The question of how to ‘join bitcoin’ or ‘invest’ in bitcoin in South Africa, is a common one, usually from someone looking for the next way to make fast money, not from someone genuinely interested in bitcoin, the Blockchain, or crypto currencies in general.
There happen to be a wide variety of ‘get-rich-quick schemes’ and ‘systems’ running in South Africa that use bitcoin as well as Rand. Almost all of them are a variation of a pyramid scheme or High Yield Investment Program, and will eventually fail, causing many people to lose their money.
With the rise of bitcoin over the last couple of years, many of these programs are now jumping onto the bandwagon and spreading half truths and misinformation about bitcoin, to promote their system.
Bitcoin Accumulation programs
There are ‘bitcoin accumulation’ schemes and ‘systems’ where you can earn ‘interest’ or more money than you ‘invest’ with bitcoin. THIS IS A SCAM!!! Often disguised as FREE BITCOIN EDUCATION, the information provided is factually incorrect, and filled with affiliate links to sub standard and questionable websites that will financially benefit the authors when you sign up.
The bitcoin supply is finite, there is NO INTEREST to earn, and if you believe you will buy bitcoin for one price, and after some time you will have more bitcoin than you bought….you are being scammed. Dont believe everything you read on the internet….ask yourself, if you are ‘earning bitcoin’, where does it come from? In most cases either you are getting completely scammed and you will not get back all your money, OR, you are recruiting others and scamming them without knowing it, as it is them who are funding your ‘earnings’, and they are the ones who lose all their money…making YOU the one who is literally stealing money from other users. Do not contribute to this problem in the bitcoin community! Normally these are the same people who are promoting a variety of ponzi schemes and dubious ‘systems’ to make money, and they have a reputation for questionable conduct in the bitcoin community.
Bitcoin has performed well since it started (Figures accurate on 27/05/2016)
Quack Financial advisor newsletters
These ‘advisors’ keep sending out newsletters and updates with so called ‘proof’ of their predictions of the markets and now that bitcoin is around, they are suddenly experts in cryptocurrencies too.
Membesr and users are shown all sorts of bitcoin information, and then told they can join in and make lots of money with bitcoin, by joining the scheme or program. Most of the time the scheme has NOTHING to do with bitcoin, other than it uses it as a payment method, but users are led to believe it is all part of the same thing.
The people running these schemes are well organised, and have ‘wealth seminars’, as well as conferences, meetups, and live chats online, where they talk about bitcoin as if they and their scheme are part of it. It is shocking to see how the people running these ‘wealth growing’ and ‘investment’ systems have themselves very little knowledge of how bitcoin works, but since it is more than the people who are there to participate, they look like gurus.
Every day we are inundated with emails, Facebook messages and calls from people who think that they have ‘joined bitcoin’ and now they dont know what is happening, but they want their money! Unfortunately many poor users even think they are bitcoin miners, because they are part of a system that is ‘mining bitcoins’, yet they dont know much about anything except the name of a website.
The fact of the matter about people who think they are ‘bitcoin miners’ is that they are almost always not. Most of the time they are involved in a fancy ponzi scheme, that only tells them they are bitcoin miners, and of course, takes payment in bitcoin. What people should remember is that almost anyone over the age of 16 can make a website, so dont believe everything you read or see online! Check if your ‘bitcoin cloud mining’ website can pass these checks.
Here are some points to note when you are told about bitcoin:
You do not have to pay anyone to become a member of any scheme to buy, sell, or use bitcoin.
If you would like to trade bitcoin, or ‘invest’ in bitcoin, just buy some bitcoin. You do not need to be a member of a ‘system’ to do that. To be part of the bitcoin community, and to take part in the bitcoin revolution, all you need to do is own some bitcoin. Join a bitcoin exchange, buy some bitcoin, and you have officially ‘joined bitcoin’.
A bitcoin account is FREE
You do not need to pay anything to have a bitcoin account or bitcoin wallet. You can get one for free within seconds, and you do not need to go through any other person to do this. The bitcoin exchange you use to purchase bitcoins on will always give you a free bitcoin wallet, and you can download a bitcoin wallet to your computer, or use a web or mobile phone based wallet, all for free. Check out our list of bitcoin wallets to choose from here.
