Is Interstellar Cloud Mining Machine a scam?

This article comes from All Weather Technology. To read more, please log in to www.awtmt.com or the Wall Street Insights APP.

Author | Editor Zhang Jilong | An Xin

“My parents and I were defrauded of more than 400,000 yuan,” investor Wang Yue said on the phone, “I don’t know what to do.”

After confirming that the "mining machine" he purchased turned into a pile of scrap metal, Wang Yue's family fell into a sudden disaster, and his life turned into endless darkness.

Wang Yue is not the only victim. In Anhui, Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other places, there are also a large number of investors who have fallen into the pain of losing wealth. According to some investor estimates, in Hefei alone, three to four hundred people were involved in the "mining machine" scam, involving hundreds of millions of yuan.

While concepts such as Bitcoin and blockchain are gradually becoming more popular, fraud incidents related to them are also increasing, and scams are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated, and more difficult to prevent.

Take the "mining machine" scam as an example. This is a trap that is not subtle on the outside, but is well versed in the operating rules of China's civil society. It starts with the disposal of private debts and uses a chain of acquaintances. As a basis for radiating outwards, the entire process is combined with the new concept of cryptocurrency mining as a gimmick. Many investors have been defrauded of huge amounts of money unconsciously.

Faced with this new type of scam, not only do many investors not know how to deal with it, but they are also in a state of blank or lagging behind in terms of policies and regulations, which undoubtedly increases the complexity of the entire situation.

"Redefining the Internet Wealth Pattern"

On October 29, 2018, Zhengzhou Sheraton Hotel ushered in an extraordinary grand meeting.

This conference has a very long and difficult-to-pronounce name - "2018 Zhongyuan Silicon Valley's First (International) Innovation and Technology Ceremony and CAI Rich Ranking Launch Conference". The organizer is called "Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Innovation and Technology" Industrial Park”.

Now using the name of this forum as a keyword search, the results show that there are two widely recognized names that were highlighted in many press releases afterwards - the first name is " Hurun, the founder of the Hurun Report, has his second name "Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences".

In fact, all participants knew that both Hurun and the "Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" were just supporting roles in this meeting. The real core of this meeting was the other two who were completely unfamiliar to the outside world at the time. Name: A virtual currency called CAI and a mining machine called "Snail Interstellar Server".

According to news reports at the time, Hurun himself attended the meeting and delivered a speech, "witnessing the launch of the research and development of the world's only storage application ecological CAI." In this regard, All Weather Technology contacted Hurun The public relations department of Fu Company sought confirmation, but had not received a reply as of press time.

Media reported that Hurun gave a speech at the conference

At that time, at the conference, an unveiling ceremony was held for the chip R&D center of the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to settle in the Central Plains Silicon Valley.

Can Hurun and the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences be invited to the platform? What is the origin of this "Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Innovation Technology Industrial Park"? What are CAI and "Snail Interstellar Server"?

In fact, if you search the industrial and commercial information system with the keywords "Zhongyuan Silicon Valley" or "Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Innovation Technology Industrial Park", you will find that no such company or institution exists. According to investors, the real name of this so-called Central Plains Silicon Valley is Henan Lianxin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lianxin Company").

On the Internet, the information dimension about the virtual currency called CAI is also extremely single. This mysterious virtual currency first appeared on October 10, 2018. At that time, many blockchain vertical media reported Reported the news of CAI being listed on Singapore AT Exchange.

Even among investors, almost no one knows what the CAI coin is - is CAI the abbreviation of the first letters of three English words or the Chinese pinyin? Who is the issuer of this coin? Is there a white paper? Many investors expressed confusion.

At this meeting, the prospect of CAI currency of unknown origin was described as extremely attractive. Many news reports of this meeting said that "as the next outlet for the development of contemporary Internet technology, it "It will redefine the Internet wealth landscape." In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of participants, Zhongyuan Silicon Valley also signed a strategic cooperation with Hurun Report, and both parties launched the CAI Rich List.

