It is quite clever.

The combination of
 * letting people trade their shares in the Ponzi on a market
and
 * not having a fixed payout schedule

means that he can keep the scam going almost indefinitely. If funds are running low, he can drop the rewards. That will cause people to sell their shares, dropping the price of shares. He can then buy up the cheap shares before increasing the rewards again, causing the price of shares to increase. He can then sell the shares he bought at a profit. So long as he doesn't run out of excuses to start and stop rewards to manipulate the price, and doesn't run out of credulous idiots wanting a piece of the action, he's golden.

It's effectively a proof-of-stake shitcoin but where he controls the stake percentage, and hence the price. And without all the hassle of actually having a blockchain.


Or if proof is too hard, even a plausible explanation of how it could be mining would do. Introduce some grey area. Give room for doubt. Currently it looks certain that scrypt.cc isn't mining.


Does scrypt.cc depend on new investors at all? If it was mining, wouldn't it work just fine if no new investors ever joined and everyone simply held onto their current holdings? If a lack of new investors would "break" scrypt.cc then maybe you need to reconsider how it is funded.