Topic: Is cryptocurrency a financial pyramid (Read 546 times)

For some reason the link to Quora you posted doesn't work/exist, anyway just based on the title of your thread I want to point out that there is a big difference when we talk about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies: bitcoin is a cryptocurrencies but the cryptocurrencies are not bitcoin, and that is the most important thing. Many cryptocurrencies are scam, bitcoin is not. All cryptocurrencies are centralized, bitcoin is not. We always have to specify what we're talking about.

I don’t seem to understand where the pyramidal nature to cryptocurrency or Bitcoin comes in here but, I don’t subscribe to the idea of it having a pyramidal nature to it.
Pyramid schemes simply refers to a bottle neck system where we have a thick layer at the bottom which continues to accumulate in other to push those at the apex upwards and they continue to archive more for even less work.

This don’t seem to be the case for cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin or perhaps I don’t get you for real.

Fiat or paper money and even the virtual CBDC or Stablecoins just stands as a unit of measure and nothing more. There availability or lack simply defines an investors buying power and not necessarily have an effect on demand and supply.

that's the misconception of a lot of noncrypto users. but once they educate themselves, they will surely change their perspective towards this market. i guess, people should just learn a lil bit about this market and they won't have such notion.
with this market, you can invest independently and you don't need anyone to recruit you or of that sort, who will benefit from your investments. that alone, won't qualify under the pyramid type of investment. here, you can invest at any time at your own accord without bothering anyone.

The demand and supply is like a chain they both work hand in hand to affect the price of any coin. If there is a high demand and high supply the price may not be influenced that much there has to be a high demand and a lower supply to the demand for the price to go up and vice versa for the price to go down.
And OP speaking of financial pyramid, I think you should be more elaborate because it's hardly relate to the body of the post. Bitcoin is a digital asset but some schemes has found a way to take the interest of people to the scam called Ponzi or pyramid scheme.
https://cointelegraph.com/explained/ponzi-vs-pyramid-schemes-whats-the-difference

Thank you for bringing this to the forum. In my own opinion considering what a financial pyramid scheme is all about cryptocurrency particularly bitcoin does not fit into this definition. My little understanding of what the financial pyramid scheme is about is that when you invest in Bitcoin you are required to recruit to other persons whose investment in Bitcoin would give you a certain commission and they are required to recruit two more persons and the pyramid keeps growing and growing.

 
In Bitcoin once you invest in it you do not need to recruit anybody. And even if someone is interested in Bitcoin and invest in Bitcoin there is no commission that is accrued to you. All you need to do is you have the option of holding or trading. This doesn't sound like a financial pyramid scheme to me.

Crypto? In most cases I agree, it's a financial pyramid, a Ponzi scheme. But, with one exception, namely Bitcoin. Unlike other crypto, Bitcoin has no owners, no stakeholders, just a creator, Satoshi, who is not trying to influence his creation in any way. Satoshi owns approximately 1.000.000 coins but none of them have been spent so far and there are no signs this is going to happen in the nearest future.

Yes, I agree with you, usually new projects or tokens that appear promise a profit to an investor, usually they add that for those who invite someone to invest in it, that person gets a coin in return. Yes indeed, not many countries legalize it as payment in their country, only a few countries have fully legalized it like El Salvador, if Bitcoin is accepted by all parts of the continent I think this will be a very valuable asset, and can carry out a purchase transaction. product. Yes, Bitcoin is not part of a pyramid scheme or series, Bitcoin is not led by its leader, namely Satoshi, Satoshi is only fighting against world finance (Fiat), it is from the community that it develops naturally, the concept given by Bitcoin is not regulated by regulations. anybody

Even Bitcoin is not free from this manipulation too, let me start from the adapters, how many people are using decentralized exchange to trade their Bitcoin? They are not much compare to those that entrust their Bitcoin to centralized exchanges, I know manipulation is far from Bitcoin blockchain itself but how people buy Bitcoin is not safe from manipulation, centralized exchanges are easily manipulated and control.

Also till this day, news still effectively affects Bitcoin, either good or bad, and since these news are coming from a centralized empire or world, that's still control to me, I just wish that a true decentralized way of acquiring Bitcoin is available and all people abandon Centralized exchange, because this is the way it was supposed to be, but people are doing it all wrong with Bitcoin.

If truly people understands Bitcoin, no one will dare use centralized exchange to trade Bitcoin because it just doesn't fits in, with what Bitcoin was created for, so my friend, Bitcoin been decentralized doesn't make it completely safe from power and control from the law and the manipulators.

