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Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

ponzi.io

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Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#211

Post by Buge »

RyanZAG wrote: post #42

I'm trying to work out if this is some grand statement on the similarities of Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme in the way it's deflationary, or just a quick way for someone to make a few BTC. Maybe it's designed as a way to teach people about Ponzi schemes? Got to say, I pity the person who eventually deposits too much money at once, causing the payments to pause while they build up enough to cover his large deposit, in tur…

It's less of a statement about bitcoin as a statement about people. It shows that people will willingly deposit money into a scheme that they know is broken.

Just like with Bitcoin Savings and Trust, people essentially knew it was a ponzi scheme but they still deposited 263024 BTC. It was offering 7% a week which is 3373% a year. There are also debates about whether the people who profited are morally obligated to send their profits to the people who lost money. Are the people who profited considered to have stolen from the people who lost?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#212

Post by username223 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #134
eschaton wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've been following what's actually gone on in the Bitcoin world for any length of time, you'd know that "BTC investors" aren't "more sophisticated" - they tend to be less so. For one example, take a look at the people in the community who claim BTC exchanges are unregulated, and who "invest" in "stock markets" in BTC and the like: Just because you're not following the law or regulation doesn't mean you're not s…

> If you've been following what's actually gone on in the Bitcoin world for any length of time, you'd know that "BTC investors" aren't "more sophisticated" - they tend to be less so. Part of this is Bitcoin self-selects against those with a rigorous understanding of monetary economics, capital markets, and foreign exchange.

Pretty much. It self-selects for libertarian ideologues, money-launderers, and people trying to take advantage of the ideologues and/or ride the bubble. The cool thing about BTC is that the tech bubble has given a particular set of fools a whole lot of money from which to be parted.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#213

Post by legojoey17 »

I deposited the minimum just to give it a go (80c... Can't hurt?) and the Ponzi sent me back an absurdly larger amount of bitcoins... Not quite sure what happened, but hey. When this hit the top of Hacker News the site wasn't loading any bitcoin stats or such so I feel the load must have had something to do with it possibly. (That or I just got double spent on, which would be a real sneaky trick to get a user to send back the 'perceived' amount, but coming out of their pocket.

This is personally why I wouldn't trust any programs to handle currency so openly on the web. The inability of the average user to stress test or put proper testing through applications can cause quite a fault. Having experienced the methods that banks undergo for software cycles there is a tiny chance someone would have the resources to properly engineer something so fragile (relative to money) properly.

Because of this I would assume the main reason the author actually shut the site down (or at least so suddenly) was because of scaling technical issues.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#214

Post by tobias2014 »

a3_nm wrote: post #45

This would be cooler with one of those other cryptocurrencies that feature a Turing-complete scripting language: the code of the scheme could be public and run in the blockchain so that everyone would know the system is fair.

Which cryptocurrencies have such a feature?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#215

Post by plumeria »

dclara wrote: post #88
tobz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't recommend a pyramid schema. You'll run into migration problems down the road. Better to keep it flat.

I guess we are talking about difference things. Sorry, I meant Pyramid scheme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme But regarding pyramid schema, you mean hierarchical structure, right? I have the same concern, but flat tagging does not help much as we can observe from many sites. Let people browsing from multiple levels of the category is fun. The rule of thumb is: don't expect perfect structure and don't ne…

I think it was a joke?

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#216

Post by unclebucknasty »

Buge wrote: post #211
RyanZAG wrote: post #42

I'm trying to work out if this is some grand statement on the similarities of Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme in the way it's deflationary, or just a quick way for someone to make a few BTC. Maybe it's designed as a way to teach people about Ponzi schemes? Got to say, I pity the person who eventually deposits too much money at once, causing the payments to pause while they build up enough to cover his large deposit, in tur…

It's less of a statement about bitcoin as a statement about people. It shows that people will willingly deposit money into a scheme that they know is broken. Just like with Bitcoin Savings and Trust, people essentially knew it was a ponzi scheme but they still deposited 263024 BTC. It was offering 7% a week which is 3373% a year. There are also debates about whether the people who profited are morally obligated to se…

>There are also debates about whether the people who profited are morally obligated to send their profits to the people who lost money. Are the people who profited considered to have stolen from the people who lost?

The same could be asked of state lotteries and other forms of betting. Not sure there's much difference from a moral standpoint.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#218

Post by unclebucknasty »

lucb1e wrote: post #190
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 :(

Unless you're one of the guys without a chair when the music stopped.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#219

Post by avn2109 »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #204
1Ponzi wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New address: 1PonziAwQpnfj15Br4YFJHygWtd5LQKgN1 (without 1Ponzi in the wallet is not legit).

Interesting... This may be the first time someone's tried to use HN as a platform for phishing.

I foresee a low conversion rate here. HN probably attracts almost the complement of the audience you want to phish in.

Re: Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

#220

Post by legojoey17 »

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?

I feel it was technical scaling issues, probably from the sudden surge.

I say this because I received an absurd amount of BTC compared to what I put in (bare minimum, only a few cents) which would only have happened as a side effect of a technical issue.

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