I Have a Business Idea for BTC, but I'm not Sure.

[AZJProductions]

Okay, here it is. I came up with this while surfing the web. A buisness for BTC. You know the one site there, S/L Doubler? It's a total scam. So I started thinking about a way to make it not a scam while still making BTC. And I came up with a way. It's refferal based, so I'm not sure if it's allowed but here it is.

		They Pay		Our Total		They Receive*		Their Profits		Our Total
First Customer		$10		$10		$20		$10		$10
* Reffered Customer (2)		$20

Each Reffered Customer does this.   

* They get the $20 from the refferals, we get the $10 from them.   
We don't lose money, because we don't pay them until their refferals pay us.   
We get a $10 profit right away, and they get a $10 profit once their refferals pay.   

Is this a pyramid scheme? I thought this was a really good idea. I just hope it's legal.
Anyone got any opinions about my idea?

There could also be another feature where they pay 0.1 BTC for only one Refferal, but they only get the profits from that one Refferal plus what they paid (0.15 BTC or 1.10 BTC). What do you guys think?

BTW: I'm very new to this, so don't be too harsh.

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[JMAHH]

As far as I can see, you're paying your first visitor with the revenues from the second one. That sounds a lot like a Ponzi IMO.

[AZJProductions]

As far as I can see, you're paying your first visitor with the revenues from the second one. That sounds a lot like a Ponzi IMO.

Oh... I guess your right. Damn. Back to the drawing board

[JMAHH]

Good luck 

[AZJProductions]

Technically they would be told up front that all the profits they get are from the refferals they reffer, so if they buy, its up to them to get the refferals.

[the_thing]

This is not a ponzi scheme, but rather a pyramid scheme (also known as a pyramid game). The problem here is that there is a finite number of people. Therefore one day, there will be customers who won't be able to find new customers. Even if the whole world's population participated in your business, one day there would be no potential customers left. And participants in the 'last line' would end up paying huge entry fee and getting nothing in return.

Whether it is illegal or not depends on the country of your residence, I believe. In the USA, for example, it is illegal. By the way, in my country this was common about 20 years ago and much lulz were had. Well... many people lost all their savings, but it was both educational and hilarious in a perverted way  

I hope I wasn't too harsh. If I was, please re-read my post in a calm and polite voice.

For more information, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme and http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm

[heatstroke]

Really, your first mistake was to test the waters.  Let the empty husks of your customers' wallets determine if you're a scam or not.

[AZJProductions]

This is not a ponzi scheme, but rather a pyramid scheme (also known as a pyramid game). The problem here is that there is a finite number of people. Therefore one day, there will be customers who won't be able to find new customers. Even if the whole world's population participated in your business, one day there would be no potential customers left. And participants in the 'last line' would end up paying huge entry fee and getting nothing in return.

Whether it is illegal or not depends on the country of your residence, I believe. In the USA, for example, it is illegal. By the way, in my country this was common about 20 years ago and much lulz were had. Well... many people lost all their savings, but it was both educational and hilarious in a perverted way  

I hope I wasn't too harsh. If I was, please re-read my post in a calm and polite voice.

For more information, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme and http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm

Thanks, I guess I never looked at it that way. So obviously I'm not even thinking about this anymore, but for now what about that other website, Bitcoin Faucet? They give out some mBTC daily, and it's all kept alive by Advertisements like CoinUrl. What if you loaded the page with advertisements, and for them to claim the free daily mBTC, they had to go through a chain of CoinUrl links to get to the final page? And they can only get there once they've logged in the main website? Is this a bad idea?

[the_thing]

Thanks, I guess I never looked at it that way. So obviously I'm not even thinking about this anymore, but for now what about that other website, Bitcoin Faucet? They give out some mBTC daily, and it's all kept alive by Advertisements like CoinUrl. What if you loaded the page with advertisements, and for them to claim the free daily mBTC, they had to go through a chain of CoinUrl links to get to the final page? And they can only get there once they've logged in the main website? Is this a bad idea?

As far as I know, Bitcoin Faucet is funded by private donations of individuals who want the community to grow.
As for your idea, I think it is not bad at all. Many conventional sites (not affilated with bitcoins) make money like this. They make people click through a chain of subsites with ads. But since you want to use free mBTCs as an incentive you'll have to balance out money gained from ads and money given to those who click (you have to gain more than give).

I recommend you find something else to offer. I mean some sort of service useful for those who use bitcoins. The infrastructure is underdeveloped and there are so many things to improve. If you find something really useful for people, you'll make much money. Good luck.