The Last Network Review: Failed VOW cashback adds Ponzi
The Last Network is a marketing spinoff of Vow.
Both Vow and The Last Network are founded and run by Bishara “Bish” Smeir.
As far as I can tell Smeir doesn’t have an MLM history. Prior to Vow, Smeir had been promoting a cashback scheme for years:
I was able to backdate Smeir’s CashbackApp scheme to at least 2015.
Ultimately CashbackApp didn’t go anywhere and failed as a business.
In early 2019 Smeir reinvented himself as a crypto bro and launched Vow.
Vow is essentially a reboot of CashbackApp but with cryptocurrency.
Both CashbackApp and Vow can be white labelled through Enigmatic Smile, a UK shell company set up by Smeir.
Not surprisingly, Vow also flopped and was all but dead until June 2022.
This is around the time Smeir launched The Last Network.
As you can see in the SimilarWeb traffic chart above, traffic to Vow’s website primarily originates from Germany (39%), the US (13%) and Austria (11%).
Promotion of The Last Network in German-speaking countries is headed up by Joerg D. Wittke (aka Jörg Wittke), believed to be an Austrian national.
Wittke’s MLM claim to fame is being a “leader” in BitClub Network.
BitClub Network was a $722 million dollar Ponzi scheme. The DOJ arrested BitClub Network’s co-founders in December 2019.
Wittke cites himself as a
Bitclub leader & founder of the Centurion Club, one of the most successful teams within the Bitclub.
Wittke was promoting BitClub Network up until June 2019.
How much money Wittke stole through the Ponzi scheme is unclear.
After BitClub Network, circa September 2019, Wittke began promoting the Jubilee Ace Ponzi scheme. Jubilee Ace collapsed in early 2021.
After Jubilee Ace Wittke promoted the HyperFund Ponzi to Germans.
HyperFund collapsed in late 2021. The three reboot Ponzis that followed have been a mess.
Vow is incorporated as a shell company in Jersey, a scam-friendly island jurisdiction off the coast of France.
Bish Smeir is believed to be based out of Glasgow, Scotland, from where Vow and The Last Network are actually operated from.
Joerg Wittke is based out of Dubai, the MLM crime capital of the world.
Read on for a full review of The Last Network’s MLM opportunity.
The Last Network’s Products
The Last Network has no retailable products or services.
Affiliates are only able to market The Last Network affiliate membership itself.
The Last Network’s Compensation Plan
The Last Network affiliates invest tether (USDT) or ethereum (ETH) into VOW.
Invested VOW is then parked with The Last Network. The Last Network converts invested VOW into “LP Tokens”.
The Last Network then pays a minimum 4% monthly ROI on invested LNT tokens, paid for 367 days in its own LNT shit token.
Note that when reinvesting, The Last Network affiliates have to match or exceed their previously investment amount.
The MLM side of The Last Network pays on recruitment of affiliate investors.
The Last Network Affiliate Ranks
There are two tiers of ranks in The Last Network’s compensation plan; Commission ranks and Bonus ranks.
Commission Ranks
The Last Network has two Commission ranks:
- LP – invest less than $10,000
- Qualified LP – invest more than $10,000
Bonus Ranks
The Last Network has seven Bonus Ranks:
- One Star – earn $100,000
- Two Star – earn $250,000
- Three Star – earn $500,000
- Four Star – earn $1,000,000
- Ambassador – earn $2,500,000
- Vice President – earn $5,000,000
- President – earn $10,000,000
It’s unclear whether earned amounts include ROI payments or just MLM commissions.
Note that although USD amounts are quoted above, The Last Network tracks active investment in cryptocurrency equivalents.
Referral Commissions
The Last Network pays referral commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Referral commissions are paid as a percentage of VOW invested across the unilevel team.
