitcoin Lightning Network, which we already have today.

Some jurisdictions will choose to ban, outlaw, or heavily tax bitcoin, making it harder but not impossible for people in such a jurisdiction to transact in it. Productive people will slowly move from those areas to the areas that freely accept or embrace bitcoin, and these areas will flourish. Eventually, the areas who chose to go against bitcoin adoption will either have to start accepting it, or be turned into an unproductive wasteland as they are outperformed by the rest of the world. Imagine a region such as the U.S.S.R. eventually having to submit to a form of capitalism.

As has been happening for the last 10 years, whoever chooses to adopt the bitcoin standard earlier, will be wealthier compared to later adopters. This will become more evident as time passes. There will be individuals and institutions who refuse adoption for decades, eventually living in non-bitcoin enclaves.

The transfer of wealth will be significant, but probably not as spectacular as many bitcoin maximalists imagine. Real wealth is kept in assets, such as property, machinery, knowledge, goods, resources. Bitcoin adoption will not destroy this wealth; the prices of these will simply be denominated in bitcoin instead of fiat. This includes stocks.

Companies and industries that produce real-world value will flourish, such as The mining, manufacturing, technology, distribution, retail, etc, industries. Their share prices will take a hit when the correction(s) happen, but this has nothing to do with bitcoin. At this stage markets are overvalued when compared to historical data, and prices should readjust in the future.

One sector that will go through a massive transformation is banking. It is worth taking a closer look at what could happen in this space under a Bbitcoin standard.

It would be fair to argue that banking will be reduced to what it was under the gold standard. Banking is simply a dignified form of money lending, the banker having the advantage that the money which he lends is not his own but other peoples. It has been deposited with him for the sake of interest that he pays on it. The bankers business is to lend this money out again at higher rates of interest than he pays for it, pocketing the difference as a reward.

Banks perform an important and significant role in society. It is through their agency that capital is transferred from those who cannot or will not employ it in industry, to those who can. In this way, a banker increases not the total amount of capital in existence, but the total amount available for production. This is an important service for which the bank deserves to be paid.

Under a bitcoin standard, the income and value of banks will be largely reduced to whatever the market will be willing to pay for the above-mentioned service. Note that under the gold standard, the public paid a fee to the bank for the safekeeping of their capital. Because it is safer for an individual to secure her bitcoin herself rather than entrust it to a third party, banks or whoever will perform the capital distribution function will have to incentivise depositors in order to obtain their bitcoin deposits.

Who knows what novel capital distribution methods the free market will come up with when innovators are allowed to innovate in this space?

Whatever happens, in the long run, banking stocks will inevitably lose value in real terms as the space they are practising in with their regulation-laden oligarchies becomes smaller. Some banks may innovate and thrive the free market might even allow for some form of fractional reserve bitcoin banking if the risk appetite exists. But under the bitcoin standard, there will not be free money being handed out to the connected few.

Disclosure: I adhere to the Misesian view which follows that inflation is the increase in total money supply in the economy. Deflation would be the decrease in money supply. If the total money supply in an economy is suddenly reduced from previous levels, I wholly agree that this could and probably always will have devastating effects. This phenomenon should not be confused with a monetary units increase in value when compared to economic goods, which is also termed deflation, but will have many positive effects on the economy and on society.

Lets assume for a second it is the year 2035 and bitcoin is the worlds most widely-used currency. What could we expect inflation and interest rates to be?

Total value or market cap of bitcoin: I have zero doubt that BTC will eventually reach $10 million per coin. The problem is that at that stage a coffee might cost $5000, as the value of the U.S. dollar would be close to zero in todays terms. Thus, calculating the value of bitcoin in terms of future U.S. dollar prices is a futile exercise. Yes, when measured in U.S. dollars, bitcoins potential value really is /21m.

