New project for hashrate up on miners, absolute free, development of the project idea "ETHlargement" for new video card architectures ProjectETH+ release
Support Algo: Ethash/KawPow/ProgPow

Download: ProjectETH+

Virustotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e01cb7c04a499391150945dd956c2c29cf98ef043a9a13ebefa71297cb102c08/detection

Hashrate:
Nvidia
1080ti - 58 mh/s
2060 - 59 mh/s
2070 - 60-62 mh/s
2080 - 63-67 mh/s
2080ti - 68-71 mh/s
3070 - 76-78 mh/s
3080 - 97-99 mh/s
3090 - 115-127 mh/s

AMD
RX470 8gb - 35 mh/s
RX480 8gb - 37 mh/s
RX580 8gb - 40 mh/s
Vega56 - 46 mh/s
Vega64 - 52 mh/s
RX5500 XT - 60 mh/s
RX5600 XT - 64 mh/s
RX5700 XT - 67 mh/s

P.S.: the project is being drowned by competitors, don't trust anyone, check the information yourself

You're doing the right thing. He ran a business and lost other people's money illegally.

I doubt anyone remembers my comments from months ago, but I am a private arbitrager and used an automated system with my own funds. There are now other, more advanced competitors in the market and a manual system cannot compete with it. Even my system was seeing significantly reduced profits due to market crowding.

There is no profit for any new market entrants to make, especially if they have the overhead of managing incestors. The existing systems have more than enough funds and do not want new investors.

If anyone claims that they can make a profit for you with bitcoin arbitrage, they are lying. Keep your money far away from them.

For personal taxes, just write it down as "investment loss", and include an attachment explaining that the bitcoin was bought as an investment, but subsequently lost or unintentionally destroyed. Do it the same way that you would if the bitcoin was sent to an incorrect address, or lost due to a hard drive failure without backup. The loss can offset your profit from conventional investments.

The key is to report the Bitcoin as the investment, and not BTC-Arbs as the investment, because then the IRS may try to check their records for a company named BTC-Arbs, and wonder how you invested in an investment that doesn't exist.  But feel free to identify BTC-Arbs as the reason for the loss.

The accounting required to "properly" report bitcoin profits is the reason that most people use brokers (Scottrade, E*Trade, etc)  to manage their investment information. Considering how unreportable Bitcoin is, I wouldn't be surprised if the IRS just accepted whatever claims you make, as long as you have some evidence to back it up - if they disagree, you can always file a corrected tax return and completely omit the bitcoin


If & When you get bitcoin back, you can claim it as "recovered losses", which would be considered a profit because you already wrote it off.

In the meantime, BTC-Arbs has a moral obligation to provide statements to customers identifying how much they have lost as of the end of this tax year. At the very least, this would provide some convenience for customers - much like how Gox was partially re-opened so users could see their account balances. This is one of the biggest problems with using unregistered and unregulated investment services. Losses ARE valuable, because they can reduce the taxes owed on other investment gains, but you need a way to show that the losses happened.

I'm pretty sure it was.

I think that months ago (somewhere around page 90 maybe?) I outlined a few things that a legitimate arbitrage system would not do, and they contradicted a few of those things.
I did bitcoin arbitrage as a professional source of full-time income for a while, but have let my system go dormant recently because I used that system as a demonstration to get my current day job, which is a great job. People are free to take my comments with a grain of salt if they wish; there are very few "professionals" who arbitrage, especially in bitcoin. The people who lost money here deserve much better than they've been given, and it costs me nothing to offer bits of experience and caution.

If people are actually interested in investing in arbitrage, I can update and revive my system, starting around late December and start accepting investments if the logistics can be worked out and the profit is high enough I satisfy customers. Currently, I'm the only arbitrager I know of who hasn't scammed or lost other people's money.

Don't expect 1% daily profits though, it's just not realistic. I can have very open books so people can see their money at work, and I'd post realistic profit expectations. I have nothing to hide, the math speaks for itself.

So, would it be possible to verify that an entity is a full node if they sign to show their address and provide a hash of the entire blockchain + a nonce?
Can a contract be written into the scrypt stating that a designated node can receive the coins of a transaction? Or, why not give higher priority to transactions that include a small transaction to a known node address?