How many levels referral commissions are paid on is determined by rank:
LP ranked affiliates
- LPs who have invested at least $500 and recruited at least one affiliate – 20% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- LPs who have invested at least $500 and recruited at least two affiliates – 20% on level 1 and 15% on level 2
- LPs who have invested at least $500 and recruited at least three affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3 and 5% on level 4
Qualified LP ranked affiliates
- Qualified LPs who have recruited one affiliate – 20% on level 1
- Qualified LPs who have recruited two affiliates – 20% on level 1 and 15% on level 2
- Qualified LPs who have recruited three affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2 and 10% on level 3
- Qualified LPs who have recruited four affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3 and 5% on level 4
- Qualified LPs who have recruited five affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3 and 5% on levels 4 and 5
- Qualified LPs who have recruited six affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3 and 5% on levels 4 to 6
- Qualified LPs who have recruited seven affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on level 7
- Qualified LPs who have recruited eight affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 and 8
- Qualified LPs who have recruited nine affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 9
- Qualified LPs who have recruited ten affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 10
- Qualified LPs who have recruited eleven affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 11
- Qualified LPs who have recruited twelve affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 12
- Qualified LPs who have recruited thirteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 13
- Qualified LPs who have recruited fourteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 14
- Qualified LPs who have recruited fifteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6 and 2% on levels 7 to 15
- Qualified LPs who have recruited sixteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 15 and 1% on level 16
- Qualified LPs who have recruited seventeen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 15 and 1% on levels 16 and 17
- Qualified LPs who have recruited eighteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 15 and 1% on levels 16 to 18
- Qualified LPs who have recruited nineteen affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 15 and 1% on levels 16 to 19
- Qualified LPs who have recruited twenty affiliates – 20% on level 1, 15% on level 2, 10% on level 3, 5% on levels 4 to 6, 2% on levels 7 to 15 and 1% on levels 16 to 20
Note that The Last Network pays referral commissions in LP tokens.
Rank Achievement Bonus
The Last Network rewards affiliates for qualifying at One Star and above:
- qualify at One Star and receive $10,000
- qualify at Two Star and receive $15,000
- qualify at Three Star and receive $25,000
- qualify at Four Star and receive $50,000
- qualify at Ambassador and receive $150,000
- qualify at Vice President and receive $250,000
- qualify at President and receive $500,000
Joining The Last Network
The Last Network affiliate membership appears to be free.
Participation in the attached MLM opportunity requires a minimum $500 investment in USDT or ETH.
The Last Network Conclusion
The Last Network is your typical MLM crypto Ponzi scheme, launched to resuscitate an otherwise failed business.
Under the guise of “staking” (investment) and “yields” (returns), The Last Network affiliates invest tether and ethereum.
This is done on the promise of a monthly ROI. Then, through a convoluted system of in house shit tokens, the end result is earlier The Last Network affiliates cashing out subsequently invested cryptocurrency.
The marketing pitch surrounding The Last Network is Bish Smeir’s failed Vow cashback platform.
From a flow of money perspective, Vow has nothing to do with The Last Network investment or returns. The Last Network is a closed-loop system that shuffles newly invested crypto around to pay earlier investors.
On the regulatory front The Last Network’s monthly passive returns clearly constitutes a securities offering.
Neither Vow, The Last Network, Bish Smeir or Joerg D. Wittke are registered to offer securities in any jurisdiction.
This means that at a minimum, The Last Network, Smeir, Wittke and the rest of the promoters are committing securities fraud.
BitClub Network’s co-founders were indicted on wire and securities fraud charges.
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will new investment.
This will see The Last Network unable to pay out withdrawal requests (disguised as trading VOW and the other TLN shit tokens on the open market), eventually resulting a collapse.
The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees the majority of investors lose money.
For further proof of this, one need only look as far as every Ponzi scheme Joerg Wittke has ever promoted.
Prior to going into prelaunch in June 2022, Wittke and The Last Network insiders positioned themselves ahead of the prelaunch rubes.
New investors are currently being recruited as said prelaunch rubes. The Last Network intends to hold public launch events in December 2022.
Ah, here we go. As i expected before i warned you, its the typical Scam garbage.
All critical comments on vow on coinmarketcap are being removed. I think it’s Bish himself reporting them.
Unfortunately, I found this article only today, after I registered and invested 600 € and then asked myself how a comission of 70% on 20 levels can be paid off the liquid provisions (stacked for one year), PLUS interests of 4% monthly to the provider, which adds up to another 4*12 = 48%.
70+48 = 118% payout after one year? Completely unrealistic. Only possible with a Ponzi scheme, if you ask me.
The project is highly dubious;
There are holders of VOW who are slowly liquidating their holdings and draining the liquidity of the token, so it’s heading to zero.
Bush Smeir (Look for him on Companies House UK website) and his partners have never ran a profitable or successful business and none ever seem to last long.
Their partners are equally failed and often behind new rewards companies with no profit.
No products, no reputation, no actual reality beyond incessant big claims.
People should report Bish Smeir to HMRC in the UK, or the UK Financial Ombudsman.
