Bitcoin Step provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Bitcoin Step website domain (“bitcoinstep.com”) was privately registered on August 21st, 2016.

There’s a good possibility Bitcoin Step is being operated by a Russian admin. This is supported by

  • Russian used in the Bitcoin Step website source-code
  • Russian testimonials featured on the site
  • the Bitcoin Step website being hosted in Russia
  • Russian being the second offered language after the default English
  • Russia is the second largest source of traffic to the Bitcoin Step website (after Germany)

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

The Bitcoin Step Product Line

Bitcoin Step has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Bitcoin Step affiliate membership itself.

Participation in the Bitcoin Step income opportunity as an affiliate provides access to “business development tools”.

The Bitcoin Step Compensation Plan

Bitcoin Step appears to be a basic matrix cycler, however the official presentation of the plan is pretty confusing.

I’ve done my best to make sense of what’s presented on the Bitcoin Step website below.

Matrix sizes used in the Bitcoin Step website include 2×3 and 2×4.

A 2×3 matrix places a Bitcoin Step affiliate at the top of a matrix, with two positions directly under them:

These two positions form the first level of the matrix. The second level of the matrix is generated by splitting each of these two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

The third level of the matrix is generated in the same manner and houses 8 positions (14 in total).

A 2×4 matrix adds an additional fourth level to the matrix (16 positions), for a total of 30 positions.

A Bitcoin Step affiliate signs up and purchases a position in the first tier of the cycler (2×4 matrix).

Commissions are paid when a matrix is filled, which also pushes the affiliates position into the next cycler tier as follows:

  • Matrix 1 (2×4 matrix, positions cost 0.05 BTC) – 0.25 BTC commission, creates a new Matrix 1 position and cycles into Matrix 2
  • Matrix 2 (2×3 matrix) – 0.5 BTC commission, creates a new Matrix 2 position and cycles into Matrix 3
  • Matrix 3 (2×3 matrix) – 7 BTC commission, creates a new Matrix 3 position and cycles into Matrix 4
  • Matrix 4 (2×4 matrix) – 82.75 BTC commission and creates a new Matrix 4 position

There also appears to be recruitment commissions paid out. These commissions are attached to an additional fee charged to unlock access to each matrix level (presumably you can’t earn on each level unless the fee is paid).

  • Certificate 1 (0.01 BTC) – unlocks Matrix 1, no commission
  • Certificate 2 (0.1 BTC) – unlocks Matrix 2, 0.1 BTC commission paid on 25 recruits
  • Certificate 3 (0.3 BTC) – unlocks Matrix 3, 0.3 BTC commission paid on 125 recruits
  • Certificate 4 (2 BTC) – unlocks Matrix 4, 2 BTC commission paid on 625 recruits

Joining Bitcoin Step

Bitcoin Step affiliate membership costs between 0.06 BTC (0.01 BTC “certificate” and 0.05 BTC matrix position) and 2.46 BTC.

Conclusion

Whether something was lost in translation from Russian I can’t say for sure, but Bitcoin Step’s overly complicated compensation plan doesn’t translate well into English.

From what I’ve been able to work out it’s a Ponzi cycler with a matrix-based pyramid recruitment component.

Either way nothing is being marketed to or sold to retail customers, so it’s the same old Ponzi story.

Once Bitcoin Step affiliate recruitment dies down so too will new funds entering the scheme. This will see the cyclers slow down and eventually stall, leaving the majority of Bitcoin Step affiliates out of pocket.