If an alt protocol is created to reward nodes, then it may be better to abandon processor-based mining altogether. It is possible to devise a protocol in which nodes constantly send blocks, and send 'gibberish' transactions in the block to provide the randomized value that allow the hash to be different for each block. When some set of conditions is met (like Node A can prove to the network that it received a transaction from Node B and they each used the same salt/random value to generate the transaction), then a reward can be split among nodes A, B, and all other nodes that directly observed and confirmed that transaction. This system could feasibly work because it's intention is to consume bandwidth - so needing tons of bandwidth to inform and validate with the network is a good thing, rather than a bad thing.
The benefit of consuming bandwidth rather than ASIC cycles is primarily that, in order to 'mine' faster, the miner must increase their bandwidth, which allows them to transmit more transactions. There is a perfect correlation between helping the network and the miner's profit. The gibberish transactions sent along the network can be discarded shortly after they are received; there is no reason to keep them, they can be treated just like any failed attempt to mine a block.
The actual signal that a block has been mined may be a bit tough to figure out though - the specific example I gave would be too easy to exploit.

Thanks for the critiques, it provides a lot to think about. Out of pocket, I could pay several thousand dollars worth of interest if my system didnt make any profit. I could do a proof of reserves pretty easily.

To clarify, the bond payouts would be in excess of all investor's capital. If I did 1-month bonds of $100 with 10% interest over that period (denominated in USD), all investors would receive $110 back, and they would all receive it simultaneously - I could set the payout day as the last day of the month for simplicity. Then, on the subsequent day, I could start a new round of investments, and invite the prior investors to invest again and the new bonds would be accepted over a period of a few days. I wouldnt accept any investment outside the posted rounds. I could set up a single address to receive all incoming funds, post the address, and at the end of the month I would send all funds back out through that address. If anyone tried to send money to that address mid-month, I could immediately send it back to the investor and add them to the contacts list so they would be informed of the start of the next round.
This strategy does have a downside that I would need to regularly liquidate and I would not have any of the investment money for 1 or 2 days per month. But, it would be publicly available proof of the amount of funds going in and the amount being sent back out, and anyone could check that each transaction out is 110% of each transaction in (after converting to dollars). I would prefer if each investor can accept the funds back using the same address that they sent from, but that may not be possible for all investors.
I could accept and manage the funds as btc-denominated amounts if the majority of investors really wanted that. Id prefer to do it all as dollars or all as BTC, as this would be simpler for other people to independently verify.

I am seriously considering opening my arbitrage program to outside money after my next upgrade, but there would be a handful of unique benefits to any investors:
1: investment may take the form of a bond. So, if I lost the money, I would be held legally liable and my personal property could be taken to repay investors. This is a big deal - there is no way to run away from investors in this scenario. Also, investors would have access to my personal and contact info.
2: All funds, both principal and interest, would be returned simultaneously to all investors on regular cycles. This works well with the bond form of investment, and proves that the investment can't be a ponzi scheme because it's not possible to use Peter's money to pay Paul when both Peter and Paul get their money back at the same time. All investors would be required to submit their deposit address when they first join, so I could ensure that everyone gets their money back exactly as scheduled.
3: Because it's a bond, investors would have a promised return amount, and they would get the amount whether my program is profitable or not. If I don't make profit, then I would pay the interest out of pocket.
4: I would show some of the security precautions over the program - things like professional off-site hosting, encryption, etc.
5: I attend major Bitcoin events and am more than willing to meet potential investors or partners

I wanted to wait for the crazy money and fraudulent HYIP to go away, because there is no way for an honest program to compete with the ridiculous claims of 100% profits in a month that some of those things promised. Unfortunately, almost all of those programs failed and the thieves are nowhere to be found. I expected scammers to be caught and brought to justice and this would discourage future scams, but this has yet to happen.

Lesnod11, I don't know where you are getting your information but I can quote the proposed regulations. Bitcoin is my weekend/evening job; it's my business to know these things at a professional level. I don't intend to sound rude or condescending, but this literally is my 2nd job.
An entity can still do arbitrage on their own behalf - using their own money - but they follow a different set of rules when using someone else's money. Part 200.2(n) says that a "Virtual Currency Business Activity means the conduct of any one of the following types of activities involving New York or a New York Resident: ... [part 2] securing, storing, holding, or maintaining custody or control of Virtual Currency on behalf of others."
Then, 200.3 (a) states "No Person shall, without a license obtained from the superintendent as provided in this Part, engage in any Virtual Currency Business Activity."

So, any entity/person holding or controlling Bitcoin for a New York resident MUST have a license. Out of the hundreds of customers Btc-Arbs had, they almost certainly have at least a few New York residents. Btc-Arbs would also fall under the definition of the regulation in other sections as well. The full text is at http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/press2014/pr1407171-vc.pdf


In order to avoid just that quoted section, btc-arbs would need to fully refund all New York residents before the regulation goes into effect. And even then, any of those residents could say that the claimed profits are still owed to them.

Btc-Arbs, if you are able to, please consider registering as a company ASAP - even if it's a shell company based on an island no one's ever visited, with Elvis named as the owner.

