Short video summary of the argument: https://youtu.be/wQJCL4s2GH0In a fraudulent investment scheme, like Ponzi, investors transfer their utilizable resources, be it money, goods or services, and then they end up with something which has zero utilization capacity, like promise or non-binding record of investment. After the investment, the only possible way for them to get utilizable resources back is if new investors join the scheme and in that way bring such resources with them.
The opposite is true in a legitimate investment business, where investors transfer one type of utilizable resource and in return they receive another type of such resource. An utilizable resource is anything that can be practically utilized by humans. For e.g. a car can be practically utilized for driving, a dollar for loan payments, a stock for participation in company's profitability, food for providing nutritional support, a raw material for producing finished products etc. Hence, an utilizable resource is not something that is just passed from hand-to-hand on a market for investing or speculation purposes, but something which has end consumers who will consume, utilize or otherwise put the thing to practical use. And this practical use by end consumers is why things got to the market in the first place. For e.g. dollars got to the market because they have end consumers in the form of borrowers the same as food has such consumers in hungry people. In other words, loan contracts and collaterals force people to use dollars for loan payments the same as hunger forces people to use food. Since all dollars (either paper or digital) are loan based, they are not just passed from hand to hand, but also utilized by borrowers who are forced to give goods and services to dollar investors, speculators, or regular users, when loan payment liability must be fulfilled. In the same way, hungry people are forced to give money, goods or services to food producers.
In a fraudulent investment scheme there are no end consumers, which is why a thing that lures members into the scheme is just passed from hand-to-hand, from member-to-member... until it is realized that the only profit can come from utilizable resources invested into the scheme.
And this finally brings us to bitcoin and the following question. When investors transfer their utilizable resources like money, goods or services into bitcoin do they end up with another utilizable resource, i.e. a resource which can be utilized by some end consumer? Well, the obvious answer is: no, they do not. Instead, they end up only with a record in a table (blockchain) or in other words, only with a number associated with their bitcoin address. And this number cannot be practically utilized like food is utilized by hungry people or dollar by borrowers, but it can only be passed from address-to-address, from hand-to-hand, from member-to-member. And this is exactly how classical fraudulent schemes operate - they use something to lure people into the scheme, but the thing itself is non-utilizable, which is why it is just passed from one person to another. Once people realize that profit or utilizable resources can come from new investors only, the whole scheme collapses. And this is the ultimate fate of bitcoin. So, do not buy it.
Update 1: I see a lot of posters are unable to differentiate between the terms "
usage of bitcoin" and "
transfer of bitcoin". "Using" X is not the same as "transferring X". If I say that iPhone has a use, that mens it is used as communicating device, music player, gaming console, camera, and so on. If I say that dollar has a use, that mens it is used by borrowers for fulfilling their loan obligations - which is the reason it came into existence in the first place. Passing iPhone or dollars from hand to hand is not usage - it is
transfer. Nearly everything that is in existence has the capacity to be transferred from one person to another, either electronically or manually.
However, that does not mean that everything has the capacitly to be used, consumed or practically utilized for satisfying human needs. And it is the capacitly to satisfy human needs why things are produced and why they came to the market in the first place. For e.g. there are lots of people who have needs to consume goods or services they don't own. But how can they get them? Well, by borrowing them, with the implied or expressed intention of returning them back in the future. And here is where the banks kick in with their product - dollar. Dollar is produced by the banks to satisfy needs of these people. Its main feature is that it is composed of two crucial parts: contract and collateral. These components guarantee that borrowers who traded produced dollars to people for their goods and services, return goods and services back to them, which happens every time their contract obligates them to make loan payments.
Hence, dollar is product like food or clothing, with the capacity to be used, consumed or practically utilized by its end users - borrowers.
Bitcoin on the other hand has no such utilizable capacity - it cannot be
used, which is why it can only be
transferred - i.e. passed from address-to-address, from hand-to-hand, from member-to-member. In other words, in the bitcoin circulation chain, nobody is able use bitcoin, like in the case of dollars, goods, services and similar utilizable resources..., which is why such resources can be obtained from new investors only. And this is the definition of a classical ponzi or pyramid scheme.
