When crypto trading goes wrong

I find the world weird these days. Maybe it’s because I’m a grumpy old man. The flakiness ranges from schemes that are obviously trash to doing extreme activities that my father and grandfather would never have done.

Examples? Skydiving, hanging off skyscrapers, diving with sharks, standing by gorillas and such like. Strangely, I’ve done all of those things and yes, I still have a few more on my bucket list.

The world has changed in my lifetime immensely. We now jump on flights like they are buses and will soon take balloons into space.

Cool!

What is not cool is how many scams are around online. Every which way you can get spoofed, spammed, sneaked and stolen from. Now, if you know this, you protect yourself and avoid such schemes but, if you’re not in the know, well tough. I got a call the other day from an elderly man who asked me if he had really won the Finanser’s $1 million lottery. I had to calm his excitement.

Having said this, sometimes systems do mess up. I was on Coinbase the other day and decided to buy a bit more EOS. I bought some, but the transaction appeared as worth only half of what I purchased.

I contacted Coinbase support and googled EOS pricing, and discovered the price was double the Coinbase quote …

Source: CoinMarket

So, Coinbase was quoting half the price of the actual EOS price. Now it gets interesting. Do I sue Coinbase, as they misquoted me, or I just don’t bother?

You guessed it. I didn’t bother. A bit like insurance firms that will always find an excuse to jiggle out of a liability, I’m fairly certain Coinbase will find a way around their technical issue. It’s the same as insurance and just not worth pursuing these issues, as they will dodge the challenge.

The problem then is pervasive.

You find everyone feeling that the system is there to beat them, avoid them, destroy them. Where is the system to help them, build them and reinforce them?

I guess the core of all of this is the old message caveat emptor, buyer beware. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has made mistakes in life and bought the wrong things, invested in the wrong companies, been scammed by the wrong agents and found myself at the bottom of a pit of fraud. Yep, I admit it. I’ve been ripped off, stolen from, lost money and felt a fool. I’m guessing all of us have and, if you have not, well done you.

What can you do about it?

Sure, you can scream and shout, but you need someone to scream and shout at. If you have a regulated and governed company, that is recognised by your nation, you’re all well and good. If not, more fool you.

Luckily, Coinbase is governed by the FCA, the UK regulator, but it’s not worth reporting their price problem. Things happen, they messed up, and the price they quote is way off the reality. Now, if it had been a million pound investment …?