Bitcoin is a inherent Ponzi Scheme, please correct me if I'm wrong

[Bobtimus]

After figuring out how the mining works, that it becomes increasingly more difficult obtain, wouldn't that just cause the price to keep on increasing, like it will never stabilize and outside of the speculative fluctuations, the price will always continue to rise and the guys who set it up and invested early sit on an asset that will continually appreciate in value. The distribution won't ever be even and prices will never stabilize for it to be an viable currency for trade. So the guys who created bitcoin really made a Ponzi scheme for themselves as the price is always set to rise due to the increasing mining difficulty

[Meuh6879]

it's ponzi for noobs ... because they buy high (they trust) and sell low (they cry).
dumb not allowed.

[barbarousrelic]

After figuring out how the mining works, that it becomes increasingly more difficult obtain, wouldn't that just cause the price to keep on increasing, like it will never stabilize and outside of the speculative fluctuations, the price will always continue to rise and the guys who set it up and invested early sit on an asset that will continually appreciate in value. The distribution won't ever be even and prices will never stabilize for it to be an viable currency for trade. So the guys who created bitcoin really made a Ponzi scheme for themselves as the price is always set to rise due to the increasing mining difficulty

See the latter half of my signature.  Additionally, 'rising asset values' is also not the definition of a Ponzi or pyramid scheme.

Oil becomes increasingly difficult for drilling companies to obtain as the decades go by. Is oil a Ponzi scheme?

Also, "The guys who created bitcoin" don't own or create all new Bitcoins - they are created and distributed, essentially, in proportion to the amount of computing power contributed to the network, and anyone can contribute.

[JetLi]

There's real demand and use of Bitcoin, so it's not a ponzi.

[rz20]

Nobody is promising you anything, you buy bitcoins to use them. A ponzi scheme is based on giving a percentage each month based in your investment.

Bitcoin is based on supply and demand.

[BTCIndia]

It is naturally occuring ponzi scheme.

[Bobtimus]

Well yeah, it's not exactly a Ponzi scheme per se, but it is a lot like oil and other natural resources, but they're a resource and not a currency. It is quite a lot like a natural occurring Ponzi scheme though. I don't anyone has actually explained this yet, the core point I'm getting at is if the supply is inherently built to continually diminish, then wouldn't the price continually increase, and that in itself is can't sustain a stable currency and the people who invested early will never be at risk because their asset will be guaranteed to continually appreciate in value

[Lethn]

No, the supply isn't built to continually diminish, it's built to stay exactly the same, that's the whole point of a deflationary currency, if miners were allowed to infinitely create coins then we'd end up just like the dollar, why else do you think a Bitcoin is worth $500+ now? It isn't because Bitcoin is necessarily a valuable currency, it's because they've hyperinflated the dollar so much that it's so expensive to buy something like Bitcoin which is in limited supply.

As for buying early, yeah, so the fuck what? Of course they benefit more, because the people who are buying in early are taking the most risk, when you buy into something early you don't necessarily have any idea of what's going to happen in the next month never mind year and you have to live with the fact you might lose several hundred. This is reality, you don't have the government price fixing or the central banks artificially propping prices up to make people think what they're holding is worth as much as they've paid for, you have to do your research and make calculated decisions.

You, like many other people also need to look up what a ponzi scheme actually is because it's just complete bullshit when used in regards to Bitcoin.

[barbarousrelic]

Well yeah, it's not exactly a Ponzi scheme per se, but it is a lot like oil and other natural resources, but they're a resource and not a currency. It is quite a lot like a natural occurring Ponzi scheme though. I don't anyone has actually explained this yet, the core point I'm getting at is if the supply is inherently built to continually diminish, then wouldn't the price continually increase, and that in itself is can't sustain a stable currency and the people who invested early will never be at risk because their asset will be guaranteed to continually appreciate in value

Bitcoin has had very large drops in its price and this risk is still present.