As another focus of the meeting, the "Snail Interstellar Server" mining machine was also grandly launched. “The earlier you choose Snail Interstellar Server to become a city node user, you will get more CAI at a lower cost.” An article on the Internet describes the prospects of this mining machine, saying that “you will enjoy the development of the entire ecosystem in the future. It will bring huge dividends and have the opportunity to become a member of the CAI Rich List."

This machine, which is said to be jointly developed by Zhongyuan Silicon Valley, Beijing IPFS Laboratory and others, is an important highlight of the promotion. It is possible to mine two virtual currencies at the same time. “It’s talking about dual mining with one machine, producing two tokens, IPFS and CAI at the same time.” A buyer of the mining machine said that the mining machine company was promoting that users could mine CAI before the IPFS token Filecoin was launched. , after Filecoin goes online, users can dynamically switch according to the principle of maximizing revenue, forming dual mining of CAI and Filecoin.

In the eyes of the above-mentioned buyers, this kind of publicity is extremely tempting. Although no one has heard of CAI currency, Filecoin is a relatively well-known mainstream virtual currency. "Just mine this I definitely don’t want to start a currency (CAI), but I still know a little bit about IPFS.”

“You can get your money back in two months, with zero risk, and you can make money while you’re at it.” Wang Yue said this is a snail interstellar server mining machine. slogan.

A promotional material provided to Wang Yue by a mining machine salesperson stated that the more mining machines investors purchase, the more coins each machine can mine every day. “One computing power can produce 47 CAI per day, 100 computing power can produce 70 CAI per day, and 1,000 computing power can produce 80 CAI per day.”

This information gives investors this calculation: Each mining machine is sold for 5,875 yuan, with a service life of three to five years. Calculated based on the value of each CAI coin at that time being 1.40 yuan, if Investing in 100 machines, the total investment is 587,500, and the monthly return is as high as 294,000. This means that investors can fully recoup their capital in less than two months. "You can sell it for cash at any time 24 hours a day. Once you invest, you will benefit permanently."

Wang Yue also discovered that the price of the CAI coin has been rising. After an exchange called AT went online, the price of the coin rose by nearly 80% on the first day, from the initial 50 cents. Slowly it rose to 1.4 yuan, and later it rose to about 2 yuan.

As the currency price rose, investors represented by Wang Yue began to buy mining machines in large quantities. Wang Yue said that he had bought 85 mining machines, “I only bought 10 at the beginning. Later, as the currency price rose, more machines were slowly added. "

Based on the price of a mining machine of 5,875 yuan, Mr. Wang Yue invested nearly 500,000 yuan. But this amount of money is nothing compared to other investors. "I am one of the least invested," Wang Yue said. There are many people who have invested one or two million. As far as she knows, "one aunt invested 76 million."

Yes. For investors such as Wang Yue, investing huge sums of money is just a seed. They hope that they can occupy a place in the process of changing the wealth pattern, but these hopes have failed.

“The money is gone”

All dreams about wealth came to an abrupt end on February 14, 2019.

On this day, investors received two announcements from AT Exchange and Lianxin Company respectively. AT Exchange stated that due to the hacker attack on the platform, a large number of QD coins were lost and evaporated, and it was suspended. The transaction will be frozen for about 3 months, all transaction wallet systems will be closed, and currency withdrawals will be suspended.

Announcements from AT Exchange and Lianxin provided by the whistleblower

Lianxin issued an announcement stating that on February 7, the company’s senior executives participated in a roadshow in Silicon Valley, USA. In the future All mining machines are taken over by Silicon Valley in the United States, and cai servers are all involved in Silicon Valley projects worth tens of billions of dollars.

These two announcements send a strong signal to investors: AT Exchange is the only exchange for cai coins, and the suspension of trading means that all coins cannot flow, and Lianxin Company The announcement means that the company's senior management team is no longer in China but in the United States.

“This means a crash,” one investor said, but most people find it difficult to accept this reality. Because on January 31, before the suspension of trading, Hefei Xinkunbo Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xinkunbo Company), the Hefei operation center of Zhongyuan Silicon Valley’s branch, also issued a price adjustment notice, saying that it had received a notice from the headquarters. Notice: Starting from February 11, the price of each mining machine has increased by 3,000 yuan, from 5,875 yuan to 8,875 yuan. Many investors hoard a large number of machines in order to avoid rising prices.

