Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
March 20, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- One company is looking
more and more like it will be the first to gain meaningful traction
with regards to providing the crypto equivalent of interest-bearing
savings accounts. If you are not yet aware of BlockFI, then you
probably should be.
BlockFi was founded in 2017,
primarily as a crypto loan company, meaning that it was structured
to take in crypto for US Dollars in return. In 2018, it began to do
so, eventually going international as well.
Earlier this month, they went a
step further by announcing the launch of their interest-bearing
savings account, with which you can reportedly deposit Bitcoin and
Ether, in exchange for consistent returns of 6 percent. According
to CoinDesk, the reaction to this announcement has been mixed, to
say the least. While BlockFi has already seen an influx of user
funds to the tune of $35 million, criticism has already been
brought to bear against their offering.
Reportedly, a lawyer named Stephen
Palley pointed out that BlockFi’s terms and conditions state that
they can change the account’s interest rate at any time, while
others noted that no user funds are insured in any capacity.
Proponents of the service like Anthony Pompliano, seemed to have
little to say in response as of yet, beyond counseling critics to
back up their opinions with real evidence.
Since this round of criticism is
early-stage at this point, the saga has had little time to develop.
Still, if there is any lesson to learn here, it is that in any
early-stage industry, giving your hard-earned money to a project
that promises you any sort of return is inadvisable without
research.
Here, by research, we mean reading
into the project’s documentation, as well as consulting with a
legal authority of some sort before making any sort of investment.
Though this has been said time and time again, it is the only way
for any early-stage investor to protect himself or herself with any
reasonable degree of certainty.
By: BGN Editorial Staff