My Opinion

The Swiss financial regulator will in future ban anonymous transactions of bitcoins and other virtual currencies. It is causing a negative excitement in the crypto industry.

According to their name and their intention, virtual currencies like Bitcoin should be "cryptic" - that is, secret, of unclear origin. Therefore, they are also a popular means of money laundering and covert financing. The Swiss financial regulator (Finma) now wants to put an end to this in its area of responsibility and requires an "address slip" for every transaction. This is making big waves in the crypto industry.

Although the announcement already took place on August 26, 2019, it is only now really being noticed by the players in this sector and is provoking some violent reactions. Critics fear a paradigm shift, speak of the "end of crypto payments", a "technology-discriminating practice" and a location disadvantage for the Swiss banking center.

In fact, the federal supervisory authority now applies the same "Travel Rule" to transactions with cryptocurrencies that already applies to banks' normal payment transactions and that makes binding information on the sender and beneficiary for each order. This is intended to enable verification and comparison with sanction lists. The introduction of this so-called "Travel Rule" is not an invention of Finma, but essentially implements the guidelines agreed in June 2019 by the OECD working group "Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering". The aim of the agreement is to better combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

So there are also more sober voices: According to the head of the blockchain department of management consultancy PwC, Daniel Diemers, this step corresponds to "the general weather situation". The discussions of the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements, the ECB and the European Financial Market Authority went in the same direction. After all, traditional banks are also not allowed to process anonymous payments. However, it is still unclear how the new regulation can best be implemented technically for Switzerland. The travel data could be given in the blockchain or noted centrally and then linked to the chain.

In terms of secrecy, token suisse founder and CHIEF executive Alain Kurz pours plenty of water into the wine, because "although many investors believe that bitcoin can be paid anonymously, the opposite is true". This guarantee would only be provided by private coins such as the Monero. With this digital money, most payments would now be processed on the infamous darknet.

Which technical solutions the financial service providers offer to implement the new Finma regulation is still unclear. Bitcoin Suisse has set up an open discussion platform at openvasp.org. What is certain is that the costs will increase - however, according to Daniel Diemers, crypto transactions should remain cheaper in the future than traditional payments.

On April 23, 2017, PlatinCoin got announced as a cryptocurrency without mining ("There Will Not Be Mining"). As soon as those responsible people realized that they are only operating a Ponzi scheme instead of an MLM system, they quickly invented without any consideration a minting option. Until today none of these scammers has been able to explain a difference between mining and minting.

After the scammer Alex Reinhardt also suffers on chronic overestimation and apparently, like all scammers, is too lazy to acquire or buy missing specialist knowledge, he has now unmasked himself. This scammer has still the opinion that it is still possible to generate LiteCoins on mobile phones. Even someone who has already robbed many people for a lot of money cannot buy intelligence with the stolen money.

Alex Reinhardt was previously known from his collaboration with SwissCoin. He was rated very high in the affiliate base and was supposedly the key promoter for the cryptocurrency team. According to reports, however, SwissCoin was a clear Ponzi system, from which was warned by Switzerland, Nigeria and Germany immediately before the administrative structure collapsed.

Today SwissCoin has a value of zero, the project is dead and worthless. According to some reports, the project was seen in its premises and processes as "almost identical fraud to OneCoin".

Alex Reinhardt reportedly stopped working with SwissCoin in January 2017, just one month after the foundation of PLC Group AG.

It has been claimed that PlatinCoin (originally from PLC Group AG) is a sophisticated Ponzi / Pyramid system that is flooded with red flags, allegations, and warnings from key financial authorities. In particular, BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority from Germany) has warned against investing in PlatinCoin. The CEO of PLC Group AG, Alex Reinhardt, was also an employee of SwissCoin, a Ponzi scheme that collapsed shortly after PLC was founded.

In order to dispel the suspicion of operating a pyramid scheme, people try to protect themselves under the guise of renting the most modern, but most likely worthless, equipment.

According to the publication [PLC] PlatinCoin - PreLaunch Cryptosystem Announcement [.pdf (350.86 kb)] from April 23, 2017, 16:27:56 in the Bitcoin Forum, the primary company behind PlatinCoin was PLC Group AG, which is still registered in Switzerland.