Predicting what the purchasing power of bitcoin against goods and services would be, and expressing that as a number in terms of U.S. dollar value today, is a far more complex and debatable topic,on which you will break your brain many times over trying to solve. I will attempt to discuss this in a future article.

Once the price of bitcoin stabilizes and is widely used as the worlds premier unit of account, a period of semi-permanent deflation (in bitcoin terms) will set in. That is, the value of your currency will appreciate when compared to goods and services. This will happen not because the total amount of currency is reduced but because the total amount of purchasable goods will increase compared to the total amount of currency in existence, and also because of technological advances that will cause goods to become more affordable. It is important to note that this is and was the natural state of the world, before governments and banks started to f*ck with your money.

Interest rates will be determined by the free market. Whatever rate a lender and borrower agree upon will be the rate paid.

Interest rates can be viewed as the cost of capital. On the free market, this has historically been between 3% and 6% per year. How does this all fit in with the deflation though? Lets assume an entrepreneur in the future wants to borrow bitcoin for a new project. He will find a willing lender probably through DeFi or some form of a bank and borrow the bitcoin at an agreed-upon interest rate. Lets say its 4%. If the entrepreneur expects that deflation will take place during the period of the loan, he will simply add the expected deflation to his cost of capital calculation.

Interest rate: 4%

Expected Deflation: 2%

Total cost of capital per annum: 6%

This will not decentivise the economy from growing or entrepreneurs from borrowing. Under the fiat standard, we have seen interest rates go up to 15% or much higher in some places, even when deducting the rate of inflation.

What will be drastically reduced is the fee that the middle man takes for arranging the loan, as discussed before. This is what we know today as the difference between the repo and prime rates. On a free market, whoever offers the lowest fee for arranging the transaction will outcompete the others, and with modern technology, this fee should be negligible.

Under a bitcoin standard and with modern innovation, the distribution of capital would be much more efficient, as someone in Africa for example, would be able to borrow from someone in Europe or the U.S.A. at the same rate as others. This will cause world-wide competition for capital and whoever is most efficient in allocating that capital will thrive.

This brings me to what I consider the single most beneficial aspect which a bitcoin standard brings to the world. Enabling free trade between those who choose to use it. The very fact that two parties choose to trade with each other willingly, implies that both parties benefit from the transaction. The more such trade happens, the better off everyone involved is. Being able to easily, instantly and cheaply pay anyone around the globe will enable more trade to take place, especially on the ground level for people who were previously unbanked.

I hope that reading this has opened your mind to the possibility of a prosperous and peaceful transition to the bitcoin standard. In the long run, the natural laws of society and economics will play out. What works and what does not work for society will become more and more evident.

May the best currency win.

This is a guest post by Handre van Heerden. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Bitcoin: The Future Of Money And The World Economy - Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin enthusiasts, miners, and oil & gas execs gathered at a meetup in Houston to talk about the future of bitcoin mining.

HOUSTON On a residential back street of Houston, in a 150,000 square-foot warehouse safeguarding high-end vintage cars, 200 oil and gas execs and bitcoin miners mingled, drank beer, and talked shop on a recent Wednesday night in August.

These two groups of people may seem as though they are at opposite ends of the professional and social spectrums, but their worlds are colliding fast. As it turns out, the industries make for compatible bedfellows.

Just take Hayden Griffin Haby III, an oilman turned bitcoiner. The Texas native and father of three has spent 14 years in oil and gas, and he epitomizes what this monthly meetup is all about.

Haby started as a surface landman where he brokered land contracts, and later, ran his own oil company. But for the last nine months, he's exclusively been in the business of mining bitcoin.

As Haby describes it, he was "orange pilled" in November 2020 a term used to describe the process of convincing a fiat-minded person that they are missing out by not investing in bitcoin. A month later, he co-founded Limpia Creek Technologies, which powers bitcoin mining rigs with flared, vented, and stranded natural gas assets.

