Bitcoin and Ponzi Schemes - People are confused.

[Rruchi man]

These Ponzi schemes collapsed and according to him ....many people lost money in Bitcoin. They have a WhatsApp group for the program and I immediately corrected that statement, because people did not lose money in Bitcoin.... they lost money in a Ponzi scheme that used Bitcoin as a payment option.

Misinformation has caused a lot of persons to not invest and be committed to investing in bitcoins, It is their loss because that misinformation will lead to regret if not corrected. I lost some money too to a Ponzi scheme that used bitcoins, and that was my very first exposure to bitcoins. It was not a pleasant period, but because I knew that since there were other Ponzi schemes during that time too that were not using bitcoins, I knew that It was not bitcoins to be blamed, but the Ponzi-scheme itself. Misinformation is even sometimes more better than no information, Instead of accepting wrong information, choose to remain uninformed. There is a lot of information flying around, For whatever information that you need that comes to you, it is your duty to verify.

[Odusko]

Hey mate, nice of you to have put that misconception off and disregarded those false claims, I don't know why gullible individuals blame Bitcoin for everything I was once in a WhatsApp group where we discuss risk management in investment and I discovered most of the members of that group doesn't have basic knowledge of what Bitcoin is, and how to use it as a payment method and what risk to avoid.
Ponzi scheme operators choose to use Bitcoin as payment to cover their track due to bitcoin's decentralized nature, and if those who fall, victim have that same knowledge of the power of decentralization and its usage by everyone so the responsibility is left to the Bitcoin user not to trust any third party with their Bitcoin in the form of investment.

[ethereumhunter]

It is right what is said by @op because the Ponzi scheme has deceived many people. They don't know that the Ponzi and Bitcoin scheme has nothing to do. That's like the famous MMM program that has made many people lose money through the program.

And unfortunately, they immediately blamed Bitcoin rather than finding out who the owner of the Ponzi scheme was. But even so, people continue to follow other Ponzi schemes in the hope that they can benefit. But strangely, when they can get a profit, they don't mention bitcoin but instead the Ponzi scheme that has helped them get money.

[thecodebear]

good job OP.

Yeah when it comes to Bitcoin people think any ponzi scheme that happened to use Bitcoin, or any website that got hacked where the hackers happened to steal bitcoin, means bitcoin is a ponzi or bitcoin got hacked. Just huge lack of education on Bitcoin and lots of misinformation purposefully used to try to make Bitcoin look bad because its outside the normal system of things.

[GideonGono]

It has always been confusing to those who doesn't know how crypto or Bitcoin really works.
Most of the newbie's that had talked to me thought that Bitcoin was Ponzi scheme investment and asked how much profit am I getting per week or month.

[avikz]

Props to you for putting up with the bullshit, but I'm personally done with trying to fight these types of cases. Some people simply just don't want their minds changed. I'll just allocate my investments in a way that I can be personally comfortable even if bitcoin doesn't pump in 5 years.

At the same time it is also important to make people understand the truth. It's extremely easy to just look away but that extra effort that OP has put in, is really commendable.

We as a bitcoin enthusiasts, must go ahead and correct others when possible, is very important at this juncture, because bitcoin is getting prominence around the world.

Clap for you OP!

[cafter]

I watch a popular breakfast show every morning and they always have a section where they talk about money matters. Yesterday, they talked about Crypto currencies and the guest mentioned several Ponzi schemes where Bitcoin was used as a payment option.

These Ponzi schemes collapsed and according to him ....many people lost money in Bitcoin. They have a WhatsApp group for the program and I immediately corrected that statement, because people did not lose money in Bitcoin.... they lost money in a Ponzi scheme that used Bitcoin as a payment option.

