Bitcoin Forum

While the the Gotham actor who played Commissioner Gordon during the proceedings being held December 13th for the failed exchange FTX and the following day infront of the house makes a statement "Cryptocurrency is the largest ponzi scheme in history".
https://i.ibb.co/dJKbsB5/Gotham-Commish.jpg (https://ibb.co/x85mKh7)
Link to the video from CNN:
'Actor rips crypto as 'largest Ponzi scheme in history'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpqreZlmHGU
direct source: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/12/15/cryptocurrency-actor-ben-mckenzie-intv-contd-cnntm-vpx.cnn
Other links to the story posted from yesterdays hearings about connections to FTX and the collapse of every company that had investments with them:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-ftx-oc-star-ben-mckenzie-largest-ponzi-scheme-market-2022-12
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ftx-hearing-the-oc-actor-schenkkan-rips-cryptocurrency-largest-ponzi-scheme-history

https://i.ibb.co/6HLj1LV/Ponzi-Book.jpg (https://ibb.co/v3R0QRg)
He wrote a book about his opinion of cryptocurrencies named Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism and the Golden Age of Fraud. beforehand and saw this very instance coming to the crypto industry as a whole sooner or later.

Your thoughts, because this is just day two and with the SEC suing these type of celebrities in the past also currently for endorsing these failed companies and projects. There are bound to be more just like Ben McKenzie coming into these proceedings and voice their thoughts about crypto economy.

Scammers exist in the world, from the past to present and future.

Scammers can use many available tools in society to scam others. They can use tulip bulbs, stocks (Enron), Internet (e-commerce 20 years ago), cryptocurrency in the last 10 years.

Some scammers can try to compromise the advance and attraction of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency to run their Ponzi scam. Like Onecoin which does not have its blockchain. It is actually not a cryptocurrency but many victims believed in Onecoin and believed that it is built on a blockchain.

Ponzi will exist in society and if a scam team like Sam Bankman-Fried team did not use cryptocurrency, FTT and FTX, Alameda to scam others, they will use other tools which can be stocks, real estates or whatever.

Cryptocurrency can not be stopped! according to Senator Toomey and I agree with him.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against Leaders Of “OneCoin,” A Multibillion-Dollar Pyramid Scheme Involving The Sale Of A Fraudulent Cryptocurrency (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-charges-against-leaders-onecoin-multibillion-dollar)

Senate FTX hearing: calls for regulation and crypto criticisms aplenty (https://cointelegraph.com/news/senate-ftx-hearing-calls-for-regulation-and-crypto-criticisms-aplenty)

I watched a debate a few months back between a teacher and a politician (I think) on whether trans people should be respected for the gender they wish to express as. I noticed both sides of the argument were awful because neither of them were knew the subject matter (neither had studied it well, neither were doctors or someone in a profession to know). I did not get those three minutes back and my opinion didn't change.

The same should be the case here. If you're listening to an actor over whether to invest in crypto or not, you're definitely listening to the wrong person for making your financial decisions. There's enough creatives I've known to be paid a royalty after producing something so much that regardless of how niche it is they've no need to make investments.

Of course, but these people are in a committee meeting on regulation of the entire industry. That would be much different then a rebuttal between a teacher and politician because that is just casual conversation and not where they can put laws into place where it shapes where things go from here for anyone who even touches a satoshi when it comes to taxes and your finances.

This actor even says he is in an industry where he is paid to lie for a living.
So take that as you will.

While I can't really blame people for making these kinds of statements because of the FTX debacle, it's always dumb over-generalization.

In the video, I hate how he looks so smug as if his opinions were something new and something so groundbreaking; because if anything, it's the common opinion.

It is always disastrous to fall into the snare of critics and enemies. FTX has given critics the floor to dance. Even people that do not know anything about the crypto industry would become instant Professors in the field. Ben McKenzie's statement is a baseless fallacy and this clown shouldn't be taken seriously.

Although I felt that the use of celebrities by exchanges and other crypto firms to advertise their services helps in bitcoin awareness and promotion. But one of the biggest challenges of using these celebrities is that the can also be used by anti-government forces to discredit the sector. All these investigations and hearings are just pointing in one direction: Regulation.

There was something which came a few days ago that caught my eye since it does call upon the aftermath of what had transpired in the cryptospace within the last two months of the articles published by coindesk of FTX's commingling of funds between the two companies.
"The end of crypto?" - The Agenda with Steve Paikin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCNfltV5S1U

This video asks the speakers opinion's on how the industry will recover the reputation in the eyes of corporate entities in the space.
It always seems to come down to the question "Can you buy coffee with it?"

