Bitcoin isn’t the future of money — it’s either a Ponzi scheme

[real789]

Bitcoin's breakthrough is to have a decentralized network of "miners" sit in between us instead. Now, remember, these miners are trying to win new Bitcoins by solving computationally-taxing math problems. The clever part, though, is that in the process of doing so, they also create a public ledger of every single Bitcoin transaction, what's called the blockchain. That includes every Bitcoin that's ever been won, every Bitcoin that's ever been used, and every Bitcoin that's ever been transferred. So now we don't need a bank to know that I have the money I'm sending to you, and that I'm only sending it to you. The miners confirm all this. And the best part is that instead of having to pay the bank myself to do this, the system pays the miners in new Bitcoins.

source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/08/bitcoin-isnt-the-future-of-money-its-either-a-ponzi-scheme-or-a-pyramid-scheme/?tid=sm_fb



This article make me scared about bitcoin, now i withdraw some BTC and keep on my Bank, i believe bitcoin will be BIGGEST Technology, but in price we can see it, price is very down than last year (stabil 300$)

What do you think about this article ?

[anderson00673]

Woah, holy crap lol.  What happened to the day when journalists actually had to know something about what they were writing about?  That article is sheer nonsense.  It seems like a smear piece because it is hard to believe that anyone could actually be that obtuse.  No one wants to spend bitcoins?  I would love to use them more often if I could find retailers to accept them.  And they are only good for drugs?  Absurd.  I couldn't read the whole thing because I was laughing too much.  I am shocked to see that the publication date was not 4-1-15.

[NorrisK]

Also the writer is reffering to the massive pollution caused by bitcoin mining. What about the massive servers the banks and VISA/Mastercard need to host currently? They probably use a shitload more energy than the current mining operations. If bitcoin can replace parts of this, wouldn't we be better off?

[Amph]

Also the writer is reffering to the massive pollution caused by bitcoin mining. What about the massive servers the banks and VISA/Mastercard need to host currently? They probably use a shitload more energy than the current mining operations. If bitcoin can replace parts of this, wouldn't we be better off?

wasn't the bitcoin network considered the most powerful network in the world, most powerful than any numbers of supercomputer combined? i doubt they are wasting more energy than the mining operations for bitcoin

[Kprawn]

It's been a long time, since people brought up this old misconception. It acctually shows their lack of investigative skills or their knowledge on the subject matter they are writing about.

Do they even know what a Ponzi scheme is?

Do they think companies like Dell / Microsoft / Overstock to name but a few, would have accepted Bitcoin, if it was a Ponzi Scheme?

The idiots writing this, have absolutely no clue, what they are talking about. It's purely a smear piece poorly researched and terribly executed.  

[Pro_Crypto_Marty]

Also the writer is reffering to the massive pollution caused by bitcoin mining. What about the massive servers the banks and VISA/Mastercard need to host currently? They probably use a shitload more energy than the current mining operations. If bitcoin can replace parts of this, wouldn't we be better off?

wasn't the bitcoin network considered the most powerful network in thw world, most power than any numbers of supercomputer combined? i doubt they are wasting more energy than the mining operations for bitcoin

I tend to be a technological optimist. As far as the energy cost, I have no doubt that there will eventually be a technology available allowing for competitive mining with less power consumption. (I'm also not an expert in such things and so could be full of crap)

But the solution doesn't exist yet, and this will be something that will need to be addressed. If this guy brings it up, others might also. To encourage adoption, we need to consider even the potential faults in the system.

That said, the article - especially its title - does seem a tad unnecessarily aggressive towards Bitcoin.

[Krang]

It's not a ponzi scheme but it's not a guaranteed investment either and could collapse at some point especially if it becomes unprofitable to mine, so I think that's where people's fears of it being a ponzi come from. Bitcoin is still an experiment really so who knows whats going to happen but I hope it doesn't collapse because there's going to be a lot of smug naysayers about.

[Lethn]

*Takes five seconds glancing through the article*

Yep, bullshit, don't pay any attention to anyone that tries to criticise currencies without even having a basic knowledge of how they work.

[Lauda]

*Takes five seconds glancing through the article*

Yep, bullshit, don't pay any attention to anyone that tries to criticise currencies without even having a basic knowledge of how they work.

I've done the same. Well I was just waiting for these articles to start popping up again; however, I'm hoping that they are going to be less in number than before.
Remember the times when we have an article like this spreading FUD almost every single day, and sometimes multiple times a day.

To simplify the situation used to be:
If you bought Bitcoin on time, you would state the following:          Bitcoin is the future
If you hadn't bought Bitcoin on time, you would state the following: Bitcoin is a scam/ponzi and whatnot.


I guess this reporter from Washingtonpost thinks that he is smarter more than 100 000(+) merchants that DO accept Bitcoin. This includes Microsoft, Dell, Overstock, Newegg and several other big companies.  

