The virtual currency of Bitcoin has many followers. New Providers want to benefit from it and imitate the original. The German consumer magazine FINANZtest warns strongly from the significant risks.

Other providers rely on the enthusiasm for purely digital currencies, the pioneer of Bitcoin has triggered. Whether that is actually profitable for the customer, but is questionable. Newcomers like SwissCoin and OneCoin differ greatly from Bitcoin. In both there are central bodies that verify the system. The currencies have a very limited use. The publishers rely on multi-level compensation plans to attract customers to bring their products further among the people.

If someone is thinking logically then he will get it, that nobody can buy money and nobody can take out more money from a system than the amount of money is inside. Each little child knows already that the market price depends on supply and demand. Which value can have a digital currency which gets traded only by one issuer?

OneCoin does not get accepted by any other money exchanging system found at the world, you get free OneCoins already for signing up, you get additional OneCoins for bringing other victims into the system and you have no chance to use these OneCoins in any shop. Which value can have OneCoins? As soon as the company behind is running into problems or gets shut down from the government you lose all your real money. Each pyramid system or Ponzi scheme breaks down as soon as not enough new victims entering into the system can get found.

OneCoin is a "billion-euro company" according to company founder Ruja Ignatova from Bulgaria. It occurs under the brand names OneCoin, OneLife network and OneAcademy. The website from OneCoin praise their cryptocurrency as the second largest of the world. In two years, Ignatova wants to be the number one and have ten million customers. They buy training packages for prices from 110 euros upwards.

Wow, OneCoin surpasses itself. You need to buy a training package for using it! Does it not show already the scam? You need to get a training for using the crypto currency. Maybe you'll need a training too for using your hard earned real money?

OneCoin describes itself as "centralized" crypto currency. It stands according to the company deliberately "currently not for everyone to act" open, because it is still new. OneCoins can only be traded on an internal network platform. Other trading platforms for crypto currencies are not trading OneCoin. Whether and how OneCoins get mined, bought and sold, depends largely on the management. In June, the company reported about waiting times of two to three months until customers received their coins.

At the same time, Ignatova announced to extend the maximum possible amount of OneCoins from October from 2.1 billion to 120 billion units. If OneCoin has overestimated the demand it can lead to a price crash.

Critics such as the Latvian financial and capital market Commission interfere on the multi-tiered, pyramid-style remuneration system: the company rewarded customers, if they manage to persuade more customers to buying its products, and this cause further purchases.

"The business model of OneCoin is perfectly legal and does not qualify as a pyramid scheme," OneCoin stresses to FINANZtest. The OneLife Network offer genuine products, such as mobile computing device "OneTablet" and real services in the form of training packages with finance. The business model is based "on the basis of a traditional direct sales concept". Let members possible, "to earn their income through referrals and sales training toolkits on cryptocurrency and financial management to non-members." Commission and bonus would immediately depending on the success paid - just as with well-known companies with direct sales offering goods such as kitchen appliance Thermomix, the personal care products of Amway or dietary supplements from Herbalife.

Let us take a look at their product - the "OneTablet". The specifications are getting found at their site:

HD RESOLUTION: 800*480/1024 x 600/1024*768

GOOGLE ANDROID SOFTWARE
Android OS MaPan firmware

COMPONENTS: MTK Quad core CPU

WIRELESS 802.11B/G/N: 802.11b/g/n WI-FI wireless connection

STORAGE: RAM 1GB / Build in 16GB / Expandable up to 64GB

BATTERY POWER: 2500 – 8000mAH / 5V 2A lipo battery

INPUTS TOUCHSCREEN (CAPACITIVE): Multi – point capacitive touch screen

DUAL CAMERAS: Front 0.3MP + back 1.3 million pixels

Front 1.3MP + back 2.0 million pixels

Price: € 550 + SHIPPING + 550 BV (Bonus Volume) GENERATED!

Funny are the specs from the battery power already. It seems like Ignatova is thinking that battery power is a chewing gum. An built-in battery has a fixed capacity and cannot get provided as a value between 2500 - 8000 mAH!

