Telling Apart Pyramid Schemes and Bitcoin

Hi Plebs,
Pyramid schemes are tricky frauds. New people's money pays earlier joiners, not a real business. They act like multi-level marketing companies selling products. But the products are an excuse to recruit more sellers who have to buy inventory themselves.

Pyramid schemes at their core do not have true customer demand for the products they are selling. The only way people make money is by recruiting more sellers below them who have to buy inventory. This situation falls apart when they can't find any more new sellers. The people at the top make money from the losses of newer recruits.

Bitcoin is totally different from these schemes. Bitcoin is a digital currency, not a company selling products. It has no employees or inventories. A total of 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, regardless of how many people use it, limiting its supply.

Cool new technologies, like personal computers, came out in the 1990s. The first iPhone was another. People naturally told friends about them. This wasn't a pyramid scheme. It was just people promoting products they liked. The products were innovative and useful. Bitcoin users promote it the same way.

The key difference is that pyramid schemes collapse. They collapse because they don't offer real value. But Bitcoin could keep growing if people continue finding it useful as a currency. Its success depends on its innovation. It must provide real use, not recruit endlessly.

Pyramid schemes are unsustainable frauds. Bitcoin is a transformative financial technology. Being excited about Bitcoin is like promoting any good new product - not an illegal pyramid scheme. The two are completely different.

Cheers, and onwards with Bitcoin.