My experience: Cloud mining is no more profitable for individuals (self.Bitcoin)submitted by I am a cloud miner since Feb.2015 and over that period the payouts have decreased by half.As per my calculation I will take more than 50% extra time to break even.But since, I have a lifetime contract, I will be profitable in the long term right?Wrong, I will still loose out as the miner can stop mining if it is no more profitable to mine or the price of BTC falls further.The miner gave me 2 reasons: a) the mining difficulty and b) the low price of BTC these days hence, more maintenance cost in USD I understand a) but b) is more in favour of the miner than the people who buy the contracts.Because of the low price, the miner is deducting more BTCs after conversion to USD.My personal advice: don't buy cloud mining contracts as they are not in your favour and more in favour of the miners.That is how they earn money from your money.π Rendered by PID 14112 on app-241 at 2017-06-24 13:03:21.273265+00:00 running 3522178 country code: SG.

Roughly nine months ago, Bitcoin Foundation Chief Scientist Gavin Andresen made a rather interesting comment on Reddit in which he claimed, “I suspect many [cloud mining companies] will turn out to be Ponzi schemes.”There have been a few cloud mining scams uncovered over the past year or two, and it appears that another one could unravel in the near future.An anonymous source has provided information to Bitcoin Magazine regarding the possibility of a Bitcoin cloud mining ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin Cloud Services (BCS), which is currently one of the largest cloud-mining providers on the market.Founded by a known scammer with Photoshop One of the common attributes of a Ponzi scheme in the Bitcoin world is a reliance on anonymous owners.This information is available publicly on the bitcointalk forums thanks to Puppet’s Cloudmining 101 thread, but it hasn't stopped an estimated 4,300 users from signing up at Bitcoin Cloud Services.BCS also claims to be a silver member of the Bitcoin Foundation on their website, even though the foundation recently dropped the cloud mining company as a sponsor.

Further, the pictures of a supposed mining facility on the Bitcoin Cloud Services website contain no information about the mining facility or its owners besides a single banner hanging in the background.Compare to the photo below from Genesis Mining showing CEO Marco Streng in one of the company's mining farms.Editor's Note: This photo of Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng is provided courtesy of Genesis Mining and provided for comparison and reference only.bitcoin delete transactionGenesis Mining is not connected to Bitcoin Cloud Services in any way.bitcoin hold memeThe “company” also released a poorly made video based off the Photoshopped images in an effort to bring more legitimacy to their activities: The supporting evidence on the blockchain One of the key pieces of data provided by the anonymous source is a spreadsheet compiled via publicly available data on the Bitcoin blockchain but we do not know the specific bitcoin mining software used.bitcoin biggest holders

By watching Bitcoin Cloud Services’ payout address, the anonymous source was able to estimate the number of customers receiving payouts, along with BCS’s profits and losses.BCS seems to have started to operate at a loss near the end of April.How did BCS respond?By offering an extra year on their currently available mining contracts.Typical behavior of a Bitcoin cloud mining ponzi scheme.bitcoin seed fundsThis offer could be an attempt to keep a Ponzi scheme going for as long as possible.ethereal blade best heroAfter all, it will last only as long as new money is coming in.coinbase canadaThe back-of-the-envelope math based on the spreadsheet indicates that the operators could run off with as much as 2,500 BTC ($570,000 at current prices) with a bitcoin mining scam.ethereal monsters wiki

If it looks like a duck... Going back to Puppet’s Cloud Mining 101 thread, it seems clear that he understands the likelihood that BCS is a Ponzi scheme.The thread lists seven different criteria that are usually found in a Ponzi scheme, and BCS fits the bill in six out of seven criteria.The only test that BCS seems to have passed is having pictures of their mining facility on their website.ethereum mining poolOf course, as Puppet notes in his thread, “Pictures can be faked.” This seems to be what has happened in the case of Bitcoin Cloud Services.ethereum maximum amountPuppet currently has BCS listed under “Likely Ponzi scams that have yet to collapse,” and it’s unclear how long BCS will be able to keep up the charade.Up to this point, Puppet has been correct with 95 percent of his calls of a probable Bitcoin cloud mining ponzi scheme.

