Infinite Pyramid

[bitfon]

Most of the doubling pyramids have a definite end time.  Most only last 12 or 24 hours.

But here's one that goes on forever as long as there's at least one deposit in 7 days.

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=20087.0

I'm pretty new here so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that this could go on a loooooooong time.

What am I missing here?

[Horace Kent]

the true hallmark of budding currency is the emergence of cons.

another milestone for bitcoin!


this sounds sarcastic.....and, I am.  But, it is true.  If bitcoin is going to make it.  Its going to attract TONS more fraudsters and gangsters than it has thus far.

[bitfon]

I'm not worried about the Ponzi games.  The ones I've seen are very open and transparent.  The good ones publish every transaction publicly and the block chain validates that they're telling the truth.

So it's unlikely that people are getting deceived or exploited when playing them.  And it's probably a natural phenomenon with a new currency and a new economy.

I just thought it was pretty amazing that the game in the original post goes on forever, as long as there's at least one deposit in 7 days.

Nobody's going to get rich quick, but that game could go on a very long time (unlike most of the others that end in 12 hours).

Is that typical?

[TiagoTiago]

A pyramid is only infinite as the number of people willing to join in, and for each additional level more people need to join in order to run the system at the same speed; so after a few levels things get so slow that the people stop joining 'cause they see the people already in aren't getting paid anymore and soon the whole thing collapse.


Somtimes even the people running the pyramid themselves get jumbled up in the math and think it can sustain itself for way longer than it actually can; people somtimes even insist on the thing after failure becomes obvious (to an outside observer), for various reasons, including being too stubborn/proud to admit they weren't smart enough to do the math right and got carried away by the promises of easy money; in some ways it's like perpetual motion machines, people think they found a loophole that allows them to obtain somthing for nothing and get stuck on that idea failing to realize they didn't knew enough about the process involved from the start, often coming up with rationalizations for why they aren't being able to extract as much from the thing as they expected to, blaming everything but the flawed system or themselves

[BillT]

with being able to see the transaction is block explorer you can see whats going on. There seems to be a few that could go on forever with basing the end date off of the last transaction played.

[gusto88]

It is a scheme. Do not participate. Only if you are in the first two or three levels, you get somethng worth out of it.

[JoelKatz]

I'm pretty new here so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that this could go on a loooooooong time.

What am I missing here?

There are a fairly large supply of idiots in the world, but the number of them that are capable of transferring BitCoins is not so large. As soon as you run out of idiots with BitCoins, the game will end.

For every N BitCoins deposited, the pyramid must pay out M BitCoins, where M is bigger than N. So with every deposit, the scheme falls further and further into debt. The longer the game runs and the more deposits it gets, the greater the total loss will be.

[tysat]

Most of the doubling pyramids have a definite end time.  Most only last 12 or 24 hours.

But here's one that goes on forever as long as there's at least one deposit in 7 days.

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=20087.0

I'm pretty new here so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that this could go on a loooooooong time.

What am I missing here?

Sounds like someone who entered in a little late, and is trying to get in others now so he can be paid...