Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond

by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar  · 19 Oct 2017  · 416pp  · 106,532 words

of their sovereign lives in default or rescheduling, never quite able to escape the early precedent that was set.9 The Bitcoin Ponzi Myth Criticisms of bitcoin and cryptoassets being Ponzi schemes have been circulating since bitcoin first hit investors’ radar screens.10 However, this criticism is deeply misinformed, and the World Bank has

Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts

by David Gerard  · 23 Jul 2017  · 309pp  · 54,839 words

same effort. Cashing in these early coins involves pumping up the price and then selling to later adopters, particularly during the bubbles. Thus, Bitcoin was not a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, but a pump-and-dump. Anyone who bought in after the earliest days is functionally the sucker in the relationship. “Why should

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a year later, in December 2012, it had risen to $13. (With minor wobbles such as the August 2012 crash when the Pirateat40 Ponzi scheme collapsed.) In this era, Bitcoin was largely evangelised by advocates for its hypothetical use cases and political possibilities. The actual use case was buying drugs on the Silk

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et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, No. 13-00416. [75] Jonathan Stempel. “Judge Awards $40.7 Million in SEC Case Over Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme”. Recode, 19 September 2014. [76] “Manhattan U.S. Attorney And FBI Assistant Director Announce Securities And Wire Fraud Charges Against Texas Man For Running

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Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme”. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York (press release), 6 November 2014. [77] Nate Raymond. “Texan gets one-and-

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a-half years in prison for running bitcoin Ponzi scheme”. Reuters, 21 July 2016. [78] Justin O’Connell. “Lawyer Reveals Details About the Man Behind Bitcoin’s $4.5 Million Ponzi Scheme”. Motherboard, 18 December 2015. [79] Wikipedia: Dunning-Kruger effect. From which another name for bitcoins

The Social Life of Money

by Nigel Dodd  · 14 May 2014  · 700pp  · 201,953 words

to be hoarded. This phenomenon prompted some critics to liken the currency to a Ponzi scheme. The comparison seems flawed: unlike entrants to a Ponzi scheme, holders of Bitcoins are not—per se—victims of fraud. But according to Eric Posner, Bitcoin “investors” are likely to suffer the same fate: “Bitcoin will collapse

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can’t survive as a currency because of its built-in deflationary features, or because of the emergence of bytecoins, or both. A real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; Bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion.”36 Viewed simply as a currency, Bitcoin’s biggest pitfall is likely to be price deflation

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first time in March 2013. 36 See Slate, “Fool’s Gold,” http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2013/04/bitcoin_is_a_ponzi_scheme_the_internet_currency_will_collapse.html. 37 “Bitcoin Is No Great Mystery,” see http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.ie/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-great-mystery

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

by Zeke Faux  · 11 Sep 2023  · 385pp  · 106,848 words

, 175, 176–179, 185, 213–214 Vicky Ho scam, 173, 175 Pindling, Lynden, 77 Pixelmon, 143 Platinum Partners, 72 Poland, 62 pollution produced by Bitcoin, 20 Poloniex, 52 Ponzi schemes, 45, 162–163, 165, 166, 226, 238. See also Celsius Network; Mashinsky, Alex; Tether Pope, Alexander, 50 Potter, Phil banks and Tether, 52

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption

by Ben Mezrich  · 20 May 2019  · 304pp  · 91,566 words

here to stay.” We’re in the early days.’ ” “Nice,” Tyler agreed. “The haters can take that and stuff it where it belongs.” Calling Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme, or equating it to the Dutch tulip bubble of the seventeenth century, were favorite criticisms of the virtual currency. They would never deny there were

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of transactions. But Cameron was making the point that Bitcoin wasn’t just another fad like tulips, or Beanie Babies, or Tamagotchi pets. And a Ponzi scheme—Bitcoin was the opposite. Either everyone prospered, or everyone fell—together. In a funny way, since Cyprus, Bitcoin was becoming too popular for its own good

The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order

by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey  · 27 Jan 2015  · 457pp  · 128,838 words

initial “honeypot sting” on Silk Road. A month later, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Trendon Shavers, a Texan accused of running a bitcoin Ponzi scheme under the moniker pirateat40. That the Feds were now taking bitcoin seriously was an alarming yet exhilarating proposition for bitcoiners, who were divided between those

The Bitcoin Guidebook: How to Obtain, Invest, and Spend the World's First Decentralized Cryptocurrency

by Ian Demartino  · 2 Feb 2016  · 296pp  · 86,610 words

scam is a bit more complex and tougher to recognize. The important principle to keep in mind is that if it smells like a Ponzi scheme, it likely is. Bitcoin doesn’t change that. Companies will offer a service, often using “cloud mining” (i.e., they will mine for you and you will

Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

by Nathaniel Popper  · 18 May 2015  · 387pp  · 112,868 words

account, 64 WikiLeaks blockade, 57 Paysius, 174 PC World, 57 People’s Bank of China, 273–275 Pidgin (chat service), 246 Pirate Party, 35, 333 Ponzi scheme, Bitcoin as, 220 pornography, 72, 112, 117, 126, 234 Powell, Jesse, 94–96, 103, 105, 127–128, 139, 252, 315, 337 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), 10

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy

by George Gilder  · 16 Jul 2018  · 332pp  · 93,672 words

even writing code, they provided the model for close to 1,500 blockchain companies over the subsequent five years. In response to my question about bitcoin-as-Ponzi-scheme, Demeester sneered, “If it were a Ponzi it would crash when it was discredited by setbacks. Bitcoin has endured continual frauds and flareouts and

The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto

by Benjamin Wallace  · 18 Mar 2025  · 431pp  · 116,274 words

to properly understand Bitcoin before posting. Later, Ben elaborated on his critique of Bitcoin. He thought proof of work was an environmental travesty and Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme. He argued that a decentralized currency would always be impossible because any network that didn’t have at least 50 percent of all existing computing

Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley

by Corey Pein  · 23 Apr 2018  · 282pp  · 81,873 words

Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

by Andy Greenberg  · 15 Nov 2022  · 494pp  · 121,217 words