2 ms·

I mean it's not a Ponzi scheme in that there isn't a 'borrow from peter to pay paul' kinda thing happening. It's actually just a kinda weird lottery with manipu

I mean it's not a Ponzi scheme in that there isn't a 'borrow from peter to pay paul' kinda thing happening. It's actually just a kinda weird lottery with manipulable game theoretical rules. I think of a Ponzi as a scheme where someone is managing the game and intentionally defrauding new investors to pay old ones demanding redemptions. In the case of Doge no one party is managing the game and it's not even clear that there's any coordination amongst the large players. Again, at best it's a kind of game of chance with ill-defined rules. I still think it's worthy of condemnation as lotteries should have well-defined rules, IMHO, but that's an aesthetic issue. I'm only objecting to the specific use of the term Ponzi which I don't think applies here (and we should be specific with our language lest we lose our ability to define things sufficiently).

NickM 5y ago
I think of a Ponzi as a scheme where someone is managing the game I agree, but there's also not really a better word to describe something that is like a Ponzi scheme in every respect except the lack of central coordination. Having a distributed hive mind of people all collectively trying to pump the value of a coin basically yields the same end result as a conventional Ponzi scheme, but makes it much harder to regulate or shut down. Even worse is the fact that many of the people involved truly believe in their own evangelism, and don't realize that they're part of a negative-sum game. With the amount of value destroyed via mining, and the lack of any new value being created by the people investing in crypto, there will inevitably be more losers than winners in the long run, but that doesn't stop people from spouting HODL memes because they genuinely think that value is being created from nothing and that everyone is somehow going to get rich off of this stuff.

NickM 5y ago

I think of a Ponzi as a scheme where someone is managing the game I agree, but there's also not really a better word to describe something that is like a Ponzi scheme in every respect except the lack of central coordination. Having a distributed hive mind of people all collectively trying to pump the value of a coin basically yields the same end result as a conventional Ponzi scheme, but makes it much harder to regulate or shut down. Even worse is the fact that many of the people involved truly believe in their own evangelism, and don't realize that they're part of a negative-sum game. With the amount of value destroyed via mining, and the lack of any new value being created by the people investing in crypto, there will inevitably be more losers than winners in the long run, but that doesn't stop people from spouting HODL memes because they genuinely think that value is being created from nothing and that everyone is somehow going to get rich off of this stuff.