Since you talked about discussing cryptocurrencies, we know that between altcoin and it. We have seen a lot of shitcoins pumping out huge amounts in the past and people treating it as a financial pyramid. All of these sheetcoins provide the most return, when you invest in a project it will be a proprietary coin, and they can manipulate the value of their coins if they want. And altcoins are never like bitcoins, altcoins are centralized currency, and bitcoin is decentralized. Moreover there is no central organization to control bitcoin and no one can control bitcoin, while altcoins have central organization and they can control their coins.

Maybe there is a similarity, but I think it's probably only around 10% because the pyramid scheme has investors who invest, and then in order for them to make a profit, they need to attract investors like them in order for them to make a profit because if they don't do that, they don't have anything to make money, and most of the time, this style is always high-risk.

Here in cryptocurrency, there are also investors who buy assets that they think can give a profit to the market if they hold them for a long time, even though they are not encouraging people to invest in crypto. In short, in pyramiding schemes, the earnings are based on recruitment, while in cryptocurrency, it is not like that.

In my opinion, I do agree that some cryptocurrency are a pyramid scheme, but not all of it. I only consider cryptocurrency that has a useless product, as a pyramid scheme. I think what make a project a pyramid scheme is where the product doesn't really solve any problem, the only people buying it are speculators who wish to re-sell it with higher value to other speculators, none of the buyers actually using the product.

While Bitcoin in nowadays case, people are actually buying it to do a transaction. Not everyone buying Bitcoin only to speculate, most of them buying bitcoin so they can do international transaction, with much less fee, and in less controlled environment. This factor alone already prove that Bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme.

As Coinremitter, a crypto payment gateway, I can assure you that cryptocurrency itself is not a financial pyramid. Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that use cryptography for security and operate on decentralized blockchain technology. They have a legitimate and valuable use case as digital currencies, digital assets, and decentralized applications (DApps).

However, it is essential to be cautious when dealing with certain cryptocurrency projects, especially those that promise high returns or operate in a way that resembles a pyramid scheme. There have been instances of fraudulent projects in the crypto space, and it's crucial for users to conduct thorough research and exercise caution when investing or participating in any crypto-related activities.

https://coinremitter.com/?utm_source=com&utm_medium=bitcointalks is committed to providing a secure and reliable payment gateway service for cryptocurrencies, helping businesses and individuals accept digital payments easily and securely. We encourage responsible and informed use of cryptocurrencies, always emphasizing the importance of due diligence and understanding the projects and assets you choose to engage with.

The modern economic system is akin to a pyramid scheme, when you really think about it. A lot of the value from labor at the bottom gets filtered up to the top. This keeps worsening with inflation to where it's more and more difficult for (even intelligent) people to save and move up. Now, that isn't nearly as bad as medieval times where you had a king and lords who would take all excess value to the point of near-starvation or worse. (Unfortunately in parts of the world it's still that bad, but seemingly improving!)

The world seems to have gradually improved for most as time goes on, overall. It will be interesting to see how the next technological boom affects that trend. A lot of new technologies are being built that allow for individuals to have more power than they otherwise would have to control their destiny, but typically corporations and governments, elitists etc try to keep them to themselves as much as possible, and we're already seeing that with the thought of government licensing for AI's. I wonder if we are headed towards some odd UBI-based future where the economy is largely circular and people's economic positions will be more determined by nepotism due to further concentration of power.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Bitcoin and CBDC's. Bitcoin's hard cap is likely what opens it up to people trying to refer to it as something pyramid-scheme like, due to early adopters being more rewarded than latecomers. However, that doesn't really fit the definition of a pyramid scheme at all, you'd have to say that people deciding to trade with gold was a pyramid scheme a long time ago, too. The way Bitcoin functions is more like a limited natural resource than some kind of organized scam. If you found a gold mine early and decided to learn how to mine it, spent time, energy and money to set up shop and work on mining it for yourself before others saw the value of it, you're not taking advantage of others, you saw an opportunity and leaned into it.

Edit: Fixed a word.

Cryptocurrencies are mostly a speculative asset, often having some application, not a financial pyramid. A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of future payments. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit. In the crypotcurrency market, we make our own decisions when we want to buy and sell our assets. We cannot call the laws of supply and demand a pyramid scheme.