This will help you send statements to your investors to show some form of proof of losses. They can use this on their taxes to offset profit from Bitcoin or other investments (assuming they report Bitcoin on their taxes).

The process of doing this may be more work than you want to face, but it could be valuable for your customers, and negate a big portion of their losses. It will be much easier to do this before New York's regulations take effect.

Im not counting on it. Both the spread and volatility have decreased dramatically. There are new players in arbitrage now; with lots of coins and good software. Dont expect them to make any announcements, they wont seek any new investors, and they have no desire to be publicly known.

Additionally, the regulations proposed in New York will shut down all legitimate Bitcoin-based investments (they effectively say that the company cant hold any bitcoin except the exact amount given by customers, and therefore anyone doing arbitrage wont be able to legally buy or sell if they have any New York customers). This is a very big threat to both the BTC investing community and the Bitcoin community as a whole, as investment money was expected to increase the value of bitcoin and help improve liquidity worldwide.

I dont envy Btc-Arbs. He/they have my respect for refunding customers, coming out with honest info, and staying in touch with the community. The days of easy profit are pretty near an end.


Personally, Im considering if it's worth my time to make the next set of upgrades on my system. I can still make more than $2 per btc per day, but only on low volume - it would bring less income than my day job.


On a final note for everyone, don't put any money into any HYIP at all. The profits dont exist anymore, and any program accepting any US customers will invariably have a NY resident or two and the entire program will be illegal - customers wont be subject to any legal repercussions, but the operator will be and may have all their assets confiscated. If you want to invest in Bitcoin or invest with Bitcoin, the best way is to get off the internet and start pushing it in real life. See how your professional skills can be used in the Bitcoin economy.

All sites promising high returns are, across-the-board, scams. There is only one that I know of which wasn't run as a scam, but they lost all their investor's money through carelessness anyway and are slowly trying to pay back the initial investment.
Any system that solicits small investments across the internet is almost certainly incapable of returning a profit to those investors.

I do have first-hand knowledge on this subject because I run an investment program using only my personal wealth and i do what HYIPs claim to do. I am not soliciting investment online, though that is a possibility in the distant future. I would expect that anyone who invests in my program (if I accept outside investment) will meet me in person, have all my contact information (phone, email, name, address; all of it), and would have a signed contract for the investment agreement.

A person running a legitimate program will not spend their time looking for investors. They will spend their time looking for insurance companies and financial auditors - which is exactly what I am trying to do. They care about securing funds, rather than acquiring them.

This really is big. Intuit have been pushing their online version as the next major payment system. This may make it incredibly easy for huge numbers of merchants, especially small or medium-sized companies, to accept bitcoin.

The idea of "hedging" Bitcoin by buying altcoins is ridiculous - it's the exact opposite of hedging, as altcoins are more risky than bitcoin. Hedging is done to reduce risk by taking a position that is opposite to an existing position.

The only way to hedge bitcoin that you own is to shortsell bitcoin. To a limited extent, a person could buy derivative contracts to lock a sell price, but the bitcoin ecosystem does not have a particularly good system for this.

I want to do arbitrage with this website, but the pricing structure needs to be cleaned up.

First, everything should keep the same unit, or at least have a display that is in the same unit. Or, at the very least, the units should be identified.

Here is an example trade in the UI:
Quantity: 59 (59 what? Bitcoin? Dollars? No, it's 59 sets of $10)
Price: 590 (So here we're using units of $1, rather than the $10 used in the above item)
Margin to buy: .2827 (.2827 what? Dollars? Units of $10? No, it appears to be .2827 BTC)

Each of those three items are in different units. There is no reason for this whatsoever. The lack of units on the UI is inexplicable when the pricing mechanism is this over-complicated already.
For all the user can tell, the margin is NOT .2827 bitcoin, but rather $0.2827 per $10 contract, because those are the units that have already been used in the UI.

Based on the limited information available, I believe Btc-Arb's strategy has failed to return profits over most of the last week. Additionally, his system is probably not hedged, so he loses money when the bitcoin price goes down (but this reduces his debt more, as the debt is measured in terms of bitcoin).

I emailed him offering to exchange information shortly after his original post, but will email him again and offer to help more directly.


I can temporarily open my system and allow him to copy my investments manually. I am currently looking at an unusually high profit around $7 per bitcoin today, so he would have much higher yields.

Kudos to Btc-Arbs for posting here and making the repayments more public. And more importantly, EXCELLENT work to everyone on the forum for building and maintaining the repayment spreadsheet.

My advice to Btc-Arbs: Pay off the smallest accounts as soon as possible; certainly any that are less than 0.25 BTC to get them out of the way. Make your job easier. Stay in contact with your larger customers and keep a steady flow of coin back to them as well. Also, set up social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and announce those accounts here so people know they are linked to you.