The value of BV (Bonus Volume) is € 1 = 1 BV as it can get shown in their offer:

STARTER PACKAGE
110 €

For those who have no previous financial experience. Includes Level 1 of OneAcademy’s e-learning program. Students will learn basic financial literacy and be introduced to financial products and trading. After completing this module, we issue certification for access to OneExchange. The starter membership gives 1000 promotional tokens which can be put into cryptocurrency mining and generates 110 BV points for network bonuses.

For these ones, which are thinking that you'll get something additional value with the starter package and for this reason you are not able to convert € 1 to 1 BV, I'll show you in the next screenshot that this additional offers have no real value, because if you buy the most expensive package for € 7,500 you'll get also 7,500 BV.

An tablet with similar specifications can get found from the Maixin Group at Alibaba (Tablet offer from Maixin Group at Alibaba.pdf (2.37 mb)) for the price between US$ 55 and US$ 60 depending on the count of pieces you are ordering.

With other words you'll pay for a product, which has the value of US$ 60 the exorbitant price of € 1,100!!! Let us include the exchange rate between US$ and Euro from today, where € 1 = US$ 1.12284 or US$ 1 = € 0.88993:

The Veto Concept AG from Leipzig is coming from direct sales site too. They presents themselves on the Internet page richcoin.eu as an independent sales partner of OneCoin. The digital currency explained to one of "the hottest financial topics". After the warning from the consumer magazine FINANZtest got published Veto Concept AG stopped publishing their site richcoin.eu. The following amazing content gets shown:

Translated to English:

Dear visitor,

the website "RichCoin" got discontinued by us. Just use the contact form if you have questions.

Friendly greetings VETO CONCEPT AG

It seems that the "hottest financial product" has been even coming to hot for their business. Think about it what you'll doing if you see a similar content at the site from OneCoin. It happened already at least one time as the system from BigCoin got shut down in the year 2014. Involved in the system from BigCoin has been Ruja Ignatova.

The website badbitcoin.org, a platform of cryptocurrency fans criticizes multilevel distribution systems. She denounces dubious practices and accumulated negative reports. OneCoin is on their "Badlist", a warning list for not recommended deals.

A digital currency of a central supplier, industrial applied for payment transactions - reminds of electronic money (E money). The currencies were to be classified, the company needs a permit. In the register of approved electronic money institutions of the Federal Agency for financial services supervision (BaFin) are not getting found the companies around OneCoin and SwissCoin.

Would the BaFin classify the currency as e-money, they could order the rescission. Also around classical crypto currencies there subject to authorization activities. In June reported the German magazine "Der Spiegel", the BaFin review OneCoin. The BaFin has not given statement until now. It may be that the digital currencies will facing hot stages for various reasons.

Domain owner of onecoin.eu:
Name: Tsvetelina Lekova
Company: Onecoin Ltd
Address: 12 Tsar Osvoboditel, 1000 Sofia, BG
Phone: +359.24444331
E-Mail: tsvetelina.lekova@ravenr.com

Domain owner of onelife.eu:
Name: Albena Topalova
Company: One Network Services Ltd
Address: PI. P.R. Slaveikov 6A, 1000 Sofia, BG
Phone: +359.24444331
E-Mail: office@onecoin.eu

Domain owner of oneacademy.eu:
Name: Tsvetelina Lekova
Company: One Network Services Ltd
Address: 12 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, 0001000 Sofia, Sofia, BG
Phone: +359.885660254
E-Mail: tsvetelina@onecoin.eu

Update Jan. 19, 2017: Links to richcoin.eu removed as the service of the site got discontinued.

U.S. MLM companies have to provide an income disclaimer for their promotion. This is forced by law otherwise the participants of their system have the possibility to force the company paying out the promised earnings. In Europe are even not helping such disclaimers. There need to get promises from the promotion fulfilled.

In light of the figures in the Amway pay arrangement, they are letting us know - Less than a large portion of the individuals who join stay "active" and overall, the individuals who stayed "active" and worked the framework, lost cash.

Income disclosure from Amway found on page 11 (IBO = Independent Business Owners):

The average monthly Gross Income for “active” IBOs in the U.S. was $202.

Approximately 46% of all IBOs in the U.S. were “active.”

