There is no information on the BTC Advantage website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The BTC Advantage website domain (“btcadvantage.com”) was registered on February 9th, 2017. Lauro Alan Neves de Moraes is listed as the owner, with an address in Santa Caterina, Brazil also provided.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to put together an MLM history on Moraes.

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 BTC Advantage Product Line

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

The BTC Advantage Compensation Plan

The BTC Advantage compensation plan sees affiliates gift bitcoin to each other via a 2×5 matrix.

A 2×5 matrix places an 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).

Levels three to five of the matrix are generated in the same manner, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

A BTC Advantage affiliate begins by signing up and gifting 0.02 BTC from the affiliate who recruited them.

This payment in turn qualifies the affiliate to receive 0.02 BTC from two affiliates recruited into the first level of their matrix.

Levels two to five of the BTC Advantage matrix operate in the same manner, the only difference being the amounts gifted and to who.

  • level 1 – gift 0.02 BTC to the affiliate who recruited you and receive 0.02 BTC from two subsequently recruited affiliates
  • level 2 – gift 0.026 BTC to your second upline and receive 0.026 BTC from four affiliates
  • level 3 – gift 0.056 BTC to your third upline and receive 0.056 BTC from eight affiliates
  • level 4 – gift 0.2 BTC to your fourth upline and receive 0.2 BTC from sixteen affiliates
  • level 5 – gift 0.93 BTC to your fifth upline and receive 0.93 BTC from thirty-two affiliates

Note an affiliate’s second upline is the affiliate who recruited their immediate upline. A third upline is the affiliate who recruited the second upline and so on and so forth.

Joining BTC Advantage

BTC Advantage affiliate membership is tied to a 0.02 BTC gifting payment.

Full participation in the BTC Advantage compensation plan costs 1.232 BTC.

Conclusion

Although I’m sure Brazilians have participated in the plethora of bitcoin gifting scheme launched over the past few months, BTC Advantage appears to be the first run out of Brazil itself.

Regardless of where a cash gifting scheme is operated from however, the outcome is the same.

New affiliates sign up and gift money to earlier affiliates. Through preloaded positions and pass-ups at each matrix level, Lauro Alan Neves de Moraes receives the majority of funds deposited into the scheme.

A few early affiliates to sign up get what’s left, with the majority of BTC Advantage affiliates taking a loss.