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Preston Byrne pointed out since there is no pyramid, this can’t be called a Ponzi scheme. It deserves a new name, the “Nakamoto scheme”: https://prestonbyrne.c
by krrrh 8y ago
Preston Byrne pointed out since there is no pyramid, this can’t be called a Ponzi scheme. It deserves a new name, the “Nakamoto scheme”:
https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/ https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/
- GavinMcG 8y ago"Scheme" implies a unified/central schemer, though. We can already call it a fad, or a mania (a la tulip mania).
- hndamien 8y agoIt certainly does seem to be a "scheme" but I wonder how it compares to other fiat or gold currency when looked at through a "scheme" lens.
- hndamien 8y agoDown votes, no comment. Par for the course here.
- dang 8y agoPlease don't break the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hndamien 8y ago“Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.” Thanks, I actually had no idea about this one, and nobody ever bothered to point it out to me. I do find it disheartening though that anything against the grain in this forum often results in downvote and no comment. That said, this will be my final mention of the issue and I’ll just eat the negative karma from here rather than self censor (except on the issue as per the guideline).
- tomhoward 8y agoThere is an art (that applies here and elsewhere) to phrasing comments/opinions that might go against the grain, in such a way that people appreciate being educated/enlightened or given the chance to think about an old topic in a new way. Of course on every topic there will be some people who don't want to rethink their position, but you shouldn't worry about them (though accept that their downvotes are inevitable). But if you craft your answers for people who might not yet agree with your position but are open to considering a new take, you'll get plenty more upvotes than downvotes overall.
- hndamien 8y agoThanks for the tip. I certainly fail at this art since agreement and open ended question results in downvotes. I really can't get much softer when trying to open minds. I could improve my punctuation I guess.
- xapata 8y agoFiat currency generally has some military, militia, or at least a police force and a tax payable in that currency. Gold is somewhat similar historically, though has been abandoned for that purpose in recent decades.
- Goladus 8y agoThere is. The Schemer is Satoshi Nakamoto and anyone else involved with bitcoin's initial creation. They stand to profit handily by selling off their coins at many times their original, minimal value. But unlike a ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme, one can't trace fraudulent transactions directly to the schemers. It doesn't mean that it not a scheme. Bitcoin isn't just a fad, it was clearly designed to enrich the original founders and early adopters at the expense of whoever is left holding the bag when the bubble bursts.
- inersha 8y agoWhen does it stop being a fad?
- pxtail 8y agoWhen it wins and/or is popular enough to dictate rules and write it's own history.
- jayd16 8y agoIsn't most of the scheme the classic pump and dump?
- elvinyung 8y agoI guess you can say it's less like a scheme and more like a meme.
- chii 8y agowhy not call it a bubble, just like everything else like it that has come before in history? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
- 2muchcoffeeman 8y agoMaybe bubble implies that the asset or resource has some actual value but the value was being over inflated. Do cryptos have any real value?
- vertex-four 8y agoMoving money around without an authority to stop you does have value. The question is whether that value is very high at all - in current society, probably not, and in a futuristic society I’d hope we’d develop trust mechanisms that don’t require the expense of total global order to move money/tokens/whatever around.
- krrrh 8y agoIt’s an open question how the value of the infrastructure for doing this would be determined. Ideally the infrastructure would approach zero in cost and the value would be preserved for the participants in any transaction, not the rent-seeking hodlers.
- hndamien 8y agoHodlers don’t extract rents.
- r00fus 8y agoZero-point energy bubble.
- Goladus 8y agoBecause it's not just a bubble. Bitcoin is, on a technological level, specifically designed to be an inflationary digital asset that primarily benefits the founders. Whatever utility it has as medium of exchange is incidental to its primary purpose which is to enrich the founders.