Avoid Crypto Scams and theft.

We have received many questions from our students and clients about the security of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies, and even some questions and statements associating Bitcoin to scams and thefts.

We have to emphasized that, most crypto protocols are decentralized, meaning that there is no nucleus or group of people that governs or directs the protocol. These cryptographic protocols are programmed to operate completely independent. They are democratic, since the programs can be reviewed and verified by anyone on the world wide web, as well as all the transactions that are carried out within it. All these transactions are registered and recorded on a "Blockchain" to which we all have access to, in order to verify any transaction. For this and many other reasons, when you hear of crypto scams or thefts, it is not the blockchain protocol or the programming that is scamming us, it is criminals that are committing a crime and using the name of bitcoin to get you to buy into their scams or they are scamming a crypto platform and we become victims as a result.

Today there are around 11,330 Cryptocurrencies in circulation. To some extent, it is not very difficult to create a cryptocurrency, spin it into existence, and put it on the market. I clarify, you do need a solid knowledge of how the technology works, some programming expertise, and able to get your coin approved to certain markets to be able to commercialize it. But being an industry that is still not very well regulated by governments, it is not complicated to create a cryptocurrency and monetize the project; Hence we have so many in the market.

Of all these coins in circulation, we dare to say that a majority of these will not exist in the future, and from the ones that survive, very few will be profitable as investment vehicles. This is why it is of the utmost importance to do due diligence and research before buying or investing in any crypto project. NOTHING, but absolutely NOTHING, replaces research and learning exactly what the currency you are interested is about, how the technology of the currency in question is being developed, who is behind it, where the operation is located, and anything pertaining to the technology and even if the technology makes sense. Also who the competitors are and so on... We also recommend visiting their page and learning about the founders and investors involved in the protocol, additionally, we need to check other resources such as social media sites, on-line comments, pages such as reddit and search for information to make sure we know very well where we are investing our money. This can avoid many headaches, minimize losses, and allow us to learn a lot about the technology and the space in the process.

On the other hand, we have heard of various fictitious crypto companies or individuals misleading people, trying to convince them to invest a certain amount of money with them, with the promise of stratospheric and unreal returns coming from the crypto market. Others promise to pay unrealistic commissions if the client brings more investors and they deposit money into their pools. All these quixotic demands are a red flag and a sign that we should stay away. Please, do your research and inform yourselves very well before investing in anything. Most of these individuals are not even knowledgable of the Crypto industry or the technology behind it and with the proper information we can avoid irrecoverable losses.

One of our students had the experience of meeting one of these scam artists and thanks to what she had learned on our courses, she was able to ask clear and concrete questions just to realize that it was a fraud. Today we can access a lot of information online about companies, individuals, protocols and technologies. If we are not sure about something, it is best to search the company in question, see where they are located, see their history, meet the founders and contact them if possible. If this information is not public, the safest thing is to stay away.

If you are investing in Cryptocurrencies, you have to have:

• Digital Wallet: A Bitcoin wallet that allows you to store your digital currency such as Bitcoin and be able to store them in a safe way. The Bitcoin wallet should be treated the same as a physical wallet, where you keep your personal items and where you keep your cash. A Bitcoin wallet can be held digitally (on the Internet) or stored on your computer.

• Access to Digital Wallet(s): A "password" or key which only you know and gives you access to your digital wallet(s) to be able to deposit or use your cryptocurrencies.

• Private Key: This is a key which consists of around 24 characters and must be kept very safe and not shared with anyone. If you lose access to your Bitcoin wallet, you can get it back with this key. Do not invest with companies that do not give you this key or that they have it as well. It can come in the form of a “seed phrase” that comes in a 12 word format. Remember “Not your Keys, not your coins.”

The above is a bit of a 101/super basic information, but many investors do not have their private keys or do not really know what “private keys” are nor how to acquire them. This is why we decided to share.

Please inform yourself before investing and if you have questions, please contact us.