Queen Pace users say that the startup of the digital currencies has ignored their appeals to help

Michael Pierre was sitting last summer in his apartment in Brooklyn when he received a text message on his iPhone from an unknown number, before he lost the service immediately, and because of his concern that his phone was hacked, he was quick to check his most valuable application "Coinbase";It is an encrypted digital currency company, where he stored digital currencies worth $ 100,000.

But he was unable to log in, so he sent - in Justice - an electronic bridal to "Queen Piece" to seek help, and later the company told him that "the attacker" renovated his password, and drained his account, then Pierre said that he was shocked because he expected to discover the security of "QuinnPace "suspicious activity and stop the theft.

"I was thinking about retirement and family and getting money for the difficult days," Pierre added, and "within two minutes, everything was robbed of me.".

Pierre, 47, who is a lawyer and former in Queen Pace, has started to urge his former colleagues to investigate what happened, and compensate him for the lost cryptocurrencies that may reach more than 400 thousand dollars..But he said he had received little help;Therefore, last January, he sued Queen Pace, accusing her of neglecting security measures and failing to protect his money.

His warning story is one of the dozens of stories from Queen Piece clients around the world who say that their accounts were looted by the attackers or that they were deprived of the savings of their lives without warning or reason, and that the company failed to discover problems, and did little to help.While Queen Pace is preparing for public subscription in the next few weeks - which enhances its position because it is one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world - its user experiences show how they are still struggling to address basic complaints to customers.

This raises questions to Kenin Pace in a decisive moment, as no major encrypted currency company has been asked for public subscription before, and some investors have speculated that Queen Piece value could reach $ 100 billion, and its inclusion would also emphasize the high popularity of encrypted currencies inThe time of the epidemic, where the price of Bitcoin - which is the most famous digital currency - destroyed the standard numbers since last November.

The lawyer, who represents digital currency investors, David Silver, says that Queen Piece's proposition is a "detailed" order for digital currency industry, but Silver added that if the company wants to be like "Goldman Saches", it is "neededTo maintain a high -quality customer support service.

In a statement, Casper Sorensen, deputy head of the follow -up of customer experiences with Queen Piece, said that the company is dealing with "the economy of digital currencies that operates around the clock throughout the week, which led - with the high demand - to create a unique set of challenges in front of customer experiencesAnd to address this, the company said that it had added two thousand employees to support customers in recent months, and reduced waiting times for assistance.

Queen Piece added that she had never been hacked, and said 0.004% of its users suffered from "seizing their accounts" during the past year, as someone hackled their devices, then managed to reach their Queen Pace accounts, and the company said it has educated its users on how to maintain the security of their accounts.

Queen Pace refused to comment on any individual cases or lawsuits.

In comparison with normal banks and money, currencies and digital financial exchanges have an additional degree of risks;Unlike the funds transferred through a bank, bitcoin can be traded immediately, and in many cases, transactions cannot be retracted or tracked to a specific individual, which facilitates the theft process.And do not apply to digital currencies many laws that protect people's money, which require banks to maintain strict security measures.

Queen Piece was founded in 2012, by Brian Armstrong, its CEO and others.At that time, the formation and other cryptocurrencies had just began to climb as a way to give decentralization to the movement of funds by allowing people to send cash to each other around the world without the need for a bank.

But it has been proven difficult to trade bitcoin without the help of an institution;Therefore, Armstrong created the company "Queen Piece", as "a bank banking", any place where people can buy, sell and transfer encrypted currencies through what is known as the digital portfolio, and the company takes fees every time the customer submits an application.

Today, Queen Pace has 43 million customers, according to its subscription bulletin, and it achieved profits of 322 million dollars last year, while its revenues increased more than twice, and reached 1.27 billion dollars.Last December, she applied for public subscription, and she plans to direct insertion, and it is not new shares in which new shares are not issued.

With the growth of Queen Pace, she was responding to customer complaints, as concerns focused on two main things - according to legal documents and interviews with more than 10 users of Koin Pace, in addition to publications on social media and customer opinion polls - the first that the company's security was deceived beforeThe attackers infiltrated their accounts and then stole their money, or that they were suddenly prevented from entering their accounts, either because of a technical defect or without any reason at all as it appears..

Queen Piece said it rarely prevents users from entering their accounts, but it may do so if she is investigating a violation of the conditions of service or due to suspicious activity.

And the loss of access to the account can be destroyed, because some people use Queen Pace as an actual bank, as they deposit their salaries.Users said that the frustrations have doubled because the company often does not respond to help requests.

The problems have become so widespread that a forum about Queen Piece on the "Reddit" website has been overwhelmed by requests from people looking to help open their accounts.One of the users of "Reddit" - who published that he was living in Vietnam - left dozens of comments that required help in returning to his account, which he said had become frozen for more than a year.

"I need to open my account," the user of "Reddit" - which is known as "Kuromodz" - wrote, "Please respond to my electronic messages and give me solutions! I can't lose my money!".

Jonchalo Maya, 24, a programmer from Lisbon in Portugal - said he was banned from entering his account on Queen Pace, which is about 27 thousand euros, or $ 32,000 last January, and in response, he created a group linked to Kwin PaceOn the Discord for the correspondence, it has since attracted more than 300 people, many of them bemoaned that they are unable to enter their accounts, and some have said that they have not been able since that time to bear the cost of food or pay the rent.

"They hurt people," Maya said, adding that many feel "despair".

After the New York Times asked Queen Piece about the Maya account, he received an email from the company saying that he violated the conditions of the service, and he will not be allowed to use the platform, and Maya said that he does not know the error he committed, and added that he was happy because Queen Piece allowed him to withdraw his moneyFrozen first.

Christine Duhimi - the expert in financial crimes - said that Queen Piece - and other encrypted currency exchange.Duhimi added that the insertion of Queen Piece could be a step towards aligning the world of digital currencies with the laws that govern traditional financial institutions.

"Queen Piece - through its proposal to public subscription and subject to greater regulatory control - is moving more towards light, as it exists - or will exist - a greater vision and greater comfort.".

Some users said that one of the most frustrated aspects in Queen Piece is that their complaints are not read by anyone as it seems to be..

"There is no one on the other side," said Sherrill Hong - a marketing advisor to Los Angeles..

As for Queen Piece, she said that real customer service employees respond to inquiries.

For most Queen Pace users, the legal haven is also limited, according to the company's service conditions, users agree to settle disputes through private arbitration or small allegations court, instead of filing a collective lawsuit.

© New York Times 2021