Why Ponzi schemes are called "Ponzi"

[pixie85]

In many parts of the world nobody knows what a Ponzi scheme is. These are called pyramid schemes or financial pyramids. I haven't heard of the term Ponzi Scheme until I came to Bitcointalk. This is an American expression.
This scheme is very easy to identify but people still fail to do so. When someone offers to double your investment in a year you should be very suspicious.

[cahbagus555]

Ponzi already profitable for first member but he should recruit new member to build a pyramid. Mostly ponzi dont have a product and its like a money game. Sometimes its hard to recognize a ponzi

[Jating]

You've shared an interesting fact on where ponzi term was originated. How sad that it was Charles Ponzi who introduced that kind of act. Though I believe that nowadays, ponzi scheme are widely happening. Many people are still not aware that they are being scammed.
I believe, aside from what Charles did, there are still so many ways how this ponzi scheme being perform. Networking is included on that.

Whatever form or shape it is, Ponzi scheme is just a way to scammed people of their hard earn money. Others may call it Pyramiding or Networking but the output or the goal is the same. Recruit as many people as you can, entice them to invest lots of money and sign under you.

As I have said, this has been practiced before until Ponzi gave it a name, so just be careful and never blindly trust someone, specially if it involves investment and huge amount of money.

[sheenshane]

Whatever form or shape it is, Ponzi scheme is just a way to scammed people of their hard earn money. Others may call it Pyramiding or Networking but the output or the goal is the same. Recruit as many people as you can, entice them to invest lots of money and sign under you.

I agreed, Ponzi scheme could let a person to survive with its profitability but not on a large scale. It's like having an insurance firm with yourself as an employee. The Ponzi scheme has this great system that is very logical. If you have great analysis and encounters postal letters frequently, you will actually know how this system work and how will earn from the scheme. However, because of its popularity today, the Ponzi schemes are practiced less compared before because the people are so much familiar about it already.

[Bitcoin-Turkiye]

This is a very pleasant and informative topic, thank you very much. also; What to do if you’ve been a victim of a Ponzi scheme?
If you’ve been investing money in a Ponzi scheme then you should:
1 Break off all contact with the fraudsters and don’t send any more money.
2 Contact your bank to let them know so they can flag any suspicious activity.
3 Keep all written and electronic communications.
4 Contact Action Fraud to report it.
You should also beware of follow-up scams, where fraudsters contact you claiming they can help you get your money back.

[Tamilson]

Many people are still not aware that they are being scammed.

When it's too good to be true then come to think of it and back off. No decent investment will give us a quick profit unless it's illegal and scam. Some people that fall for this are the one that's greedy yet don't have knowledge what he's doing. So yeah Charles Ponzi is now a legend though not in a good way.

[gowobonyok]

My understanding so far is that we buy bitcoin and sell bitcoin in the same market, and then other people buy it and sell it back in the same market without the products spinning there. this is like an asset that has been mocked by many people, so many call it worthless.

[cizatext]

Interesting.

Has anyone ever thought insurance could be similar to a ponzi scheme? 

Well, I have wondered if insurance could be similar to a pyramid scheme or ponzi in that there are those on the top of the "pyramid" whose costs are being covered by those on the bottom. The main differences may be ponzi schemes relying more heavily upon a growth of their userbase to sustain costs, wheras insurance tends to be more institutionalized with a more thoroughly saturated userbase. And of course there is a necessity context to insurance.

I guess the main question is whether insurance policies are officially mandated to produce greater profits for various institutions. Or whether they're necessitated by other factors. I think historically people had healthcare long before health insurance was invented. There could be historical precedents for systematically analyzing and perhaps even putting forth a decent argument contending that various forms of insurance could be eliminated and replaced with better frameworks for achieving identical goals.

I guest the slide difference between a ponzi scheme and insurance is that most insurance companies charges their client on either monthly basis or quarterly basis which they call servicing fees in my country, but ponzi scheme on the other hand require a just one time deposits, ponzi is not institutionalized but insurance is and ponzi is just a way of robbing peter to pay Paul but insurance have a central account.

[gantez]

This must be stopped, pension funds must come from personal funds and awareness, not other people's funds. There must be someone, maybe a social activist or even someone in the government who are aware of this and maybe something must be sacrificed for this.

Is pension also working as ponzi?

I was thinking pension is some percentage of money deducted from worker's salary and saved for the worker plus the percentage coming from the employee, paid to the worker at retirement.

[Kimonoe]

This must be stopped, pension funds must come from personal funds and awareness, not other people's funds. There must be someone, maybe a social activist or even someone in the government who are aware of this and maybe something must be sacrificed for this.

Is pension also working as ponzi?

I was thinking pension is some percentage of money deducted from worker's salary and saved for the worker plus the percentage coming from the employee, paid to the worker at retirement.

I think it's different, with pension funds being deducted from salaries, not harming others. as far as I know the Ponzi scheme, in the end there will be people who are harmed, but for those who follow it in the beginning it will still be profitable