The next step to connect man and machine has been taken.
The" decoration of the skin," which conceals elements of technology, is not unimaginable today. Having introduced tattooing as a sophisticated health monitoring device a few years ago, it is logical that researchers intend to continue to tinker with the technique even further.
Wearable technology is probably the most likely "music of the future." From smart bracelets and watches, humanity is slowly moving towards chips under the skin and interactive tattoos. Scientists intend to go even further and would like to turn the human body into a touchpad.
Google invested considerable sums in the development of wearable technology. This time, it is a completely unique tattoo that can practically "turn" a person's whole body into a kind of a giant touchpad.
Generally, smart tattoos are technically called epidermal electronic systems. They can be anything from personalized circuits to microprocessors or adhesives and conductors that a person can, for lack of a better word, glue onto their skin.
The whole project is called SkinMarks, and its goal is to ensure that human interaction with all sorts of technological "gadgets" is as natural and smooth as possible. According to the engineers, it should be possible to apply SkinMarks directly to the fingers of the hand or even to another part of the body.
The subsequent use of wearable technology would be quite simple; it would be enough just to move a finger, clench a fist, or define other gestures that would become easy to learn for the user relatively quickly. Imagine if you could control your phone without having to pick it up. And much more….
Thanks to the greatly reduced thickness of the tattoo and increased extensibility, the SkinMark is thin and flexible enough to adapt to irregular geometry such as bending lines and protruding bones.
SkinMarks will be produced with the help of screen printing technology and conductive ink. Everything will be transferred to tattoo paper and then to the skin after heat treatment to avoid possible deformation.
For the time being, the developers themselves do not know when and whether mass production will be started at all or if it will be just a prototype, but the idea is interesting.
The new technology could really make life easier in the future. But already now, there are opponents of this novelty.
Critics accuse Google of being just another way to get the most detailed data from people and to use it for personalized ads. There is no easier way to collect data than to have sensors tattooed directly onto human skin. An interesting fact is that targeted advertising annually brings Google more than $160 billion.
The main challenge is that putting anything on the body means that it has to be bio-compatible. That rules out many materials that people are allergic to and anything that could cause irritation over a long period of time.
On the other hand, it seems easy – the sensors can be triggered by traditional touch or swipe gestures as we perform on smartphones, and you can do it even without looking. You could squeeze the area around the tattoo or bend your fingers or limbs to activate the sensors.
The future will show if this wearable technology will become popular.
BEWARE OF BELLS and WHISTLES and UNFOUNDED CLAIMS
SOME HOME TRUTHS ABOUT ONPASSIVE AND “PASSIVE INCOME”
At one time or another in our online journey, we’ve been led to believe we can get-rich-quick or live a luxurious lifestyle on passive income for very little to no work involved. Even more now than ever, there are millions of people looking to make an income online and are spellbound by the so-called limitless potential of the internet especially when someone tells you you don’t have to do a thing, it’s all done for you, so just pay the money and let the money roll in passively.
Although some of us learn that this is just fantasy, others, particularly the tens of thousands of newcomers to the online world are sitting ducks for any so-called company promising great riches with no real evidence of the amazing proprietary technology they endlessly spruik about and the passive income promises they make.
Passive Income Is A Risky Fantasy
Online technology has greatly evolved since the dot.com era with automated marketing and AI and although it has its place, there’s a lot more to building a business than relying on automation or other people to work it or bring in new recruits for you. What makes a business work is by creating value on a personal level. If you're going into the business with the intention of having it magically provide money for you while you sip margaritas on the beach, then you often get roped into dubious companies making unfounded claims.
The majority of people I see who are only interested in passive income haven't learned how to create value in the first place. They're just going along with the gimmicks, tricks, and formulas, basically wanting and believing they will get the lifestyle promised to them without doing anything to the point where it becomes a cult.
Too Many To Count
There have been so many companies that have failed due to pyramid structure or matrix compensation plans which is the primary structure that pays the thousands of people their promised millions of dollars. Either intentionally or unintentionally they failed.
Then there are the ones that intentionally create a business with no products on the back end, in fact, the websites never existed. Just one example is PRSI. William Caudell offered people a wholesome internet business that turned out to be a bogus marketing scheme, which cheated them out of $13 million was sentenced to 11 years in jail, originally 14 years, however, it was reduced after Caudell cooperated with the authorities by giving up his co-conspirators.