Here is a brief excerpt from the PlatinCoin announcement:

Website: https://platincoin.com/en/
Wallet Client: https://platincoin.com
Official registration of the company: https://www.zefix.ch/en/ and here: www.moneyhouse.ch and here: https://zg.chregister.ch
Blockchain: https://platincoin.info/
Kraudfanding platform: http://projektstarter.eu/
Press: http://izvestia.ru/news/681782
Instruction to registration: https://youtu.be/IUTA7NB9_lM
The messenger: https://elvn.com/

Third generation crypto asset 10 second transactions.
First Secure PoW+PoS Coin. Based on gibrid PoW + PoS own patented system. Provably Secure.
No 51% attack.
No mining. No double spending.
There will be no TOKENS,
There will be no SPLIT,
There Will not Be Mining
NO DIFFICULTY!

So far, however, there are several follow-up companies or subsidiaries or allegedly "independent" organizations having nearly the same name, which have connections to the PlatinCoin project:

• PLC GROUP AG Switzerland founded on 28.12.2016
  Address: Baarerstrasse 14, 6300 Zug, Switzerland.
  Registered capital: CHF 100,000
  CEO: Reinhardt, Alex, German citizen, Berlin
  Member of the Board: Vecellio, Orlando, from Poschiavo, area Freienbach, Switzerland

  According to :gerlachreport, Orlando Vecellio, board member and sales manager of PLC Group AG, announced in an internal email, which :gerlachreport should also have, the end of the cryptocurrency PlatinCoin on July 24, 2017.

• PLATIN GENESIS DMCC, founded on Oct 22, 2017.
  This company was located at JUMEIRAH LAKE TOWERS SWISS TOWER UNIT NO 1004-44 DUBAI, UAE.
  The license of this company expired on Oct 21, 2019 (Screenshot).

  A rogue who thinks evil is involved, but on Nov 29, 2018 the BaFin published the following warning Platincoin has no authorisation under section 32 of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG) under the topic unauthorised business:

  The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) hereby announces that it has not issued Platin Genesis DMCC ("Platincoin") with authorisation to conduct banking business or provide financial services in accordance with section 32 of the KWG.

  The company is not subject to supervision by BaFin.

   

• PLC GROUP AG DOO SLOWENIA, founded on July 25, 2018.
  Address: Letaliska Cesta 33E, 1000 Ljubljana.
  Registered capital: € 10.000
  Managing director and sole shareholder: Alex Reinhardt

• PLATIN GENESIS ASIA LTD, registered on March 11, 2019.
  Previously the company name was AMATECH LTD.
  Address: UNIT 2512, 25 / F, LANGHAM PLACE-BÜROTURM, 8 ARGYLE STREET, MONGKOK, HONGKONG. (Screenshot)

  This address is currently listed in the data protection regulations and the general terms and conditions.

PLC Group AG and its follow-up companies are very young companies that were founded exclusively for the purpose of this project.

Laut den oben angeführten Firmen ist Alex Reinhardt, der Mann welcher mit diesem Projekt in Verbindung gebracht werden kann und er ist das Gesicht des Projekts an jeder Ecke. Er besitzt zwei LinkedIn Profile:

1. Alex Reinhardt [.pdf (1,73 mb)]
   from Berlin, Germany with current 35 contacts, where he appears as Founder and CEO - ELVN
   
   
2. Alex Reinhardt [.pdf (1,70 mb)]
   from Berlin and surrounding area, Germany with more than 500 contacts, where he only mentions Blockchain & IT as a job title.

It is striking that he does not want to establish direct connections in his profiles to his companies or PlatinCoin. He is content to present himself as the founder and CEO of ELVN. However, the page elvn.com provides a link to the current company Platin Genesis Asia Ltd.:

The second LinkedIn profile is linked to a Crunchbase profile by Alex Reinhardt. A connection to PLC Group AG Switzerland is only established on Crunchbase. To compensate, the company Platin Genesis Asia Ltd. not mentioned at all for that. There it says (Screenshot):

Alex is a venture investor, business development expert, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of PLC Group AG, located in Switzerland.

Alex is an economist with over 10 years of practical experience in the startup and venture capital industries. He is an entrepreneur and founder of more than 10 projects in the IT and FinTech (Financial Technology) industries with a total capitalization of more than 100 million euros. In only one and one-half years, he was able to create an international community which today unites more than a quarter of a million people around the world.

More than 3 years ago, Alex became an active evangelist of blockchain technology. Given his interest in blockchain technology, he is looking for and supporting technologies and projects that will make a significant contribution to the technological development of our society.

In PLC Group AG, Switzerland, Alex is responsible for finding innovative solutions and promoting them around the world.

The address Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong only becomes visible on the ELVN crunchbase profile (Screenshot). The name Alex Reinhardt is also mentioned as the company founder.

