What is your answer to "Bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme" ?

[gpucoolingmethod]

Other people call Bitcoin a "Pyramid bubble"


Wikipedia
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from existing capital or new capital paid by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.[1]

When a Ponzi scheme is not stopped by the authorities, it sooner or later falls apart for one of the following reasons:[1]
The promoter vanishes.

Satoshi Nakamoto vanished

[gpucoolingmethod]

What do you think?

[danieldaniel]

Other people call Bitcoin a "Pyramid bubble"


Wikipedia
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from existing capital or new capital paid by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.[1]

When a Ponzi scheme is not stopped by the authorities, it sooner or later falls apart for one of the following reasons:[1]
The promoter vanishes.

Satoshi Nakamoto vanished

There's no person or company that is paying out profits to investors. 

[techstorm2]

study ponzi, then study bitcoin, then tell me how its a ponzi scheme?


ponzi schemes generally have little or no value or utility/use and are controlled centrally by an individual who knows its a scam.

bitcoin doesnt fall into any category of a ponzi scheme.

[zemario]

Let people believe it is if they so wish. Why should you waste energy with stupid people anyway?

[msc]

There's no person or company that is paying out profits to investors.  

This.  In a Ponzi scheme, you pay money to someone, and they pay you a return.  But that return that they pay you is actually stolen from someone else.

Bitcoin is just like a stock or a commodity.  You buy a piece of a limited resource, or you're given a piece of that resource, and then you re-sell your piece later.  If you pay $1000 for a Bitcoin and you're only able to re-sell it for $100, that might make it a bubble, but it doesn't make it a pyramid.

[gpucoolingmethod]

Other people call Bitcoin a "Pyramid bubble"


Wikipedia
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from existing capital or new capital paid by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.[1]

When a Ponzi scheme is not stopped by the authorities, it sooner or later falls apart for one of the following reasons:[1]
The promoter vanishes.

Satoshi Nakamoto vanished

There's no person or company that is paying out profits to investors. 

what if AMD created BTC?

[Holliday]

Bitcoin's properties allow me to do amazing things with my money that I can not do with any other kind of asset on the planet. It allows me to securely store and send value to anyone in the world without help from a middleman or permission from an authority. I can protect my money in ways that are impossible with traditional assets (multisig addresses, m of n wallets, encrypted wallets).

I suggest anyone who thinks Bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme take a hard look at the properties of a Ponzi Scheme and a hard look at the properties of Bitcoin. Just because some people might get rich does not automagically mean Ponzi Scheme. Early Google investors are getting rich thanks to late Google investors. I suppose Google is a Ponzi Scheme as well!

There is no fraud in Bitcoin. Everything is open and available for the entire world to see. The source code is open. The block chain is a public ledger of every transaction that has ever occurred using Bitcoin. Price discovery takes place in a global marketplace. There is no one entity in control. The network is distributed and decentralized.

Bitcoin doesn't pay returns.

Satoshi is not a promoter, he is the creator. He disappeared when the exchange rate was a few dollars at most. He is certainly to blame for Bitcoin's adoption, but only because Bitcoin is a fantastic idea (or merging of ideas) which has extremely useful properties, not because he has been actively promoting it to anyone.

Finally, if all else fails, I would just call the person claiming Bitcoin was a Ponzi Scheme an idiot (because they are clearly incapable of thinking for themselves) and tell them to stay far, far away from Bitcoin.

[Holliday]

There's no person or company that is paying out profits to investors. 

what if AMD created BTC?

I've been involved with Bitcoin for three years and I haven't received any returns from AMD (or anyone for that matter). What am I doing wrong?

[Bagatell]

"In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.

A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. In a ponzi scheme, early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters, and the late adopters always lose. Bitcoin has an expected win-win outcome. Early and present adopters profit from the rise in value as Bitcoins become better understood and in turn demanded by the public at large. All adopters benefit from the usefulness of a reliable and widely-accepted decentralized peer-to-peer currency. "

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#It.27s_a_giant_ponzi_scheme

[BittBurger]

Simple:

Bitcoins entire purpose is "decentralization".

Ponzi schemes are centralized.

Anyone who calls Bitcoin a ponzi scheme doesn't grasp the most basic element of Bitcoin.

The very reason Bitcoin was created:  To eliminate the need to "trust" a centralized authority which could become corrupt.

[gpucoolingmethod]

There's no person or company that is paying out profits to investors. 

what if AMD created BTC?

I've been involved with Bitcoin for three years and I haven't received any returns from AMD (or anyone for that matter). What am I doing wrong?

I think AMD profits have increase by huge amounts cuz of BTC.(please note I dont think BTC is ponzi)

[greatdn]

a ponzi scheme would have been desroyed a long time ago.  Bitcoin is experiencing some growing pains but is definately not a pnze scheme and has far passed the "FAD" label. imo

[bitgeek]

This is my answer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u4F8cpzqao

[JointDoctor]

[MicroGuy]

Bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme but an altcoin could be easily developed to duplicate that model.

Basically the addresses recorded in previous blocks would receive small fees from rewards/fees collected in subsequent blocks. The addresses would perpetually receive coins much like a stock that pays a dividend.

[Mr. Socko]

NEM coin would seem to be a partial solution... it takes away the power of early adopters and the bitcoin millionaires, huge mining operators, and the rich in general and distributes the coin in a more even manner.  Bitcoin is still far too concentrated seeing all these wallets with more than 10K bitcoin in them there is a small number of people who got obscenely wealthy from it. Good for them.. wish I had heard of bitcoin back on 2011.

In any case I'm backing a coin that I have a vested interest in obviously... the answer to this ponzi scheme thing would be the ultra wealthy distributing these massive number of bitcoins in giveaway threads of course that would take a generosity of spirit that even I admit I would not have was I an early adopter. I'd be slowly spending my bitcoins out in small increments on this and that.

Lots of 'investments' or 'commodities' could be called pyramid schemes. Anybody guilty of pumping gold, silver, or any asset in an attempt to get others interested is ultimately promoting their investment in a way that they want others to invest to 'drive up the price' which is a pyramid scheme. This would also include the stock market, collectables, anything with a fixed supply and increasing demand.

If you bitcoin millionaires were smart you'd be taking your bitcoin and buying all the platinum, palladium, and rhodium you can get your hands on. Why? Russia stockpiles of palladium are gone. South African mines continue to have labor problems. Demand for auto catalysts will continue to increase, and the supply will remain tight for the foreseeable future.

[BlockChainLottery]

... and distributes the coin in a more even manner. Bitcoin is still far too concentrated seeing all these wallets with more than 10K bitcoin in them there is a small number of people who got obscenely wealthy from it. ...

Distribution of wealth is not equal in all walks of life, not just for Bitcoin. But that doesn't mean that it's unfair by definition, or not good for society. People who work harder, come up with new fantastic ideas, invent something awesome, or take risks have more chance becoming rich. And with that money they tend to do good things again.

I think wealth should be distributed in such a way (and not more than that), that all children should have the same chances when they're starting their life's. After that it's up to them to make something of it.

But it doesn't mean wealth should be redistributed just because some people have a lot of money and a lot of people have only a little.

[Proteus123]

Exactly. Satoshi is gone and it didn't collapse. Ponzi schemes have no similarities to BTC.

[Operatr]

I answer with the fact that anyone who thinks that doesn't know what a Ponzi scheme is and doesn't understand Bitcoin either