Now, this does not sound very important, but it actually are one of the most critical things that needs to be addressed. We should counter all of these misinformed people, with education on what Bitcoin is, because they lose money on Ponzi schemes and then they blame it on Bitcoin.

every person listen to people who have most followers (not social media followers) like celebrities, big investors like warren buffeet, etc. if they said that bitcoin is crap than everyone think that it is absolutely crap and then it's impossible to change their mind, also possible in some cases, like in my case i regularly listened to a  well known social media influencer one day he talked about bitcoin, that bitcoin have no base it is just an another shitty kind of token,app.
then i listen to him my mind became antibitcoiner i was telling others that crypto and bitcoin are another like ponzi scheme, many people investing in it like dumb to make money.
then after 8months I come across cryptocurrency, that time i was became something kind of thinker who thinks a lot , so i researched about it and today i am here .
what we can do? we can try to educate people who thinks bitcoin is another ponzi scheme.

[firesurfer]

This topic has probably been written by many people before, and no matter where the discussion goes, Bitcoin will continue to be questionable as they have been for the past 13 years. I don't disprove every Bitcoin Ponzi scheme as "seemingly plausible". I believe in the price line and human greed. More money is being printed over time, and it will flow into hard-to-value things like electric cars, AI, rockets, and cryptocurrencies. No one believes that Bitcoin will increase in price in a few months until they look at the price line in 5 years. Just like no one believed in electric cars until Tesla's stock had gone from a few dollars to $500 in 10 years.

[Gyfts]

These are arguments the government also use because they're effective to people that are unable to critically think whenever Bitcoin is used as a scapegoat for criminal matters.

Terrorist organizations, criminals, financial corruption, ponzi's -- They'll point to Bitcoin as the crux of all these issues when Bitcoin isn't particularly relevant. It's a payment medium and can't possibly be held responsible for actions other people take. The vast majority of crimes aren't committed with Bitcoin anyways. When financial crimes are committed with fiat, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone blaming fiat as innately flawed or predisposed for criminal activity. Better yet -- when central banks knowingly or negligently mismanage fiscal matters for enrichment or protection of the government using their own currency, there are no complaints.

[vv181]

As noted on the first page, the first known ponzi roughly happened since 1869. But do note that lies or deception are innate within humans, so the mechanism or technique will keep evolving. What concerning, as you say, those people who got scammed are wrongly accused of bitcoin as the root cause. It is potentially bad due to the fact some audiences might perceive bitcoin as a bad thing.

Nevertheless, those kinds of people, the people who blatantly trust media or people who easily get deceived, will always exist. Sometimes, educating them is taxing enough for our time. There is a special kind of people that no matter what fact you mentioned or how you educate them, just did not believe or seemed they couldn't get it right.

[The Cryptovator]

BTW, you did an excellent job. People who don't really have anything to do with bitcoin might believe it is a Ponzi scheme. Nevertheless, in practice, Bitcoin has only been used as a payment gateway for Ponzi schemes. I have observed numerous fiat Ponzi schemes, yet they are never highlighted. Most claims that Ponzi schemes take place using cryptocurrency payment gateways. Because of this, some people begin to believe that Ponzi schemes embrace Bitcoin. Indeed, the problem is misinformation. When we explain Bitcoin to someone, we should do so clearly.

[Silberman]

I watch a popular breakfast show every morning and they always have a section where they talk about money matters. Yesterday, they talked about Crypto currencies and the guest mentioned several Ponzi schemes where Bitcoin was used as a payment option.

These Ponzi schemes collapsed and according to him ....many people lost money in Bitcoin. They have a WhatsApp group for the program and I immediately corrected that statement, because people did not lose money in Bitcoin.... they lost money in a Ponzi scheme that used Bitcoin as a payment option.

Now, this does not sound very important, but it actually are one of the most critical things that needs to be addressed. We should counter all of these misinformed people, with education on what Bitcoin is, because they lose money on Ponzi schemes and then they blame it on Bitcoin.

This is either an attempt to misinform the public, and they already knew what you said to them or this is simply about people focusing on the wrong thing when making their judgments, but whatever the case this will keep happening, so making an effort to correct people when they make this kind of mistake is the right thing to do, but at the same time if you make an effort to do this over and over again you will eventually get tired of it since the misconceptions about bitcoin abound on the internet.

[Captain Corporate]

It is such a sad statement, and yet it is believed by so many people. If you think that some people need to buy, in order for others to sell and make profit, hence it is a ponzi, that is literally how stock market or gold market or even oil futures work, someone buys them. The simplest is stocks, if nobody buys any stock, the stock market would crash and burn, so everyone needs to buy some stocks to keep the stock market going. Same logic with bitcoin, of course we need people to keep buying in order to keep it alive, but why would that be any different than the stock market?

