[AceJohnny2]

Have we ever had a Ponzi scheme that consumed this much of the world's resources (relatively speaking)?

And I'm not talking about money going in, just resources used to maintain it.

Tangentially, it's really interesting and fun to read about real historical bubbles and scams. For example:

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor#Poyais_scheme

[SippinLean]

Bitcoin's protocol has no central actor to disproportionately redistribute new investors' money to old investors, a Ponzi scheme would be impossible.

[jadedhacker]

So there's not even a logical organizing principle that would actually benefit someone, it's just collective insanity. There's still no obvious application of Bitcoin. This is just slavish alter building to the god of markets.

[api]

... or alternately all money is a Ponzi scheme. Take your pick.