My most cyberpunk achievement is that I profited from a bitcoin ponzi scheme. Many years ago (back when Bitcoins were ~$20), there was the PirateAt40 (Trendon

My most cyberpunk achievement is that I profited from a bitcoin ponzi scheme. Many years ago (back when Bitcoins were ~$20), there was the PirateAt40 (Trendon Shavers) "Bitcoin Savings and Trust" bitcoin lending ponzi scheme. At the time, it was huge, thousands maybe even tens of thousands of bitcoins were invested. Claimed that there was some scheme for providing short term liquidity to bitcoin OTC sellers or something like that, and offered a 7% PER WEEK return rate. Eventually had a fancy lending website so everything was self service. "According to authorities, Shavers possessed about 7 percent of all bitcoins in public circulation at the peak of the scheme." (https://www.vice.com/en/article/nz7dy8/the-man-behind-bitcoins-45-million-ponzi-scheme-earns-lenient-sentence https://www.vice.com/en/article/nz7dy8/the-man-behind-bitcoi...) Though I strongly suspected it was a ponzi, I deposited ~$20 of bitcoin, collected a few weeks of interest and successfully withdrew. The ponzi scheme imploded just a several weeks later, with the withdrawal mechanism being disabled and then several months later the creator was arrested. There was massive panic in the bitcoin community because a lot of people lost a lot of Bitcoins - the scheme lasted for months, maybe over a year, so trust gradually built over time until the rug got pulled out. Was interesting to see so many people defending and believing they would still get their money back after the writing was already on the wall. (Some facts probably aren't accurate, but that's how I remember it) Modern crypto lending platforms seem more legit but have that same familiar funny smell to them. I'm sure some are on the up and up (8% APR is much more achievable than 3372% APR... haha), but suspect a decent percentage are just ponzis with a nice story to get investors to buy in. Some people will pull their money out and be happy with the returns, some will 'invest' more than they can afford to lose and have their lives ruined. Please think very carefully about the risks of using these lending platforms. Personally, I don't think 8% APR is worth the risk.