In a nutshell: A ponzi scheme has no external revenue, instead the payoffs come from new investors. This is the case when investing in Bitcoin.
Does the USD have external revenue? Is so, what is it?
Bitcoin is a Ponzi
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Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#22What about the hodlers.
What if your ponzi becomes a globally accepted currency.
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#23"By that definition the USD is a ponzi. No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain" <-- The 6.6trillion/day forex market begs to differ.
Also it is not true that "governments make their currencies slightly inflationary precisely to discourage hoarding." In fact, this is done so that there can be economic expansion. It is true that some economists have advocated for deliberately trying to increase inflation to spur spending, but it turns out that actually forcing inflation is not easy (see also: Japan for the past two decades).
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#24Another day another “stay away from bitcoin” post on HN
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#25"By that definition the USD is a ponzi. No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain" <-- The 6.6trillion/day forex market begs to differ.
There are a lot of people who are "investing" in Bitcoin right now not out of expectation of real gains, but as a way to maintain assets against an inflating dollar... nominal gains, but not real ones.
This is not true: you don't invest in something with 20% weekly swings to "maintain assets" against 1-3% inflation. You just don't.
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#26I think this is simplistic. It’s viewing Bitcoin through a lens of a traditional Ponzi scheme assuming people that trade their fiat currency for Bitcoin are investing, with a view to one day take profits back into dollars. What if people are seeing discussion of minting a trillion dollar coin, trillions in QE, 25% of all dollars created in the last 12 months…and concluding that fiat currency is in an endgame and they…
If it's not about cashing out then why is the primary hype mechanism talking about the dollar-equivalent value of anything crypto related? Why does it matter if an NFT was sold for $300k worth of ether?
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#27Is it still a Ponzi if you bought it to exit legacy finance with no view to sell back?
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#28> No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain. The entire forex trading industry: am I a joke to you?
Forex trading is zero-sum, your expected gain on a trade is zero minus expenses. The average user of forex is moving money from point A to point B and simply trying to minimize their loss. The ones making money in the market are those the other players are paying for the service, and the odd speculator like George Soros who's big enough to exploit market inefficiencies like currency pegs.
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#29"By that definition the USD is a ponzi. No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain" <-- The 6.6trillion/day forex market begs to differ.
Nobody "invest" in USD. You invest in assets which you expect to appreciate. People investing in Bitcoin do so expecting to control a portion of a finite supply, which defeats its purpose of liquidity.
Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi
#30In a nutshell: A ponzi scheme has no external revenue, instead the payoffs come from new investors. This is the case when investing in Bitcoin.
Does the USD have external revenue? Is so, what is it?
People who have US dollars, nearly always use it as a currency (a medium of exchange), not as investment.