No, the whole economic system is the biggest Ponzi scheme.
Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
71–80 of 306 posts
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#72What the author seems to miss is that while the features of Bitcoin might seem close to a Ponzi Scheme, Bitcoin was never meant to be a commodity to invest in. Bitcoin is useful and solves a real problem, and even if 1 Bitcoin goes down to $1, there will always be people using it as payment method for its features.
Also unlike a Ponzi Scheme, there's no single person that has the power to stop the whole operation. It's more like a drug than a Ponzi Scheme. And Bitcoin just hit the streets.
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need digital currencies that can only ever be mined efficiently with a CPU, and there need to be many more blocks with lower rewards so that people don't need to join pools if they don't want to. They need to be able to earn "something" (not zero) even with a low-end CPU or when the difficulty gets too great, and close to the point of reaching the maximum number of coins. I think there weren't even 10 percent Bitc…
A cryptocurrency based on CPUs is just fodder for Botnet herders, like Bitcoin was for quite a period. Amusingly, that was Litecoins original call to action, "GPUs are too centralised, we can only be CPU mined!", except that they implemented scrypt very badly. > I'd rather have that, than a few groups of people or governments owning a ton of ASIC's, or perhaps a few very expensive quantum computers in the future, tha…
Yes, I realize everyone with huge datacenters are a huge threat, too, but I still don't think it's as big of a threat as the alternative. Can the NSA own more than half of the world's CPU performance? I don't think so. Could they own 10-100 quantum computers that can mine at say 1 PH/s each? Definitely. It would be much more cost-effective for them, while prohibitively expensive for everyone else (a D-WAVE goes for $10 million a pop right now)
Granted, that's not actually viable yet, but if the world is going to move to a digital currency like Bitcoin, that implies it will be here for decades or centuries, and I think such a threat needs to be considered before it replaces most of the world's financial systems.
Even with ASIC's they could easily buy 1-10 million of them. It would only be a fraction of their annual budget, which will no doubt increase in the future, if nothing is done to rein in on their power. Normal people aren't going to buy ASIC's just to keep NSA in check.
Also, botnets would be there with or without Bitcoins. If they mine, at least they aren't doing something even more dangerous with the botnets, and keep them busy mining. Plus, it should be relatively easy to figure out you have a virus in your computer if your CPU is 100 percent 24/7 and the fans are spinning like crazy.
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#74All these people talking about Ponzi schemes are ignoring a few things. Bitcoin is a useful technology. It's is in limited supply, as money pretty much has to be. It's not backed by commodities, and can't be, if you want to avoid vulnerability to the sort of government attack that shut down E-gold. When you're starting out with an intrinsic value of zero, and you have limited supply, there's no way for a currency to…
"It's is in limited supply, as money pretty much has to be." An adjustable and growing money supply is much more the norm.
True, and bitcoin does stick to this norm. The rate of bitcoin production is predictable for the next 100+ years. More can be produced with more effort, it's just not as easy as printing notes.
So it is adjustable and it is growing. The price rise is caused by speculation and demand, not because new bitcoins aren't being produced.
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#75I think the most important lesson is that traditional economists are just going to have to learn to live with the fact that their theories don't explain bitcoins.
or they might just be kicking themselves for not buying coins sooner. lol.
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#76All these people talking about Ponzi schemes are ignoring a few things. Bitcoin is a useful technology. It's is in limited supply, as money pretty much has to be. It's not backed by commodities, and can't be, if you want to avoid vulnerability to the sort of government attack that shut down E-gold. When you're starting out with an intrinsic value of zero, and you have limited supply, there's no way for a currency to…
"It's is in limited supply, as money pretty much has to be." An adjustable and growing money supply is much more the norm.
Limited, not fixed. Bitcoin's supply is growing, just not near as much as demand. The dollar is limited by not allowing everyone to run printing presses. Admittedly, Bitcoin's growth rate isn't adjustable.
In any case, I think there's no way to start from zero value, as Bitcoin did, and go to real value, without some serious price appreciation. The first transactions have to be for quite tiny amounts.
Aside from that, I see the deflation as a clever hack to drive adoption. Arguments that it prevents use in transactions would only really apply if it were our only money.
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#77Going gtom "interesting" to "bullcrap" in 2 sentences:
(It will never rival Social Security, however.)
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#78Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are correct. I was using the article's language, which I agree is not right. It should be called a bubble, not a ponzi scheme. They are similar in that the price rise is being sustained by many new speculators/investors, and at some point, that will inevitably collapse. I am reminded of the story that Joseph Kennedy predicted the 1920's stock market crash after receiving stock tips from his shoe-shine boy. He rea…
> It should be called a bubble, not a ponzi scheme. This is a first bubble which is popular mainly among tech geeks :) What is strange, nobody is asking what problem Bitcoin really solves. As far I know it failed as a protection for silk road types. Silk road was compromised and Bitcoin didn't helped them.
It solves 2% credit card fee. It's enough for success at the level of at least Visa & MC. (And as a bonus it solves a lot of other problems too).
Re: Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History
#80Important to note:
The author of the article, Gary North, is the same guy who predicted a "failure of the global Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and that it would precipitate severe disruption and the complete collapse of the international economy, leaving American Christians to restore society following the collapse."
Also, he "favors capital punishment for a range of offenders; these include women who lie about their virginity, blasphemers, nonbelievers, children who curse their parents, male homosexuals, and other people who commit acts deemed capital offenses in the Old Testament. He also favors capital punishment for women who have abortions."
Everybody reading his article should take this into account.