"When I heard that you could make this much money per MCF (a metric used to measure natural gas), instead of just burning it up into the atmosphere, thanks to the whole 'bitcoin mining thing,' I couldn't look away," Haby said. "You can't unsee that."

When China kicked out all its crypto miners this spring an exodus which Haby calls the "Chexit" that poured kerosene on the flames. "This is an opportunity we didn't think was coming," he said.

Haby tells CNBC they are already seeing demand rushing to Texas, and he is convinced that the state is poised to capture most of the Chinese hashrate looking for a new home on friendlier shores.

Bitcoin miners care most about finding cheap sources of electricity, so Texas with its crypto-friendly politicians, deregulated power grid, and crucially, abundance of inexpensive power sources is a virtually perfect fit. The union becomes even more harmonious when miners connect their rigs to otherwise stranded energy, like natural gas going to waste on oil fields across Texas.

"This is Texas, boys. We got what you need, so come on down," said Haby. "We are sitting on the energy capital of the world."

"I think Kevin Costner said it best: 'If you build it, they will come,'" said Haby.

An underground meetup of bitcoin miners and oil & gas execs was held at a 150,000 square-foot warehouse safeguarding high-end vintage cars.

Parker Lewis is one of Texas' de facto bitcoin ambassadors. Everyone knows him. Everyone likes him. And virtually any bitcoiner you ask refers to him as the future mayor of Austin.

Lewis is an executive at Unchained Capital, a bitcoin-native financial services firm. He isn't in politics yet but he is hustling across the state of Texas to spread the good word on the world's biggest cryptocurrency. In May, the Houston Bitcoin Meetup consisted of only 20 people in a fluorescent-lit conference room in an office. Then Lewis decided to get involved.

"I just knew Houston would be prime to explode because of the energy connection to mining if we organized a good meetup," Lewis told CNBC. "It's also key to Texas being the bitcoin capital of the world."

His efforts are paying off. Wednesday's meetup drew more than 200 attendees from across the state of Texas, as well as California, Colorado, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Australia and the UK.

The buzz was electric on Wednesday night. You had to shout to be heard. And no one in the room mentioned any cryptocurrency beside bitcoin. There was also an unmistakable air of stealth and FOMO. The people who showed up to this event did so, at least in part, because they didn't want to get left behind.

Capturing excess and otherwise wasted natural gas from drilling sites and then using that energy to mine bitcoin is still firmly in the category of avant-garde tech.

Haby, who's affable and an open book on most things, clams up when it comes to sharing the location of his company's mining sites. "West Texas" is as much as Haby would give CNBC, though if the name "Limpia Creek" is any indication, that would place them 100 miles due north of Big Bend National Park.

His secrecy was par for the course that evening.

Oilmen, turned bitcoin miners, Griffin Haby with Conner Murphree and Jordan Kuntz at one of their bitcoin mining sites in Texas.

Bitcoin miner Alejandro de la Torre was born in Spain, but he's spent years minting bitcoin all over the world, most recently in China. When Beijing cracked down on all things crypto, De La Torre got a call from his boss at 3 A.M. telling him he had to go to Texas. He was in Austin the next day.

Since then, he's been shipping his new-generation mining gear to the U.S. in bulk.

"It's all through ships and from the Pacific side," De La Torre told CNBC. "The port depends on the location of where the rigs will end up."

That was as much as De La Torre would divulge, because, as he explains it, any further details about the destination, or the gear itself, could give his competitors an edge.

Bitcoin believers care a lot about privacy, as do the oil and gas guys. Some cited non-disclosure agreements as a reason to speak to CNBC in vague platitudes about business deals. Others were only willing to share their thoughts on the condition of anonymity. And some attendees worried about their job security should their employer find out they were there.

These weren't tycoons -- they were mostly up-and-coming young execs, hungry to get ahead and make a name by taking a gamble on bitcoin mining.

For years, oil and gas companies have struggled with the problem of what to do when they accidentally hit a natural gas formation while drilling for oil. Whereas oil can easily be trucked out to a remote destination, gas delivery requires a pipeline.

