Is Butterfly Labs a ponzi scheme? Here's why I think yes.

[baritus]

Both companies(Avalon and BFL) use customer money to fund their research and development. That's a risky scenario in itself. Case in point: BFL.

Why? They already spent the customer money on research and development.

Is it a ponzi scheme? That's debatable. It might be a sort of ponzi scheme, here's my logic:
1. Old investors pay in the first money
2. New investors add more money because of the money the first investors already put
3. Company(BFL specifically) uses new investor dollars to process old investor refunds since they already spent the old investor's cash.
4. So the result is new investors paying for the old ones to get out at no profit. The only difference between that and Bernie Madoff is at least his ponzi scheme made some people money.. 

[zimipoder]

Not to mention they could actually be developing the product and just mining with it themselves

[baritus]

Possible, but it's still more profitable for them to sell the mining tools to the waiting horde and get as many millions as possible while excitement is high.

I just never saw this ponzi development scheme work before.

[nuhash]

Not to mention they could actually be developing the product and just mining with it themselves

Or they could have just bought a load of Avalon ASICs and then paid of refunds with mining profits and new preorders

[chmod755]

Is the whole world a ponzi scheme? Here's why I think yes.

Both banks(FED and ECB) use customer money to fund their bankster wallets. That's a risky scenario in itself.

Is it a ponzi scheme? That's debatable. It might be a sort of ponzi scheme, here's my logic:
1. Old people pay in the first money
2. Young people add more money because of the money the old people already put
3. Bank uses young people dollars to process old people refunds since they already spent the old people's cash.
4. So the result is young people paying for the old ones to get out at no profit. The only difference between that and Bernie Madoff is at least his ponzi scheme made some people money..  

[baritus]

Yeah we all know government is a ponzi brother ... We just don't want anymore.

[jedunnigan]

Well their most recent update would indicate otherwise:

28 March 2013 - Mini-Update

I had wanted to post a video tonight, but wasn't able to make that happen, so let me apologize for that in advance. As some of you may know from the chatbox, we have been working diligently to get these ASICs out the door. We've been tracking down a power issue these last few days and have it isolated to a few key systems. In the interest of time, we are planning on potentially scaling back units hashing speed as required to accommodate the extra power and shipping multiple units to those that want their units right now. If would would prefer to wait for a unit after we've made some changes to the systems that need a bit of tweaking, we will be happy to put your shipment on hold. However, if you'd rather have the units right now at an increased power usage, we will ship you as many units as required to get you to the hashrate your purchased, if we end up having to scale back any given class of unit to fit within the power envelope of the current board design.

We have the current design hashing, and as I said, I had hoped to have a video of a unit hashing here in KC, but I wasn't able to bring that all together tonight, but hopefully I can get it posted up tomorrow or by this weekend. I will update as soon as I have more news to share, with a video.

If you absolutely do not want a unit that is consuming more power than expected, you can let us know you'd like to wait for a revised unit or you are welcome to request a refund. If you'd rather have your units shipped regardless of increased power usage, we will still guarantee your hashrate by shipping you however many units are required to achieve your purchased hashrate. There is no need to contact us right now if you are not concerned about the power usage and just want your units shipped ASAP. Even with the increased power demand on these first units, they will still out perform any competing products by a very wide margin in terms of power and megahash/J.

Again, we apologize for the delay, but we are almost there.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status-2.html

[nuhash]

Is the whole world a ponzi scheme? Here's why I think yes.

Both banks(FED and ECB) use customer money to fund their bankster wallets. That's a risky scenario in itself.

Is it a ponzi scheme? That's debatable. It might be a sort of ponzi scheme, here's my logic:
1. Old people pay in the first money
2. Young people add more money because of the money the old people already put
3. Bank uses young people dollars to process old people refunds since they already spent the old people's cash.
4. So the result is young people paying for the old ones to get out at no profit. The only difference between that and Bernie Madoff is at least his ponzi scheme made some people money..  

Funny thing is, that is roughly what happens. If you open a savings account, the money is invested elsewhere, if you want your money back they have to get it from someone else. (Please correct if I am wrong)

Just imagine what would happen if everyone went to the bank tomorrow and empty their accounts just to troll the bankers, actually don't do that, i have £2200 in my account that I need to pay rent with