Everyone with larger balances: I would not expect all amounts to be repaid within a short time frame of a month or two. The admin at Btc-Arbs has already shown that he is over-optimistic with his promises. Based on the very limited information available, I believe he uses an arbitrage system that is sub-optimal. In other words, his system is inferior to the one I use - I have a good sense of my profitability, and the days that I make those profits. I would not expect to make 350 BTC within a month or two, so I do not think he can either.



If anyone is considering a future arbitrage program, please take this advice from someone who is doing the real thing:
1: They will not accept small deposits. As Btc-Arbs has discovered, managing several hundred customers can be a nightmare when all of them want a response at once.
2: They will not post daily profit reports, or at least will post a huge caveat with the report. Arbitrage profits are NOT simple arithmetic. A good system may use quantitative analysis in addition to arbitrage, and this complicates everything. Also, there are occasions when the buy and sell happen across midnight (thus they are on different days), so a daily profit does not exist for these trades.
3: They will have a system that provides security and separation of machines. The arbitrage platform will not be on the same computer that hosts the website, and another separate computer will be used for customer interaction. Overlapping these systems is pure insanity for any business, and suicidal for a bitcoin-based business, as Btc-Arbs has sadly discovered. A half-decent hacker can create a custom trojan and try to send it through the website or email - and very few (if any) antivirus programs will detect a new customized trojan because it is not in their dictionary.

If you see a program that does not satisfy these three basic conditions, then look somewhere else.

The FDIC doesn't deal much with bank customers on an individual level. They also don't take over banks persay - they help liquidate them and sell the business to another bank that can handle the accounts. They are very, very good at what they do. There are occasions when certain government bodies can be small and have a very confined focus, and all their employees are highly experienced experts.

Occasionally, if a bank is very bad and no other bank will buy it, they will send checks to the customers.

It really bothers me when people complain about the FDIC and claim the free market could do better. The banks would scream bloody murder if the FDIC was instantly dissolved - even if it's assets were split among banks. If the FDIC goes away, then consumer deposits are not safe, customers won't make deposits, banks won't have money to loan, and much of the economy stops. A private for-profit company will not come in and save the day during a bad economy - for-profit companies don't do that. But we can imagine a scenario where there is a company that does offer private insurance for bank deposits. An insurance company would be the obvious choice, as this is their business anyway and they are usually very conservative with money - and many provide mortgage insurance, so deposit insurance would not be a big stretch. And in 2007, the largest, wealthiest, and most capable insurance company on Earth was... AIG.


So, overall, I think the FDIC has done a pretty good job.

I've always wished that annual tax forms included a section where you could indicate where you want your tax money to go, and then those collected results could be published each year. Whether it's done as a priority list or allows people to actually pick percentages, it would be a great way to measure public perception and desires, even if it's just a survey and non-binding. It would reach a lot more people than random Gallop polls, and people would probably feel a tiny little bit better about paying their taxes because they at least have a chance to say where they want the money to go.

100K BTC would far exceed any investment needed for arbitrage. If the website received anywhere near that, I would expect that they would stop accepting new accounts. Otherwise, they would receiving funds that they could never use, and (if they ever actually tried to conduct any real arbitrage) it would dilute the profits of existing investors. There's no reason to accept any more funds than that, even if the host was planning to run a scam, other than pure greed.

Personally, I would stop accepting new funds before hitting 10K. But then again, I'm honest.



Everyone should file a police report for their losses. Even if the police never look at it, it will be helpful when filing your taxes because you can subtract that loss from any bitcoin profits. If the reader doesn't intend to report bitcoin on their taxes, then it could still be useful in case the tax authorities find out (like from your bank) and provide protection in an audit.

Regarding the banking connections of Btc-Arbs, anyone who sent or received funds via their bank should contact their bank and have any sort of flag or tracer placed on the account if it is possible. It may never result in a successful lead, but the point is that the person who stole the money can't run off with total impunity.

You are correct, and I am in the processes of doing exactly that - I've been working on it since January. The system is profitable; very profitable. I have many days with hundreds of dollars of profit, and very few days with losses.
I honestly thought that Btc-arbs was real and doing exactly what I am doing, except that maybe they had started their software development a bit earlier to capture more of the February, March, and April profits. But I know arbitrage orders when I see them, and I never saw the order patterns from them.

And before anyone asks, I am not looking for investors. I have enough of my own money in the system, and I would not want outside investment unless I could purchase insurance to protect the investors. Also, I would insist that investors keep their money and profits once the market hits peak profit - but investors will often often try to invest even more money. The hardest part of managing a profitable investment is not finding investors - the hardest part is convincing them to take their profits. No one wants to go home in the middle of the party, but the investment only has a limited capacity.