• hydroptic
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    9 months ago

    That’s not what a Ponzi scheme is. In a Ponzi, earlier investors are paid from what newer investors put in. While there have been Ponzi schemes that used Bitcoin or Ethereum or what-the-fuck-ever, they themselves aren’t Ponzis – they’re essentially commodities. They’re stupid, wasteful commodities, but what else is new?

    With your definition, stocks and commodities are Ponzi schemes too. It’s clearly nonsense.

    And no, before anybody starts getting any ideas, in case it’s not already blindingly obvious I’m not a “crypto fan” by any means. There’s some technologies and ideas there that might be useful in the long run, but 99% of the field is bullshit

    • Ptsf@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Alright so please explain to me how investing into a sinking ship (which by design bitcoin is) on the concept that the sinking will be held off by newer continual investment doesn’t meet the definition? Bitcoin is 100% a Ponzi scheme because left alone there is a /continual and designed/ drain on the value of the “commodity” (this applies to all “proof of work” coins). Stocks don’t necessarily suffer this as the company is technically leveraged against the stock, but bitcoin only has the leverage of current invested value. If you combine this with the fact it’s unsustainable without continual new investment and given a long enough timeline will consume more and more electricity leading to runaway costs I don’t see how you don’t see the brick wall at the end of this tunnel labeled “hope you jumped ship” leaving longterm investors SOL without continual investment.

      • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        By your definition, the US dollar is also a ponzi scheme because if all of Gen Z and their children and future generations choose to conduct all their financial transactions in Euro then the US dollar will have no value. This is simply not the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

        • Ptsf@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It is not my definition; feel free to Google it. The actual reality of bitcoins model falls well within that of a Ponzi scheme as the only derived long-term value comes from new investors and the long term model will continuously bleed more resources than sustainable running the network.

          The US dollar is differentiated as it’s a secured currency backed by a legitimate business interest (the US government; citizens have no say in it. It does not matter if they wish to use Euros. They are forced to transact via the currency legally and thus it’s value is secured.)