So turns out the Bitconnect Lending Platform didn’t have the greatest trading bot in financial history but was in fact a massive ponzi scheme.
A anonymous group offering unimaginably high returns goes bust and steals everyone’s cash (or bitcoin in this case)
I believe we’ve seen this movie before.
It easy to be wise after the event it is a terrible tragedy that individuals lost money, if YouTube is to be believed some people lost enormous amounts of money.
Since the collapse many of the big YouTube promoters (some subject of a class action lawsuit) have used the following lines (I paraphrase) in response.
‘I didn’t hold a gun to any ones head’
‘I only recorded my own journey in Bitconnect I didn’t encourage anyone to join’
And best of all.
‘I lost money too. I’m an investor just like you’
I suppose they could make the argument that everyone should do their own due diligence and be responsible for their own decisions.
Basically it’s your own fault.
That would be legitimate if they as responsible sponsors walked through the opportunity and identified all the potential risks. You know, full disclosure.But they didn’t they just signed them up.
But here is the real problem.
As soon as you add a referral link to your video, blog post or whatever you promote the programme and yourself as an affiliate and demonstrate your desire to benefit from affiliate earnings
Affiliate Earnings - A way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies ("affiliates") who market the company's products for a commission.
And theres the rub.
This is where ‘moral hazard’ is incurred.
Moral Hazard - is a situation in which one party gets involved in a risky event knowing that it is protected against the risk and the other party will incur the cost.
In a nutshell you take someone’s money with no regard as to what happens to them.
To suggest that by promoting a programme you bear no responsibility for subsequent results is self delusional and worse still a lie.
And a cowardly one at that.