Bitcoin Magazine has reached out to BCS for comment.Mine over 10+ different Coins!They also sell antminer and you can exchange your coins to GOLD!!!CEX.io is one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges around.It started out in 2013 in London as a Bitcoin exchange and cloud mining provider.At some point its mining pool, known as Ghash.io, was so big it held 42% of the total network mining power.However, on January 2015 the cloud mining operations were closed and today CEX.io operates solely as a Bitcoin exchange.CEX.io is registered with FINCEN and It applies KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti money laundering) policies.This means you’ll need to verify your identity before you will be able to buy Bitcoins via the exchange.CEX.io allows you to buy Bitcoins using your credit card, a wire transfer or a SEPA transfer (if you live in the EU).However CEX.io transactions work a bit differentl than other Bitcoin exchanges, they are based on Fill-or-Kill orders (also known as FOK).FOK orders are orders that are executed immediately and in full.

So whatever you “agreed” to pay or get, that’s exactly what will happen.This is different than how other exchanges work where you may encounter liquidity issues.So for example, if you but 2 Bitcoins at an agreed rate on CEX.io you will definitely receive that amount, however if you but 2 Bitcoins on Bitstamp you will need to wait until someone who’s willing to sell you those Bitcoins at your requested price comes along.However, for this to work 100% CEX.io has to charge customers a premium so that they will always be able to fulfill their orders, hence the higher exchange rate.CEX.IO has a very clear explanation on their site about how this service works, here’s a summary of it: When you enter a trade, CEX.io calculates the price and freezes it for 120 seconds.You input the amount of money you wish to spend and you see the amount of Bitcoins you can receive.After you press the Buy/Sell Button, the system checks to see that you have enough funds available.If the situation on the market allows the execution of your order on conditions not worse than you agreed on, the order will be filled (The order can also be filled on more favourable conditions).

If there is a sudden spike in the exchange rate — preventing the execution of the order on the agreed conditions — you will be notified.After you confirm the trade, your order is matched to other orders on the exchange, and your balance is adjusted — sometimes the amount can be even greater than agreed on, but is never smaller.There are four different account limits on CEX.io – Basic, Verified, Verified Plus and Corporate.Basic accounts can buy up to $500 worth of Bitcoins per day and $2000 worth of Bitcoins a month.Verified accounts can buy up to $10,000 worth of Bitcoins per day and $100,000 worth of Bitcoins a month.Verified plus and Corporate accounts have no limitations on the amount of Bitcoins that can be bought.In order to become verified you’ll need to supply a government issued id and personal information about yourself.Perhaps one of the most controversial issues about CEX.io is the user reviews it gets online.Both TrustPilot and Bittrust give CEX.io an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

Reddit also had a very short and worried review about the exchange.However most people don’t actually read the detailed reviews they just look at the ratings, so I decided to do just that.It seems that the majority of dissatisfied user reviews are either complaining about the hidden fees (i.e.high exchange rate), the identity verification process or the site’s customer support.The first two issues are usually related to people not understanding the fine print, and CEX.io has made it much clearer in the past few months how much will you pay for your coins.As can be seen below: Regarding support I ran a test.I clicked on the “help” icon that’s available on each page of the site and wanted to see how fast I can get a response.The support rep answered within 20 seconds and gave me a pretty detailed response (even though it was a canned response).So personally I was pretty happy with that.Most of the bad reviews that were on TrustPilot also received a response from CEX.io so it’s good to see that the company cares about its reputation.

And finally, the short reddit review I read didn’t shed any new light on the exchange.Most people on Reddit said they didn’t have any issues with it, and the original poster just didn’t understand the identity verification process.Until today I have used CEX.io several times and haven’t had any issues.I think it’s a solid exchange, with the only downside being the 7% fee they charge for buying Bitcoins.In the past year or so the exchange has leap frogged froward and has become on of the leading Bitcoin brokers around.The user interface is very intuitive and even complete newbies will manage to buy Bitcoins with it.As long as you are aware of the fees and the verification process needed to buy more substantial amounts of Bitcoin you’re good to go.About Latest Posts Latest posts by Ofir Beigel (see all) [Review] Changelly VS ShapeShift– The “Instant” Cryptocurrency exchanges “Bitcoin and Ethereum…both soon obsolete” – James Ricakrds | $2623.69 “Why Bitcoin Can’t Serve As A Currency” – Seeking Alpha | $2345.56 CEX.io Fees Ease of use Support Reputation Pros Established company reputation Easy buying process Fast support Cons Extensive verification process Relatively high fees