[xmaxbit]

OP says its a ponzi scheme . I dont understand how its a scheme and that too a Ponzi one . The article is a complete nonsense and has no relevance with the degradation of btc reputation . What I believe is that btc is absolutely amazing creativity in economic transactions . It has made everything now very easy and many people have earned a lot from this . It has changed many people's lives forever which is the reality .

[dollarneed]

thats why i dont like the journalist,they are didnt even know what is bitcoin and using it, you never feel it if you never try it

[bornil267645]

Well, that's a question only time will answer. Bitcoin still have a long way to go and we will eventually find out how far bitcoin can wonder. Till then I am still betting on BTC to be the revolution of online currency.

[Amph]

OP says its a ponzi scheme . I dont understand how its a scheme and that too a Ponzi one . The article is a complete nonsense and has no relevance with the degradation of btc reputation . What I believe is that btc is absolutely amazing creativity in economic transactions . It has made everything now very easy and many people have earned a lot from this . It has changed many people's lives forever which is the reality .

they probably have starting to enforce this whole "bitcoin is a ponzi scheme", since the 20mb news and Gevin, leading it like it was a ceo or something

they are always trying, to scuttle bitcoin by any means

[Denker]

And here comes the WaPo FUD again. The author of that written mess has absolutely no clue about Bitcoin. Let those idiots continue with their stupid attitude.One day they will be shut up.

[real789]

thats why i dont like the journalist,they are didnt even know what is bitcoin and using it, you never feel it if you never try it

i think you not all true
before Journalist write news he need more analysis, and use it but i don't like too

There are many articles that said the same things, all of them didn't really know about bitcoin.

They said nobody use bitcoin as currency, costs to run bitcoin network is too high & bitcoin price is keep down although there are halving.
It's just like newbie trying to act as a proffesional

i think this people answer you

And here comes the WaPo FUD again. The author of that written mess has absolutely no clue about Bitcoin. Let those idiots continue with their stupid attitude.One day they will be shut up.

FUDER want to buy bitcoin cheap and he release more bad news about bitcoin
also bank not want to lose her customer,

Bitcoin is have BIg technology, but we not rule some money online is dead
like liberty or other i can't say one by one

[turvarya]

Also the writer is reffering to the massive pollution caused by bitcoin mining. What about the massive servers the banks and VISA/Mastercard need to host currently? They probably use a shitload more energy than the current mining operations. If bitcoin can replace parts of this, wouldn't we be better off?

wasn't the bitcoin network considered the most powerful network in the world, most power than any numbers of supercomputer combined? i doubt they are wasting more energy than the mining operations for bitcoin

It is the most powerful, when it comes to Bitcoin mining. It can mine Bitcoin better, than a supercomputer could, because the hardware is optimized on mining.
Power consumption is a whole other story. I don't know, what the power consumption of the network is, but  an ASIC takes less energy to produce Bitcoin, than a supercomputer would.

[real789]

OP says its a ponzi scheme . I dont understand how its a scheme and that too a Ponzi one . The article is a complete nonsense and has no relevance with the degradation of btc reputation . What I believe is that btc is absolutely amazing creativity in economic transactions . It has made everything now very easy and many people have earned a lot from this . It has changed many people's lives forever which is the reality .

Bitcoin will be PURE ponzi if no body interesting and dead, are you read source ?
that not my opinion i only want to share about bitcoin in other view


I TRUST AND I CRAVE BITCOIN

[sgk]

An interesting quote from the article about the HODLers:

......The catch-22 is people buy Bitcoins because they think the price will go to infinity and beyond once everybody uses them, but they don't spend their own Bitcoins because they think the price will go to infinity and beyond once everybody else uses them. And so nobody uses them.
But if nobody uses them, then the price will stay stuck at something a lot less than infinity let alone beyond. So the Bitcoin faithful have tried to not only convert people, but also convince them to martyr themselves, financially-speaking, for the crypto cause.....

[ed_teech]

Many of you base your argument on merchant adoption. If merchant adoption is high, then everything is alright. I think that's not the case. Merchants look for customers and all they can sell. Adding a Bitcoin payment option for a merchant is risk-free, even Bitcoin is a Ponzi, Pyramid, etc.

[Krang]

An interesting quote from the article about the HODLers:

......The catch-22 is people buy Bitcoins because they think the price will go to infinity and beyond once everybody uses them, but they don't spend their own Bitcoins because they think the price will go to infinity and beyond once everybody else uses them. And so nobody uses them.
But if nobody uses them, then the price will stay stuck at something a lot less than infinity let alone beyond. So the Bitcoin faithful have tried to not only convert people, but also convince them to martyr themselves, financially-speaking, for the crypto cause.....

Except not everyone is a 'hodler' and looking at the blockchain people are quite clearly spending them on things. Bitcoin needs both holdlers and spenders and that's what it's got. Besides, those hodlers will spend or cash out once bitcoin gets to their desired price.