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Frankfurt / Vienna (APA) – Questionable providers of Bitcoin and Co are trying to attract more and more young investors on social media. "They seem to be attracting younger consumers, for example, with a promising investment around new cryptographic currencies," said Wolf Brandes of the Hesse Consumer Protection Center.
Prohibited pyramid offers are often stuck behind offers, "where the money invested is simply gone in the end and the provider is no longer available".
According to a survey of German consumer centers, Internet users are generally more skeptical about digital currencies that are not legal tender. Thus, 77% of respondents who know cryptocurrency can not imagine an investment. 70% think it's rather risky or very risky. Even in the case of serious offers, investors should be aware of the risks badociated with strong fluctuations, warn consumer advocates.
"Investors need to know: Cryptographic currencies are a gray market," said Brandes, head of financial market supervision at Consumer Hesse. "There is no regulation and investor protection."
For every tenth, a purchase is an option, another eleven percent are undecided. The greatest desire to invest concerns 18 to 29 year olds (28%). About 1,000 Internet users were interviewed. A good half said they knew cryptocurrencies.
The main argument in favor of an acquisition is that potential buyers have called for speculation and high profits (26%). In the past, digital currencies had only quick wins, but they have fallen sharply this year. The badessment that Bitcoin & Co is "the money of the future", revealed only 17% of respondents.
Even with crypto-currencies as a means of payment, the information goes beyond skepticism. "For the moment, few providers accept crypto-currencies as a means of payment, whether it is a marginal phenomenon or a genuine alternative payment for consumers, is still completely open," said Kerstin Schultz, head of financial market Saxony Consumer Center.
The most well-known digital currency, Bitcoin, has been in circulation since 2009. It allows largely anonymous payments, operates independently of governments or banks, and is mainly used for Internet payments. In the meantime, there are also many other crypto-currencies.
Cryptographic currency trading is also a popular hacker target. Since 2009, according to a study by the American University of Tulsa, about a third of trading platforms have been hacked. Youniqx Identities AG, a subsidiary of State Printing House, has developed a physical key memory for blockchain systems in collaboration with Bitcoin based in Graz, Coinfinity.
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