[mrkeen]

Maybe the post was edited? I don't see the clear explanation.

Here's an exercise, I'll replace a bunch of words with their opposites, and present it as my counter argument:

"This is a great argument, and not clickbait. Obvious enough to anyone who actually understands how bitcoin, or eth work, it fits the definition of a ponzi scheme."

Are you convinced? Do you know where you got it wrong?

[rosnd]

Cryptocurrency is as much a ponzi as it's a car.

Cryptocurrency in general is not an investment promising profits, but a tool for payments (or a smart contract platform, whatever).

A Ponzi scheme is a fraud which takes money from investors, pretends to invest it in something profit-generating, but only pays out profits to earlier investors using funds from more recent investors.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum or monero are nothing like a ponzi scheme. There's zero pretence that it would be a profitable investment. Who would even be paying you these ponzi-dividends?

It's utterly stupid to make me spell this out, presumably anyone making the claim that "The entire crypto ecosystem is a ponzi" should know what those things are.

[bb88]

You're still not convincing me here. But you should be rewarded for making an argument I guess -- your snark aside.

I'll use the wikipedia definition for a ponzi scheme because it's simpler.

> A Ponzi scheme (/ˈpɒnzi/, Italian: [ˈpontsi]) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.

It doesn't say dividends. It just says "pays profits". Those profits in dollars could be realized by the early investors selling their stake. No dividends needed -- though some would say "mining" is a dividend producing activity -- I'm not sure I would though.

[rosnd]

Cryptocurrencies generally don't pay profits. Ethereum sort of does if you're staking, but that's out of reach for "normal people".

You always have exactly the same amount of cryptocurrency, with no serious claim made by the authors as to why you should profit by merely owning some.

(Of course, it's a bit silly of me to use "cryptocurrency" as a general term when there certainly are cryptocurrencies which are ponzis. But I'm referring to the "serious" projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Monero)

Also, you forgot a crucial bit from the wikipedia page:

> Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity (e.g., product sales or successful investments), and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds.

> leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity

I don't think this is true of any of the big cryptocurrencies.

> and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds

Of course everyone knows this.

[bb88]

This is brilliant.