Watch it as it is not an anti-crypto video just like the previous one was with Ben McKenzie, who was in the court and sitting besides Kevin Oleary in the FTX hearing a few weeks ago.
They discuss about how this will impact retail investors and not just the VCs in the cryptospace.

"golden" age of fraud

hmm he is about 300 years out of date with that title
he forgets the fiat age of fraud last 100 years
and now the digital age of fraud

yes frauds happen. but thats at the business level of business owners scamming people into their business schemes

the underlying asset has no brain or arm or leg or mouth to scam people.
bitcoin does not set up a business.

there is a massive difference between bitcoin, the real intrinsic value asset. vs FTT a company created token

its as if he is trying to say, and compare all company shares are ponzi because maddoff sold shares in a ponzi business, thus shares are ponzi

yes bitcoin is an asset/security
yes bitcoin can be transacted/ownership transfered thus it is a currency. however he does not understand that many things are a currency. he mixes up "common money" descriptor vs currency descriptor

yes bitcoin is not main stream common money.
but it does not mean that its a ponzi and does not mean its not a currency

bitcoin has utility function and underlying costs.
its not stored in some business where investors of old are paid interest via investors of new. where there is no other function/utility bar "robbing peter to pay paul"(ponzi)
showing he does not even understand how ponzi's work

bitcoin as a economic currency system is a simple ownership swap. much the same as shares and commodities and assets.
the price:cost of the swap has different markets and methods of acquisition and transfer. where some businesses do so at a premium or sometimes in 1% of cases maliciously steal from customers of their business

he has failed to recognise the difference between a business failure vs bitcoins success.

He is right to a point, right now post projects are scam ponzi's, pyramids and so on. But the crypto itself, the blockchain, has nothing to do with individuals. This is what people need to understand.
The yield and such opportunities appeared as for the idea of mining or earn crypto easily as the OG's did first with bitcoin. When the ideea of getting rich quick with crypto will dissapear, mass adoption will take place.

Yeah, bet he was practising in front of the mirror for a long time, but it's easy to preach to the choir, and that's more or less what he was doing.

One thing I do feel, though, these hearings at least get the popular opinion out there and provide the grounds for myth-busting and disproving, which is what Bitcoin (unfortunately or not) has been steadily doing.

Once you win people over, the converts are more useful than those who bought in from the start (I'm a convert, so I have no qualms in saying this).

I personally find it more sincere to call every cryptocurrency a scam, bitcoin included, rather than embracing every crypto and find everything in this sector totally honest.

However, a ponzi scheme has a leader, promised returns and is characterized by lack of transparency. While most crypto-projects have the former, I doubt there's one that fulfills all three. Therefore, disregard to Ben for that. As if we didn't already know that politicians take out the ponzi narrative once a while.

Nothing new. Haven't wasted a sec to watch the video though.

The collapse of 1907 shows this to be the truth as it was capitalized in the last video I posted at the very end:
https://i.ibb.co/JxDDQFJ/Downfallof1907.jpg (https://ibb.co/k3NN16C)
And that is your prerogative as so many others will take this avenue.
I am sure.
People don't like bad actors and Ben McKenzie certainly falls into this category. And I doubt anyone would disagree with this statement here as he is against all cryptocurrency including bitcoin with the publication of his book against it months before the collapse of FTX.
Now he is singing it's praises for foretelling of it's demise as a whole.
Which is far from the truth.

It will strengthen bitcoin in the coming months as I see it.

says the LN defence brigade
.. dang i need to store your quote for prosperity as a reminder of each time you defend the sub are network of weak pegs, fractional reserve features and a unit of account thats not even the same as that its suppose to represent and it does not even have a blockchain or network wide security to protect said iou value

so where was your cynic hat when it came to LN

Meanwhile, all these books be like: bitcoin does not have intrinsic value! It consumes irrational amounts of energy! It's a ponzi! It's a national attack!