However, Wang Yue believes that this matter has already been foreshadowed in January: on January 25th, AT Exchange issued an announcement about the suspension of trading of CAI coins, citing system maintenance and upgrades. , unable to trade; the announcement stated that trading will resume after February 1, 2019. Around this time, the price of CAI coins has been falling, from about 2 yuan to 50 or 60 cents. "At the lowest price, the price dropped to 7 cents." However, even at this price, there were no transactions.

By the end of February, even some of the most determined investors began to feel that the problem was not that simple. Not only the website and app of AT Exchange could not be opened, but also the coin mining APP could not be opened.

Pictures provided by the whistleblower

“Executives of mining machine sales companies have also begun to disappear. They don’t answer calls, don’t reply to messages, and can’t be found.” Wang Yue said , at the same time, a terrible rumor spread among investors: the boss of Lianxin Company had fled to the United States, and the executives of Xinkunbo Company finally divided the investors’ money.

Wang Yue did his own calculations and found out that he lost more than 400,000 yuan after deducting the money he spent selling coins to repay the money he paid for the machine. She is lucky. There are still many people who haven't sold a single coin. "The worst thing is that some people have just received the machine, or even before they received the machine, the CAI coins cannot be traded."

No one can tell exactly how many investors and funds were involved in the collapse of CAI currency. According to an investor's estimate, in Hefei, Anhui alone, there are three to four hundred people buying mining machines.

According to the December 2018 sales statistics of Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Hefei Operation Center (Hefei Xinkunbo Technology Co., Ltd.) obtained by All Weather Technology, in December alone, the company sold The number of machines is as high as 13,747, with sales of more than 73 million yuan. "The actual number of machines sold should be more, because many are not registered on this table." A former employee of the company revealed.

And this may be just the tip of the iceberg. Wang Yue estimates that in Hefei alone, the stock of mining machines should be around 30,000. However, Hefei is just an operation center in Zhongyuan Silicon Valley. Its real headquarters is in Zhengzhou. "There should be more victims there." Wang Yue believes that in addition, there are also people buying mining machines in Hubei, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other places.

In the circle, some people speculate that the funds involved in this mining machine may be around 2 billion. CAI has not redefined the Internet wealth pattern, but it has changed the fate of many people and families.

All Weather Technology learned that among investors, there are two groups that have suffered heavy losses.

The first one is the middle-aged and elderly people. Many investors have mentioned that the most obvious thing in common among mining machine investors is that they are older, and most of them are elderly. An investor told All Weather Technology that he estimated that the average age of the victims was over 50 years old, “someone in their 70s or 80s.”

The reason why these elderly people suffered heavy losses is that on the one hand, they all have accumulated a certain amount of wealth, or their family background is above the well-off level. Many people who participated in the investment said that their families were in business, or They are investing years of savings.

Another group of people who have suffered heavy losses are the mining machine salespeople represented by Li Yan (pseudonym). In fact, they are both sellers and investors of mining machines.

Li Xing said that in addition to selling mining machines, he also bought a lot of mining machines himself. She only bought 30 mining machines herself, while many of her colleagues bought hundreds or even hundreds of them. After the collapse of CAI currency, they not only lost all their money, but many even owed huge debts.

She said that many salespeople bought mining machines because of the "fooling" of company leaders. "Don't worry about promotion, we are powerful, and this building belongs to us." The leaders said, They even encouraged employees to take out loans to buy mining machines. "If your relatives and friends don't trust you, you can use your own house and car as a guarantee for them."

With the encouragement of the company, some sales were really successful. They mortgaged their houses and cars. A friend around me used his house as a mortgage, raised more than 1 million yuan, and bought more than 300 machines. Now that the currency market is collapsing, I have to pay back more than 40,000 yuan to the bank every month, and I am "at the end of my rope."

