Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: cartwright on May 11, 2011, 05:07:55 PM



Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: cartwright on May 11, 2011, 05:07:55 PM
Dumping the 3-5 million bitcoins that were generated out of nowhere among the "early adopters" and that have never been traded before in to circulation will cause massive inflation. Perhaps people aren't expecting any earnings but at least they'll want their money to keep it's value.  ???


Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: Cryptoman on May 11, 2011, 05:13:08 PM
Dumping the 3-5 million bitcoins that were generated out of nowhere among the "early adopters" and that have never been traded before will cause massive inflation. Perhaps people aren't expecting any earnings but at least they'll want their money to keep it's value.  ???

What leads you to believe they will "dump" their holdings in such a manner that will cause massive inflation?  That wouldn't be in anyone's best interests.  Just the other day, someone else was criticizing the early adopters for not selling more of their Bitcoins and causing the huge run up in value.


Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: SgtSpike on May 11, 2011, 05:16:04 PM
Dumping the 3-5 million bitcoins that were generated out of nowhere among the "early adopters" and that have never been traded before will cause massive inflation. Perhaps people aren't expecting any earnings but at least they'll want their money to keep it's value.  ???
I think it's unlikely that this would happen all at the same time.  Yes, there are several members that have loads of BTC stored in their wallets, but they're all probably very smart people (given that they took the risk to join this project early on, seeing its potential), and wouldn't just drop all 100k+ BTC at once.  They might put a cap on the market price for a while with a large ask, but I doubt they would be stupid enough to just sell everything they had all at once no matter how much/little it was worth.

Also, many of these founding members are some of the biggest believers in bitcoin lasting and USD failing.  Why would they want to change for a failing or inflationary dollar?

Finally, it's even more unlikely that several of these large-holding members would do it at the same time.  Likely, one would wait until the previous seller was finished, so as to not devalue the currency too much.

If such a thing did happen, I'd be one of the first to start dumping money into the exchange buying up cheap bitcoins.  :)  And I'm sure there are many others like me who would help quickly stabilize the price - not out of a feeling of communal ambition, but out of entrepreneurship, and believe that bitcoins will rise back up to their previous value after a quick devaluation resulting from a "dump" of a rich guy.


Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: eMansipater on May 11, 2011, 05:53:07 PM
This thread is reserved for the asking and answering of questions.  Would you like to edit your post into a question, cartwright?  Otherwise I will split this thread so that you can continue your comments and discussions.


Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: steelhouse on May 12, 2011, 02:37:37 AM
If there is a flaw in the system.  I doubt anyone would tell the flaw until they cash out.


Title: Re: "Is BitCoin a Ponzi or pyramid scheme?'
Post by: xf2_org on May 12, 2011, 04:34:27 AM
IMO, add '[FAQ]' to the thread title.