Please, either steal my lightning sats (since it's a weak, unsafe, fractional reserve based system) or: STFU.

many wallets can change the peg.... YOU need to realise that, much like stable coins and luna have learned the hard way this year.. yep the peg is a risk to your network

many wallets can create msat balance without a funding lock... YOU need to realise that other tokens that just print money from nothing..yep its a risk to your network

and there is no network blockchain of rules. nor a consensus to stop that

yet bitcoin has a relay network that checks that a payment is using locked funds(utxo)
yet bitcoin has a relay network that checks that a payment is using proper value amounts in and out
yet bitcoin can account for every unit in existance right back to its coinbase reward creation

but hey if you want to treat all crypto as bad apart from your favoured network.. you go play in your dreams
....
my view is crypto is a multi economical industry with thousands of currencies and all of different types. where native blockchains owned by no party are superior than ICO premined blockchains
where native blockchains owned by no party are superior than sub networks that have no blockchains

where each blockchain based currency has its own ranking. as do the subnetworks of non blockchain stupidity

And just like that -- the media has turned all public legitimate bitcoin and cryptocurrency proponents into fraudsters to the layman eye once again, but this time with FTX and market decline as precedent. They are very good at attacking the space. I wonder how long it will last this time before the economic attributes hard-coded into bitcoin prevail and new highs invalidate the attacks. My guess is 2024.

The worst part is that people will take this attack seriously even though it was made by someone who's profession is to be a fake. Acting is the worst form of fraud.

For God's sake, stop derailing every thread. You're unable to comprehend the lightning network. Fine, stop mentioning it, and go study it. Don't whine about it in the expense of this board, please. I mean, we've done this discussion like a million times. Grow up, or act childishly in your thread that is dedicated for your horseshit. Gosh.

black hat your the freak of nature calling bitcoin a scam
while YOU hypocrtically and ironically spend endless posts in many topics promoting a system that has no blockchain no consensus and no underlying value(no monetary security). promoting a network that phishes an established payment systems brand(lln 2017 vs bitcoin 2009 thus LN is not bitcoin). and also promoting a network that is easy to enter with funds in an hour. but harder to escape taking more time and delays(to avoid threats) and threats of losing value if you do exit

you are the one that does not understand much and are just hyping up a crap network where you get upset when your called out on it

now go back to your cave instead of thinking i should only talk in one topic

if you want to call bitcoin a scam. im gonna call you out on it and also highlight your own ironic hypocrisy no matter where i see you and your buddies doing their manipulative crap

i know you hate having your crap network(LN) called out on, but your crap network has more flaws than bitcoin so its you that has to stop trying to call bitcoin a scam. and start to realise its your favoured network(LN) thats the scam
LN is brand stealing "bitcoin" but it is not even bitcoin.. YOUR buddies are phishing
LN can break its value IOU promise in many ways.. thus easier to scam on LN compared to bitcoin

---

my view is crypto is a multi economical industry with thousands of currencies and all of different types. where native blockchains owned by no party are superior than ICO premined blockchains
where native blockchains owned by no party are superior than sub networks that have no blockchains

where each blockchain based currency has its own ranking(high). as do the subnetworks of non blockchain stupidity(low)

---

ok i wasnt going to do it.. but lets do it

a ponzi is a easy enter, hard to leave system, where people cant just trade out. or sell out as easy as they bought in

where people are not changing ownership of an asset. but instead having a trail of people appearing as they are getting paid by the person before them(on a route)

hmm wonder if that sounds more like some silly subnetwork blackhat doesnt want talked about
i wonder why he doesnt want that network discussed. yet he easily wants to put bitcoin into a scam category.

Congrats for misinterpreting my point for the billionth time.

Ooh, I wouldn't go to Gotham City then. Crypto payments must be banned there. So better to not attempt one or you'll be Bat-slapped  ;D

But seriously though, is he just saying this because Sam pulled a fast one on everyone?

Well this is the impact of FTX and indeed we can't blame the opinion of people who don't like this especially with the FTX damage some time ago making them even more enthusiastic about doing this as if this is proof that Crypto is a ponzi scheme.
But on the other hand, seeing from the narrative that was conveyed, don't we often hear that because that is an opinion that has always been floated over the last few years to corner Crypto but indeed I am not too surprised because this is their weapon apart from the reason for destroying the environment.

Its a bit ironic that the actor warning everyone of financial fraud is using his current, outrageous PR, after having participated in said fraud, for selling a book that he wrote on said financial fraud. So basically he is using a scam to sell his book but is pretending like he is doing something heroic... Interesting.

He obviously only cares about selling his own book even if it means spreading home-brewed FUD. What an absolute tool.

I would recommend everyone not to listen to actors for advice on investments, economics or fintech. ::) :-*

Cryptocurrency exchange company and other cryptocurrency scam company does not represent the cryptocurrency industry.  How can you say a cryptocurrency that is sold in an open market is a Ponzi scheme?  If you say that then you can then conclude that everything on the market is a Ponzi scheme.  It is as simple as that.

Not because cryptocurrency has a different approach that lots of these people do not understand and think that it is a scam.  I hate it when people think they know better when their accusation is only based on their opinion and biasedly pick examples to suit their explanation disregarding truth that can refute their stance.