I am still unsure about the meaning of financial pyramid. The Quora link shows error, so can't do any research based on that article too. But I searched on Google, and it tells me that it's the same as pyramid scheme. It is only possible other cryptocurrency, but Bitcoin is not effected by this. This happens with newly created projects where they do not provide what they promise and through ICOs they collect money from other and when the coin pumps, they sell all their own holdings to scam people. Another way they do it is they put their own money to artificially pump the price to lure people into investing in their project and when the price pumped enough, they sell their holdings creating a pyramid scheme.
Yes, cryptocurrencies are sometime effected by this, but not every time. Centralized coins fall into these categories the most. But if you choose the decentralized one, you are good here.

You gave an interesting answer in your own way to OP's tricky question, which allowed me to look at the accusations of bitcoin in the pyramid scheme from a different angle.

Indeed, the investment model (precisely what prompts many to compare it with a pyramid scheme) was not initially incorporated into bitcoin at all (there is not a single word about this in the white paper). This is something that users themselves brought to btc themselves. You correctly emphasize that btc is decentralized electronic money and this is the main function.

One of the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme is the presence of a founder of that scheme who is the main beneficiary of the whole scheme. Bitcoin no longer has a founder and has had no influence for many years, as you know. Management, so to speak, is also decentralized and all decisions in the bitcoin network are not made by one person, but by the BTC-community. That is, this is another fact that bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme.

In general, if you read the comments in this thread, then there are much more facts / signs that bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme (if there is any evidence to the contrary).

Actually crypto currency is not a form of financial pyramiding. It is a digital asset that operates independently. There are instances where crypto currency has been used in a pyramid schemes, where individuals are promised with high returns on their investments, but the returns paid out using funds from new investors rather than from actual profit. That kind of scheme is illegal and can result to financial losses for those who are involved. It is important to do thorough research before investing in any type of crypto currency or investment opportunity, and to be wary of promises of high returns with little effort or risk.

Correct, a Ponzi scheme has a few people behind which promise incredibly high profits to anyone which invest with them, then they use part of that money to pay early investors until the whole thing explodes and everyone realizes they were scammed.

Satoshi never promised any kind of returns by investing in bitcoin, in fact he was very open about the possibility of bitcoin not succeeding, and each person decided on their own to invest in bitcoin despite the lack of guarantees given, so it is obvious bitcoin is not a financial pyramid.

All financial pyramids collapse sooner or later. Bitcoin is here since 2009 and it won't be collapsing anytime soon.
There are other scarce resources and assets with limited supply and unstable demand. Does that mean that they are a financial pyramid as well? According to this dumb logic, gold and diamonds can also be considered a financial pyramid.
There are differences between a financial pyramid(ponzi scheme) and a pump&dump shitcoin scam. Those differences have been mentioned multiple times on the forum years ago. Just search for the old forum threads about this topic.
 

In short, you are trying to blame altcoins without questioning why there are scam altcoins. All because of investor greed, if you are not greedy and do not want to get rich quickly, no one can scam you. Your blaming of altcoins is like the government blaming bitcoin because it is used by criminals, and they say bitcoin is involved in crime. You don't profit from altcoins, and you hate them?

You talked about the popularity of Bitcoin. Bitcoin has come a long way in terms of popularity. On a yearly basis, it can be seen that every year the popularity of Bitcoin has gradually increased compared to the previous years. People are now using this Bitcoin as one of the means of investment. We can call Bitcoin a financial pyramid to some people who are involved in investing in Bitcoin and to those who are successful in investing, Bitcoin is a financial pyramid. Those who invest in the right way will be able to take this financial pyramid much higher. Because investing in the right way will increase the amount of money.

Because they thought Bitcoin is like a stock or any scheme that "get rich quick" scheme or a pyramid where early people will be the only ones who will benefit.
The pyramid scheme is a fraud where investors are promised high returns, whereas on Bitcoin, no one will know what will be the return just in case you buy and treat it as an investment.
The pyramid scheme pays existing investors from new investors, which on Bitcoin, we don't have any of this.

These people don't know how Bitcoin really works besides treating it as an investment.

Do you mean a pyramid scheme? Because that word sounds like an outright scam.

I think people need to understand how Bitcoin actually works because not everyone treats it the same way. Let me give you an example. If I use Bitcoin for gambling purposes only, that means I would not care about its investment value. So, my point here is that every user has a different definition of Bitcoin, and I can assure you it's not a pyramid scheme or a scam. The system is built to be decentralized for transaction purposes, and investment is just secondary.

