SINOC doubts: the past life of MLM coins, the present life of funds
Editor's Note: This article comes fromHoneycomb Finance NEWSEditor's Note: This article comes from
Honeycomb Finance NEWS
(ID: fengchao-caijing),author Umm, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
On March 8, the digital asset exchange BIT-Z launched SINOC currency trading pairs, and various communities were called "bombed". The project still collects membership fees from investors in the name of selling computing power contracts and mining machines, promises high returns, encourages development to go offline, and the more offline, the greater the rebate.
From issuing coins to building its own mining pool, SINOC claims to provide investors with one-stop mining services. Honeycomb Finance found that the mining machine technology and team background of this project overlap with the team background and operation model of MChain, which was previously reported as a "pyramid currency" by many investors.
Tan Yunhui, a miner, believes that SINOC is a capital game, but this has not stopped him from investing. "As long as it lasts for three months without crashing, I can make money."
In addition, the features of the SINOC project, such as setting thresholds for cash withdrawal and “pulling people’s heads”, are similar to domestic cases involving virtual currency and pyramid schemes in 2019. According to the China Judgment Documents Network, as of March 13, among the 12 cases that occurred this year, although pyramid schemes have different names when engaging in illegal and criminal activities, their "cash withdrawal threshold", "pulling people's heads", " The essence of "high interest rate return" and "celebrity platform" remains unchanged.
The patterns are exactly the same, and wealth tempts investors to keep pouring in. This kind of funds entering the currency market is like a trap dug by a hunter for its prey. Once investors fall, it is inevitable that they will be hurt.
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The SINOC team is suspected of being accused of funds
On March 8, SINOC was listed on the digital asset exchange BIT-Z. Before landing on BIT-Z, the price of SINOC rose by more than 80% in the past month, and the highest single-day increase was close to 455%, which was an outstanding performance in the bear market. But soon, the currency price fell from a high of $5 to $1.055, the highest drop of 78.9% on the day.
According to the official website of SINOC, it is a public blockchain system for the cloud storage and game industry, using the POC (Proof of Capacity) underlying protocol. In short, the larger the hard disk capacity of the mining machine, the higher the computing power, and the more coins that can be mined.
According to the white paper of SINOC, the token issuance of the project was issued in the form of selling "computing power contracts" in the early stage. So far, the project still collects membership fees from novices in the name of selling computing power contracts and mining machines, promises high returns, and encourages users to go offline. The more offline, the greater the rebate.
Honeycomb Finance consulted SINOC staff as an investor and learned that miners need to mortgage SINOC tokens before mining. The mortgage amount ranges from 300 SINOC coins to 2000, about $300 to $2000. "If you want to stop mining halfway, you can return the pledged coins, but the refund will deduct 5% of the handling fee."
Not long ago, the information about SINOC’s listing on the exchange was “exploded” in various coin speculation groups, and some groups were spreading its mortgage model diagram.
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When SONIC was listed on the exchange, the "explosion group" spread
In the official slogan of SINOC, its exclusive mining machine is the second-generation IPFS smart contract mining equipment designed and developed by the American SINOC company. Mining capacity of other currencies.
The Chinese name of IPFS is "Interplanetary File System", and the founding team Protocol Labs describes it as a "global, peer-to-peer distributed version file system". In 2017, the founding team of IPFS completed a crowdfunding of US$254 million for the incentive system Filecoin (FIL). As of now, the official launch time of its main network has not been announced, which means that SINOC is currently listing IPFS mining machines.
The IPFS main network has not yet been launched, but mining machines for it are very popular. As early as September 2018, the IPFS China community officer conveniently issued a statement about the "SINOC mining machine". It said that it has not promoted any mining machines for the time being, and has not stood up for any company. It is recommended that investors purchase cautiously.
On the other hand, among the six start-up team members listed on SINOC’s official website, Jose Toti, Sandesh, and Jose Hasemann are all certified users of the professional social networking site LinkedIn. The information shows that the current working places of the three are not SINOC.
In response to the above questions, Honeycomb Finance got in touch with the SINOC project party by email, and the other party replied with a new email address and said, "If you have any questions, you can contact it." But as of the press date, the email address has not yet responded.
He made a calculation with Honeycomb Finance. To buy a 4T capacity SINOC physical mining machine, he needs to mortgage 1,000 coins. It is estimated that 30 coins will be produced every day. The cost is about 15,000 yuan, and the cost will be paid back in 50 days. "The mortgaged currency can be sold after refund, which is actually equivalent to investing in a 5,000 yuan computer."
