https://unherd.com/thepost/is-crypto-just-one-big-ponzi-scheme/
This article ignores other potential benefits to crypto (that is, beyond a possible rise in price) and also ignores precious metals, which like crypto offer no interest payments or dividends but have other benefits. The article also ignores some of the possible RISKS of crypto (e.g., that the alleged security and privacy might be illusions, outright theft by an exchange, loss of a wallet or a password, etc). Metals also have risks (theft of physical metal for instance, including government confiscation, plus the added risk if one uses a third party to hold the metal).
There is nothing in life without risk; assessing risk and choosing which ones to take on are among the more important life skills.
Defining whether or not something is — or has become — a Ponzi scheme has been long forgotten; it involves working out if an investment’s underlying structure creates a negative-sum game. With regulated securities, such as stocks and bonds, investors receive a combination of interest payments, dividends, and cash flows, making these, at the very least, a zero-sum endeavour. With crypto, however, investors receive none of these, only benefiting from a potential rise in price — the so-called greater fool theory.
This disparity, among other things, has led many financial commentators to describe even the number one crypto, Bitcoin, as a negative-sum Ponzi scheme (one FT story suggested it was even ‘worse’ than that). If Bitcoin’s ecosystem collapses, funds can’t be returned to holders because its price going to zero means there’s nothing to recover. But with a Ponzi scheme, funds can be recovered and returned to investors. Following the collapse of the infamous Madoff Ponzi scheme, 14 out of 20 billion dollars initially invested have been recovered from offshore accounts.
For now, Bitcoin’s Ponzi status is irrelevant. Bankman-Fried has simply joined the increasing list of crypto’s nobility who’ve accidentally gloated about profiting from dubious financial structures. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, infamously likened Bitcoin to a pyramid scheme, despite how his company’s primary function is cryptocurrency investments. Meanwhile, outlets in the crypto media have also embraced Ponzinomics, like CoinDesk publishing an article with a lede reading: “Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme. But who cares?”
The problem with crypto is it has the value the public gives it. If it was only bitcoin and it really was a finite thing like gold... you can't just make more of it... then people could and would give it value thus it would be useful as currency. That isn't what's happening though. The moment people saw it could be used as a vehicle to make yourself rich EVERYONE AND HIS BROTHER PLUS HIS COUSIN made their own crypto. There is what like 10 that people respect and another 50-100 that no one gives a shit about? Explain to me how that is any different than the Federal Reserve printing money by pushing a button on a computer and POOF a bond is created... move it around and its money. SAME FUCKING THING.
In the end it needs control, but the moment someone takes control and limits the supply the person in power will just abuse it and print more only when they can benefit yada yada yada... same shit different decade, different technology.
Here is the simple test... are you rich if you have 50 zillion bitcoins... or are you rich if you've managed to convert those BC into US dollars/EU Euros at the right moment when the price is high??? Get it? The fiat currency has value and everyone knows it. BC is like stock in a company. Everyone knows at any moment a bad earnings report will cause it to crash. BC is just day trading for geeks.
The real problem is they are printing too much fiat currency and soon nothing will have value but gold, silver, and hard assets like land, food, etc. If fiat was stable and governments weren't going full tyrant BC would have 1/10th the value it does right now. When the governments complete full tyrant mode BC won't save you from them kicking in your door and shooting you. After they torture you to get your pass key to your BC wallet of course... and the safe combo for the gold... and the location of your secret stash buried in the woods. :)
I'll phase this another way... you're asking the wrong question. Of course crypto is a Ponzi scheme. The real question... is fiat currency a government run Ponzi scheme??? :)
Of course it is.