If a drilling site is right next door to a pipeline, they chuck the gas in and take whatever cash the buyer on the other end is willing to pay that day. "There's no choice. There's no middle finger. Whatever gas comes out that day has to be sold," explained Haby.

But if it's 20 miles from a pipeline, things start to get more complicated.

More often than not, the gas well won't be big enough to warrant the time and expense of building an entirely new pipeline. If a driller can't immediately find a way to sell the stash of natural gas, most look to dispose of it on site.

One method is to vent it, which releases methane directly into the air a poor choice for the environment, as its greenhouse effects are shown to be much stronger than carbon dioxide.A more environmentally friendly option is to flare it, which means actually lighting the gas on fire.

"Chemistry is amazing," explained Adam Ortolf, who heads up business development in the U.S. for Upstream Data, a company that manufactures and supplies portable mining solutions for oil and gas facilities.

"When CH4, or methane, combusts, the only exhaust is CO2 and H2O vapor. That's literally the same thing that comes out of my mouth when I exhale," continued Ortolf.

But Ortolf points out, flares are only 75 to 90% efficient. "Even with a flare, some of the methane is being vented without being combusted," he said.

This is when on-site bitcoin mining can prove to be especially impactful.

When the methane is run into an engine or generator, 100% of the methane is combusted and none of it leaks or vents into the air, according to Ortolf.

"But nobody will run it through a generator unless they can make money, because generators cost money to acquire and maintain," he said. "So unless it's economically sustainable, producers won't internally combust the gas."

A panel of bitcoin miners and oil & gas execs share what it's like to mine bitcoin in Texas.

Bitcoin makes it economically sustainable for oil and gas companies to combust their methane rather than externally combust it with a flare.

"There is no such thing as stranded gas anymore," said Haby.

But Ortolf has taken years to convince people that parking a trailer full of ASICs on an oil and gas field is a smart and financially sound idea.

"In 2018, I got laughed out of the room when I talked about mining bitcoin on flared gas," said Ortolf. "The concept of bringing hydrocarbons to market without a counterparty was laughable."

Fast forward three years, and business at Upstream, a company founded by lead engineer Steve Barbour, is booming. It now works with 140 bitcoin mines across North America.

"This is the best gift the oil and gas industry could've gotten," said Ortolf. "They were leaving a lot of hydrocarbons on the table, but now, they're no longer limited by geography to sell energy."

It is also helping to curtail the overall carbon footprint of some of these oil and gas sites. Recent production stats show that in the U.S. alone about 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas is wasted on a daily basis. And these are just the reported numbers, so the actual figures are likely higher.

Meanwhile, bitcoin miners get what they want most: cheap electricity.

The thing about all these grand visions for bitcoin mining to stay the course, it requires some manpower on Capitol Hill to safeguard its plan to scale.And right now, politicians in Washington are scrambling to figure out what and how to regulate cryptocurrencies and all the ancillary services that make up the wider ecosystem for digital currencies.

That's why another big topic of conversation at the Houston Bitcoin Meeting was political activism.

"Who knows a staffer or a representative?" one member of the crowd posed to the group. At least half a dozen people raised their hands and one stepped up to confirm they would reach out to their contact in Senator Cruz's office.

There was a sense of momentum in the audience.Several people made the point that the bitcoin contingent across the country had paralyzed a $1 trillion rubber-stamped, bipartisan bill, no small feat for a voting bloc which hitherto hadn't been viewed as much of a threat on the Hill.

But it's not just about being on the defensive for these tens of millions of voters and bitcoin faithful.They're going on the offensive by working to install like-minded people into office so that they can do something "before they do it to us," as one member of the audience said to the group.They're also teaching veteran lawmakers about bitcoin, as many representatives don't understand it.

"We need to target anyone who is anti-bitcoin. There are 45 million of us in America, and we are not silent," said this same attendee.

