[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.