The number of Bitcoins in existence never inherently decreases (though it will if people lose their Bitcoins), but the rate at which it increases will slow down over time.

That Bitcoin is supposedly guaranteed to increase in value over time, as you say, is a self-defeating prophecy. If anything is guaranteed to increase in value over time, people will speculate in it right now, which will drive up the price right now, which means it is already at the point where people expect it to be in the future. The role speculation plays in the value of Bitcoin thus dwarfs the effect of reductions in the rate of Bitcoin creation.

[BitcoinBarrel]

Definition of 'Ponzi Scheme' A fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. This scam actually yields the promised returns to earlier investors, as long as there are more new investors.

Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ponzischeme.asp

You could argue that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, but it does not promise anything to anyone. The only thing Bitcoin promises is an open source public ledger for transfer of value. If that were to fail then obviously Bitcoin would be worthless.

[V8x8d]

When I bought some Bitcoins they never came with a promise of future returns. The only criteria Bitcoin is missing to be money is to be seen as a long-term store of wealth (which isn't coming anytime soon).

[hannscryo]

There are tons of articles about bitcoin and Ponzi, the summary is: no it isn't.

[botany]

According to the World Bank, bitcoin is a naturally occurring ponzi scheme.

http://www.coindesk.com/world-bank-report-bitcoin-naturally-occurring-ponzi/

[Ayers]

no it isn't because is decentralized, mining also is still decentralized, the definition of a ponzi is different

[Syke]

if the supply is inherently built to continually diminish

Doesn't look like there's any diminishing...



Not a Ponzi. QED.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Bitcoin is a inherent Ponzi Scheme, please correct me if I'm wrong


its a "ponzi" like stocks, land, real estate, gold, oil and all other things too  

[barbarousrelic]

According to the World Bank, bitcoin is a naturally occurring ponzi scheme.

http://www.coindesk.com/world-bank-report-bitcoin-naturally-occurring-ponzi/

The problem stems from the fact that we can have what Robert Shiller calls ‘naturally occurring Ponzis’, that is, financial bubbles that form without the manipulator’s baton but from finished natural market forces and with one person’s expectations feeding into another’s,” says Basu.

The quote defines a "natrually occurring Ponzi" as a thing sold at market that forms a bubble. This could very well apply to Bitcoin, as Bitcoin has been in bubbles and may be in a bubble, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Ponzi schemes.

bubble != Ponzi.   "Ponzi" has become a catch-all term for "something financial that I don't understand but I'm still suspicious of." And such people are going way out of their way to fit the word "Ponzi" in here somewhere, even if it's completely unrecognizable from anything Charles Ponzi ever did.

[DannyHamilton]

According to the World Bank, bitcoin is a naturally occurring ponzi scheme.

http://www.coindesk.com/world-bank-report-bitcoin-naturally-occurring-ponzi/

According to that same article about the World Bank, real estate and gold are also "naturally occurring ponzi":

If people believe housing prices are bound to go up, they will “beg or borrow” to buy a house, thus creating more demand and contributing to prices spiralling out of control

Gold is another example, as it has witnessed numerous bubbles and crashes over the years. Basu notes that gold lost more value in two days of April 2014 than it did in thirty years

Of course in the exact same article the report states:

Basu stresses, however, that bitcoin is not a deliberate Ponzi and that there is little to to gain by treating it as such.

[BADecker]

If nothing else, the fact that Bitcoin is scheduled for a maximum of 21 million bitcoins, makes it not a Ponzi. It might be something similar, but it is definitely not a Ponzi.

[counter]

The market sets the price not the early adopters.  If you ask me I see the mining difficulty as a way to make the coin scarce and therefore more valuable.  The price has incentive to rise but this is not necessarily due to mining difficulty.   As opposed to fiat, where the value is diminished due to high supply and low demand and also no central entity controlling the currency..

 I've personally never heard of a Ponzi scheme that brings new revolutionary technology to the table, have you?