Excerpt from:
Bitcoin miners and oil and gas execs mingled at a secretive meetup in Houston here's what they talked about - CNBC

Just as the Apple brand is to tech, McDonalds is to burgers, Nike is to sneakers and Coke is to cola, so is the Bitcoin brand to cryptocurrency.

Whoa hold the phone! you say. Bitcoin isnt a brand. It's a currency. Currencies arent brands!

Well, thats a traditional way of looking at it. And Bitcoin is anything but traditional.

Think of it this way: blockchain is a technology. Coins are an asset on the blockchain. Bitcoin is a brand that brings its unique selling proposition to blockchain.

To be clear, Bitcoin is not an ordinary brand. Its what I call a User-Generated Brand (UGB). Because Bitcoin lacks a centralized brand owner or chief marketing officer, it is molded by a large ecosystem of foundation members, technologists, investors, miners, commentators, thought leaders, innovators, journalists and more. Nevertheless, as a UGB, the cumulative effect of its brand assets stand for something.

Still skeptical? Consider this:

Moreover, what makes the Bitcoin brand so intriguing are some other less cut-and-dry factors:

Okay, so youre onboard: Bitcoin is a brand. A User-Generated Brand. Next question you may be asking is: so what? Consider these:

The Contract A great brand, at the end of the day, is a promise (a contract) that the sum total of it what it stands for and how it behaves will provide confidence and comfort that if you put your faith in it (by purchasing, investing, advocating, etc.), youll be rewarded. For all the reasons stated above, Bitcoin is in an enviable pole position, particularly as it relates to wooing institutional investors and their allocation committees who, once fully bought in, would represent a true tipping point in the race to bitcoin adoption. To propel this forward, as a UGB, it is incumbent on the communitys most vocal believers to not just talk amongst themselves (as they are apt to do) but to the masses in ways that will elucidate that promise to them.

The Community A great brand feeds off the passion of its most active users. In fact, passion is the fuel that ignites any brands fire. So while Bitcoin, as a UGB, may not have a chief marketing officer, it does have an army of de facto marketing officers (many of whom read this magazine). Collectively, they believe that Bitcoin and its underlying technology is a true force for good in democratizing finance and have many forums for sharing that point of view. For them, its important to spread the word: Bitcoins primary purpose is not about making money, its about making a change. And, as with any movement, the rubber meets the road when its story can be told in calm and simple terms, using analogies that everyone understands.

The Coattails Versus The Contrarian Project founders, foundations and decentralized autonomous organizations of every size and shape have a decision to make: regardless of their technical or functional relationship, do they ride Bitcoins coattails or cast it off as a fine but flawed product that is ripe for disruption? It will vary from case to case for sure, but contrarians should be forewarned: brands with the community, contract, passion and purpose that Bitcoin has are formidable. While a small group of insurgents may rejoice at the thought of dethroning the king, most of these contrarians efforts will be rejected entirely by the Bitcoin community, as proven by previous hard forks.

The Conventional Wisdom Dominant brands are typically expected to act in conventional ways. In fact, it can be argued, it is the shackles of category conventions that box them in, allowing challengers to erode or overtake their position. So is Bitcoin a conventional player in an unconventional category? Hardly. Conventional behaviors come with time and a sense of dominance that is considered an impenetrable moat. This leads to a risk-averse, defensive posture and possible stagnation. But Bitcoin is still in its infancy and is at the center of a tsunami of innovation. To the UGB community that is pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo I say, Rock on!

To summarize: to some, the very thought of traditional, centralized marketing in the Bitcoin space is antithetical to the category. As with any radical change in conventions and norms, this is to be understood. But, even as a User-Generated Brand, the marketing of Bitcoin most certainly is influential in ways that will certainly evolve over time. As advertising veteran Regis McKenna famously said, marketing is everything, and everything is marketing.