Sam Bankman Fried did pull a fast one and many are saying he is still doing so.
The wallets which hold the funds which were transferred to the corporate entity are moving from ethereum and tether into bitcoin today.
Around a $1.25 million worth as the articles are widely available at every cryptocurrency news outlet are reporting on this story.
If he wasn't just sent to his parents residence on a bond, he wouldn't have internet access to be doing this, who else would have access to these funds other than the ceo of said corporate entity?

DCG is the owner of CoinDesk who were the media outlet in the cryptocurrency space to leak those documents which comprised the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange and caused the collapse of multiple corporations tied in with FTX.
I remember seeing a chart with these tie-ins and how they each played a role with the collapse.
Will have to do some R&D on it and comeback to display this evidence.

All are now coming out to have their say to be in the spotlight for 5 minutes trying to sell more books due to the massive downturn in the markets lately.
"Crypto Is Like a Ponzi Scheme, Says Stephen Diehl" - on the bloomberg markets show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LchWV4RdTA
https://i.ibb.co/1fVQXcj/Bloomberg.jpg (https://ibb.co/N6hCNRb)

Seriously. Dog memes? If only people clearly understood that Dogecoin is proof that even a meme can be a better currency than fiat money...Let's also, as he suggests, gamble our planet's fate on the same people who have ruined tens of millions/billions of lives repeatedly in history. Very infuriating read, but if people can't see through the BS by now and still take what bloomberg/MSM publishes for 100% fact, then it is what it is.

Ben McKenzie had really believed that bitcoin would go to zero that he used a quarter of a million of his own money to short it.
So this might be the catalyst of bringing it to the next level of seeking to be it's spear of destiny it seems.
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/07/19/ZbnTl.jpeg
https://twitter.com/mdudas/status/1680374060985856001

Also did I mention his father was on the former chief counsel of the CFTC & special legal counsel attorney advisor of the SEC so this could also by why he is so passionate to see its demise.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/07/17/how-actor-ben-mckenzie-emerged-as-cryptos-unlikely-antagonist

There will always be people like Ben McKenzie who continue to oppose crypto or new-age technology.
But why equate it with Ponzi schemes and multi-level marketing?
Cryptocurrency is an ecosystem in which there are many other instruments and the main focus is Bitcoin.

Crypto is only a tool used for anything, whether it is a legal business, a Ponzi business, or another, Not referring to the cryptocurrency itself.
Like a dagger that can be used to cut an apple or used to hurt someone, it's more about who is using it.

Ben McKenzie may have been drilled with crypto hatred since his father is a former CFTC counsel & SEC legal counsel.
We know how the SEC currently performs on rulings and criticism for crypto and its platforms.

Ben McKenzie, seems to have gotten tired of being an actor and is focusing on fighting crypto to gain more exposure and become a businessman known for being controversial.

Expecting the death of Bitcoin and believing that it will happen.
But he doesn't realize how potential crypto has for the future.
We will always be at odds with crypto haters and will be limited by strong currents.

This is only for publicity to create fear, uncertainty and doubt. Similar to what you said, this is not something new. The people behind this do it to push for their real agenda whatever they may be. It would not be very surprising if the agenda involves strict regulations on self hosted wallets, required reports on wallet to CEX transactions and a required income bracket rule where if you earn less than a certain amount per year, you are not allowed to trade in a CEX.

This will certainly make it very difficult for many exchanges like Binance to survive and make it easier for traditional finance to takeover as the leading cryptocoin exchangers of the cryptospace, similar to how they are the leading exchangers of forex.

Well you just knew this was coming and he would be making the rounds on all mass media morning shows so to push his book.
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/07/20/nwTO9.jpeg
https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/crypto-s-winners-and-losers-ben-mckenzie-exposes-the-dark-side-of-cryptocurrency-188809285862

Saw the one from the CBS morning show yesterday where one the interviewers sounded as if he was defending bitcoin in an attempt to debunk what he was stating during this live show.

I would speculate that it is the Blackrock effect. There are presently powerful people from traditional finance who want to debunk the FUD because they have their ETF applications on uncle Gary's desk hehehe. Forbes is one of the news outlets that had a very noticeable change of stance on bitcoin. I reckon there will be more coming for the rest of this year.

I must agree on you there. Especially with a major well-known media outlet in the financial sector whom most of these traditional finance people get their news on these new and technological advanced markets from.
Now there is a term I heard most of these individuals are waiting to make it's debt so they can jump in head first: TradeFi