PRSI made its money by charging a $295 "application fee" that qualified users for the "Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) System" that would provide them access to their own site in an Internet shopping mall.
But there were no Web sites, nor any intention to provide them. PRSI was "selling air". Instead of providing Internet shopping sites, PRSI recruited "CyberManagers" who would recruit others to buy into the plan, and the new recruits would find more participants to pay the fee – a classic, illegal pyramid scheme that hooked 48,000 people globally. The company's Web site advertised that the company was dedicated to protecting children and creating a pornography-free e-commerce site that would spark the interest of any humane individual. Great hook!
Tugging On The Heartstrings
The latest current program, as it stands at the moment, and similar in nature to PRSI is GoFounders/Onpassive which hone in on the heart of people. Everyone wants to belong to something. They play on peoples’ sense of community and tug at their heartstrings, literally brainwashing their victims. GoFounders.net seems to be the matrix program and the funnel to access Onpassive.com, (awaiting launch), which is purported to be the marketing suite with proprietary products. (Although it states on their website that GoFounders is the product. See image below)
One of the catchphrases is “Artificial Intelligence with heart”. AI is defined by its very name, it has no heart, it’s artificial. The heart comes with the human aspect of a business that provides value and personal experience the customer receives from a living person. So if the main feature that sells this concept is to automate everything so the business owner doesn’t have to do anything but rake in the money, they are doomed from the very start. Any professional, experienced marketer will tell you there is no such thing as “completely done-for-you systems”.
Ash Mufareh is going to great lengths to make ONPASSIVE seem like it’s growing into an IT tech giant, yet it suffers from a lack of quality control. For example, the video says “In the heart of Disney Land.” First, Disneyland is one word, and in California, not Florida where Walt Disney World is.
NOTE: Ash Mufareh has also registered another Orlando, FL address for ONPASSIVE that is not the same as this office building. This other address is, 9924 Universal Blvd., 224-320, Orlando, FL 32819. When you Google that address, it comes up as The UPS Store.
On one hand, they proclaim you will earn $2 million a month passively for a one time fee, so unsuspecting people sign up, pay the fee, only to find they are now saying you must “work hard and smart” to achieve that, along with financial disclaimers according to Ashraf (Ash) Mufareh, the founder and CEO of GoFounders/OnPassive, in a zoom meeting held last week by a group of leaders that invited him to speak. In that same webinar, he stunned the attendees with his new and latest announcement of implementing an Onpassive Academy for school kids, due to the COVID19 situation. I wonder if this will delay the launch yet again!
The Perpetual Prelaunch
This program has been taking money from people while in prelaunch now for over 2 years with nothing, no sign of any marketing software, except for the promise of “never been done before” automation and AI technology, but to keep these members placated, it had provided a URL shortening tool which you can access for free anywhere. Personally, I refuse to call it a company until I see proof of their claims and products.
The normal procedure for a real startup company has 3 stages. Telling members they are holding off the launch till everything is perfect while stipulating a joining fee is a RED FLAG.
In the Prelaunch stage, a company starts to build an audience so it can actually have a product for people to try.
Private Beta is where a company has products that members can use and do use. It can still be buggy at this stage and this is where the company continues to develop and fine-tune its systems while still continuing with member development.
Public Beta is when a company can take on more members because it knows it has delivered and continues to deliver value as well as introduce and roll out further upgrades and services that are stated on the white paper and road map.
Marketing should start at pre-launch and carry through to all stages. All genuine companies that integrate and use the latest technology have an official whitepaper and road map. In all my research I have yet to find an Onpassive White Paper or Road Map.
Notably, I found only four videos. Three of them were hyped up videos of roughly around 90-seconds in length each, that belonged to Ash Mufareh himself, but not of himself on his YouTube channel that had a total of only 420 subscribers. The one other video was a presentation by one of his recruits. You’ll only ever actually see him on a few webinars of his top leaders in Onpassive at which he has been an invited guest.
All meetings seem to be very Kumbaya with very little substance and all very vague of what is actually promised to the members in terms of its “seismic revolutionary technology” and marketing tools. The rest is excited hype. Transparency doesn’t seem to be one of Ashraf Mufareh’s fortes. All of the webinars are still there on YouTube with the repetition of the exact same things said a year ago, always being equally “excited” and “blown away” by all the wonders Mufareh keeps talking about, during these webinars – but of course, that’s all “proprietary”, so he can only hint at it. (the guy seems to think “proprietary” means “confidential”).
