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No, that's normal pyramid scam behavior. I would say it was more likely that they were fraudulent if they were escalating their meaningless promo gestures to ke

No, that's normal pyramid scam behavior. I would say it was more likely that they were fraudulent if they were escalating their meaningless promo gestures to keep anybody from cracking as their scam gets too big to keep together. The bigger the risk, the bigger the colorful gesture. I'm imagining it as '$700 million IN CRYPTO, which is of course better than money'. For a name: which could easily be restored if it turns out the payment is worthless. But that's just my fantasy of how this might have gone on. If it's $700 million in real money that only underscores how desperate they are to make some colorful gesture.

ashtonkem 5y ago
Even your basic Ponzi schemes often involved generous and public philanthropic gifts even as the scheme was falling apart behind the scenes, just to maintain the public image.
- Applejinx 5y ago
  Or rather, the scheme was being what it naturally was. Falling apart implies that there's a together for it to be, behind the scenes. When it's designed from the start to be an expanding shell powered by new belief coming in, the philanthropy and big gestures are core to the nature of what it is. Back in the day I read an old book by Harvey Mackay (iirc), one of those business-guy self-help books, and he had a chapter called never buy anything big in a room where there is a chandelier. :D The point being, it's normal for scamsters to influence people by making their pitch in a place all decked out to look like the most wealthy, influential place you could imagine, and there'd be a chandelier because it would look like everybody was rich. And so, never buy anything big in a room with a chandelier, because it probably meant you were being ripped off. All this predates crypto by a loooooong way. There's nothing really new. Maybe back in the days of travelling traders on camels it was, never buy a camel in a room with a carpet that's bigger than the camel is :)

ashtonkem 5y ago

Even your basic Ponzi schemes often involved generous and public philanthropic gifts even as the scheme was falling apart behind the scenes, just to maintain the public image.

Applejinx 5y ago
Or rather, the scheme was being what it naturally was. Falling apart implies that there's a together for it to be, behind the scenes. When it's designed from the start to be an expanding shell powered by new belief coming in, the philanthropy and big gestures are core to the nature of what it is. Back in the day I read an old book by Harvey Mackay (iirc), one of those business-guy self-help books, and he had a chapter called never buy anything big in a room where there is a chandelier. :D The point being, it's normal for scamsters to influence people by making their pitch in a place all decked out to look like the most wealthy, influential place you could imagine, and there'd be a chandelier because it would look like everybody was rich. And so, never buy anything big in a room with a chandelier, because it probably meant you were being ripped off. All this predates crypto by a loooooong way. There's nothing really new. Maybe back in the days of travelling traders on camels it was, never buy a camel in a room with a carpet that's bigger than the camel is :)