I never really considered the presence of a pyramid scheme in relation to Bitcoin, as the two are entirely unrelated. However, in the realm of altcoins, which have the freedom to implement their own business models, such schemes seem to be more prevalent. Hence, it is highly likely that the association of pyramid systems with cryptocurrencies stems from altcoins.

The cryptocurrency landscape bears more blemishes caused by altcoins and their developers. Numerous altcoin projects have ended up being scams, with the number of victims growing by the day. This is why cryptocurrencies are often viewed negatively in various circles.

It has been an argument for many years about Bitcoin being a financial pyramid scheme.  Before we think of that we should look at the nature of Bitcoin and the definition of the financial pyramid.  In financial pyramid there is a centralized authority that encourages pioneers to recruit people then those that are recruited are also require to recruit people which is not the case in Bitcoin economy.  Bitcoin has a free market and those who engage with it are not required to recruit new people in order to earn.  Bitcoin is trading in an open market and the price is dictated by supply and demand while a financial pyramid scheme is dictated by the rule created by its founder.  Also in pyramid scheme, founder and pioneers earn by taking cut on the money of new investors which is also not the case in Bitcoin.  The pyramid scheme's system collapse when there is no new recruits while Bitcoin market will survive because of the  real life use case of Bitcoin which often creates demand on its market again and again.

Some cryptocurrency goes on that path but obviously Bitcoin does not.

Haha everybody knows a ponzi scheme should have a person or a group who benefit from it and eventually run away with the funds of unsuspecting participants. So tell me now does Bitcoin look like a ponzi to you? 

It would be helpful if you posted the Quora thread that you came across but I can tell you first hand that believing most things written inside of Quora is typically not a great idea.  There's so much nonsense written on Quora isn't not even funny.  Remember its just like reddit, nothing is fact checked, it's just a bunch of opinions. 

Sure some crypto coins are pyramid schemes, but many are not.

Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency can not be referred to as a pyramid simply because of the features you mentioned in your post and also connecting Bitcoin to a pyramid shows that you still lack the basic knowledge of Bitcoin or the cryptocurrency industry.


There is no doubt the fact that there are some cheat coins in the name of the cryptocurrency that are pouring Ponzi schemes maybe those are the ones that fall into the category you pyramid, but Bitcoin and other coins have the true features of a cryptocurrency have a chain that runs the demand to balance with the supply to produce a value that makes for the overall liquidity.

The technology of a distributed registry and rewards for those who mine bitcoins and dynamic rewards simply cannot technically be a pyramid scheme.

Half of altair projects that promise the largest holders of their coins rewards can be attributed to financial pyramids. They provoke holders to buy more of their tokens, because they know that if they start selling it, panic will begin.
And tokens will cost $ 0, which usually happens sooner or later with scam projects.

Cryptocurrency is not design as a network marketing, but rather is an online digital assets which one can buy and sell as people demand, in other words cryptocurrency is another means of payment online as well normal used our local currency to purchase good's and services as well. Therefore cryptocurrency is not a pyramid scheme.

Cryptocurrency is not a pyramid scheme; rather, it involves the circulation of money. If you search for the definition of a pyramid scheme on Google, you'll find a straightforward answer. However, in the case of cryptocurrencies, money constantly changes hands, indicating a circulation of funds. Trading occurs regularly, with individuals selling and others accumulating assets. Profits are made based on market demands and the resulting volatility. Therefore, it is clear that cryptocurrency does not align with the characteristics of a pyramid scheme.

Agreed,

But, Inherently, cryptocurrency is not a financial pyramid scheme . Using cryptography, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin operate on decentralized networks. In addition to being a medium of exchange, they can also be used as a store of value, okay?

Yes, the fact remains that there have been instances of fraudulent schemes involving cryptocurrencies. In such schemes, investors are deceived and false promises are made about high returns due to the decentralized and speculative nature of cryptocurrencies . It's so sad, Ponzi or pyramid schemes are frequently used to deceive investors.

Your link does not contain any article i think Quora has removed it, So i am still confused about which Pyramid are you talking about. Because there are 2 pyramids in financial one is related to Pyramid Schemes and the other relates to the Layer of the Pyramid indicating the financial system's role in this world and how it manipulates us. So, after reading some replies i think it relates to Pyramid Schemes.

Well, pyramid schemes are what? urging or convincing others to put their assets into a commodity, assets, company, etc. so that those things could bring you more money but what happens in this scheme is they rob you. And you are afraid that as money is no wonder being manipulated by those who own the most. How or in what conditions, money will stop circulation it's the rule of life "which is to get services and goods in exchange for services or goods or by using other valuable (equally) things (like money). Here, we are not concerned with the type of money (either paper or hard money).