Video Compliments of Julian Leahy
The Matrix Of Infinity
Onpassive’s compensation plan was until recently, a 3 x 10 matrix, and since been changed to a 3 x infinity corporate matrix. Every individual has their own matrix they need to fill within the corporate matrix. Below I do the math on a 3 x 12 level matrix then go on to 20 levels for those that haven’t taken that into consideration up to this point.
The initial joining fee of $97 upfront, locks you into the infinity corporate matrix. Then at launch, you need to become a customer initially, pay one of four levels $25, $125, $250, $500. This is a monthly fee, which the leaders claim will become self-funding, therefore not out of pocket once you fill your matrix. Each level has a finite amount of tools available for use. If you want them all to complete your marketing suite, you need to pay for all 4 levels upfront totaling $950 monthly. Once you have your back office, with a click of a button you become an independent reseller even though it’s touted that you just pay a one-time joining fee of $97 now before it goes up to $997, then sit back and earn $2 million a month.
What is noteworthy is that for any MLM company to be a legal entity, it needs to have retail customers yielding retail sales separate from the distributors or resellers.
There are no qualifications needed, just join up and get paid by every new member that comes into your team. According to one of the leaders, Mike Ellis, This comp plan is “revolutionary” and “really really cool, really really ingenious” as you as a member get your level 4 monthly membership (once you’ve reached level 4) paid by the “profits of the company.” (in other words, the money from the people that have come in after you that are in your personal matrix within the corporate matrix.)
Revolutionary? No, it’s been done and failed too many times before. This matrix program is just hiding under the guise of the latest technology of the products (that no one has actually seen yet) that most people know very little about. Any real AI company will tell you it is very expensive to implement and maintain to keep it running at top-notch.
Let’s Do The Math
In a 3 x 12 matrix pyramid scheme in which the top 3 people recruit 3 new people. Those 9 recruits 3, the 27 beneath them bring in 3, 81 beneath them, 243 beneath them, 729 and beneath them, 2,187 beneath them 6,561 and so forth down to just the 12th level is 4,782,969 recruits.
On the 20th level, it equates to 10,460,353,203 people which is more than the current population on earth. Unfortunately, everyone that comes in, even the last person to be signed up thinks they are at the top of the matrix. (Psst… you are! – The top of YOUR matrix with nobody under you until you make the effort to recruit, and until then you pay the monthly fee for the tools.) but wait, there are no more people left in the world to recruit.
What about spillover? Unless you come under a hotshot recruiter and particularly if you come in at a lower level there is no spillover, it dries up as the people who have been told they don’t need to recruit come in before you have their infinity matrices to fill before they even get close to you. Let’s face it, most people that are drawn into a program that promises to make them a millionaire don’t know how or even want to work for their dreamy lifestyle.
Genuine Customers Who Want The Purported Services Of Onpassive Are Waking Up
One of many members that joined over a year ago, had this to say,
“I, unfortunately, joined this company over a year ago "yea I know stupid me" but I didn't believe the bullsh*t about making all that money with the matrix plan doing little work but instead was trying to find a marketing system that would help me with advertising my affiliate programs and other business ideas. For the last year, I have been hearing the company's mouthpieces talk about we are "just about to launch so get in now".
Since that time the "Founders'' have gone from around 25,000 to now well over 110,000 and still, we are "just about to launch". I just wanted the services which were promoted in the beginning but now it's all about creating an online meeting platform like Startmeeting which is going to be "bigger than Zoom or Google". Well, I DON'T CARE about that. I just want to have a marketing system that works and doesn't cost an arm and a leg which I am beginning to see now is next to impossible.
I have given up on the $97 sign-up fee but it just pisses me off the way people can so blatantly promise a service(s) and then just put off providing it because they are some sort of MLM marketing company in prelaunch. I wish I had done more research and looked for other videos like yours back then, but I was just so eager to find something that might work for me that I just went in blindly. Maybe eventually this company might prove me wrong and actually launch but then again maybe golden raindrops will fall from the sky the same day I win the lottery too.”
Or there’s this one…
This guy seems to know what he’s talking about…
About Ashraf Mufareh – The Last 10 Years
Ash Mufareh has been involved with different work at home endeavors that have been shut down almost as soon as they start. In 2010 Mufareh founded a recruitment-based matrix scheme called AshMax.
