> > BTC is a pump and dump play. > > ..."bitcoin evangelists" and are recruiting more people into the network to get the price to go up. Classic Ponzi scheme.

> > BTC is a pump and dump play. > > ..."bitcoin evangelists" and are recruiting more people into the network to get the price to go up. Classic Ponzi scheme. > > ...this doesn't perfectly fit with existing definitions of other scams. > I said that the enthusiasts are activity looking to expand the number of people investing. I wonder. Are you aware of how far your characterization of the situation has shifted within the same thread? evangelist -> enthusiast recruiting -> expanding Ponzi scheme/scam -> investment Have you changed your position, or simply softened your language as a result of finding your position indefensible? If the former, congrats; if the latter, maybe think on that a little more. > ...always end in people believing that decentralization or cryptography are magical words... Well, you claimed earlier that off chain transactions were functionally equivalent, from the perspective of the money transfer service, to credit cards. When challenged, you adjusted that to debit cards - which is also not even close to being true. Even if you were talking about it from the perspective of the end user, or merchant, you'd still be very wrong. So you clearly don't know much about the stuff you've expressed strong opinions on, and that means your estimates of others' opinions on the same carry no weight. > ...the price doesn't matter to me. You might want that to be true, but it rarely works out that way. Opportunity cost can do funny things to people, like compel them to construct elaborate coping mechanisms in defense of their ego. Sometimes that looks like a confidently stated, but ill-informed, opinion that crumbles in the face of any pushback. Like I said, I've been here a long time and I've seen it all. There is one guy I worked with years ago who asked me about bitcoin but took no action. I only pay attention to the price toward the end of the year, when working on taxes. But without fail if I get a call from him then I know that bitcoin has just had a major selloff. The funny thing is that he is totally unaware of the behavior, it isn't as if he aggressively gloats - but he always brings up bitcoin, and then I don't hear from him again until the next selloff.