Then you have the "mining" companies selling shares of mining power, but those sometimes turn out to be pure frauds - no mining nor equipment. Those behave just like ponzis.
It is probably in the average person's best interest to avoid it all.
Similarly, now a large number of actual ponzi schemes have come up in this space (Bitconnect, Dekado, etc) and if you look at their websites it is very easy to tell (Dekado claims to use arbitrage buoyancy software to generate 1.5%+ return per day). The problem is logic doesn't apply here when your friend has made XYZ dollars in that coin. Greed gets the better of you and you invest knowing that it is not possible.
The real answer is the same with all investments: do your due diligence to know and understand what you are buying/investing in.
So skillfull...
Besides, let’s wait to heap laurels on investors until after the music stops.
Or replace gold with US dollars or tulips or Amazon.com stock or whatever.
How is this a Bitcoin issue?
Most of these scams have been done in the height of the penny stocks days, and the SEC has (or had in the past) put a lot of effort into protecting less saavy investors.
Lastly, I work for a client in this space. My client is doing a legit business, but we constantly deal with customers who have made and lost money in dozens of these ponzis over the last couple of years.
Not all cryptocurrencies. Only the ones with "intrinsic value". Just because I print pieces of paper in my basement, doesn't mean that there is an intrinsic value in them.
> It's too bad, since there actually are some interesting technologies beginning to come out of the cryptocurrency sphere
100% agree with this. There are some interesting ideas and technologies.
> What I suspect is that many startup types have sour grapes over how they could have made nearly as much money speculating on digital tokens as they did building their web or app business
I can only speak for myself: No. No sour grapes. Since day 1 I thought Bitcoin was a pyramid/Ponzi kind of scheme. I would never have taken part in such a system.
Basement paper doesn't have a guaranteed fixed supply.
So, how well do you actually understand it?
> No. No sour grapes. Since day 1 I thought Bitcoin was a pyramid/Ponzi kind of scheme. I would never have taken part in such a system.
The point of the paragraph was to show that it is not sour grapes as suggested.