Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, you mean Dogecoingem.com? Been up for over a week :) http://dogecoingem.com/
Dogecoin's already innovating faster then bitcoin!
To the moon!
Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
91–100 of 306 posts
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#92I'm impressed by the vanity address, must have taken a lot of cpu power to hash that one out.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep going. Then a third person joins. Second gets 1.2. Creator now has only 0.6. Then a fourth one joins…
my thought process is: one large BTC pool. all transactions are feed into the pool. the order of the deposits dictate priority of withdrawal. Owner does not skim the transactions, only makes a large initial deposit and then markets the site like crazy. Big assumption here is that he is running an "honest" ponzi operation.
why would he even need an initial deposit? he can simply delay to pay people until enough other people have paid.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't their acrued "debt" actually 20% of what has been paid in? That's about 48 bitcoins as of now. (Or perhaps that's what you meant?)
Hm, you might actually be right. I am not sure what the balance actually represents.
Remember that it takes a while for transactions to complete, so the balance could be a simple counter of outstanding outgoing transactions.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#95Here's someone who recently sent 1 BTC to this ponzi scheme:
https://blockchain.info/address/1Gh2tRaqaPWFbQVabVD9rPsN1nm9...
https://blockchain.info/address/1BYbqzLvAN9PCC4LqNPPG2dHSyTn...
I'm going to watch and see what happens to them. If they don't lose their 1 BTC, then that's at least slightly interesting.
EDIT: It's been more than an hour; no repayment yet.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#96snip Ponzi Scheme Enforcement Actions Curtailing Ponzi schemes and holding those responsible for these scams accountable is a vital component of the SEC's enforcement program. Since fiscal year 2010, the SEC has brought more than 100 enforcement actions against nearly 200 individuals and 250 entities for carrying out Ponzi schemes.1 In these actions, more than 65 individuals have been barred from working in the secur…
A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of money from new investors to continue.…
Beside the word "solicit" the definition you deliver applies 100% to that website. So why do you think it does not follow the definition? The returns come from new investors. It requires a constant flow of money. It will inevitably collapse at one point.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#97I would not wonder if it was posted by the actual author and if his advertisement here is actually successful.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of money from new investors to continue.…
Beside the word "solicit" the definition you deliver applies 100% to that website. So why do you think it does not follow the definition? The returns come from new investors. It requires a constant flow of money. It will inevitably collapse at one point.
The website does not imply "little to no risk." It explicitly states that it's a Ponzi scheme, which clearly means that you're gambling on not being the last one the party.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#99snip Ponzi Scheme Enforcement Actions Curtailing Ponzi schemes and holding those responsible for these scams accountable is a vital component of the SEC's enforcement program. Since fiscal year 2010, the SEC has brought more than 100 enforcement actions against nearly 200 individuals and 250 entities for carrying out Ponzi schemes.1 In these actions, more than 65 individuals have been barred from working in the secur…
A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. With little or no legitimate earnings, Ponzi schemes require a constant flow of money from new investors to continue.…
Yeah IMHO it walks the line between ponzi and pyramid scheme, so you'll either have the SEC or FTC coming after you. e.g. FTC has been hassling MLM schemes for years and they argue the differentiator is the fact that there's a product involved, but this clearly does not have a product, so best case the FTC shuts it down, worst case the interested agencies will include FTC, SEC, U.S. postal service and local and state equivalents.
Bit more data on the FTC's opinion:
http://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/1998/05/pyramid-schemes
Incidentally a pyramid scheme almost took down the Albanian economy and sparked the 1997 rebellion.
I suspect BTC investors are a little more sophisticated, but given the pseudo-anonymity behind cryptos, I wouldn't be surprised if something like this doesn't wreak a respectable amount of havoc in the future once cryptos are more widely held.
PS: If the site author's reading this, I'd start hitting the 5x5 stronglifts hard with a good bulking nutrition regime. You really want to hit the ground in federal prison with a size advantage. So I'm told. Can't wait for the AMA.
Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
#100Earlier 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
There is a block chain man. It's not a joke, how can you be so silly. BTC has a 100% record of everything that happens to it.