The point is, there will be a need of goods and services for everyone and it will never stop until people are growing and improving their lives. For example, if i want to make an affiliate website, i can not handle all the work singly handed. I do need a website developer, graphic designer, content manager, content writer, Off-page SEO expert, Social manager, keyword Researcher. I can only do one or two works here but to do other i need people who have those skills and in return of their services i have to give them something valuable like money. So it's means money is being circulated. And if money is circulating then people will not leave it because it has become a need in our life.

Cryptocurrency is a industry with around 23,000 coins and tokens. I think it's pretty inaccurate to claim every products offered by this industry are ponzi schemes. There are professionals working on this field for several years already, trying to create practical solutions for common individuals around the world, through the development of technology and innovation. We have principles ruling many of these coins, which aim to offer alternatives to the traditional centralized financial systems from our countries.

If it was all about a Ponzi, first of all I don't think the industry would be alive for 14 years so far. Moreover, there wouldn't be so much effort from those professionals mentioned above on their duties, because the main characteristic of a Ponzi is the lack of a real product and activity behind the project. Besides the fact here are many wealthy entrepreneurs and economists endorsing cryptocurrencies (mainly Bitcoin).

On the other hand, we can't deny the fact there are indeed cryptocurrencies created with the sole purpose of scamming investors. They are the called 'pump and dump' schemes which indeed use the Ponzi scheme's technique. Avoid them at all costs!

You did a great jone with tour article and I believe  it must have taken a hell of time to out that together.
I personally tried checking the news and link but I think it has been taken down and I'm so sorry about that and I tried recording the link but it seems difficult  copying links from Quora most times.


You're right mate and I think these things truly have values because we placed and added those values to them and I don't think Bitcoin  is exempted.
One of the major reasons from my perspective why bitcoin  keeps coming up after a bear is as a result of most bitcoin believers who always seize the opportunity  of the bear to accumulate more of bitcoin  giving it more hope.
I was at some point thinking  of the possibility  of bitcoin  crashing  is everyone has to sell their hodlings without  anyone wanting to buy.
I don't know of miners but whats the essence of  mining when no one wants to buy?

If they increase supply, they are no different than any other alt coin. What's more beneficial in this industry is to have more people to adapt and they will be the ones not only to broadcast influence but also to increase demand that makes bitcoin more limited, which means that the value will further increase. We are all drawn from the mentality of exclusivity, this is also why people wanted to acquire things which are not common to other people. They wanted the feeling of anything that isn't achievable by anyone. What our economy needed is advertisement, but at the same time we also didn't want to be desperate enough to beg for others to adapt.

There has been discussion about this plan before. But there is no evidence that Bitcoin needs more supply to rise. I don't think such a thing is true. When the time comes, bitcoin, whose supply is limited, will set the price and rise without needing any supply. One of the problems we will face will be the increase in transfer fees. We already know the reasons for this. It will be easier to progress when this is prevented. The real question is how long these price increases will continue. I said that there will be an increase in price without the need for supply, but we can think of the supply here as too much supply. I don't think this will be needed.

The article posted by OP is already gone, so either it got flagged, or the author decided to withdraw.
People were calling bitcoin a ponzi scheme for years, but it's pretty easy to prove them wrong. A ponzi scheme needs a designer who profits from the scam. With bitcoin there's no such person, but the supporters of the theory came up with another angle, that all the early adopters are the perpetrators. Again this is pretty dumb, because how could more than a thousand people who bought bitcoin in 2010 work together to sell the idea to the rest of the world, to later profit from it. It's more of a conspiracy theory than a real thing.

Ok, so let's say the first 100 people were working together. Satoshi never sold his coins, even though he would've been one of the richest people in the world. Hal Finney did not profit from it, so who were the perpetrators? If Laszlo was willing to spend a lot of bitcoin just to prove that he could buy something, maybe the deal was not to scam people but to prove that trading with a decentralized currency can be done?

What's going to happen when bitcoin reaches its 20 year anniversary? Will idiots still think that there's someone pulling the strings? A designer of the scheme who's waiting to finally sell his bitcoin and become a multibillionaire, after 20 years of waiting in the shadows? What's the limit? 12 years? 15? 25? How long would you wait?

