Vasek, Marie;
Moore, Tyler;
(2019)
Analyzing the Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Ecosystem.
In: Zohar, Aviv and Eyal, Ittay and Teague, Vanessa and Clark, Jeremy and Bracciali, Andrea and Pintore, Federico and Sala, Massimiliano, (eds.)
Financial Cryptography and Data Security.
(pp. pp. 101-112).
Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany.
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the supply and demand for Bitcoinbased Ponzi schemes. There are a variety of these types of scams: from long cons such as Bitcoin Savings & Trust to overnight doubling schemes that do not take off. We investigate what makes some Ponzi schemes successful and others less so. By scouring 11 424 threads on bitcointalk.org, we identify 1 780 distinct scams. Of these, half lasted a week or less. Using survival analysis, we identify factors that affect scam persistence. One approach that appears to elongate the life of the scam is when the scammer interacts a lot with their victims, such as by posting more than a quarter of the comments in the related thread. By contrast, we also find that scams are shorter-lived when the scammers register their account on the same day that they post about their scam. Surprisingly, more daily posts by victims is associated with the scam ending sooner.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Analyzing the Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Ecosystem |
| Event: | International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security |
| ISBN-13: | 978-3-662-58819-2 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/978-3-662-58820-8_8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58820-8_8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Bitcoin; Cybercrime measurement |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154819 |
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