Today, while metrics such as Reddit subscribers, social comments per hour, Twitter followers, website traffic and community size dominate the discussion of brand health (and are closely watched by investors), there will certainly be other, perhaps more influential metrics, as the roles, bullhorns and motivations of key voices decentralized and centralized in the ecosystem evolve.

As it does, you can be sure that Bitcoin will be at the forefront of this evolution. Because if it looks like a brand, acts like a brand and works like a brand, then it is a brand. That its a UGB simply means that you cant expect the same rules that governed branding and marketing over the past 25 years to hold.

This is a guest post by Rich Feldman. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Yes, Bitcoin Is A Brand. Heres What That Means. - Bitcoin Magazine

The chairman of Nigerias Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has singled out the growth of cryptocurrencies as something that now poses a far greater danger to the world economy. Therefore, in order to deal with such dangers or threats, Bawa advocates for a collective and collaborative approach by authorities around the world.

According to a report by Vanguard, the EFCC chairman made these remarks while speaking at a symposium organized by the Centre for International Documentation on Organized and Economic Crime (CIDOEC). Meanwhile, at the same meeting which was organized to discuss the cost of economic crimes and who should foot this bill, Bawa is quoted explaining why countries must collaborate on this. He said:

[Economic crimes] affect the vital structures of global economies, causing significant damage to the global financial system and depriving developing nations of the needed resources for sustainable development.

Bawa also warned that developed countries, just like their less developed counterparts, are not immune from a scourge that has been magnified by the proliferation of cyber-crimes which threatens the stability of global financial institutions. To drive home this point, Bawa uses the example of how criminals are now choosing to transact or receive illegal monies [such as ransom money]for cyber-attacks in cryptocurrencies.

In the meantime, the EFCC chair also delved into the topic of who should bear the costs of economic crimes. The report quotes Bawa explaining his viewpoint on this matter. He said:

As the victims of crime continue to suffer globally from the effects of financial crimes, either directly or indirectly as part of a social system, the determination of who pays or who should pay becomes a critical measure of the criminal justice system in place.

Still, the EFCC chairman is adamant that perpetrators and not the victims should be made to pay for the crimes.

Do you agree with Bawas remarks about cryptocurrencies? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Chairman of Nigerian Economic Crimes Commission: Crypto Growth Is a 'Far Greater Danger to the World Economy' Economics Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Fourteen suspects allegedly behind a cryptocurrency scam have been arrested in Taiwan. According to the countrys Criminal Investigation Bureau, the scheme has defrauded investors out of millions of dollars.

The countrys Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) explained that the crypto scam allegedly defrauded more than 100 people out of about NT$150 million (US$5.41 million) over the past year. The suspects now face charges of fraud, money laundering, and breaches of the countrys Organized Crime Prevention Act, the Taipei Times reported Sunday.

Kuo Yu-chih, the CIB investigator in charge of the case, explained that a businessman with the last name Chen is believed to be the mastermind behind the fraudulent crypto scheme. He added that the scheme focused on cryptocurrencies ethereum, tronix, and tether. Chen also led the Taipei-based Azure Crypto Co., which offered cryptocurrency and other investment services.

The investigator detailed that Chen promoted crypto investments on social media, promising high earnings. He elaborated:

Chen and his staff set up websites and allegedly used photographs of pretty women to attract mainly male victims, many of whom were in retirement with substantial savings.

The attractive images drew the victims to the websites where they were persuaded to invest via interactions with whom they believed to be the attractive women, Kuo said. Chen and his staff claimed to be financial advisers specializing in cryptocurrency mining.

The bureau revealed that investigators seized ledgers containing the details of more than 100 people who invested in the scheme.

Prior to the arrests, the police monitored the schemes activities and online transactions for several months after receiving complaints. The bureau subsequently conducted raids late last month at the companys office and the residences of Chen and his staff.

What do you think about this crypto scam in Taiwan? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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14 Suspects in Cryptocurrency Investment Scam Arrested in Taiwan Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News