No, bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. It may very well be in a speculative bubble right now, however. And the long-term stable value of a bitcoin may end up being

No, bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. It may very well be in a speculative bubble right now, however. And the long-term stable value of a bitcoin may end up being very low indeed. The trouble is that, over the long term, there is nothing to give a bitcoin value. If some group of large organizations were to promise that, over the long term, they would give some particular amount of some other stable currency, in exchange for a bitcoin, or exchange some particular worthwhile goods/services for it, then it would have something backing it up. As it is, there is nothing. The algorithmically enforced limited supply of bitcoins is a start, but only a start, I think. (BTW, for those who want to claim that nothing backs up the USD, for example: I disagree. The U.S. govt. accepts it in payment of taxes. Thus, for those who owe taxes, the govt. will, in exchange for some dollars, refrain from pointing a gun at you and marching you off to prison. Quite a valuable thing, for some of us.)