Is investing and participating in a ponzi illegal?

[Sir_lagsalot]

Hey guys, sorry if this is a nooby question. Recently a bunch of friends have said that investing in a ponzi is illegal. I've stayed clear of hyips and ponzis ever since. But bitcointalk has its own section basically dedicated to ponzis, how is it illegal?

Am I missing something, is investing in a ponzi illegal just in my jurisdiction, or are people just investing anonymously, so we can't find out who they are?

[rychallenge]

I thought Bitcoin was decentralised?
There's no rules, ponzi's are not illegal in the crypto world.

[nejibens]

i don't know if it is illegal or not, but for sure governments can't really control this online programs nor the bitcoin's payments , it's only risky as known

[DebitMe]

Running a Ponzi scheme is illegal.  I don't know a single country where that is not true.  Plus, by accepting investments from countries where it is illegal (aka US), you are now against the laws of the U.S.  Investing in a Ponzi is not illegal, at least if you don't know if it's a Ponzi. I honestly am not sure about the rules if you know its fake and still invest, I can't imagine charges would be brought against you, plus how would that ever be proven?

[rychallenge]

Running a Ponzi scheme is illegal.  I don't know a single country where that is not true.  Plus, by accepting investments from countries where it is illegal (aka US), you are now against the laws of the U.S.  Investing in a Ponzi is not illegal, at least if you don't know if it's a Ponzi. I honestly am not sure about the rules if you know its fake and still invest, I can't imagine charges would be brought against you, plus how would that ever be proven?

If you operate a ponzi in the Bitcoin community you are frowned upon but it is against no law. Bitcoin has no laws, as clearly you are forgetting. No one cares about the US law or any governments here. That is not what Bitcoin was made for.

[DebitMe]

Running a Ponzi scheme is illegal.  I don't know a single country where that is not true.  Plus, by accepting investments from countries where it is illegal (aka US), you are now against the laws of the U.S.  Investing in a Ponzi is not illegal, at least if you don't know if it's a Ponzi. I honestly am not sure about the rules if you know its fake and still invest, I can't imagine charges would be brought against you, plus how would that ever be proven?

If you operate a ponzi in the Bitcoin community you are frowned upon but it is against no law. Bitcoin has no laws, as clearly you are forgetting. No one cares about the US law or any governments here. That is not what Bitcoin was made for.

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

[rychallenge]

Running a Ponzi scheme is illegal.  I don't know a single country where that is not true.  Plus, by accepting investments from countries where it is illegal (aka US), you are now against the laws of the U.S.  Investing in a Ponzi is not illegal, at least if you don't know if it's a Ponzi. I honestly am not sure about the rules if you know its fake and still invest, I can't imagine charges would be brought against you, plus how would that ever be proven?

If you operate a ponzi in the Bitcoin community you are frowned upon but it is against no law. Bitcoin has no laws, as clearly you are forgetting. No one cares about the US law or any governments here. That is not what Bitcoin was made for.

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

I can buy drugs and guns via Bitcoin... As long as I don't ship them, use the, post them or receive them etc and it is restricted simply to the Bitcoin transaction, the transaction itself is not in any government juristiction.

Again, running a ponzi that only accepts Bitcoin or crypto coins is not illegal as they are called DECENTRALISED currencies for a reason.

Do you even know what FUD is? Obviously not, you must of just seen it in Bitcoin discussion and thought it makes you look smarter.

You don't belong in this section, go back to where you came from.

[rychallenge]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

[HydroThunder]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

That isn't how it works. Granted OP asked a very vague question with no background information (simple answer is it varies by country/state/city/etc. whether you can even use BTC in the first place and then on from there).

But just because something is decentralized does not mean that it is legal. There is 'law', it just is widely disputed by region. Running a decentralized drug smuggling business, for example, would still result in legal prosecution at some point in time. Obviously bitcoin (As a currency, property, or commodity) is a lot harder to book someone for, but there are still legal boundaries. 

[rychallenge]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

That isn't how it works. Granted OP asked a very vague question with no background information (simple answer is it varies by country/state/city/etc. whether you can even use BTC in the first place and then on from there).

But just because something is decentralized does not mean that it is legal. There is 'law', it just is widely disputed by region. Running a decentralized drug smuggling business, for example, would still result in legal prosecution at some point in time. Obviously bitcoin (As a currency, property, or commodity) is a lot harder to book someone for, but there are still legal boundaries. 

Running a decentralised drug smuggling business would involve using fiat and operating under jurisdictions that would be covered by law.
By using Bitcoin on my computer on the virtual Tor or web, there is no chance you will be arrested or fined for running or investing in a ponzi. That would defeat the purpose of Bitcoin.

[jeffthebaker]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

If you are a citizen of any government you still abide by their laws, regardless of if you are using Bitcoin or not. If you live in a tinfoil house in the middle of the ocean then sure, you can do anything you want with your Bitcoins. Otherwise, you still need to abide by the laws of your country. Bitcoin ponzi schemes have been busted by local governments in the past.

[Proxiebuier]

Hey guys, sorry if this is a nooby question. Recently a bunch of friends have said that investing in a ponzi is illegal. I've stayed clear of hyips and ponzis ever since. But bitcointalk has its own section basically dedicated to ponzis, how is it illegal?

