29th December 2021 > > Don't use crypto exchange hitbtc.com.

tl;dr

My experience of hitbtc.com should stop you from using this exchange in the future.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Leveraged shorts are now getting just a touch out of kilter. Long may that continue. Though I complain about the leveraged children all the time, we can all enjoy the prospect of a short squeeze.

Occasional Series – Zero Covid

Much like most of us, I assumed that talk of Zero Covid was apocryphal, a means solely to have a dig at Jacinda Ahern. Though there might be real reasons for having that dig, there is no need to make up any false ones.

To my surprise – and yours I warrant – I find that belief in Zero Covid is a thing:

www.zerocovid.uk/about-us

It is all completely nuts. Read it. You cannot tell me otherwise.

I have it on good authority that my MP is a leading light in this extreme organisation aided and abetted by the Morning Star, a newspaper unremarked on for taking a liberal approach to life.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Technical Analysis (TA)

I couldn’t resist this. A techie claiming $333,000 by May 2022 with the headline:

“You don’t have enough crypto for the 2022 bull run”.

If only a parabolic curve drawn on a log scale could give any useful information at all, we would all be mightily happy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean a thing.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – And let’s follow that up with PlanB’s latest tweet

PlanB’s Stock to Flow model has a price target of $0.5mm to $2mm in its sights. At least it has some rationality to it, other than drawing squiggles on a graph, though a logarithmic scale is one of those statistical sleights of hand when all else fails.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Why hitbtc.com is a scary crypto exchange

hitbtc.com was an early entrant to the crypto exchange space and remains one of the most popular.

I recently made a recommendation to try to avoid China based exchanges, and hitbtc.com in particular.

If I talk you through my experience, I suspect you will agree with me.

…

My first interaction with hitbtc.com was in February 2019. Following the hard fork epoch in the history of BTC, I was left with many forks that were not traded on my usual exchanges (Coinbase and Binance, but I think you know that by now).

Some of these hard forks were scams, and most would prove to be worthless many months later.

Rather than hang on to them all in the hope that one or more might become valuable (away from Bitcoin Cash, that hope never transpired, and not really in that case either) I resolved to exchange as many as possible into BTC.

In February 2019 hitbtc.com was showing markets in Bitcore (BTX) and Bitcoin Private (BTCP). I signed up, exchanged BTX and BTCP for BTC, transferred out my BTC and the experience was fine.

The disappointing part was that charges were high – especially for moving assets off exchange, a key and consistent feature of all China based exchanges.

Shortly afterwards, I wanted to make a relatively early investment in MakerDao (MKR). hitbtc.com was the only exchange I had signed up to that had that market. The experience was fine, again except for the high charges for moving assets off-exchange.

In May 2019, I exchanged another hard fork Bitcoin Interest (BCI) for BTC. I think you know the story now.

…

So, all of that seems reasonable on the face of it, and I would agree with that assessment. At the time.

I disagree now.

…

I originally set up 2FA (two-factor authentication) on my hitbtc.com account using Google Authenticator.

This means that unless you have my username, password, and access to my iPad/iPhone for the GA code (which changes once a minute) you should not be able to access my account.

Just recently I received an email from hitbtc.com saying that I had requested a password change.

That wasn’t me but it wasn’t particularly worrying. No access to my iPad/iPhone means that there can be no access to my account.

In theory at least.

…

Just out of curiosity I logged onto hitbtc.com.

My last genuine interaction had been in February 2021. Since that date, someone else had accessed my account and removed some residual coins I held there.

In truth the amount was small but really it is the principle that counts. Someone has somehow got around 2FA on hitbtc.com and stolen from me.

Obviously my first plan of action was to contact their support.

Well, that was a complete waste of time.

And er, that’s it. I have no other recourse.

…

The key problem with China based exchanges is the lack of property rights in that country.

There can be no democracy without universal property rights.

Without democracy, only the rich and powerful can ever claim property rights.

Reserve Treasury Protocols (before they all go to zero)