zlacker

> That being said, calling these platforms "ponzis" isn't correct

I feel like "ponzi" has become the "magazine/clip" derailer of crypto discussions.

>>saalwe+(OP)
Some very smart people mistake being pedantic for being smart.

It's very easy to join a "conversation" by picking up a pedantic point. Compare that to arguing over the fundamentals which actually requires some knowledge and experience.

By being pedantic it's very easy to "win" an argument, you're entering with a position you consider factually correct.

It's not at all productive as you indicate, and actually harms more productive conversation by de-railing the conversation.

>>saalwe+(OP)
A ponzi is when an investment that supposedly produces a return actually pays the funds needed to deliver that return from new entrants to the scheme rather than productive enterprise.

Given that there’s literally no productive return-producing enterprise underpinning any of this it’s totally fine to consider the word ponzi at least loosely applicable to the entire concept of cryptocurrency as practiced.

>>CPLX+6f
By this definition most crypto wouldn‘t be a ponzi. E.g. bitcoin doesn‘t claim that funds are invested in productive entreprise. It is clear that it is only a value store (like gold). Whether it is any good at storing value long term, we will see.

>>daanlo+ZF
Bitcoin proponents definitely (for a time) claimed that it was Bitcoin's utility as a currency that gave it value in the first place. That everyone would need some because everyone would use it to transact. That's a claim of an inherent investment value that didn't actually exist, making Bitcoin exactly like a distributed Ponzi scheme.

>>spanka+XO
It was originally created to be a form of non-fiat democratized currency. It is exactly that even though it's not its most popular use which is as a store of value. I don't see how that makes it a Ponzi scheme. I buy things with it a few times per year and do my degenerate sports gambling with it all the time. It works within seconds for almost no cost.