I am the victim of a Ponzi Scheme - what looked like a modest conservative investment was a lie, a Ponzi scheme where payout came from money put into the fraudulent company by new investors rather than payout coming from investment returns. One of the two thieves died and the other is headed to prison. A long and tedious legal process will return some of my money back, for which I am grateful.
Now I am reading that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are being compared to Ponzi schemes. They seem to be based on the greater fool principle, get in early and others jump in expecting huge profits because they see earlier folks making huge profits, but the profits are not based on anything other than expectations of more investors (fools). Like a Ponzi scheme all the money comes from new investors, and is based on no actual assets. The early ”investors” profit mightily, the rest...well good luck... And if I understand correctly, unlike a Ponzi criminal the cryptocurrency profiteers can’t be tracked down to recover any money.
I have written earlier that I thought Bitcoin and cryptocurrency had three fatal flaws - they devastate the environment because they use astonishing levels of power for their massive computer arrays, and they are favored by criminals who can hide and launder fortunes because of no financial oversight, and financial folks warned that they were like the exotic Credit Default Swaps that collapsed and almost completely destroyed the world wide financial system. Now I add the warning from some that they are like a Ponzi scheme looking for Greater Fools to enrich the early swindlers.