Diamonds are expensive because people said so, backed the value, and urged people that it is valuable. So is gold, but the difference is it has a pretty solid use case beyond just looking nice. Dollars are the same, they were once backed by gold but after that they basically just said "Trust us, we're this valuable please" and the people bought that notion. All I'm saying is, if bitcoin, something that follows the flow of events as these commodities and valuable assets, are considered by some to be pyramid, ponzi, whatever the fuck they call it nowadays, then might as well call everything that humanity thought to be valuable up to this point as a scam you know? Cause what's stopping everyone really from crashing the price of those aforementioned assets but the holdings of the ones at the top? Soon as those mfs sold their holdings everyone's gonna be scrambling to sell theirs too to save value. Isn't that the same thing as a ponzi?

You are talking about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin as if its the same thing. But there are thousands of cryptocurrencies and only one Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is different from all of them because it has developers who actually develop it, while for altcoin developers their coin is just a way to make millions quick.

Altcoins have some similarities with ponzi schemes. They promise to eventually deliver some working product that will be popular, but they don't plan to actually do that. And the profit of early "investors" comes from the investment of late investors, who get burned when there's no more new investors. And the people who profit the most are the creators of a coin who own a large part of the pre-mined supply.

So, most cryptocurrencies can be loosely described as decentralized ponzi schemes.

     I understand the perspective you're sharing about the circulation of money and its impact on the price of Bitcoin. It's true that the demand for Bitcoin can increase when there is more money available for people to spend. However, it's important to note that the value of Bitcoin is also influenced by various other factors such as market sentiment, technological advancements, regulatory developments, and overall market conditions.

     Regarding your question about whether cryptocurrency is a financial pyramid, it's essential to differentiate between legitimate cryptocurrencies and fraudulent schemes. While there have been instances of scams and pyramid schemes in the cryptocurrency space, it would be incorrect to label the entire industry as such. Many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, have a genuine use case and are backed by a decentralized network and technology.

I didn't find the news, but maybe - in some cases justifiable especially about some altcoin projects. Of course I would never agree with them when they say bitcoin is a pyramid scheme even though I admit that early investors have made huge returns.

Please read this and I have made assumptions about it in the past: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/myth-vs-facts-and-my-assumptions-about-bitcoin-5382044

It is either way I think Bitcoin is not getting or getting more scarce is dependent on the available supply to meet the demand.  Even with fewer Bitcoin in circulation if there is no demand for it, it won't be called scarce. 

We can compare an example of Bitcoin being 100% mined and lots of wallets with funds lost but it is fully available in the market and is selling at a stable price, this scenario does not show Bitcoin scarcity.  While in a scenario where Bitcoin is not yet fully mined and there is a supply of coins every 10 minutes but the demand outweighs the supply creating a shortage of Bitcoin that makes the price surge, then we can say that there is scarcity in that scenario due to shortage and more demand.

So shortage is the determining factor of scarcity. Demands outweigh the supply.

No you didn't, you said it clearly in the first line:


You mentioned investing and rising in price 7 times but not once you said anything about existing!


Again wrong, the supply is not getting scarcer, the supply grows, today we have 900 freshly minted coins that are added to the circulating supply, what you tried to say is the rate at which the supply is growing is going down.
For the supply to get scarcer you would need to destroy each day more coins than are getting minted.

What I meant to say is Bitcoin doesn’t need a new person to enter the system for it to be sustained. It does need demand continuously to exist and survive, but it doesn’t require a continuous loop of more investment today than yesterday to exist. Most “Bitcoin is a pyramid” theories come from the presumption that without a new investor tomorrow, Bitcoin dies. It doesn’t. It can live without new “victims”.

When I said others would continue buying too I was talking about others who already are Bitcoin investors. I meant to say there’ll be demand even if the price doubles because we all get it, the supply is just getting scarcer. Remember I said BTC doesn’t need increasingly higher demand to exist. Because typically, pyramid schemes need more money today than yesterday, more investors today than yesterday etc until they finally can’t do it anymore. To me BTC is just in no way close to the definition of a pyramid..

This what I see from the link you provided 👇

But by the way, if money seized to flow, every other things be a business, currency and others will be greatly affected. Because at that time the demand of bitcoin will be very slow. So the supply will be be slow as well. Then inflation be low in some areas and high in the other areas. Why inflation will be low because the turn out to buy commodities will be less so the demand will low and the supply will be high. And why other places will be high is the sense that those who has the limited funds in their possession will use it to buy things with and high price.  Bitcoin the s not yet a pyramid.