Mufareh stipulated AshMax was NOT MLM but on the contrary, has a 5×5 sales matrix, with each new member required to recruit 5 additional members within 20 days. If someone does not meet this requirement, the person is forced out of the matrix. The full 5 x 5 matrix comes into effect after 100 days (5 x 20 day periods), at which point the first level member can reportedly expect to earn in excess of $22,000 per month, recurring, for life.
According to one ex-member of AshMax,
“things were well organized over there (AshMax), for a while – weekly webinar meetings, training sites, upline/sponsor communications on point. The crux for me, the goal post kept moving, things got shaky and no one was giving disclosure. Long story short, things went pear-shaped, never got sorted, refunds never happened, etc.”
In 2012 he became involved with a Ponzi scheme called TelexFree using his TelexMax. TelexFree had legal troubles in Brazil. In 2014 the SEC shut it down revealing TelexFree U.S. investors lost in excess of $3 Billion.
A couple of years later Ash Mufareh became involved with another Ponzi scheme based out of Brazil called PayDiamonds. That endeavor didn’t last long either and in mid-2018 it was closed down. It was at that time when Ashraf Mufareh started GOFOUNDERS/ONPASSIVE.
Here is one of the three videos on Mufareh’s official YouTube channel. The title of the video is, “Ash Mufareh – The Visionary Behind the World’s Best Online Business Solution”. With a title like that, wouldn’t you expect to see or hear Ash saying something about his AI-Tech baby? How about footage of him working with his team? I certainly did and was left disillusioned when I viewed them. There was nothing but self-aggrandizing and hype. Ash is not the person in the video.
Absolutely none of the ONPASSIVE videos show footage of Ash Mufareh. You would think that if someone was creating the next best thing, that person would want to get out there and promote his new creation. Wouldn’t you expect that after 2 years of promoting and collecting an accumulative total of $11,640,000 from 120,000 GoFounder members at $97 a pop, he would be able to and want to reveal the progress to date? You will always find a genuine owner of a startup out there in full view with updates and progress reports every step of the way.
Trustpilot,as its name suggests, should be trustworthy about its reviews (you would think) however, a multitude of reviews look very suspicious to me… here are just two,
How can this be if they haven’t launched the marketing suite yet?
If a plan purports to sell a product or service, check to see whether its price is inflated, whether new members must buy costly inventory, or whether members make most "sales" to other members rather than the general public.
Beware of any plan that makes exaggerated earnings claims, especially when there seem to be no real underlying product sales or investment profits.
Beware of any plan that offers commissions for recruiting new distributors, particularly when there is no product involved or when there is a separate, up-front membership fee. At the same time, do not assume that the presence of a purported product or service removes all danger.
Beware of any program that claims to have a secret plan, overseas connection, or special relationship that is difficult to verify.
Beware of any plan that delays meeting its commitments while asking members to "keep the faith" and keep taking on new signups that must pay a joining fee. Many pyramid schemes advertise that they are in the "pre-launch" stage, yet they never can and never do launch. By definition pyramid schemes can never fulfill their obligations to a majority of their participants. To survive, pyramids need to keep and attract as many members as possible. Thus, promoters try to appeal to a sense of community or solidarity, while chastising outsiders or skeptics.
Finally, beware of programs that attempt to capitalize on the public's interest or naivety in hi-tech. Every investor fantasizes about becoming wealthy overnight, but in fact, most hi-tech companies only yield substantial profits after years of hard work.
Summary and Reality Of So Many Team Building Pyramids
The victim, like the first investor, thinks of himself at the top of the pyramid but suddenly realizes that he is actually at the bottom, unable to find people interested in the program to build out his downline. He is not alone because mathematics shows that MOST investors will find themselves at the bottom of the pyramid when it collapses. The very structure of a matrix dictates that whenever the collapse occurs, at least 70 percent will be at the bottom level with no means to make a profit.
The GoFounder members will be quick to say that ONPASSIVE is an AI & IT company and not an MLM. If that is true, why is a matrix-based multi-level compensation plan used to build a team? Those are MLM hallmarks!
In my opinion, it shouldn’t be frozen in a prelaunch for over 2 yearswhile taking people’s money. It should have reached the BETA stage by now so those 120,000 members that have paid their money can start tinkering with it at least, with ongoing updates and reports from the engineering department and corporate body, not just avid over-excited members who have only been in it for 15 months, taking the lead and have obviously drunk the kool-aid.