Mysterious "Friends" and "Debt Relief" Model

What is paradoxical is that for some elderly people who cannot even use smartphones, why do they participate in the blockchain industry? What about projects like the chain that many young people don’t understand?

Li Xing believes that a big reason why many elderly people participate is because of introductions from relatives and friends.

Many investors said that they became friends with executives of mining machine sales companies because of a business called "debt relief." According to their confirmation, the predecessor of Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Hefei Operation Center (Xinkunbo Company) was a debt relief company called "Anhui Cathay Zhonghe Small and Medium Enterprises Economic Information Consulting Co., Ltd." In November 2018, the company changed its name and no longer engaged in debt relief business, but switched to mining machine business. "Except for the name change, the leaders and old employees are exactly the same."

According to investors, Anhui Cathay Zhonghe Small and Medium Enterprise Economic Information Consulting Co., Ltd. probably started around 2017 I have been doing debt relief business for about two years and have never had any problems before.

Li Xing’s parents met Mr. Mei, the senior executive of his company, when they were repaying debts. At first, they tried to pay off the debt of 30,000 yuan with hesitation, and then they became interested in this company. With a sense of trust, more debts were paid off one after another.

In December 2018, under the introduction of "Mr. Mei", Li Xing went to work at Xinkunbo Company, and his main job was to sell mining machines. A recruitment advertisement showed that at that time, the company was recruiting with very high salaries. "If you work hard for a month, you can get a salary of more than 50,000 yuan." She said that in addition to the basic salary, the sales of mining machines also include commissions, with a commission of 6 for each unit under 50 units, a commission of 7 for each unit from 50 to 100 units, and a commission of 8 for more than 100 units.

For such a job, Li Xing was full of gratitude to "Mr. Mei" at first. At the same time, Li Xing noticed that many of the newly recruited salesmen were introduced by acquaintances like himself, and there were many acquaintances. They are also senior executives or old employees of the original debt relief company.

It is understood that the so-called debt relief is a private debt treatment method that has emerged in recent years. The specific method is very mysterious. Li Xing explained, "For example, if someone owes you a debt of 100,000 yuan, but the other party cannot pay it back, you can take the 100,000 yuan IOU to the debt settlement company, and then you can pay it back." The company gives you 100,000 yuan, and returns a portion of the money to you every month. The total return to you is 200,000 yuan a year. After deducting a 10% handling fee, it is 10,000 yuan, and you can get 190,000 yuan.”

As for where the debt relief company’s money comes from? Few people know that a debt reliever told All Weather Technology that she had asked the other party this question, but the other party just said, "You don't have to worry about it, the funds are definitely 100% safe."

”

All Weather Technology has discovered that in recent years, “debt banks” whose business is to solve debts have slowly appeared across the country. They operate in various areas troubled by debt disputes and claim to be able to solve debts for enterprises and individuals. Problem.

Bond banks usually claim that they use commercial actuarial models to achieve debt circulation and help companies and individuals who have entered a debt deadlock to reduce and eliminate debts. But according to one person. According to people who are familiar with the debt bank model, this model actually has strong characteristics of Ponzi scheme and pyramid scheme.

In some media, so-called debt relief company fraud has also been reported. , the debt reliever paid the money, and only a few months later there was no news from the debt relief company. On the Internet, the debt relief company’s model caused huge controversy, “The debt relief model is a scam, similar to a scam. "It's a scam," a lawyer said on Zhihu, "From a legal perspective, this kind of organization is an illegal organization. ”

Based on the above situation, some people believe that the so-called Snail Interstellar Mining Machine is a game that has been laid out for many years: using the debt relief company as a tool to gain the trust of investors, and then using the mining machine to carry out the final wave of stabilization. Harvesting.

Some people also speculate that this mining machine fraud may not have been planned in advance, but it was a Ponzi scheme in the debt relief model that was used to dump the blame when the bubble burst.

The people behind the scenes

From the manufacturers of mining machines to sellers to managed mines and exchanges, looking back on the entire chain afterwards, some investors said that this scam may be from beginning to end. Carefully compiled by a group of people headed by Huo Dong.