U.S. IBOs were considered “active” in months in 2010 when they attempted to make a retail sale, or presented the Amway IBO Compensation Plan, or received bonus money, or attended an Amway or IBO meeting. If someone sustained that level of activity every month for a whole year, their annualized income would be $2,424. Of course, not every IBO chooses to be active every month.“Gross Income” means the amount received from retail sales, minus the cost of goods sold, plus monthly bonuses and cash incentives. It excludes all annual bonuses and cash incentives, and all non-cash awards, which may be significant. There may also be significant business expenses, mostly discretionary, that may be greater in relation to income in the first years of operation.

1. Includes compensation from Amway IBO Compensation Plan and Growth Incentives (GI) Program during 2013.
   
   
2. Approximately 0.31% of IBOs in North America achieved at least Q12 Platinum status (but not Sapphire or higher) in the calendar year ended December 31, 2013.
   
   
3. Approximately 0.09% of IBOs in North America achieved at least Founders Emerald status (but not Founders Diamond or higher) in the calendar year ended December 31, 2013.
   
   
4. Approximately 0.03% of IBOs in North America achieved Founders Diamond or higher in the calendar year ended December 31, 2013.

For average annual compensation and highest annual compensation at all IBO levels, go to Amway.com and search for: Money and Rewards.

A description of the income sheme from Amway gets found in their Business Reference Guide at page 5:

Immediate Income

Your immediate income is the difference between the cost at which you purchase product inventory from Amway or your sponsoring IBO, and the price at which you sell the products to your own customers. This income is realized immediately upon each sale to a customer. For your convenience, Amway publishes suggested retail prices for all products. However, these are suggested prices only, and you are not obligated to charge these prices. Each IBO is entitled to determine independently the prices at which they sell products to IBOs or other customers.

Performance Bonus

Additional income may be earned through the monthly Performance Bonus. The Performance Bonus is driven by sales volume, which is tracked from two sets of numbers – Point Value (PV) and Business Volume (BV) – that are published in connection with each available product or service.

PV is a unit amount (you can think of it as the number of points) assigned to each product. The total PV associated with your monthly sales volume is tracked to determine your Performance Bonus bracket. The higher your PV total, the higher the percentage (up to 25%) used in calculating your bonus (see the Performance Bonus Schedule below).

BV is a dollar figure assigned to each product. The total BV associated with your monthly sales volume is multiplied by the percent from your PV bracket to determine your gross Performance Bonus. Your sales volume, or your PV/BV as it is generally known, is generated by your own purchases, whether for personal use or resale, and by the purchases made by your registered customers.

To figure your gross Performance Bonus, you add the Pass-up Volume from your frontline IBOs (those you personally registered) – both PV and BV – to your personal PV and BV, then make your calculation according to the Performance Bonus Schedule. However, any Performance Bonuses earned by your frontline IBOs, using the same Schedule, must be subtracted from the gross amount to arrive at your net Performance Bonus. In addition, you will at least be at the same percentage bracket as your downline.

Note: Experience has shown that IBOs who register others generally have higher average volume than those who do not.

I have added to the provided table the average sales volume in US$ and the paid commission from the samples. The result is that 1 Point (PV) has the value of US$ 3. The normal mark-up between wholesaler and retailer for the product assortment is calculated from down to up 50% or calculated from up to down 33.33%. Here you see already how Amway is making some extra money because they are giving in sum a maximum of 25% discount.

To remain active you have at least to buy for a value of US$ 300 – hopefully you are able to resell it. If you take a look at their income disclaimer you'll see that the average income of the IBO's has been US$ 202. With other words each of their IBO's have lost in average US$ 98 per month!

You may have some major difficulty burning through $22,500 every month on sales, yet this gets to be less demanding once you have a down line. Anybody you by and by backer, will "pass up" volume to you. On the off chance that you are new to the framework and figure out how to create enough volume to meet all requirements for a 3% installment, then your supporter will get 3% from you deals (6%-3%). Their supporter will get 3% from your deals (9% - 6%) thus on until the full 25% has been paid.

This "pass up" framework urges individuals to support whatever number newcomers as would be prudent. However there is no motivator to support enlists and help them succeed. The only thing that is in any way important is that cash is being spent. In the event that an individual is losing cash and winning nothing, the cash they spend is as yet sustaining the framework, and sending 25% commission up through the chain of importance.

