Having followed the bitcoin world fairly closely, I think it's a little more complicated than that. Part of the problem is that it gets very hard to distinguis

Having followed the bitcoin world fairly closely, I think it's a little more complicated than that. Part of the problem is that it gets very hard to distinguish between woefully unprepared entrepreneurs and outright scams. It's difficult beforehand, when you think "Well, they're unprepared, but there's a 1% chance it might work anyway." or "They know they can't do it and they'll run with the money." Even after the case, when they've failed and you know how they've failed, you can't always tell which is was. Not that it matters much when the money is gone. This has made me re-think my support for crowdfunding for equity for the masses. Even the best VCs aren't very good at sorting out winners from losers on a percentage basis (sorry, YC). They just have enough money to eat the variance and get to the winners. The general population doesn't. On the other hand, I don't think most bitcoiners putting money into these schemes are stupid, I think they're just degenerate gamblers. I think they know the risks. Certainly once they've been around bitcoin for a couple months they do. You can't miss it. Personally, I don't think they should be stopped from their gambling, but I can understand how people disagree.