Can Paucitas test a platform before I deposit?

Yes, and that is the cheapest moment to ask. A test on the wallets, the domain and the registers usually takes one working day.

What if the platform displays a certification mark?

A mark on a page proves nothing by itself. We check whether the issuing body exists and whether the platform actually appears in its register.

How long does a platform test take?

Usually one working day. If several wallets and trading names are involved it can take two.

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Who can establish whether a crypto platform is fraudulent?

By S.E. (Simcha) Schrijver, blockchain investigator at Paucitas

Paucitas investigates crypto platforms and establishes whether the behaviour of a platform matches what it says about itself. Is this crypto platform fraudulent is a question we answer from data: the wallets, the registrations and the payment flows, each recorded with its own finding.

What Paucitas does

We test a platform on points that can be checked from data: which wallets it uses, whether trading ever stood behind them, how long the domain name has existed, where it was registered, and whether the company appears in public registers.

Each test point gets its own finding. That keeps the report usable even when the answers are mixed, which they often are: a real company can run a platform whose wallets tell a different story.

We test a platform on five points that can be checked: the wallets it uses, whether trading ever stood behind them, the age of the domain name, where it was registered, and whether the company appears in public registers. Each point gets its own finding, which keeps the report usable when the answers are mixed, as they often are.

What you supply

You supply the name and the website or app of the platform, the addresses you are asked to deposit to or have already deposited to, and screenshots of your account or of the offer you were shown.

If you were approached through an advertisement or a social media account, send the link or the profile name as well. Those channels are often reused across several platforms, and a match there tells us quickly whether we are looking at a one off or at a repeat operation.

If you have already deposited, add the transaction hashes as well as the addresses. A hash lets us place the payment in time to the second, which matters when the question is whether the platform was still paying anyone out on that date.

What you receive

You receive a report with the findings per test point and a conclusion on what the data actually support. In one anonymised case a platform showed a withdrawal page with a progress bar and sent an email confirmation, while the wallet it had given knew only incoming payments over the entire period and never a single outgoing one.

A finding of that kind is stronger than any impression, because a reader can verify it on a public block explorer.

For an international reader the honest limit is worth stating. A finding that a wallet only ever received payments is strong and verifiable on any public block explorer. A finding that a company is absent from a register is weaker, because registers differ by country. The report distinguishes between the two rather than merging them into one verdict.

The conclusion states what the data support and no more. Where the five points give a mixed picture, the report says so, because a platform that is merely badly run needs a different next step from one that never traded at all.

How to get started

You send the link and the name and, if you already have them, the payment addresses. A check before you deposit is cheaper than an investigation afterwards. Reach us through the contact page and we will tell you what a test can and cannot settle.

A test before you deposit costs a fraction of an investigation afterwards and usually takes one working day. If you are being pressed to pay today, that pressure is itself one of the five test points.

A legal qualification of a platform remains for the competent authorities and for the court.

Further reading