A Pro Trader Moonlighting As A Thief
The above is the profile picture for the https://btcpop.co/ user Balambala.
https://btcpop.co/Profile/21903/balambala
https://btcpop.co/Loan/23168/loam-15-for-bm-2c-balambala-locked
https://btcpop.co/Loan/22992/loam-14-for-bm-2c-balambala
Balambala is a bitcoin trader with a large amount of volume. --He also happens to be a thief.
Balambala, who has stolen over 11 bitcoins from the lending site BTCPop, communicated well, paid promptly, and was a regular borrower. Until he disappeared from the site, taking with him a huge haul of over 35,000 dollars worth of bitcoin.
Many investors were uncertain, at first. Sure there had to have been a mistake, an accident, or something to have prevented the until then good borrower from paying his debts. Many people tried to give him extra time, and the benefit of the doubt, hoping that he just needed a bit of time.
But then, Balambala ceased all forms of communication, and began deleting all attempts to communicate with him over public forums. He continued actively trading through his website buysomebitcoins.com, and through his localbitcoins account: https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/BM-2cTKNgPTRcA2p27ZpC7gGhSwPLt/
Now investors are angry. He stole from the lending site, and is clearly still trading, and operating with no intentions of paying people back.
If you trade with this user, understand that your money will be in as much danger as those of the investors he defaulted on. He has proven himself untrustworthy, and a shameless thief.
Spread the word. In communities where trust is everything, more people need to know they cannot trust this user!
Simply put, never NEVER give up your btc. That's it's main super power and if you hand your keys over to anyone, then you've introduced kryptonite. BTC will gain value on it's own, that's it's intrinsic power. No need to get greedy and try to get more risking it all.
it wasn't just given. We lend btc. But some asshole just doesn't repay turning them into scammers. But there are a lot of other that repay. It's a great way to make more bitcoins but these hickups happen. So better to warn other than to let people think "they got away" with it. Also, this guy has a website to sell bitcoins which he stole.
Keep fighting the good fight against these scammers!
Lending btc is giving in the crypto world. Trusting others with your btc to return them with interest is gambling because the very power of btc is that you own them. Unless you go into a smart btc contract where they can't just take off with it and have to hold to their end of their contract, I would not touch this plan with a 10 meter pole (ya, longer than 10 foot)
I politely disagree! At Btcpop.co lending can happen with 100% or more collateral held in either altcoins or P2P shares on Btcpop.
In regards to reputation based borrowing yes this if done improperly can be disastrous, however online reputation systems are effective and efficient when implemented properly.
Building on online reputation to the point where you can borrow substantial BTC at Btcpop is not quick, cheap, or easy. Making the incentives very poor to loose that reputation for possible future loans. Also verification and a community of scammer hunters makes running even less appealing or beneficial.
When I look at any investment structure, I ask, who has the most to gain and who has the least at risk? Does btcpop.co supplement the collateral so all loans are 100% refundable? If not, you force the lender to take extra risk at the cost to the profit of the company. I don't like these systems at all, especially if they don't have multisig to lock in contractual agreements. It's too early to do loans the proper way. Hence, I recommend people to not lend, but keep making money just buying and holding btc. But lending... You give up your keys, you give up your btc.
What if its backed by 100% or more collateral in other altcoins or digital assets?
That would be interesting. So if the backing was to ensure 0% risk on the lender's part, I would say yes. This would be akin to margin loans on exchanges. I have yet to see a lending site for lending other than for margin trading purposes, like this.
Wise advice, and something I am practicing more and more, lately. :)
That said, in this case, hopefully our losses will do others some good. Those looking to buy from this user could just as easily end up stolen from too.
Can the bitcoins not be traced on the blockchain?
Yes, but if you don't know who owns (has control of) that account, you can't really do much about it.
Yep, and as soon as the money hits an exchanges' wallet, it is effectively gone. :/
I suppose any sort of system to alert businesses and exchanges of wallets that are linked to theft sort of goes against the some of the main reasons for using crypto in the first place
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