You are right, that bitcoin will definitely increase in price, when there are many requests from people who will invest. But that doesn't mean that the amount of money in circulation will make bitcoin prices rise.

Indeed, this will certainly affect the price of bitcoin, but it will not have too much of an effect. Because it doesn't mean that a lot of money will have a big effect on the price of bitcoin. Even though a lot of money has been circulated around the world, in every country, it doesn't mean that people who have money will directly buy bitcoins. Because everyone must have what is called the necessities of life, so surely people will prioritize their needs first. Even bitcoin investors, I think, will definitely prioritize their needs first. Moreover, people who don't know bitcoin, are definitely most likely not to buy bitcoin.

So it's best not to make a benchmark, that with lots of money circulating in the world, it will make bitcoin prices rise, things like that won't be guaranteed.

     -   What do you understand by financial pyramid mate? As far as I know, crypto mostly uses decentralized control unlike centralized banking systems. Apart from this it is a digital currency that also uses cryptography for security.

It is also difficult to counterfeit because of its security feature. Now in the financial pyramid it is a deceptive investment that is often used by exploitative people in their strategy who make promises of high returns, while cryptocurrency is not inherently fraudulent.

To be precise the increase of money does not necessary means there is an increase in bitcoin adoption.  There should be a meeting factor in order to say that there is a bitcoin adoption.  Although money is needed to invest in bitcoin market, it is necessary to have interest and acceptance.  So Bitcoin adoption will happen if people accept Bitcoin and put money on it.  In short to have more money to be injected on Bitcoin market, we need to attract more people to participate in Bitcoin economy.


Cryptocurrency is an open market, so there is no company that dictates the prices, the market moves according to the adoption so if we consider cryptocurrency being a financial pyramid then the whole markets can be consider as financial pyramid too.

Let's start with what a financial pyramid is, and here I'm relying on my understanding plus Investopedia. A financial pyramid is a centralized project where those closer to the top can benefit by taking the money of those below them. It relies on promising unrealistic returns, and people who fall for it become the victims. It eventually collapses when no new victims (or not enough new victims) are found.
Bitcoin is decentralized, not a company, not recruiting anyone. When the price goes up, all investors benefit equally (if it's a 10% rise, it's a 10% rise for everyone). I don't think that new investors are necessary for the price to go up, even though it generally helps. More demand can be generated within a given number of users, and an increase of users doesn't directly lead to an increased price.
'Cryptocurrency' is a very general term, too broad. Some crypto projects may be scams, perhaps even built as financial pyramids. But it doesn't make the whole market or a concept of cryptocurrency a pyramid in any way.

In the highlighted sentence, instead of the word Bitcoin, put the words Shares, Securities, and so on, and then you will see that little will change (actually, nothing will change). The same principles work in the traditional stock market, but for some reason no one shouts that this is a pyramid scheme, right.

And if you take the banking sector. Any bank. Investors together bring money to a bank, for example, silicon valley bank (all coincidences are random). At one point, panic begins and investors begin to take their money back. As a result, there will not be enough money for everyone, but only for those who first thought to take the money. The last investors are left with nothing. Isn't that like a pyramid?

What am I talking about? And besides, structurally, the work of bitcoin is almost no different from traditional financial instruments, and therefore, it is ridiculous for me to hear such accusations against bitcoin that it is a pyramid scheme. If their are have the courage to call bitcoin a pyramid, then let them call the entire stock market a pyramid too.

You have just described the growing demand!
And no, as with any other thing out there, be it an asset, a commodity, a metal, oil, real estate, jpg monekys or bitcoin they all need more demand in order for the price to grow. How could the price even go up when there would be fewer people with less money buying than people selling?
No matter how great Bitcoin is it still needs to abide to the laws of economics.


You've been around this forum for almost a year and you seriously, seriously!!!! want to discuss this here?
Besides, just a quick search and I've found a ton of topics with the same thing, why not express your fears there?

How do I convince people that Bitcoin isn't a financial pyramid
Bitcoin Exceptionalism: Why Should this Pyramid-Ponzi Not end Like all Others??

The first guy that answered that Quora question said that it's like stocks and that's most likely easier to understand for those that doubt crypto. While those scam projects make the impression of this a pyramid or a scam. There are already negative thoughts about upon hearing the term pyramid and it's all about the scam. But it's not important at all, those projects that add no value to the market will always be exposed. But the good ones especially bitcoin will remain to be the most preferred crypto of all time. And it's the first one that has taken the negative thoughts and criticisms.