I am so glad i found this, I was talking to a german guy here in the Philippines, (i am from the USA), he invited me to his home here in the Philippines to join this platform and invest 10k usd, however i like to do my research first.
thanks to you, i found this great piece of information. thank you, Anthony Scotto.
Thanks.
The researcher behind this article is speculating a lot, much of the information he comes up with (not all) is either incorrect or his own thoughts. He presents it like this, because (Ozedit: derails removed)
This review is based on The Last Networks’ compensation plan and marketing material.
Instead of, y’know, speculating to derail from the fact The Last Network is a Ponzi scheme, how about your point out the incorrect information?
*crickets*
There’s hardly any information about this project on the internet. I believe it’s a scam.
Sadly, some people I know have invested quite a bit of money. Is there a way to prove it’s a scam?
You can verify The Last Network isn’t registered with your country’s financial regulator (SEC equivalent).
MLM + securities fraud = Ponzi scheme. Ponzi scheme = scam.
There are now first rumors of people no longer getting paid.
Looks like this scam survived for barely 10 months, which also means that 99,9% of all investors already got ripped off, since the staking ends after 12 months.
Infinity Hotel Munich has not reacted at all when i confronted them about that upcoming Vow Event on 5.8.2023.
Either they dont know about this Event because its a fake and they think i am trolling or they ignore me because they dont want to cancel this Event as it brings them a million € and they dont care that they support a Ponzi with this.
My personal opinion is that this is most likely a fake and Vow tries to grab some cash before they collapse.
Token price has now fallen below 40 cents and trending further downwards because the first stakings slowly get unlocked, causing fresh Vow token to flood the market while there is no demand.
Chances are high that Vow will go to 0 within the next 30 days.
Fully agree Megatrends! I wouldn’t wonder if the VowUp event is just made up to make people believe this scam is still vital while it’s already collapsing, as the VOW token price and stagnating TLN staking incomes indicate.
This wouldn’t be the first time. I asked merchants from the screenshots in Telegram channels and app stores who didn’t know anything about VOW and even claimed it’s a scam.
Further they claim to have huge marketing actions running in India while the app downloads stagnate near zero. And there are many more such red flags and VOW officials refuse to explain these facts.
Looks like Bish Smeir and his companion Pal Teleky were running the Medusa Exchange with its Medusa Scam token somewhen in 2018:
northdata.de/Smeir,+Bishara+Alexis+Elias,+Glasgow/12zv
I have almost no info about Medusa tho, it must have been a very small scam that collapsed quickly.
It is listed on this scam list along with many other known Scams:
cryptolegal.uk/list-of-reported-scam-companies/
They now claim this thing is decentralized, but the only thing they changed is the website. Its now vow.foundation and they created a “space” here: https://snapshot.org/#/vowgovernance.eth
But i dont know yet what this garbage even is about.
Anything MLM that pretends to be decentralized is bullshit. Someone always sets it up and that person owns it.
With The Last Network that person is Bish Smeir.
THIS Exact statement in very similar words, is what most of the first responders use ,to MLM reviews on this site , and it always tends to go in favour of the reviewer , as opposed to the investors. Its a continuous cycle, as if their MLM is somehow the one that is more legit than anyone else’s
They try to pretend that the whole thing is now democratic and not controlled by Smeir, Enigmatic Smile or anyone else.
They try to convince the people that there is no one who can now pull the plug. In fact, the largest holder(s) still control it and can do anything they want with it.
Finally, it doesn’t matters. If there is no one who swaps TLN tokens that are used for the provisions, the price will drop to 0 and the payouts might still exist but get worthless.
Prices already started to drop and pace increased since VOW up conference in Munich is over, where they only presented the usual stuff plus this decentralization maneuver.
I have to apologize! The theoretical 73% payout on 20 levels boil down to 32% in reality, because of missed qualifications and/or unwillingness to recommend the opportunity further.
And the 4% monthly are possible due to 0.3% transaction fees between Vow and vUSD. So, everything is realistic.
There is no Ponzi scheme with decentralized funds! Because everybody keeps their money in their wallet at all times.
Staking transaction can be traced through the blockchain. Everything is fully transparent.
This is wrong. There are almost no transactions and therefore almost no fees generated. Not even enough to cover the rewards of the leaders. You can check the transactions and the fees on the blockchain at any time if you don’t believe me…
Of course there is. No external source of revenue = Ponzi scheme.
Vow finally collapsed after 2 years. They did the “Hackers!” rug pull 3 days ago.
Certik analysed the incident and it is absolutely obvious that the attack came from inside:
certik.com/resources/blog/vow-incident-analysis