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Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

ponzi.io

71–80 of 306 posts

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#71
post #58
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he probably funded the first 10-100 btc, 20% profit. do the math.

are you sure 20% profit is the right number? Imagine two people use it, and they both pay 1 BTC. Time | Event 1 | First person pays 1 BTC 2 | Second person pays 1 BTC 2 | First person gets paid 1.2 BTC The creator makes .8 BTC in this case. Pretty solid return if you ask me.

Keep going. Then a third person joins. Second gets 1.2. Creator now has only 0.6. Then a fourth one joins…

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#72
post #55
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's interesting?

"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." - I maintain that a "good" hacker wouldn't find a blatant scam interesting. Especially not "just because it uses bitcoin".

So because it doesn't fit your subjective view of what a 'good hacker' finds interesting, it shouldn't be at the top of HN?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's brilliant, and it will work, and continue to work until people don't believe in it.

I love how people send over $1000 to this site. Why not play poker if you have that much money to spend on gambling? Or, you know, buy an instrument and learn something beautiful?

Because if they gamble and win, they can buy two instruments!

Do you not understand how gambling works?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#75
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." - I maintain that a "good" hacker wouldn't find a blatant scam interesting. Especially not "just because it uses bitcoin".

It's beyond blatant; it's unabashed and self-aware. That's interesting - who would make such a thing? Who would pay into it? Will it still work even when people know what it is?

"Every time you send money to the Ponzi address, you'll get back 1.2x what you put in." - honestly, it sounds like a normal Ponzi scheme to me. It's probably targeting people who don't realize that Ponzi schemes by their nature always end up as scams.

"All of our activity is is open and public on the blockchain. It's impossible for us to cheat anyone out of their payout without everyone knowing." - completely ignores the point. 15% of the people who put money in WILL lose all of it. Period.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#77
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't get the original money back at the end, you just get the 1.2x BTC that other people gave you.

It's interesting that this is exactly what a 'high risk' mixer looks like.

Or money laundering scheme. Genius idea.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#78
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean a joke? Looking at the blockchain, it seems to be a full fledged, serious, Ponzi scheme. They're taking in BTC and paying it out again to the early investors. EDIT: +1 to ryanjshaw for showing the blockchain: https://blockchain.info/address/1ponziUjuCVdB167ZmTWH48AURW1...

wow did not expect that, my bad... I just glanced over and saw all the automated responses and figured it's a joke. I'm actually still not convinced it's not an elaborate joke

The lesson - don't leave sarcastic, condescending responses to people before doing your own research.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#79
post #58
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he probably funded the first 10-100 btc, 20% profit. do the math.

are you sure 20% profit is the right number? Imagine two people use it, and they both pay 1 BTC. Time | Event 1 | First person pays 1 BTC 2 | Second person pays 1 BTC 2 | First person gets paid 1.2 BTC The creator makes .8 BTC in this case. Pretty solid return if you ask me.

Only if you ignore that the 3rd person would get the 0.8 BTC (as long as the scheme goes on). At some point he stops, but how much money he made depends exactly on how many people he didn't pay back. So, in the simplest case:

    Time | Event
    1    | First person pays 1 BTC
The creator makes 1 BTC in this case. Even better return.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#80

No one finds this repulsive? People will lose money to this. Yes, they are dumb, yes it is obvious. But those who participate are still morally complicit. Enabling others who suffer from serious issues (addiction, gambling) seems like a pretty shitty thing to do.

It's horrible. But it's like watching a trainwreck to be honest, you know exactly what's going to happen yet it's still intriguing.
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