None of the token sales I've seen are ponzi schemes. "Ponzi scheme" seems to be the buzzword used to describe any irrational or bubbly investment. It's incorrect usage of the term.
Ponzi schemes are financial frauds where, under the promise of high profits, users put their money, recovering their investment and interests only if enough users after them continue to invest money.
Further to this, its qualatively provable, as you can look at the contracts and actually class the type of Ponzi scheme they are.
The wikipedia article on Ponzi Schemes draws a fairly subtle distinction between a classical Ponzi schemes, economic bubbles, and pump-and-dump schemes:
Most ICOs seem more like pump-and-dump by that nomenclature, than like true Ponzi schemes, in which the Ponzi operator is directly involved in all of the transactions in and out of the system.
You're quoting from the Birch-Kaminska circle, which has been bashing cryptocurrency since 2012.
A ponzi scheme is where people pay a fee to join a scheme where members are guaranteed a payment that comes out of the membership fees paid by members that join after them.
No token sale has given out payments, let alone guaranteed one. A speculative price gain is not a "ponzi scheme".
What are you talking about membership fees? That isn't the criteria for all Ponzi schemes you know? You don't sound like you know what a Ponzi scheme is.
It's you who doesn't know what a Ponzi scheme is. A Ponzi schemes requires new members to pay a fee to join. From Wikipedia:
>is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors, rather than from legitimate business activities.
The operator pays revenue to those who joined earlier with the fees received from those who joined later.
Ponzi schemes are financial frauds where, under the promise of high profits, users put their money, recovering their investment and interests only if enough users after them continue to invest money.
Further to this, its qualatively provable, as you can look at the contracts and actually class the type of Ponzi scheme they are.
* https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/06/01/2189634/its-not-just-... https://stratechery.com/2017/tulips-myths-and-cryptocurrenci... * https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.03779.pdf