Who is Huo Dong? According to Qichacha, Huo Dong owns 18 companies, including Henan Antai Zhonghe Property Rights Transaction Consulting Group Co., Ltd. , Henan Lianxiang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Lianxiang Company), etc.

Huo Dong’s company, picture source: Qichacha

According to the data, Huo Dong himself and above. The debt relief business and the mining machine business mentioned in the article are inseparable.

Take the debt relief business as an example. On the one hand, he works at Anhui Cathay Zhonghe Small and Medium Enterprise Economic Information Consulting Co., Ltd. The company serves as an executive director. On the other hand, Henan Antai Zhonghe Equity Transaction Consulting Group Co., Ltd., where it serves as chairman, is also suspected of being a debt relief company.

According to media reports, on November 19, 2017, Henan Antai. Zhonghe Equity Transaction Consulting Group Co., Ltd. held a press conference to announce the formal establishment of Henan Antai Group. At the press conference, Antai Group Chairman Huo Dong said, "Antai is solving credit and debt problems while integrating real estate, automobiles, etc. Integrate resources, build a non-performing asset optimization and cultural industry value platform, help realize the return of funds, and enable companies and individuals with failed investments to recover their losses. "On social media, there are also employees suspected of Antai Group openly soliciting debt relief business.

In the mining machine business, Lianxiang Company, where Huo Dong is the legal person, is the parent company of Lianxin Company and also a mining company. Li Yan believes that many people think that Lianxiang is the real headquarters of Zhongyuan Silicon Valley. The reason is that the registered capital of Lianxin Company is only 5 million, while the registered capital of Lianxiang Company is 10 times that of the former, at 50 million. .

In addition, there is evidence that Huo Dong has a complicated relationship with AT Exchange.

Data shows that the shareholders of Singapore AT Digital Asset Exchange are from Singapore. A blockchain asset trading platform launched by the Anthay Foundation. According to information displayed by Zhaopin, this so-called Singapore Anthay Foundation is also one of the shareholders of a company called Bitmain (Shenzhen) Blockchain Co., Ltd. invested by Huo Dong. 1. It can be seen that the so-called AT exchange has a complicated relationship with Huo Dong and Lianxin

Introduction to Bitmain (Shenzhen) Blockchain Co., Ltd., picture source: Zhaopin Recruitment

In fact, according to Qichacha information, there are only two natural persons shareholders of Bitmain (Shenzhen) Blockchain Co., Ltd.-Huo Dong holds 80 shares, and the other natural person shareholder Wang Zongjie holds 20 shares.

Interestingly, Sequoia Capital Hong Kong Holdings Group Co., Ltd., another shareholder of Bitmain (Shenzhen) Blockchain Co., Ltd. mentioned in Zhaopin’s recruitment, also has tricks.

The company's name is similar to that of the famous investment institution Sequoia Capital, but a public relations source from Sequoia Capital confirmed to All Weather Technology that Sequoia Capital has nothing to do with the company.

This is not the only case where the companies invested by Huo Dong have used their fame. It is worth noting that in addition to investing in Bitmain (Shenzhen) Blockchain Co., Ltd., Huo Dong also invested in a company called Henan Bitmain Blockchain Co., Ltd. For these two companies, whose names resemble branches of the famous mining giant Bitmain, Bitmain insiders clearly deny that there is any relationship between the two parties.

In addition to Sequoia Capital and Bitmain denying any relationship with the company invested by Huo Dong, All Weather Technology has also contacted the Institute of Semiconductor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Central Plains Silicon Valley mentioned in the previous press release.

A person from the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told All Weather Technology that he has never cooperated with this company and denied that it has settled in Zhongyuan Silicon Valley. "Our company is engaged in optoelectronics, not integrated circuits," he said , the Institute of Semiconductor, Chinese Academy of Sciences has not done any research on cryptocurrency at all.

