5 ms·

> However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now [...] That's very hard to quantify, but there might well be a feedb

by jcfrei 11y ago

> However big is MMM, it's probably too small for the size of the bitcoin economy right now [...] That's very hard to quantify, but there might well be a feedback loop involving the media which leads to a price increase caused by MMM Global. The following Google Trends data for South Africa and the Philippines shows a nice correlation between searches for bitcoin and MMM Global: http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US&geo=ZA&cmpt=q&q=bitcoin,+MMM+Global&tz=Etc/GMT-1&content=1 http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US&geo=ZA&cmpt=q&...

csomar 11y ago
That's why I used "probably". The thing is, transacting with bitcoin will not raise the price exponentially. BTC is already being exchanged in many millions of dollars a day. So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme I don't really think it'll affect the BTC price much.
- the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
  > So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme I don't really think it'll affect the BTC price much. The actual transaction volume of bitcoin is not even that large. The total market cap is 6.5 billion and only because of the recent price surge.
- rsynnott 11y ago
  > So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme While I don't know much about this incarnation of MMM, the original MMM ponzi scheme in the early 90s is thought to have taken in about $10bn (not adjusted for inflation).
  - nosuchthing 11y ago
    Never heard of MMM before, Looks like Sergei is persistant with these pyramid schemes; In January 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, asking investors to buy so-called Mavro currency units. He frankly described it as a pyramid, adding "It is a naked scheme, nothing more ... People interact with each other and give each other money. For no reason!"[13] Mavrodi said that his goal with MMM-2011 is to destroy the current financial system, which he considers unfair, which would allow something new to take its place. MMM-2011 was able to function openly as Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids are not illegal under Russian law.[14] In May 2012 he froze the operation and announced that there would be no more payouts.[15] In 2011 he launched a similar scheme in India, called MMM India, again stating clearly that the vehicle is a pyramid.[16] He has also launched MMM in China.[17] He was reported to be trying to expand his operations into Western Europe, Canada, and Latin America.[14] As of September 2015 it had spread rapidly in South Africa with a claimed 1% per day or 30% per month interest rate scheme and warnings from both the South African and Russian Communist Parties for people not to participate in it.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM-2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM-2011 Active thread talking about Sergei's current scheme: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3p4kuf/mmm_global_republic_of_bitcoin/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3p4kuf/mmm_global_...
kristianp 11y ago
Someone should find out the bitcoin addresses the MMM victims are sending their funds to, it may help to give an indication of the size of the problem. I'm tempted to sign up to MMM to get one of the addresses they use. Of course it depends whether they are smart enough to use a different address for each user.

by jcfrei 11y ago

csomar 11y ago

That's why I used "probably". The thing is, transacting with bitcoin will not raise the price exponentially. BTC is already being exchanged in many millions of dollars a day. So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme I don't really think it'll affect the BTC price much.

the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
> So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme I don't really think it'll affect the BTC price much. The actual transaction volume of bitcoin is not even that large. The total market cap is 6.5 billion and only because of the recent price surge.
rsynnott 11y ago
> So unless MMM turns out to be a billion-dollar ponzi scheme While I don't know much about this incarnation of MMM, the original MMM ponzi scheme in the early 90s is thought to have taken in about $10bn (not adjusted for inflation).
- nosuchthing 11y ago
  Never heard of MMM before, Looks like Sergei is persistant with these pyramid schemes; In January 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, asking investors to buy so-called Mavro currency units. He frankly described it as a pyramid, adding "It is a naked scheme, nothing more ... People interact with each other and give each other money. For no reason!"[13] Mavrodi said that his goal with MMM-2011 is to destroy the current financial system, which he considers unfair, which would allow something new to take its place. MMM-2011 was able to function openly as Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids are not illegal under Russian law.[14] In May 2012 he froze the operation and announced that there would be no more payouts.[15] In 2011 he launched a similar scheme in India, called MMM India, again stating clearly that the vehicle is a pyramid.[16] He has also launched MMM in China.[17] He was reported to be trying to expand his operations into Western Europe, Canada, and Latin America.[14] As of September 2015 it had spread rapidly in South Africa with a claimed 1% per day or 30% per month interest rate scheme and warnings from both the South African and Russian Communist Parties for people not to participate in it.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM-2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM-2011 Active thread talking about Sergei's current scheme: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3p4kuf/mmm_global_republic_of_bitcoin/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3p4kuf/mmm_global_...

kristianp 11y ago

Someone should find out the bitcoin addresses the MMM victims are sending their funds to, it may help to give an indication of the size of the problem. I'm tempted to sign up to MMM to get one of the addresses they use. Of course it depends whether they are smart enough to use a different address for each user.