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Comment by dundermuffl1n | Hacker News Reader

Seems like a narrow understanding of a ponzi scheme based on a particular execution of the concept.

I think Doge could still be correctly branded a ponzi scheme, since the returns for an investor is essentially tied to the number of suckers that buy into it after them. An early investor can take a "structured payout" by selling off the asset once the hype-cycle is creating more and more suckers who buy into the idea.

The fact that it was a joke has been diluted from the mass media, mostly due to irresponsible messaging by idiots like Elon.

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>>I think Doge could still be correctly branded a ponzi scheme, since the returns for an investor is essentially tied to the number of suckers that buy into it after them. An early investor can take a "structured payout" by selling off the asset once the hype-cycle is creating more and more suckers who buy into the idea.

The problem with this "definition" of a Ponzi scheme is that any transaction with a future payout directly or tangentially related to people buying into it qualifies. Homeownership is a Ponzi scheme. Employment is a Ponzi scheme. Software is a Ponzi scheme. Investing is a Ponzi scheme. Life itself is a Ponzi scheme. What GP is getting at is there should be a more specific definition that properly identifies the required element of fraud (as defined by the law) in a Ponzi scheme but doesn't demonize mass risk taking and losses that come with it. Very few people being l end up winners any endeavor. Loss alone doesn't make Dogecoin fraudulent anymore then it does the lottery.

"I think Doge could still be correctly branded a ponzi scheme"

No, the essential element of deception is absent. A Ponzi scheme involves deceiving investors. Doge isn't deceiving anyone. It's upsetting people, especially celebrity establishment types looking to make headlines, but that's not deception.

Naturally when the bubble pops the losers will claim they were deceived. They'll be fools and their claims will be specious but in a world where most 'problems' are self-inflicted they'll find an ample number of said celebrity establishment types to indulge that narrative and invent new regulators and criminalize more things...

Dreary is the word that comes to mind.

Does a Ponzi scheme necessarily need deception in order to be a Ponzi scheme?

Seems like the essential component is more that future returns come from past investors.

Paying off early investors with new sources of investment is legal and the difference between that and a Ponzi scheme is that it occurs transparently; the later investors presumably know what they're investing in. Just as they do with Doge. That is until they lose and employ people to help them pretend otherwise.

>I think Doge could still be correctly branded a ponzi scheme, since the returns for an investor is essentially tied to the number of suckers that buy into it after them

Is social security a ponzi scheme?

In the same exact sense the death penalty is murder. Kind of, but excused by state power.

Looks like dictionary writers have that covered. "murder" only covers unlawful killings by definition.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/murder

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/murder

You've literally defined every asset traded on an open market.

Seems like most of the responses ignore the fact that there's actual value creation in every other market, that is completely lacking with doge. It's a joke with no real-world utility.

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