Right now the only thing that may attract a naive marketer is its claim of being “100% Hands-Free Completely Done-For-You Automated Online Success” and for the people who want to believe that there’s money-for-nothing ogle over the proposed passive earnings in the compensation plan.
If you apply some simple logic to their claim against the actions of a member aggressively promoting and recruiting, it contradicts itself. It’s clear to me that anyone who joins has been swept up by the thought and promise of making millions passively.
A successful business that brings real value does not put making money a personal priority and just wait for the money to roll in while you sleep. An excellent article explaining why “passive income” is a dangerous fantasy and points out 4 reasons why,
1. You Can't Stay Ahead of Competition Passively 2. You Can't Maintain a Loyal Tribe of Customers Passively 3. You Can't Lead Great Teams Passively 4. You Can't Create Meaning, Passion, or Purpose in Your Life Passively
My Final Thoughts
The evidence and timelines in this article are correct at the time of researching and writing. It certainly makes sense to me to BEWARE & to look out for RED FLAGS and apart from doing your own due diligence, logically think about what is really happening here.
What Onpassive is promoting is nothing new or special in the technical aspect, in fact, at the moment it’s fresh air until it launches (if it ever does). Automated marketing and AI technology are already being used along with blockchain and cryptocurrency in the marketing arena for far less money and there’s been no need for a pyramidical recruitment matrix.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX,a very successful entrepreneur revealed that Tesla has had a spectacular run this year despite the COVID 19 impacts. In a recent interview, he offered some advice to other entrepreneurs, suggesting that any company of any caliber put their investments first into engineering and developing a product that is superior before investing in Marketing,
“My advice, you know, to corporate America or companies worldwide is spend less time on marketing presentations and more time on your product. Honestly that should be the number one thing taught in business schools. Put down that spreadsheet and that PowerPoint presentation and go and make your product better.”
What Musk says speaks volumes to me. To be a legitimate company, there needs to be “a product” long before it starts taking money from interested parties. Even in the initial stages, you won’t see any investor just hand over the money on promises or without seeing at least the blueprint (or white paper) of the startup company’s products which should be available to the public. They need to see that it’s a viable company and marketing hype incessantly and publicly just doesn't cut it for savvy investors.
Before the claims of how “mind-blowingly, nothing out there like it” system is broadcast to the world, the company needs to be transparent with its products and after 2+ years, it should be well into a BETA phase and not continuously delaying the launch, repeatedly saying you still have time to get in at the cheaper price. Food for thought.
Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.
Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money that is designed to be secure and, in many cases, anonymous. It is a currency associated with the internet that uses cryptography, the process of converting legible information into an almost uncrackable code, to track purchases and transfers. Cryptography was born out of the need for secure communication in the Second World War. It has evolved in the digital era with elements of mathematical theory and computer science to become a way to secure communications, information and money online. The first cryptocurrency was bitcoin, which was created in 2009 and is still the best known. There has been a proliferation of cryptocurrencies in the past decade and there are now more than 900 available on the internet. Here's everything you need to know about cryptocurrencies.
How do cryptocurrencies work?
Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money without the need to use their name or go through a bank. They run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, which is a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders.
Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated maths problems that generate coins. Users can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend them using cryptographic wallets. Cryptocurrencies and applications of blockchain technology are still nascent in financial terms and more uses should be expected. Transactions including bonds, stocks and other financial assets could eventually be traded using the technology.
What are the most common cryptocurrencies?
Bitcoin: Bitcoin was the first and is the most commonly traded cryptocurrency to date. The currency was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, a mysterious figure who developed its blockchain. It has a market capitalisation of around $45 billion as of July 2017.
Ethereum: Developed in 2015, ethereum is the currency token used in the ethereum blockchain, the second most popular and valuable cryptocurrency. Ethereum has a market capitalisation of around $18bn as of July 2017. However, ethereum has had a turbulent journey. After a major hack in 2016 it split into two currencies, while its value has in recent months reached as high as $400 but crashed briefly to as low as 10 cents.
Ripple: Ripple is another distributed ledger system that was founded in 2012. Ripple can be used to track more kinds of transactions, not just of the cryptocurrency. It has been used by banks including Santander and UBS and has a market capitalisation of around $6.3 billion.