[Raflesia]

Even though we do try to act and fight conditions like this, of course this will not be easy, it is even likely to fail.
The reason is actually simple because fraudsters like this always see ordinary people who are in bitcoin only looking at the profit side and of course beginners who buy bitcoin always use all means to get instant profits so they are easily trapped.
I personally for now just always take care of the people closest to me in this case so they don't get entangled because we also can't hold back the flow like this.

[AmoreJaz]

Even though we do try to act and fight conditions like this, of course this will not be easy, it is even likely to fail.
The reason is actually simple because fraudsters like this always see ordinary people who are in bitcoin only looking at the profit side and of course beginners who buy bitcoin always use all means to get instant profits so they are easily trapped.
I personally for now just always take care of the people closest to me in this case so they don't get entangled because we also can't hold back the flow like this.

that is true, we can only protect people that are near or known to us because we can explain to them clearly what's going on. btc itself is not a ponzi scheme, it is the people who are using it to scam other people. thus, some noncrypto users have the notion that BTC itself is a fraud because of these scammers.
education is the key to learn what's the real deal in this market. however, not many people are willing to educate themselves to understand what's really going on. hence, the bad notion of the btc and crypto in general.

[hatshepsut93]

If we don't want to be associated with these scams, we should be the first ones to call them out and warn the others. The introduction to Bitcoin should start with "crypto is full of scams but Bitcoin is the only good coin", instead of "blockchain is the future, crypto to the moon!". Your case shows that scams and shitcoins can very easily give negative reputation to Bitcoin, and it can be very hard to convince people once the first impression is made.

[qwertyup23]

...
Now, this does not sound very important, but it actually are one of the most critical things that needs to be addressed. We should counter all of these misinformed people, with education on what Bitcoin is, because they lose money on Ponzi schemes and then they blame it on Bitcoin.

I find it too impulsive for people to claim that investing in BTC is the same as investing in Ponzi. It is like you are saying that investment in general is a scam since you use money as the currency for it.

I guess this is one of those instances where these kind of people bring down the image of BTC. Given their current status celebrities, their influence extends to people who are also not familiar with BTC, thus ultimately discouraging them to even attempt to try it.

I am curious, however, is there some institution that can sue for defamation. Better, is it possible to sue for defamation given the public outburst they made in spreading false information about it?

[suzanne5223]

The truth about this issue is that people will continue to lose money to the Ponzi scheme and pyramid scheme because they always form a new strategy to lure their victims. Besides, this is a scheme that has been happening before I join cryptocurrency and I am also one of the victims of it when I was still a newbie.
What we can do is try as much as possible to make people know that Bitcoin or crypto is not the enemy but the abuser of the believed technology is the major enemy.

[n0ne]

This is how the people into the ponzi schemes fool the common people who doesn't have much idea on what they're doing. They join the schemes on someone's introduction and further they work to continue the chain. What happens in the mean time, someone in the higher position mention that the money is lost and it is the mistake with bitcoin. Poor people believe it and they never raise questions, and the same is being used as an advantage. What OP have done is appreciable and a must thing to make people understand the truth about bitcoin.

[lienfaye]

Now, this does not sound very important, but it actually are one of the most critical things that needs to be addressed. We should counter all of these misinformed people, with education on what Bitcoin is, because they lose money on Ponzi schemes and then they blame it on Bitcoin.

You're right. People are using Bitcoin as a tool to scam their victims but the information spreading is Bitcoin itself is a scam which is wrong. This also happened here few years ago, a couple scam their many victims using ponzi scheme then they use Bitcoin as payment system to receive the money of the investors then they runaway with the money. The news are pointing Bitcoin as scam and not clarifying that Bitcoin is just a virtual currency and just use as tool.

This kind of misinformation can discourage people to engage themselves in Bitcoin thinking it's a scam. If you have no knowledge about it then you'll be convince that it's really the case. Hence, we need to do something to make it right through our own little way to help spread the truth behind this situation especially about Bitcoin.