5 ms·
All currencies are Ponzi schemes.
by sytelus 5y ago
All currencies are Ponzi schemes.
- qeternity 5y agoHow in god’s green earth do you arrive at this conclusion. I’m convinced having read the comments here that nobody actually knows what a Ponzi is.
- samwilliams 5y agoPut aside for a moment the name for the 'scheme' and consider the mechanism design differences between USD and Bitcoin: - USD is needed in order to pay taxes on the US, but can be printed arbitrarily by a centralized mint. - Bitcoin has no fundamental demand driver, but does have a truly capped supply. Why is it so obvious that USD is a preferable scheme?
- qeternity 5y agoWhat sort of straw man response is this ? I never said USD is preferable. I said that fiat currencies are not ponzis.
- jusssi 5y agoIn practice, most currencies are inflationary because more money is continuously being made. Which means that early obtainers of money actually lose value holding it, instead of gaining more. So currencies would be the opposite of a Ponzi. On the other hand, the current economy model which relies on continuous growth, might reasonably fit some definitions of a Ponzi.
- xylon 5y agobut almost no-one actually uses bitcoin as a currency
- mountainboy 5y agoto the extent that they involve dishonesty/fraud, yes. Arguably, when monetary supply increases are publicized, then there is no dishonesty, so not a ponzi scheme. They have another component though: legal tender laws that force people to accept them for debts, and capital gains laws on other assets that give them an unfair advantage. So ponzi or not -- probably not what the free market would choose in the absence of such laws.