Bitcoin News

Adrianne Jeffries (@ADRJeffries) is with a new online news media site but continues to provide excellent reporting on Bitcoin topics. In her post today she covers the rise of the high yield investment programs (HYIPs) that have plagued Bitcoin of late. Excerpts:

“The number of HYIPs posted in the ‘Lending’ section of the Bitcoin Forum offering north of six percent is increasing. But suspicion is growing that these HYIPs may be nothing more than good old pyramid schemes, in which the money from new recruits is used to pay the earlier investors.”
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“[Professional poker player Bryan Micon] posted a list of HYIPs he had identified as scams, igniting a debate that became a 40-page long thread on bitcointalk.org, the Bitcoin forum that serves as the community’s hub.”
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“Bitcoin Savings & Trust (BS&T), an invite-only operation run by the psuedonymous pirateat40, advertises a seven percent weekly return on deposits of more than 25,000 BTC, a sum worth more than $275,000 at the time of writing. How does BS&T achieve these returns? “If I told you then I couldn’t do what I do,” pirateat40 says”
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“The Bitcoin Global Stock Exchange [where some BS&T-related investment occurs] allows Bitcoin startups and entrepreneurs to issue shares, bonds, futures, and other financial instruments.”
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“As one Bitcoin trader told this reporter last year when the Bitcoin derivatives market was just getting off the ground, ‘Bitcoin is like Wall Street was 15 to 20 years ago when I entered. Fragmented markets, wide spreads, manipulation, the trading stone ages.’”
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“The number of HYIPs promising champagne profits certainly adds to a bubbly atmosphere. Optimism is returning, but as Bitcoin climbs back up to $12, some are beginning to wonder: Is there a Bitcoin bubble?”

- http://vrge.co/Pdj4Gz
- http://www.bitcoinmoney.com/post/29500931187 (response on Bitcoin Money blog)
- http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=100880.0 (further discussion on BitcoinTalk) 

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