Am I missing something, is investing in a ponzi illegal just in my jurisdiction, or are people just investing anonymously, so we can't find out who they are?

are you read this notice ?
Warning: You are in the Gambling section. You are likely to eventually lose any money that you gamble/"invest". Additionally, moderators do not remove likely scams. You must use your own brain: caveat emptor. Do not gamble more than you can afford to lose.

read this

Hi,

I'am sorry but I don't get it .
"Warning: You are in the Gambling section. You are likely to eventually lose any money that you gamble/"invest". Additionally, moderators do not remove likely scams. You must use your own brain: caveat emptor. Do not gamble more than you can afford to lose."

We got it . staff members don't remove likely scams .. But how about scams ? BTC-Flow is a full pure 100% scam => https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=950011.0 , OP didn't connect since one week and anyone who invested didn't get his money back as the website claimed .

I don't see how this is a likely scam . Its a confirmed scam and should be removed .

~ Madness

We don't touch any scams, the forum is about freedom of speech and discussion. We aren't here to protect your coins. When users opt into crypto, they agree to a certain level of financial responsibility, ie to protect their keys and their wallets through their actions. The trust system is what is used to handle scammers and likely scammers, and that is left up to users.

In addition to that, we don't have the manpower to track down and persecute all scammers, we don't necessarily want to, because being a scammer doesnt mean that you aren't an active participant in conversations, or that they wont pay it back at some later date, etc. Sounds strange, but it has happened a few times before.

Best course of action is to mark scammers/potential scammers when you see them so that no one has an unpleasant surprise. If people want to not heed warnings, and put themselves in a situation where they get scammed, well its their right to have their money parted from them, and learn a lesson hopefully.

[DebitMe]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

If you are a citizen of any government you still abide by their laws, regardless of if you are using Bitcoin or not. If you live in a tinfoil house in the middle of the ocean then sure, you can do anything you want with your Bitcoins. Otherwise, you still need to abide by the laws of your country. Bitcoin ponzi schemes have been busted by local governments in the past.

That's also not entirely true because if you transact with someone from another country that has laws that you are not following, you can still be prosecuted.

Furthermore, rychallenge doesn't seem like a very knowledgeable individual.  This forum absolutely abides by laws and has to comply with, lets say, the government asking for any and all IM's/posts/IP addresses from any user they want to know about, for just about any reason they could imagine.  And I really hope you are joking when you say your safe behind TOR, because if your serious, then you really don't know much about how the internet works.

[shadows123]

In my opinion YES, as we know ponzi is illegal whatever u use btc or usd or rub,etc u still CAN lose real money btc is still worth with something CMIIW its only my opinion   well but i like invest on ponzi.lol

[melisande]

I thought Bitcoin was decentralised?
There's no rules, ponzi's are not illegal in the crypto world.

I dont think ponzi is illegal in any world not only in the crypto world but because people can easily loose their hard earned money to fraud stars governments of some countries tends to regulate it.

[rychallenge]

Please do not spread FUD when you don't know what your talking about.  There are very clearly laws and rules that must be abided by.  Bitcoin is a currency, no more, it does not mean do whatever you want and get away with it.   If you do something against the law, you will be prosecuted.

You are by far the dumbest person I've come across on this forum.
You are posting on a BITCOIN forum, do you realise that? Bitcoin is decentralised, there is no LAW. There is no GOVERNMENT.

If you are a citizen of any government you still abide by their laws, regardless of if you are using Bitcoin or not. If you live in a tinfoil house in the middle of the ocean then sure, you can do anything you want with your Bitcoins. Otherwise, you still need to abide by the laws of your country. Bitcoin ponzi schemes have been busted by local governments in the past.

That's also not entirely true because if you transact with someone from another country that has laws that you are not following, you can still be prosecuted.

Furthermore, rychallenge doesn't seem like a very knowledgeable individual.  This forum absolutely abides by laws and has to comply with, lets say, the government asking for any and all IM's/posts/IP addresses from any user they want to know about, for just about any reason they could imagine.  And I really hope you are joking when you say your safe behind TOR, because if your serious, then you really don't know much about how the internet works.

You're joking me, right?
A government can not arrest me if I invest in a ponzi that only accepts Bitcoin. If it says "PONZI" as the site name I am not giving them a fiat currency therefor I am not violating a law in ANY country.
That is the main topic here stop going off track with your real life scenarios because we are talking about a virtual currency.

[alwinlinzee]

If ponzi is illegal many investments will be illegal including those involved by banks investments not to mention forex trading.

[nydiacaskey01]

That's tricky question because if for drugs, sellers and users go to jail, for ponzi only owner goes punished if caught, I think participating is legal as long as you can prove that you are just a victim and didn't know that it was a ponzi scheme, promoting it is different, that is same as the owner.

[zodiac3011]

I think that running ponzis will path your way to jail really fast but investing in ponzis? In my opinion there's no rule says that you will go to jail if you participate in it (I mean to jail is illegal), but may be as you are helping the scammers to continue to run their business

[mr.coinstrader]

Hey guys, sorry if this is a nooby question. Recently a bunch of friends have said that investing in a ponzi is illegal. I've stayed clear of hyips and ponzis ever since. But bitcointalk has its own section basically dedicated to ponzis, how is it illegal?

Am I missing something, is investing in a ponzi illegal just in my jurisdiction, or are people just investing anonymously, so we can't find out who they are?

Well investing on ponzi make you an investor, and that only means you are involved on an illegal program, so technically investing on ponzi is illegal.That's what my thought is I maybe wrong though..