Tan Yunhui said that the premise of this calculation is that the currency price does not fall. Now, he has joined SINOC for a month. In his opinion, this is a fund-raising project that can make money by investing in the early stage. "The project does not even open source the code, and it will disappear someday if it is not guaranteed." But he predicts, " As long as I don’t crash for three months, I can make money.”
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SINOC is suspected to be related to another MLM currency
Open the official SINOC mining pool, whose domain name is "mchainpool.com".
On September 15, 2018, a user of Mchain Baidu Tieba posted a post saying that Mchaih had been acquired by Sinoc, and the original contract computing power platform of Mchain was officially switched to the Sinoc mining machine hosting platform. In this regard, Honeycomb Finance tried to verify the matter with the Sinoc project, but as of the press date, it has not received a reply.
An investor with the online name "Observer" revealed that the predecessor of Mchain was MCC, a classic miner's coin, which was previously questioned by many self-media as a "pyramid currency".
According to the information provided by the Tencent WeChat Mini Program Guardian Program, MCC coins have been marked by 2928 people on the Lingkun platform. It has obvious characteristics of capital disk such as entry fee, recruiting, and team compensation.
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MCC coins have been marked by 2928 people on the Lingkun platform
The aforementioned investors told Honeycomb Finance that Mchain had sold computing power to investors through cloud mining. "At the beginning, the team promised to invest 20,000 yuan, and they could earn back 60,000 yuan a year. Later, the currency basically returned to zero." Looking back on his investment experience, he said that he mistrusted the technical terms written in the white paper. "Now Lianying None."
Since there is no buyer to take over, MCC is just a string of numbers on his virtual account. Now he has reported to the China Internet Crime Reporting Center together with a number of investors.
Peeling off the layers of packaging, the core business models of SINOC and Mchain projects are both self-built and non-open source blockchain networks to issue tokens, and then sell computing power to attract users to purchase computing power mortgage tokens. These mortgaged tokens Become the key to supporting the market value of its tokens.
Some insiders said that such projects often use WeChat groups, telegram groups, etc. to create the illusion of "quick money" and "multiple people grabbing" to lure investors into the game. "Users are interested in the high interest rate return of the project, but the project is focused on the user's principal."
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Data shows that cases of virtual currency and pyramid schemes have grown exponentially in recent years. Among the 102 suspected pyramid schemes previously published by the People’s Daily, there are many “virtual currency” projects among them, including “deputy mayor platform” and other packaging methods.
According to the China Judgment Documents Network, as of March 13, there have been 12 domestic cases involving virtual currency pyramid schemes in 2019. There were 16 cases in 2015, 52 cases in 2016, 121 cases in 2017, and 236 cases in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of over 100%.
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The average annual growth rate of domestic virtual currency and pyramid scheme cases exceeds 100%
MLM in the name of blockchain technology or virtual currency is nothing new in the currency circle.
Looking through the 12 recent cases involving virtual currency pyramid schemes, it is not difficult to find that although pyramid schemes have different names and names when they engage in illegal and criminal activities, their essence of lock-up, head-grabbing, high-interest return, and celebrity platform remains the same.
The packaging is constantly changing, and the content is exactly the same. Wealth lures investors to keep pouring in. This type of fund market is like a trap dug by a hunter for its prey. Once investors fall, it is inevitable that they will be hurt and even lose their money.
Industry insiders analyzed that digital assets have become a high incidence of pyramid schemes because they are "close to money". The skyrocketing bitcoin has brought a wealth effect to the blockchain, and external speculation has facilitated the drainage of funds. On the other hand, investors' awareness of capital markets also needs to be improved urgently.
In August 2018, four departments including the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Risk Reminder on Preventing Illegal Fund-raising in the Name of "Virtual Currency" and "Blockchain"", saying that some lawbreakers used "financial innovation" and "blockchain" "Under the banner of ", it absorbs funds through the issuance of so-called "virtual currency", "virtual assets" and "digital assets", which is the practice of illegal fund-raising, pyramid schemes, and fraud.
According to the announcement, the main characteristics of such projects include: relying on the Internet and chat tools for transactions, using online payment tools to receive and disburse funds, and the risk spreads widely and spreads quickly. Using hot concepts to hype, fabricating various "tall" theories, using airdrops of "candies" as temptations, declaring that "the currency value only rises but never falls", "short investment cycle, high returns, and low risks".
In addition, in actual operation, criminals illegally seek huge profits by manipulating the so-called virtual currency price trend behind the scenes, setting profit and withdrawal thresholds, and other means.
