Bitcoin is a Ponzi • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#11

Post by lpa22 » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:00 AM UTC

> They generally invest in gold as a hedge -- a "store of value" -- that they hope will retain its value in case other assets go sour.

I strongly believe bitcoin will be the new gold one day, if it doesn't pan out as a currency. It sounds insane, but I actually believe the Winklevoss twins when they say Elon and SpaceX will be able to mine gold on asteroids within the next 20 years, which would crash the price of gold. Not to mention as everything inevitably moves digital, we need to have a digital store of value.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#12

Post by bpodgursky » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

sockfish wrote: post #3

"By that definition the USD is a ponzi. No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain" <-- The 6.6trillion/day forex market begs to differ.

There are a lot of people who are "investing" in Bitcoin right now not out of expectation of real gains, but as a way to maintain assets against an inflating dollar... nominal gains, but not real ones.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#13

Post by whimsicalism » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #5

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #2

> No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain. The entire forex trading industry: am I a joke to you?

Isn’t forex kind of a joke to everyone? Hearing your friend got into Forex is about the same as when they get into Amway, Tupperware, DoTerra, or Herbalife …

Yes, this is true, but at the same time - there are major institutional players and market makers who do make money off of Forex.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#14

Post by bin_bash » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

The article describes "5 features of a Ponzi scheme" which make it sound like some authoritative rules, but so far as I can tell these were simply made up just for this article. I can't find them referenced anywhere else.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#15

Post by topspin » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

Nope. No one is being deceived. A Ponzi scheme pretends to be based on legitimate equities and value and is therefore a fraud. Bitcoin makes no such claim.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#16

Post by seibelj » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

Judging by the attitude on HN, cryptocurrency should be worth $0 and written off years ago. Instead it's bigger than ever and the most important people on earth are focusing on it. Somehow it's simultaneously an incredible, useless scam but is so powerful that we must ban it at all costs!

HN doesn't know everything, do your own research, use your own logic.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#17

Post by amin » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:02 AM UTC

sockfish wrote: post #3

"By that definition the USD is a ponzi. No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain" <-- The 6.6trillion/day forex market begs to differ.

The payoffs in FX trades do not come from "new investment money", so it fails an important Ponzi scheme criteria.

Having said that, speculating on FX is a zero-sum game, which I'm not generally in favor of.

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#18

Post by sien » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:02 AM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #5

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #2

> No, national currencies too fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" in them with the expectation of gain. The entire forex trading industry: am I a joke to you?

Isn’t forex kind of a joke to everyone? Hearing your friend got into Forex is about the same as when they get into Amway, Tupperware, DoTerra, or Herbalife …

George Soros would like a word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#19

Post by blackoil » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:02 AM UTC

I was just now seeing the first video of https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/ . Whole video is about how blockchain is awesome because Computer, Internet and Mobile were awesome. Followed by some answers about how we don't know of any use case right now.

Is there any non currency use case of blockchain?

Re: Bitcoin is a Ponzi

#20

Post by shimonabi » Thu, Oct 07, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

About two weeks ago a coworker came into my office and told me he bought a cheap motherboard so he could mine bitcoin with his graphics card.

Is it theoretically still possible to make a profit with that kind of hardware nowadays?

Please someone just tell me. I have no interest to do research into this. I just feel sadness for the crypto-bros.