There are no ‘Administration fees’ for your bitcoin account
Since you open your bitcoin wallet yourself, there are no other people involved, and never should be. You do not need to pay someone to ‘administer’ your account for you. If anyone is offering you that ‘service’, you are probably about to be scammed. There are zero ‘admin’ fees or ‘activation’ fees with your bitcoin account.
Minimum investment to join bitcoin
There is NO minimum buy in or investment for bitcoin. Beware is people who try to tell you there is! You might want to make it worth your while by starting with R500 or R1000 worth of bitcoin, but if you want to buy R50 worth of bitcoin, you can do that. There is no minimum investment amount for bitcoin, you can even buy R5 worth of bitcoin if you desire. Do not let anyone tell you that there is a minimum amount you MUST invest to be part of bitcoin!
There is NO table of monthly profit/interest or earnings with bitcoin
Bitcoin is traded like a stock or forex on exchanges. The price goes up and down all the time, and nobody can predicct the price in 10 minutes, let alone one month. If someone is showing you tables with figures of earnings you will get, you are most likely involved in another scam.
If you know anything about bitcoin, you will know that ANY system that offers interest on your bitcoin deposits is a scam or pyramid scheme. Stay away!
Bitcoin mining websites
This is one of the biggest cons out there on the internet. There are thousands of bitcoin cloud mining websites, but only a very very small amount are real. The ones that are real, are not very profitable, and you dont make a lot of money. If a website is offering you bitcoin mining and promising great returns, you are almost certainly going to be scammed, or you might just be joining a pyramid / ponzi scheme that says it is bitcoin mining but it is not. Many bitcoin mining websites are just websites, nothing more, they do not mine, they just take your bitcoin, and pay you back small amounts over a long period of time, often vanishing before you have made back your money.
Again, if you REALLY think you are a bitcoin miner, and are mining bitcoin by sending your bitcoin to a random website, I challenge you to check them against our cloud mining scam points list.
Other alt coins and crypto currencies that will make you rich
Don’t buy in to pump-and-dump altcoins that claim to be the next bitcoin, and encourage you to get in early.
Most of these ‘coins’ that are presented at ‘wealth seminars’ rely on everything from outright fraud such as pre-mined coins or insta-mined coins, to features that have no cryptographic proofs to sucker new buyers in.
These ‘sales people’ of these new crypto coins baffle users with crypto lingo and false promises to get everyone to sign up to the ‘next big thing’. The influx of buyers artificially inflates the price, so that the people running the ‘coin’ who have already pre-mined, can dump their coins onto the market, cashing out with all your hard earned money. Understand that ‘cons’ that are POS (Proof of Stake) or weak POW (Proof of Work), can be attacked at very little cost. This is why Bitcoin is the MOST secure crypto coin out there and a much better choice. Do your research! Stop just believing websites and people at face value, do your due diligence on them, and question everything, this is your money at risk!
How to join bitcoin and buying bitcoin on an exchange
If you would like to buy bitcoin you can do so quickly, easily and safely on a licenced bitcoin exchange. You do not need to be a member of any system or scheme, or pay any monthly fees to anyone for the privilege. As long as you are over 18, you can open a FREE account on a bitcoin exchange, and buy and sell bitcoin all day long. There are no monthly admin fees, or activation fees, it is just you transacting directly with the exchange, and being part of the bitcoin ecosystem. That is how you ‘join bitcoin‘. (Read more on investing in bitcoin in South Africa)
In South Africa you can register for free on www.luno.com exchange. If you would like to take advantage of the cheapest prices, you should register on both, so that you have better pricing options. Once your account has been verified with your ID, and proof of address, you are free to deposit money by bank transfer. Once your account on the exchange has been funded and has a positive balance, you can trade bitcoins.
Congratulations! You have ‘joined bitcoin’ and are now a bitcoin trader!
Nguyen Ha
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