Bernie Madoff and Bitcoin is another false analogy. The closest analogy to Bitcoin is something that people have put value in that is above its material worth.

Bernie Madoff and Bitcoin is another false analogy. The closest analogy to Bitcoin is something that people have put value in that is above its material worth. There is no central manager that is taking later profits to pay earlier profits, as in your example Ponzi scheme. As much as people like to claim that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme it is not a Ponzi scheme. The best evidence of this is that we do not know who created it, and we can track the coins in the early coins movement. Yes early people happen to mine a lot of coins and miners today continue to mine a lot of coin but often early adopters get a first mover advantage. Bitcoin may collapse at some future date but like any commodity that is trading far above its material worth, they all have the risk of collapsing. If people decided that gold wasn't worth it as a store of value the price would crash because the industrial use of gold would not keep it at the heights that it currently is. As a matter of fact the cost of gold currently keeps it from being used industrially where it might actually provide a useful advantage if it was at a lower price point. Do I wish I would have paid more attention to Bitcoin early on? Of course I do and I think a lot of detractors continue to harp on the same thing that they missed out and therefore it must be some Ponzi scheme that's going to collapse. Maybe but the current evidence says it's probably not. It's going to be the de facto digital store of value for the foreseeable future. I absolutely did not see the utility you're usefulness or the future of Bitcoin when I first came out but that doesn't mean that I can't understand having a digital store of value that is useful especially after it's been put into practice. I don't understand why people would would pay $400 for a bottle of shampoo, but people do that as well. My lack of understanding does not negate the company selling the shampoos profit margin.