[blunte]

Aside from the fact that there are a steady stream of actual ponzis centered around bitcoin, many new coins and tokens are almost certainly hollow schemes designed to transfer wealth from the naive to the ICO creators.

Then you have the "mining" companies selling shares of mining power, but those sometimes turn out to be pure frauds - no mining nor equipment. Those behave just like ponzis.

It is probably in the average person's best interest to avoid it all.

[ksutariya]

The problem in India is that everyone looks around and sees what industry is making the most money and jumps in there. I know a ton of people who have switched from textile to diamonds to construction and so on because their friend is doing well in that industry.

Similarly, now a large number of actual ponzi schemes have come up in this space (Bitconnect, Dekado, etc) and if you look at their websites it is very easy to tell (Dekado claims to use arbitrage buoyancy software to generate 1.5%+ return per day). The problem is logic doesn't apply here when your friend has made XYZ dollars in that coin. Greed gets the better of you and you invest knowing that it is not possible.

[anonymous5133]

That's like saying people shouldn't buy stocks because penny stocks are very high risk.

The real answer is the same with all investments: do your due diligence to know and understand what you are buying/investing in.

[blunte]

There is an extra sprinkle of technology magic dust that seems to make many otherwise reasonable (non-technical) people believe absurd claims and make uncharacteristically bad decisions.

[chroem-]

It's been amusing to watch HN's overwhelmingly negative reaction to cryptocurrencies. Yes, there are absolutely some shady things going on with cryptocoins, but the response to them here seems pretty overblown. What I suspect is that many startup types have sour grapes over how they could have made nearly as much money speculating on digital tokens as they did building their web or app business. It's too bad, since there actually are some interesting technologies beginning to come out of the cryptocurrency sphere. These opportunities will get overlooked by everyone in SV apparently, though.

[jacksproit]

It’s also amusing to see this straw man argument and rebuttal get posted in almost every single discussion about cryptocurrencies.

[blunte]

Look up OneCoin. That is just one of dozens of scams riding on Bitcoin coattails, attracting (greedy/foolish) people, and taking most for a bad ride.

Most of these scams have been done in the height of the penny stocks days, and the SEC has (or had in the past) put a lot of effort into protecting less saavy investors.

Lastly, I work for a client in this space. My client is doing a legit business, but we constantly deal with customers who have made and lost money in dozens of these ponzis over the last couple of years.

[baddox]

Of course there are scams involving Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. How many scams involving US dollars do you suppose there are?

[chroem-]

For what it's worth, this is the first time I've seen it. Not sure it's fair to call it a strawman though.

[thisisit]

The "sour grapes" and "jealously" has been the go-to explanation, if it can even be call that on each of the cryptocurrency thread.

[verylittlemeat]

Bitcoin is just like any other investment I don't see how people can have "sour grapes" about it. So you knew about bitcoin or even had bitcoins when they were fractions of a cent? So what...most people would have sold when they reached $5 or $10 or $50 thinking they were at the peak.

[thanksgiving]

Couldn't we say the same thing about gold? I'm sure if you look far enough, you'll find someone willing to "sell" you gold and hold the gold for you when they don't have the said gold.

Or replace gold with US dollars or tulips or Amazon.com stock or whatever.

How is this a Bitcoin issue?

[blunte]

This absolutely has been done with gold mining ventures, just as it was done with oil drilling ventures. That's why some regulation on solicitation of investments in crypto currency ventures would be beneficial. It is developing though.

[noncoml]

> It's been amusing to watch HN's overwhelmingly negative reaction to cryptocurrencies

Not all cryptocurrencies. Only the ones with "intrinsic value". Just because I print pieces of paper in my basement, doesn't mean that there is an intrinsic value in them.

> It's too bad, since there actually are some interesting technologies beginning to come out of the cryptocurrency sphere

100% agree with this. There are some interesting ideas and technologies.

> What I suspect is that many startup types have sour grapes over how they could have made nearly as much money speculating on digital tokens as they did building their web or app business

I can only speak for myself: No. No sour grapes. Since day 1 I thought Bitcoin was a pyramid/Ponzi kind of scheme. I would never have taken part in such a system.

[brucephillips]

> Not all cryptocurrencies. But the one with "intrinsic value". Just because I print pieces of paper in my basement, doesn't mean that there is an intrinsic value in them.

Basement paper doesn't have a guaranteed fixed supply.

[tambienben]

>Since day 1 I thought Bitcoin was a pyramid/Ponzi kind of scheme.

So, how well do you actually understand it?

[noncoml]

Not sure what you are trying to do by taking a sentence out of context.

> No. No sour grapes. Since day 1 I thought Bitcoin was a pyramid/Ponzi kind of scheme. I would never have taken part in such a system.

The point of the paragraph was to show that it is not sour grapes as suggested.

[tambienben]

Not sure why you would avoid a still relevant question.

[noncoml]

I’ll amswer it, just for you: Better than you.

[brucephillips]

Perhaps you could point out specifically what GP is wrong about, rather than using vague flourishes like "overblown" and "sour grapes".

[anonymous5133]

the investors who don't know what they're doing will overlook it and miss out. The skilled investor will always have an open mind and always be willing to at least review interesting projects even if it is cryptocurrency or token based project.

[QAPereo]

And by skilled investors, you mean people with enough capital to manage the insane risk.

So skillfull...

Besides, let’s wait to heap laurels on investors until after the music stops.