Jorge, why do I have the impression your assumptions are nothing but personal opinions and totally not fact-based? Did you ever bother to read the comments right after the link you posted? And since when a ponzi (is this even certified?) scheme is bad to take BTCs for its "service"?
I only skimmed through them, yeah. What exactly is your problem with posting that news here?
(1) 297 $/BTC is not as high as 350 $/BTC at OTCQX, but it is more relevant to this egregious forum, being a quote for real BTC at a real exchange;
(2) If the comments that I read are correct, that ponzi must be about to collapse, that must be the reason why they required that emergency payment in bitcoin. Then soon there will be thousands of South Africans as angry as hornets whose nest has been busted. Bitcoin will be right in the middle of it.
I laugh every time very loud when i read the words in his signature.
"Academic interest in bitcoin only. Not owner, not trader, very skeptical of its long term success." But about ponzi [ he ] seems interest[ ed ] ...
When I first heard of bitcoin, around Nov/2013, a really huge MLM scheme called TelexFree had just collapsed here in Brazil, costing over a billion dollars to millions of victims. My first reaction (and of many other people) to bitcoin was "oh no, here we go again, another TelexFree".
OK, OK, bitcoin is not just another Telexfree. Unlike TelexFree, bitcoin was not
meant to be a pyramid scam. Unlike TelexFree (that sold some worthless VOIP phone cards), bitcoin is a serious technical project that was expected to work and be terribly useful. However, bitcoin has now become primarily gambling game ("day trading" to its players) and a pyramid schema (that moves money from the pockets of people who buy BTC today to the pockets of the early adopters); its orginal goal being now only an excuse used to attract investors. The latter is basically what Bitcoin is in Brazil. I don't mind gambling, as long as everyone knows that what they are doing is gambling; but I would like to see every pyramid scammer behind bars. Is this such a bizarre wish?
By the way, the creator of the very first Brazilian exchange (MercadoBR) also created a bitcoin ponzi called "Bitcoin Rain" that promised ~10% return on (bitcon) investments
per month, supposedly to be made in arbitrage between international exchanges. Of course, the payoffs to early investors all came from new investors money. When that Ponzi collapsed, the owner claimed a hacker had stolen everything (several thousand BTC from Brazilian investors) and that was it. The owner claims to have sold the MercadoBR to new owners, who of course refuse to be responsible for the BitcoinRain losses.
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