It is conceivable to profit with MLM, in any case we trust it is profoundly unlikely. In his free eBook "Multi-Level Marketing Unmasked", Jon Taylor found that 99.7% of individuals will lose cash in system advertising. So for each 1,000 individuals who join a system showcasing group, 3 will win more cash than they spend. On the off chance to have 5 effective individuals in your first down line you’ll need to select 1,665 new individuals, so that 5 of them will be successful.

This may be a framework that "anybody can do", but at the same time it's a framework in which, just 1 in 333 individuals are effective. To attempt and comprehend why it is so troublesome for system advertisers to turn a benefit, we can take a closer look into the compensation plan of Amway, USANA, Herbalife and Nu Skin. Not surprisingly the framework for winning cash with every, are harmoniously one of a kind and comparable.

Each MLM has their own adaptation of paying commission and they are all offer comparative qualities. Shockingly we accept that they are organized in a manner that makes it exceptionally troublesome for anybody to turn a benefit in system showcasing. Case in point:

• You need to "qualify" to procure any commission - You are honored "focuses" when you purchase items. This makes what we see as "manufactured interest" for the items. System promoting individuals are requesting item with a specific end goal to stay "dynamic". They arrange in overabundance of what they would by and by utilization or what they can on offer at a retail edge, which makes them stock heap the items.
  
  
• The vast majority of the cash spent is by individuals - Network showcasing organizations recognize that next to no of their deals are because of retail request. The majority of the item being requested is by individuals for individual utilization (or to fulfill volume portions). Deals are not determined by business sector strengths; they are driven by individuals purchasing for volume targets. On the off chance that almost no cash is originating from outside the system, then the main route for individuals to benefit is to the detriment of individuals in their own particular down line.
  
  
• It is a zero sum game - without natural deals, your up-line can just profit, on the off chance that you burn through cash. The stories you find out about the battling single guardian who is presently a mogul may be valid. Be that as it may they forget a critical point of interest, which is: Every one of those million dollars originated from different individuals from the system who are underneath them in the MLM progression (which is not pyramid paying little mind to how nearly it looks like one). Cash made by one individual from a MLM group, has been lost by another.
  
  
• A System Prone to Negative Incentives - As we already noticed, the main way the vast majority makes any salary in system showcasing, is from marking new individuals beneath them in the framework. When you are in the framework, you're up line will get commission on any cash you spend. It is to their greatest advantage to instruct you to "you are ideal for the group" and to "continue spending that month to month amount". The more you spend, the more they win. They may accept that you can succeed in multi-level advertising, yet in all actuality, they require your cash coming into the framework with the end goal themselves should to succeed.
  
  
• Multi-Level Marketing does not evacuate the center man - Direct advertising organizations will let you know that their organizations are "offering straightforwardly to you". Best case scenario, this is a misguided judgment, even under the least favorable conditions it's a deliberate distortion. You can arrange items specifically from the organization, yet they will pay a commission to the individual who enrolled you and a few others above you in the chain. They will let you know that you can possibly "acquire commission" from your down line. In all actuality you are getting to be another center layer in the conveyance chain between the supplier and your down line.

Affiliate marketers are you really so stupid and think that you can sell money?

Do you not know that everybody knows that you cannot take out more from a pot than it is inside?

As long as you are not offering a product, which should get sold from the affiliates and the affiliates are getting their commission, is your system only an illegal pyramid system or Ponzi scheme!!! Participating and promoting in such a system can bring you only into jail.

A pyramid system is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public.

Various forms of pyramid systems are illegal in many countries including the United States and numerous European countries.

As Europe enforced the law that promises in the promotion are enforceable in front of law court, the illegal sales systems disappeared very fast. Only some legal systems like Tupperware, Jeunesse, Amway and a few others are remaining. Some of this companies even needed to change their sales and promotion structure to be conform with the local law. The story about Amway at WikiPedia shows how the law has changed the world of affiliate marketing. You should think about it before you promote such a system - especially if you are not able to pay fines of a few million dollars!

Why you are trying to sell money? Do you really hope that you can find some people, which are more stupid then you are by yourself?

In such pyramid or Ponzi schemes only the people on top are earning. The people at the bottom of the pyramid are only losing their money. It does not matter if you need "only" to pay a small sign-up and/or membership fee. In any case you can use this money in a better way or are you already so poor that you like to get a place to sleep and food for free of charge by going to jail?