Litecoin:
This currency is most similar in form to bitcoin, but has moved more quickly to develop new innovations, including faster payments and processes to allow many more transactions. The total value of all Litecoin is around $2.1 billion.
Why would you use a cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrencies are known for being secure and providing a level of anonymity. Transactions in them cannot be faked or reversed and there tend to be low fees, making it more reliable than conventional currency. Their decentralised nature means they are available to everyone, where banks can be exclusive in who they will let open accounts. As a new form of cash, the cryptocurrency markets have been known to take off meaning a small investment can become a large sum over night. But the same works the other way. People look to invest in cryptocurrencies should be aware of the volatility of the market and the risks they take when buying.
Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
Tracing Mt. Gox’s stolen coins led feds to Alexander Vinnik
This week, one of Bitcoin’s largest and most notorious coin exchanges
was brought down by law enforcement — and police and prosecutors are now beginning to explain why. On Thursday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Alexander Vinnik — thought to be the operator, or one of the operators of Bitcoin exchange BTC-e — charging him with 21 counts of money laundering and other related financial crimes. The counts range from operating an unlicensed money transmittal business to a variety of money laundering charges, including laundering associated with ransomware payouts and a theft from the now-defunct Mt Gox exchange. More generally, the indictment paints BTC-e as a hub of criminal activity, laundering the proceeds of everything from drug trafficking to ransomware attacks.
As some suspected, Vinnik’s alleged crimes go beyond just operating the exchange. Feds believe he played a role in the theft of more 800,000 bitcoin — about $400 million at the time — from Mt. Gox, a staggering loss that ultimately shuttered the exchange. According to the indictment, 530,000 of those bitcoin ended up passing through wallets controlled by or associated with Vinnik, although his role in the larger scheme remains unclear.Vinnik’s alleged crimes go beyond just operating a Bitcoin exchange
Vinnik himself is in custody, arrested while on vacation in Greece, but the Bitcoin world is still sorting through the larger implications of his arrest. BTC-e was one of the last major exchanges outside the reach of conventional finance, and now that it’s gone, it’s unclear what might replace it. There are many legitimate uses of Bitcoin, but Bitcoin transactions have also become essential for online crime — whether it’s ransomware or Silk-Road-style online marketplaces. There will continue to be demand for exchanges like BTC-e, and ____. With feds directly targeting exchanges that don’t play by the book, the split between the two halves of Bitcoin is becoming starker and starker.
BTC-e, founded in 2011, always stood out as an anomaly among the major Bitcoin exchanges. Even a cursory look at BTC-e flagged it as a little strange. “Their exchange prices always seemed weird and out of line with every other exchange, and I had wondered why,” Matthew Green, a professor at Johns Hopkins University told The Verge in an email.
Nicholas Weaver wrote at Lawfare that BTC-e was noted for its “sketchy ownership and control.” The exchange was supposedly located in Eastern Europe, but there were no clues as to who ran it — until now.300,000 bitcoin from Mt. Gox went to wallets tied to “BTC-e administrative accounts” But the big surprise in the indictment is how closely tied BTC-e is to a massive theft at Mt. Gox, one that eventually bankrupted the exchange in 2014. Founded in 2010, Mt. Gox dominated the Bitcoin world for years, at one point processing 80 percent of all bitcoin-to-currency transactions. Mt. Gox first suffered a multimillion-dollar theft in June 2011. When the exchange collapsed in 2014, the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars was unaccounted for.
On Wednesday, in the wake of the arrest of Vinnik, WizSec published a blogpost presenting the findings of an investigation into the Mt. Gox thefts that they have apparently been preparing for years. According to WizSec, the Mt. Gox hot wallet private keys were stolen sometime in 2011, and the hacker (or multiple hackers) continued to steal bitcoin through 2012 and 2013. The bitcoin were laundered through wallets controlled by Alexander Vinnik. The indictment claims that 300,000 bitcoin were stolen from Mt. Gox went directly to three connected BTC-e accounts “directly linked” to “BTC-e administrative accounts” that only BTC-e admins and operators could have had access to.
At least one of the accounts — under the name “Vamnedam” — was controlled by Vinnik and “others known and unknown.” (The “others known” are either not named in the indictment or have been redacted from the published document.)Many of the charges allege more straightforward money laundering" More bitcoin from the theft were sent to other Mt. Gox wallets and wallets at a third exchange — the now-defunct Tradehill, which operated out of San Francisco, California. From there, they eventually ended up at BTC-e, in an account that was directly controlled by Vinnik. WizSec also claims that the wallets that laundered Mt. Gox coins also handled “coins stolen from Bitcoinica, Bitfloor and several other thefts from back in 2011 and 2012.”