All Weather Technology also discovered that, in fact, at the end of December 2018, the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences posted a statement on its official website regarding the false report that the chip R&D center of the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has settled in the Central Plains Silicon Valley. ", which mentioned that it has never participated in any cooperation and construction projects of "Zhongyuan Silicon Valley" in the name of the company, nor has it had any official negotiation or cooperation intention with the organization.

Statement from the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, picture source: Semiconductor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

However, even if the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences denied it, the sales pitch received by an investor showed that the Snail Interstellar Server It is a product jointly developed by Zhongyuan Silicon Valley Innovation Technology Industrial Park and Beijing Institute of Semiconductor, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In previous news reports, it was clearly stated that the mining machine was jointly developed by Zhongyuan Silicon Valley, Beijing IPFS Laboratory and others.

Speaking of this mining machine, what is even more strange is that some investors and sales staff told All Weather Technology that for a while, they tested and found that this so-called mining machine did not need to be plugged in at all. When you connect to the Internet, you can mine automatically. Regarding this offline mining behavior, they suspected that "CAI coins are not mined at all, but are automatically allocated by the system. This machine is of no use at all."

This mine sells for 5,875 yuan The true value of the machine has also been questioned. Wang Yue said that he found some knowledgeable people to estimate the price of this machine, and found that the mining machine was not valuable at all, "the price does not exceed 800 yuan." In addition, some people found after dismantling the machines that some of them were refurbished machines.

Snail Interstellar Mining Machine Configuration, Picture Source: Public Account "Conscience of the Currency Circle"

The New "Reaper"

When investors' sadness is still there Not far away, when many people are still suffering about how to get their money back, they find that they have ushered in a new harvester, and someone in the WeChat group has started a so-called rights protection business.

“Many people want to go to the Henan head office to ask for explanations or call the police, but time and energy are not allowed, so some victims began to call on everyone to raise funds for travel expenses to solve the problem,” Li Xing said. Their charging standards They vary, some charge 5 yuan per machine, and some charge 2 yuan/machine.

Privately, many people are dissatisfied with these charging behaviors. "Some people have bought more than 10 machines without losing much money. One machine is charged 5 yuan, which is 20,000 to 30,000 yuan." The machine cost more than 100,000 yuan, and I still made a lot of money.”

Some people think that it is difficult to say whether paying money to protect rights is useful. “The boss has gone abroad, can I get the money back?” I feel like there is little hope.

In addition to collecting rights protection fees, the mining machines in the hands of victims have also become a hot commodity in the eyes of some people. In some investors’ WeChat groups, many people are shouting to recycle the mining machines. The price of a machine is about 300 yuan to 350 yuan.

An investor who has sold mining machines said that many people who collect mining machines are businessmen who make computer accessories, and the reason why they collect mining machines is actually because there is a 1TB in the mining machine. Hard drive and a 4G memory stick.

On JD.com, the cheapest price for a brand new Western Digital 1TB hard drive is 279 yuan, and the price of a 4G DDR3 memory is more than 100 yuan.

In addition to selling accessories, there are also people who collect mining machines for other purposes. Although these mining machines are useless in the hands of these investors, on the Internet, these mining machines are It is very popular because it is cheap. There are many articles circulating on the Internet about using mining machines to transform them into low-power NAS (Network Attached Storage).

On Taobao and Xianyu, there are also many people selling mining machines, and the sales volume seems to be quite large.

Snail Interstellar mining machine sales, picture source: Taobao

Wang Yue said that he has sold all 85 mining machines in his hand, each at a price of 5,875 yuan The machine she purchased was sold for scrap within two months, which made her feel distressed, but she felt there was no better way. "There is no way to sell it myself, and it would be troublesome to keep these things at home."

In addition, after the dream of wealth in CAI coins was shattered, some new and various coins came to the door again. Some people encouraged them to mine new coins, or buy new mining machines to mine coins. But without exception, if you want to mine, you need to buy a new mining machine or a new coin. In short, it requires a large investment.

“We are in a dilemma now, don’t tell me these things.” In the investor group, an investor scolded a propagandist for mining new coins, “As long as you pay for it later None of them participated.”

(Wang Yue and Li Yi are pseudonyms in the article)