This happen on shitcoins since they offer a sort of percentage to people who can recruit more user to participate on their platforms. Also on airdrop since which is commonly use by some scammer since they want to distribute their tokens to gather supporter  that  can help them out spread the word about what project they created and help them to have positive discussion towards its community created. This is the main reason why to many people got scam on those scam projects since there are greedy people helping scammers to make their activities more easier.

The price of Bitcoin increases due to market demand, and also it is affected due to limited supply. This will be different from the money circulating in society. they continued to be printed and increased in number.
somehow I can't open your link, so I don't know what financial pyramid you mean. or can be more specific to your subject. the mention of cryptocurrencies may be too broad. maybe Bitcoin will represent your view.

Do you even know what you are saying. Demand is what makes the price grow because any token with great feature will not grow the price if there’s no real demand on it. On Bitcoin case, Bitcoin is the only real decentralized project that starts the use of Blockchain. This makes Bitcoin in demand to reach the current price. All your explanation about supply can be easily copied by fork coins or any shitcoins since supply can be customized by the creator. The demand can’t be controlled since it’s base on user’s perspective or speculation on the token.


It depends on the context of the pyramid. The OP financial pyramid is not the typical ponzi scheme that probably most of you assuming. It can be just a layer on money distribution on an asset. The attached link is not working which there’s no way to verify the real context for the word financial pyramid.

Since you're discuss about cryptocurrency aka shitcoins, then it's yes shitcoins is a financial pyramid because they offer unrealistic return if you able to invite people to invest in their project. Remember shitcoins is centralized, they can manipulate their supply and their price, it's not like Bitcoin which is decentralized. Bitcoin price is only depends on demand and supply, while shitcoins price is depends on demand and supply and manipulation.

When there's an economic imbalance in fiat monetary system, bitcoin is not affected, else this current economy would have been the determinant for bitcoin sustainability, but things aren't the way you perceived it, bitcoin cannot be affected by economy inflation because it's own network entirely is different from the system running the fiat economy and monetary system, they are centralized economy depending on the outcome of each state or country to sustain the economy through their GDP and other economical parameters while bitcoin network is base on demand and supply only on the bitcoin ecosystem.


Since bitcoin is volatile, there might only be a coincidental experience that such occur at almost the same time but that doesn't judge if the economy is what determines the demand for bitcoin or not, bitcoin is already a volatile currency and its self sustainable through it demand and supply without replying on the fiat monetary policy.

First of all, how do you define financial pyramid? 'coz it has various definition such as the context of fraudalent scheme and the other one is a strategy to efficiently make use of your money as you get older. Ofcourse the market price of Bitcoin will depend on the demand since there's nothing to regulate its value unlike other assets. Lower supply means higher demand but that depends if the asset would really be creating a demand to its consumers or users. Not all things which has low supply will automatically have a demand.

And if this is about investment pyramid, then Bitcoin would more likely fall to high risk speculative assets simply because of its high rate of market price volatility and its usage across majority of countries.

To make it simple, Bitcoin is simply a currency and an investment at one and that is because of its characteristics with regards to its changing market price.

They likely didn’t get Bitcoin right.

Bitcoin doesn’t need increasingly more demand to get a larger price. Scarce supply plays a huge role in the middle of all this. Supply gets more scarce, miners keep mining, price needs an increase for mining to continue to be worth it. Will I continue to pay double or more for Bitcoin after next halving? Yes. Will others do the same? Yes! Because you get the idea that Bitcoin simply becomes harder and more costly to mine.

This pyramid scheme thing has been debated ever since Bitcoin exists. It’s good to have debates and opinions but it sucks that some people argue and debate with zero knowledge of the subject. You don’t need one more guy to invest in Bitcoin for price to increase. All you need is miners to stop accepting to sell freshly mined Bitcoin for a certain price and the already existing users of the Bitcoin network to agree to pay more since costs increased. This is obviously not the only factor of price changes but it plays a huge role many seem to forget about or pretend it doesn’t exist.

I came across a news on Quora and I went into a very deep reason on the reality  of life and judge from the article on the post, I couldn't agree less with the author/writer because at the long run, it seems money is just circulating and the moment  money seizes circulation, even the price of bitcoin  is affected, hence the price of bitcoin  would increase if demand increases and demand can only increase when there is more money to spend.

So I had to bring this to the forum to know if you guys also think, cryptocurrency is some ways a financial pyramid.
Let's discuss please