It’s not clear whether Vinnik was directly involved in the Mt. Gox theft, or how close he is to any of those previous thefts, or even the CryptoWall ransomware hackers whose funds he is accused of laundering. But when it comes to Mt. Gox, at least, BTC-e’s proximity to the theft is fairly suspicious.“Anybody who thought about this for a second understood that law enforcement was working on a case against BTC-e" While the Mt. Gox allegations are the most eye-catching, many of the charges that brought down BTC-e allege more straightforward money laundering. The very first count listed in the indictment is for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business: a criminal charge based on failing to register with FinCEN, an intelligence network that’s mandatory for all financial companies dealing with US customers.
Participating in FinCEN comes with a range of requirements, from registration to internal anti-money laundering programs. Since 2013, it’s been clear that Bitcoin exchanges had to follow those same rules, and for the most part, exchanges have complied — and prosecutors haven’t been shy about filing charges against services that don’t. In recent years, BTC-e has been the largest Bitcoin exchange not registered with FinCEN, a distinction that made it an obvious target for law enforcement, even without Vinnik’s alleged Mt. Gox involvement. “Anybody who thought about this for a second understood that law enforcement was working on a case against BTC-e,” said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center. “The question was just whether the government would catch them.”“designed so that criminals could effect financial transactions under multiple layers of anonymity”
Where other counts in the indictment focus on money transfers linked to theft and ransomware, the first two — operation of an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to commit money-laundering — focus on the technological capabilities of BTC-e itself, claiming that the exchange had a “criminal design.” “BTC-e’s system was designed so that criminals could accomplish financial transactions with anonymity and thereby avoid apprehension by law enforcement or seizure of funds,” the indictment says, pointing out that BTC-e only required “a username, password, and an email address,” unlike “legitimate payment processors or digital currency exchangers.” The indictment also points to suspicious usernames like “ISIS,” “CocaineCowboys,” “blackhathackers,” “dzkillerhacker,” and “hacker4hire” as additional support for the money-laundering allegations.
The language in the indictment about BTC-e’s “criminal design” mimics the indictment against Liberty Reserve — an anonymous currency service taken down by law enforcement in 2013 — which also accused the online exchange of having a “criminal design” and a system “designed so that criminals could effect financial transactions under multiple layers of anonymity.” (The Liberty Reserve indictment also took the time to point out that account names on the site included “Russia Hackers” and “Hacker Accounts.”) BTC-e’s website claimed that they required customers to provide proof of identity — namely, a scanned ID card and a scanned utility bill or bank statement — and forbid any US customers, letting them off the hook for FinCEN registration. But neither turned out to be true, according to the indictment.“Exchanges will go one of two ways. Either they’ll clean up their act… or they’ll go fully underground.”
Now that BTC-e is down for good, it could have a profound impact on the criminal ecosystem more broadly. BTC-e handled about 5 percent of total Bitcoin transactions, but recent research found that as much as 95 percent of ransomware cashouts happened through the platform. With most comparably sized exchanges already registered under FinCEN, the takedown could make it both harder and riskier for criminals to cash out — something law enforcement seems to be counting on. In the same Lawfare piece, Weaver says he thinks taking down BTC-e “will probably prove more important than the AlphaBay and Hansa takedowns” in fighting online crime. For Bitcoiners less invested in law enforcement’s war on dark web marketplaces, the lesson is a more ambiguous one. Cornell professor Emin Gun Sirer says the focus on FinCEN compliance could lead to a lasting split in Bitcoin markets, as exchanges face the choice of whether to comply with US government demands.
“Exchanges will go one of two ways,” Sirer says. “Either they will clean their act, by first shopping for the most lenient jurisdictions and complying with relevant KYC/AML laws, or they'll go ‘fully underground,’ and operate with no rules, behind Tor and other anonymous communication technologies. The most colorful drama ahead will involve exchanges, such as Bitfinex, that operate in the gray zone, where they seem to neither comply with relevant laws nor go fully underground.” For a technology with a surrounding community built on libertarian ideas, that may be a difficult pill to swallow. But as the past week has made clear, those that don’t will be taking a very serious risk.
