Is FORSAGE a Ponzi scheme? Buying ethereum to keep and buying ethereum to invest in forsage, which is better?
I am going to be a bit contrarian and literal here. Which "investment" choice is "better"...
It's important to bear in mind that modern crypto Ponzis will continue to attract participants for years, and this Forsage is only 6 months old.
Forsage is a Ponzi, certainly. But you have to understand that there are Ponzi games, schemes, and scams.
At the one end, a Ponzi "game" is a form of high risk gambling and does not hide from its nature. You put in money, and so long as there are 4 levels of players below you, you break even. More than that, and you win some money. Eventually however, people stop contributing and the Ponzi "game" falls apart, with the last 3-4 generations of players losing money.
At the far end, a Ponzi "scam" is designed from the start to steal as much money as possible for the scammers, from as many people as possible, by wholesale deception. Very few people aside from the root scammers make money, and those who do are usually only influential marks or co-conspirators whom the root scammers think will open up access to larger numbers of wealthier marks. The scammers lie about the nature of what happens to your money. OneCoin is a perfect example.
But this Forsage, which I would never put a penny into, is a Ponzi "scheme". It is "transparent" to an extent. It is obviously a Ponzi, and there is a smart contract in the blockchain that is not going anywhere no matter what happens. The rules appear to be clear, enforced, and unalterable, even by the original smary contract writer (though I have not examined it in detail, so there may be a flaw that will enable an exit scenario for the founding contract writer.
In terms of making early participants money, I think Forsage absolutely WILL do that. So long as a participant is willing to recruit others into their "downline" (or whatever it's called in Ponzis), they have a chance to make money. But know that the money gained is done so ENTIRELY at the expense of those whom they recruit, and those whom their recruits in turn recruit themselves.
The danger in a quasi-"legitimate" Ponzi "scheme" is: will you be one of the last few generations of participants who don't make money? Given that these crypto Ponzis that are obviously of the "scam" variety can continue unchecked for years, it is not unreasonable to think that this Ponzi "scheme" of only 6 months may stick around long enough that those joining now will not be the participants left holding the bag.
So, technically speaking, so long as you only put in a very small amount of the money you set aside for speculative, high-risk investing, then it might be worth the risk financially. But morally and reputationally, of course, the risk is immense. Since you have to recruit others to join in, knowing they are one level closer to going bust than you are, you are deliberately putting their money at greater risk than yours.
I would never do this, and I would consider anyone who lured others into this to be a bit high on the sociopathic spectrum and undesirable as a friend or associate. But technicallly, literally, it is definitely possible to make some money on this, since the risk for an overarching exit "scam" is not apparent, given the transparent nature of the smart contract.
Then again, you could just as easily bash in some little old lady's head and take her monthly retirement check. Very little difference, morally.