The meaningful negative ratings for the PlatinCoin Wallet, for which according Google Play Store Alex Reinhardt is responsible. Of course you don't have to look at positive reviews, since everyone can create multiple accounts and praise the manufacturer / supplier. Scammers are naturally lazy and therefore there is no meaningful information getting found in fake reviews. With negative reviews is it of course also possible too, but there you can get more information where you can get an idea of the credibility.

The following reviews are from the German Playstore translated to Enlish:

H M
November 20, 2019

You can look at your coins on the wallet and send them to others, but deposits and withdrawals have been blocked for a long time on the exchanges. So they have no value if you can't sell them. Shitcoin! The alleged value is artificially held up by trading bots. When I hear "innovative app with many features" - it's ridiculous. The wallet cannot do what others have not been able to do for a long time. This also applies to the stupid messenger ELVN.

schlaf-kunst
February 14, 2019

a scam if you look in the code, just a mlm who don't want anything else but steal from people, this thing is not even censorship resistant. it doesn't even have 1 property of crypto. the inventors need to get skinned and killed

Cloud-Droid Cooperation
February 8, 2019

A non-existent coin that wants to keep up in the crypto world is rubbish. This system will not be successful and will eventually break, ultimately it was no different with OneCoin and GiraCoin. At some point the authorities (BaFin) and the state come and then there are a lot of problems with the company! You can go straight to the casino in the end, it's the same thing, because the bank always wins!

Ferdi Kocamemik
January 3, 2019

transport pin supposedly wrong !! that can't be serious! I write the transport pin 1 to 1 as I wrote it down and they tell me wrong! greatest cheek! stay away from this company!

A Google-User
December 3, 2018

also had 210 plc go in now, suddenly only 11 plc !!! everything lied !!! you'd rather put 200 euros in slot machines in aamina zig zag !!

Marc Krause
September 27, 2018

People stay away from the company, they are rip-offs. I have been missing my 150 PLCs for more than a year, which I am not being paid. Support written a thousand times everywhere, even on Facebook. I also sent screenshots and screenshots of the transactions as proof, no reaction from PLC just that my request was processed and that has been over half a year. Simply disgusting. Stay away from the company and never deposit here !!!!!!!!! You will never see your money again !!!!

Rob Smith
June 6, 2018

How can it be that my dashboard suddenly has 1000 PLC less after the update, I can also prove this with screenshots, since I already thought that someday no one would be able to see through. 1000 coins are already a lot of ashes for me at the current exchange rate. I wrote the support twice, but so far only one "we will take care of your concerns".

Sven Müller
April 25, 2018

Nothing works here. Even after the update I can not transfer my coins .. because I am not verified, it should be 3-7 days that is now 1 month ago you can not get your coins you can not trade or anything! let alone the payment in cash or the like !!!

Michel M.
April 7, 2018

Wallet imported, allegedly wrong transport PIN ... But if it is not ... new wallet created, there is no way to get the coins from the dashboard ... only the famous "Coming soon ..." which you can know already from the Homepage ... was almost no different and would be a huge step forward if everything would work immediately ...

Patrick
April 7, 2018

After the update you have to import your wallet. The transport PIN code is said to be incorrect, but this is not the case. So I can't get into my wallet.

ThanksMia
March 30, 2018

My plc are simply gone after an IPO .. that is not the purpose of crypto the vision of crypto is that you have control over your own money, the plc group ag has clearly broken it and should be punished hard for it!

Raul Gonzales
January 8, 2018

Similar experiences as Viktor Nuamow. Bought coins worth € 250. The transaction was eventually deleted, 1250 coins gone. Several emails sent to support, not even an answer. A company that shits on customers. With me down through. Thank you PLC, gave you several times the chance to make up for it all, but I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Daniel Kuttler
December 23, 2017

Can't connect the wallet to the PLC account manufacturer, nor can I register for the wallet.

Dede Akk
December 20, 2017

My platinum coins just disappeared on the wallet .. Fortunately, deleted again immediately were free.

Sound People
July 24, 2017

Error over error, coin cannot be changed on a exchanger and is not listed anywhere, who knows if it is a coin at all.

Google Pay records the largest search query growth, Paypal is searched most frequently. The interest of Germans in mobile payment options is increasing rapidly. Google Pay showed growth of 3,074 percent in search queries, with Apple Pay posting an increase of 813 percent. In third place among the Germans landed Amazon Pay with an increase of 191 percent. But well-tried payment methods such as debit card (+167 percent), also known as the giro card, and direct debit (+136 percent) seem to continue to attract increasing interest among Germans. This results in a recent analysis of the online visibility management platform SEMrush.

