BitConnect is just one of the latest platforms relying on blockchain technology to provide cryptocurrency-related services to the masses. Since the platform emerged on the market, they’ve had thousands of users and a market cap that boasts well over $600 million.

BitConnect was established just last year through an initial coin offering (ICO) and over the course of the last year has quickly become one of the leading cryptocurrencies. Despite its staggering yet bullish success, the cryptocurrency has attracted a lot of attention due to its lending service.

BitConnect is based on a four-tier system that is dependent on the user’s initial deposit. Essentially, the more money the user initially puts down, the bigger and faster a return on investment is earned. Regardless of the stakes, lenders have been guaranteed a maximum of 40% investment return per month, which equates to an average of 1% return on investment, daily. A more detailed description of the process is available on BitConnect’s website.

However, this overly-confident assurance from BitConnect, has attracted a lot of criticism from the global crypto community. One user reached out to the Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, as well as the Litecoin developer, Charlie Lee, via Twitter to ask their opinions regarding the legitimacy of BitConnect’s claims. Buterin stated, at first, that he did not know of BitConnect. Soon afterwards Buterin familiarized himself with BitConnect and concluded that it is little more than a Ponzi scheme.

Since Buterin’s response, the crypto community has initiated debates regarding the legitimacy of the platform all over the internet. Indeed, even Reddit threads show users comparing BitConenct to Bitpetite, a cryptocurrency which has also been denounced as being a Ponzi scheme.

Just last week, Bitpetite vanished, along with all their investors’ money.

Bitpetite similarly attracted criticism after the platform promised their users a return of investment of 147% in a period of six weeks. Last week Bitpetite initially stated that their servers would be down for a period of one to three hours, which was the third time in a period of three weeks where the website experienced server issues. However, since their so-called downtime the website has entirely disappeared. Several users reported that it proved impossible to contact anyone involved with the website. In addition, Bitpetite has closed down all its social media accounts.

Tanya Petrusenko

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