I want to report a serious issue I had with ZBD. I was having problems with my LN node and, as a temporary alternative, I turned to ZBD as a backup, integrating their streaming service to receive donations in sats through a QR Code displayed on the screen, while my system was not working.
However, when I tried to access the ZBD app last Saturday to transfer the sats, I discovered I was blocked. I opened a support ticket and, after a long wait and opening a second ticket, the only response I got was a promise to "escalate" the problem. With no further responses, I continued opening tickets and demonstrating their lack of support live, as a real test of customer service.
Since the beginning of the Morning Crypto program in 2021, I had been recommending ZBD to our community as a good wallet option for beginners on the Lightning Network, but always warning about the risks of custodial wallets. Now, this experience reinforces the problem and serves as a great practical example: a custodial wallet can confiscate your sats without any explanation.
During the livestreams this week, I received numerous testimonies from users with similar issues on ZBD, reporting account locks without explanations and lack of support.
Therefore, I have removed ZBD from my recommendations and advise everyone: avoid using this wallet, due to the risk of losing your sats.
Spread this information among your contacts and acquaintances who may be using ZBD. The suspicious situation ZBD finds itself in is unacceptable in a market that demands reliability and transparency.
A recommendation in time, until today I used ZBD without problems, read this, and I think I will delete it and stop using it, thank you very much, brother
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Just be safe and have alternatives, knowing about the risks. Today is zbd, tomorrow can be another. Never putting all the eggs in the same basket, or withdrawing when possible to a custodial wallet is the best hygiene you can apply.
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Hey all, Andre here CTO/founder of ZBD here. Thanks for sharing this. I'm looking at it with the team right now. Will provide updates asap. Apologies to anyone that's facing issues accessing their accounts -- we'll get to the bottom of this I'm sure.
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thanks
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TLDR: new security systems in place to detect fraudulent usage of ZBD app had some edge-cases (@eddieoz was one of them), and our Customer Support team was unable to escalate things in a timely manner.
We're revisiting some of these processes internally to do better for our users.
If you are one of the few affected users please feel free to ping me directly at @andreneves on Twitter or email me directly at andre@zbd.gg.
Apologies for this issue.
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[SOLVED] @andreneves interceded and managed to restore my access again.
He explained that they were implementing new security controls, and my account was blocked by mistake. He also said he would review the internal processes to handle support more efficiently.
Thanks for the support. Everything is ok with my account.
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ask and you shall receive @thebitcoinbugle
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sorry, idk what it is
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I was just reading about this in the Bugle #474683
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got it!
"As the bull market rages, Bitcoiners are getting excited about onboarding newcoiners to new Bitcoin products that will inevitably rug pull their users, such as custodial lightning platforms and custodial KYC exchanges."
Sad, but true.
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Custodial lightning is always a vulnerability.
ZBD blocks depending on regions. Could be that this person was in a state not supported.
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Man, run your own streaming companion with LNbits. Here is a step by step guide. https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/lnbits-streamer-copilot
And here is a method to spin up a LNbits instance in matter of minutes:
More guides about LNbits here:
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My ln node crashed; that's why I was using zbd as a backup.
My system here uses my own instance of LNBits which pings a webhook when receiving sats. The webhook connects to my own alert system, which displayed an image, played music, and spoke a message.
However, it is down right now. :( I need to solve some channels that refuse to close before I can bring it back.
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Please read my guides about LN nodes. It will help you a lot. https://darth-coin.github.io/nodes/nodes.html
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Yep, been saying this for a while (literally just submitted my HeyApollo review yesterday, though it's still in the queue). They decided to pull out of my state a while back after I'd been using them for a while, and took all the sats I'd stacked -- which weren't just from their games/wallets -- with them.
I was so burnt that I just gave up on BTC for a while. The good news is that they taught me a lesson, I guess.
Also, they do NOT reply to tickets or emails.
I'm sorry you also got burnt here.
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Sorry about your experience also, but it is crazy how a lot of people are having issues with them!
Thanks for sharing. :)
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I haven't had any issues with my sats on zbd but their customer support is atrocious.
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'atrocious' is very descriptive.
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I owned my own business for 15 years. I would never leave a customer query or request or issue sitting for days without addressing. If I couldn't fix it right away I would at least speak to them and say "I understand your issue. It will take some time to get resolved. I am working on it". Customer service is horrible with tech companies. Bitcoin companies included.
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Me too. I carry the same values in my company. Being transparent to your customer shows at least you have some respect. It tells a lot about the company's values, mainly if it runs sensitive systems like managing financial resources.
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deleted by author
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I hope it was useful somehow. We need to criticize all the ecosystem and share what they are doing, being good or not. :)
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Oh man, this is very sad.
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It is entirely a side effect of new security systems, coupled with a need for improved internal processes for escalating specific customer support issues.
We're heads down resolving these edge cases. Please pign me directly if you're affected.
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Thanks for updates :)
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In the meantime, I still can't get email responses for you guys rugging my wallet a year ago, and logging into your "support" page leads to this.
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Can you email me your ZBD handle? andre@zbd.gg I can check things out
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[SOLVED]
@andreneves interceded and managed to restore my access again.
He explained that they were implementing new security controls, and my account was blocked by mistake. He also said he would review the internal processes to handle support more efficiently.
Thanks for the support. Everything is ok with my account.
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