The top 10 payment methods after growth of search queries (search queries from 2016 to 2019):

1. Google Pay (+3,074%)
2. Apple Pay (+813%)
3. Amazon Pay (+191%)
4. Debit Card (+167%)
5. Direct Debit (+136%)
6. Transferwise (+110%)
7. Bitcoin (+105%)
8. Samsung Pay (+54%)
9. Paypal (+22%)
10. American Express (+18%)

Google Pay and Apple Pay started in the US in 2015. In 2018 followed Germany. Before the German rollout at the beginning of the analysis period in November 2016, the searches with 1,600 and 14,800 searches were still manageable, but increased sharply in the following months and after the launch and with the growing number of participating partner banks, due to the users' information needs , Amazon Pay has been around since 2007. The third strongest growth is explained by the uninterrupted interest in the online mail order company and its payment method.

Looking at average monthly searches this year, regardless of growth, results in a different ranking. In 2019, Paypal ranks first (5,021,000), well ahead of Bitcoin (766,200) and American Express (110,550). The top 10 payment methods of Germans after search queries (average monthly searches of Germans between January and October 2019):

1. Paypal (5,021,000)
2. Bitcoin (766,200)
3. American Express (110,550)
4. Transferwise (83,900)
5. Apple Pay (81,000)
6. Credit Card (68,900)
7. Mastercard (60,700)
8. Google Pay (41,630)
9. Ethereum (40,740)
10. Sofortüberweisung (38,280)
    Sofortüberweisung is an online payment system of Sofort GmbH for cashless payment on the Internet. The procedure is a pseudo pre-cash system, as the trader does not receive the payment immediately, but a payment confirmation.

Established payment methods have less need for explanation and are less sought. Instead, customers are interested in alternatives to established payment methods. Although PayPal has been around since 2002, it enjoys uninterrupted popularity without strong growth in search queries, as it has long been a common, secure and easy payment method, whether mobile or desktop.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that it will once again pay more attention to the crypto market. And three proposals have already surfaced online showing what it would look like in the future in the US, and worldwide, with taxes on Bitcoin and Co.

Bitcoin is declared by the IRS not as currency, but as property. Especially microtransactions create big headaches for the tax office. Therefore, the tax regime is facing reform. Reason enough for crypto experts to show us three possible scenarios of Bitcoin taxation:

1. No taxes below a limit of $ 600. This option solves the problem of microtransactions, but could lead many to avoid general taxation through transactions below this limit.
   
   
2. Taxes are currently legally levied on crypto-to-crypto trading pairs and capital gains - a clear double taxation. This could end in taxes being incurred only when cryptos are converted to non-crypto assets.
   
   
3. Finally, simple by removing the classification to be a "property". This, however, would turn Bitcoin into a currency, putting it under the obligation to act - including on the Bitcoin ETF.

It is even possible that tougher policies may even trigger a capital flight towards anonymous old coins (e.g., Monero).

According to research, the US crypto-exchange Coinbase is said to hold around 966,000 BTC. This could be a risk.

Opinions differ widely about future price developments. At the moment the courses are in a sideways movement. And this, after it went down noticeably in recent weeks. And although the prospects are not the best, many investors still find their holdings on the wallets of crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance and Co.

As a study by Binance Research shows, most (92%) Bitcoin holders still hold their crypto assets in the wallets of crypto exchanges. A viral blog post on Reddit showed yesterday a picture of crypto exchanges that hold the most bitcoins. According to the illustration, the largest exchange is Coinbase, which manages just under one million bitcoins. According to Coinbase, more than 30 million users are registered on the platform. More than 8 million newly registered users joined in last year alone.

Managed Bitcoin on crypto exchanges (Source: reddit r/Bitcoin)

But, according to Coinbase CEO, this company is not just a provider of cryptographic services, but also an organization that contributes to the global adoption of cryptocurrencies. As the software company DataLight reported earlier this year, the United States is the most active country in crypto trading with over 22 million monthly visitors to crypto exchanges

With these powerful numbers, the question of risk is relatively close. In fact, Coinbase and Co. are becoming banks more and more. And when they make wrong decisions, they can quickly get into trouble and become systemic. During the financial crisis, the "too big to fail" made the rounds. And indeed, Coinbase could become a risk to the entire industry if things are going wrong.