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> As far as it being a "ponzi scheme", a pump and dump, a tulip mania, a beanie-baby fad, etc... Just look at the time scale for a big clue as to why such an ar
by ben-schaaf 5y ago
> As far as it being a "ponzi scheme", a pump and dump, a tulip mania, a beanie-baby fad, etc... Just look at the time scale for a big clue as to why such an argument is laughable.
To look at why this counter argument is laughable you simply have to do a bit of research into actual ponzi schemes:
* Bernie Madoff ran a ponzi scheme for ~18-28 years
* Reed Slatkin, 15 years
* Dona Branca, 14 years
* Tenka Ikka no Kai, 14 years
It's difficult to actually classify crypto, but it certainly falls into greater fool theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory).
- sennight 5y agoI know enough about the Madoff point to know that it can't be argued in good faith. Not unless you are willing to describe everyone who ever got looked into by the SEC, and then not prosecuted, as a scammer engaged in a scheme. Because that time scale requires the inclusion of investigations that found no fraud. Now if you are willing to expand your definition of fraud to include the whole of Wall St activity - then I definitely won't argue otherwise, sure - bitcoin is just like that except less concentrated and more transparent. The larger point being that any plausible definition for fraud applied to crypto actually undermines the legitimacy of the modern financial system to a much greater degree.