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Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

ponzi.io

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Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#181

Post by superuser2 »

erikb wrote: post #151
superuser2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but it is not a requirement to hide the fact that it is a Ponzi to be a Ponzi. It still is, if you know about it or not.

By this definition, there is.

>"purported returns"

Disbursements from ponzi.io are not purported to be investment returns or legitimate income of any kind. There are clearly other people's contributions.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#183

Post by eterm »

FiloSottile wrote: post #156

The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this. And it's down.

It looks like it stopped paying out at 20:27.

Money was still flooding in until around 22:55.

Overall with 344 BTC recieved, if everything was paid out as expected, the site operator would lose around 69 bitcoins.

As it stands, the address still has ~20 bitcoins left in the wallet, but obviously owes a lot more than that even if it were to pay the remaining payments 1:1 rather than 1:1.2.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#184

Post by eterm »

galvin wrote: post #168
FiloSottile wrote: post #156

The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this. And it's down.

Here's a cached version: https://web.archive.org/web/20140208200431/http://ponzi.io/ Edit: With numbers: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

They still have the site up at http://ponzi.io/index2.html anyway

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#185

Post by rangersanger »

curiousgeorgio wrote: post #179
FiloSottile wrote: post #156

The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this. And it's down.

I'm curious - anyone know what happened to cause the (inevitable) end? From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to be the lack of new interest/money. Possibilities I can think of: - Author got scared (of legal repercussions) - Author got greedy (pocketing much of the last deposits) - For some reason (research?) it was intended from the beginning to only run to a certain point - Technical scaling issues Anyone know?

What makes you think it ended? People are still paying in and it appears to still be paying out.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#186

Post by rnbrady »

curiousgeorgio wrote: post #179
FiloSottile wrote: post #156

The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this. And it's down.

I'm curious - anyone know what happened to cause the (inevitable) end? From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to be the lack of new interest/money. Possibilities I can think of: - Author got scared (of legal repercussions) - Author got greedy (pocketing much of the last deposits) - For some reason (research?) it was intended from the beginning to only run to a certain point - Technical scaling issues Anyone know?

Or they realised too late that they had a bug which caused some people to get back 900% instead of 120%. That would break the model. Underpaying is something you could correct retroactively, overpaying not so easy.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#187

Post by lucb1e »

Should have known! Like ten minutes before I expected 1.2x to be gathered and my payout to be done, the site reports "The experiment is over." Come on guys, just let it run. I would have accepted it if it just 'died of natural causes' and I lost all I put in (which is not much, 0.03); that was my gamble. Not that you'd pull the plug.

Somehow their pulling the plug just really bothers me much more than losing it would have been. Especially because at the rate at which it was going, payout was more or less ensured (300btc * 1.2 = 360. They quit 16 coins short). Right now, two hours after they supposedly would pay everyone back, I still got nothing.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#188

Post by Anderkent »

X4 wrote: post #148
dwaltrip wrote: post #60

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.

Theft is theft, even when you label yourself "we steal". Making this do actual and not fake transactions is criminal.

But saying "We'll take your items, if you give them to us" is not theft.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#189

Post by curiousgeorgio »

rangersanger wrote: post #185
curiousgeorgio wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious - anyone know what happened to cause the (inevitable) end? From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to be the lack of new interest/money. Possibilities I can think of: - Author got scared (of legal repercussions) - Author got greedy (pocketing much of the last deposits) - For some reason (research?) it was intended from the beginning to only run to a certain point - Technical scaling issues Anyone know?

What makes you think it ended? People are still paying in and it appears to still be paying out.

I'm looking at the huge text on the home page saying "The experiment is over." If that can't be trusted, then why in the world would anyone expect to receive a payout at this point (as if it weren't already incredibly risky)?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#190

Post by lucb1e »

FiloSottile wrote: post #156

The experiment is over. We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this. And it's down.

> We will pay back everyone we can. We are not making money from this.

Paying people back can be done instantly. Adding 20% needed a wait. If they stopped the experiment an hour ago, I'd say my coins should have returned by now :(

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